Evening star., 1942-10-13
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

Aho Stuoy
By Thomas r. Henry.
If person dies Of any one of three
major causes of acknowledgements
pneumonia or influenza, or cancer-there
is much higher than normal probability
that the husband or wife will die of
the same disease.
This is the conclusion of Antonio
Ciocco, United States Public Health
Service statistician, from an analysis of
statistics gathered by the late Dr. Ray
mond Pearl of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. A previous study by Mr.. Ciocco on
causes of death among the married
population of Hagerstown, Md, Public
Health Service laboratory for vital sta
tistics, had indicated the same conclu-
sion, with the addition that heart mall
aides were included among the diseases
for which there is a strange affinity
among spouses.
The present analysis is based on more
than 10000 death certificates brought
together by Prof. Pearl.
1t shows, Mr.. Ciocco has reported, that
the death rate from tuberculosis is from
three to six times as high among per-
sons whose husbands or wives have
died of this ma1ady as in the population
at large. That is to have been expected,
since the disease is highly contagious.
The probability of dying from pneu-
moria or influenza is from IA to 16
times as great Both are contagious,
but the statistics show that deaths are
often separated by many years, so that
close contact cannot be accepted as an
explanation. Both are short lived NAL
aides.
Even more curious is the case of cancer,
where the death rate is from is to 1.8
times as high among the spouses of per-
sons who died from cancer as among the
spouses of persons who died from other
causes. Here again, the deaths often
are years apart. There Is no accepted
evidence that cancer is in any way con-
tagious or infectious.
The larger series of cases gave no testi-
mony of husband-wife affinity in NOR
tality from heart diseases.
Public Health Service officials to whom
DR.. Ciocco has reported the results OF
his studies are not ready to admit any
mystical death-bond between married
partners-yet they have no ready ex-
planation for the findings The most
plausible hypothesis, they say, is that
customary ways of life may be an i'm
portant element in both cancer and
pneumonia, that husbands and wives
tend to form similar habits, and that
these continue after the demise of one or
the other.
This year, judging from the record OF
its first nine months, will break all
American marriage and divorce records.
Such is the belief of United States
Census Bureau authorities, on the basis
of fragmentary reports from States and
cities. Full reports will not be available
until after the first of the year, but
there is every reason to believe that the
curves for both vital phenomena which
started sharply upward in 1889, have
continued in that direction.
Both weddings and divorces, as far
back as statistics are available, have
shown some increase in wartime. This
is due, the Census Bureau statisticians
believe, to two causes. First, there is
more general prosperity. More are able
to support wives or husbands. Women
dissatisfied with home life can get fairly
well.paid jobs and thus are enabled to
escape domestic drudgery and unhappy
home life through the courts.
Second, there is an increased emo
tional instability. Men and women fall
in love more easily and quarrel with
less restraint. Last year the mar
riage rate was the highest recorded to
date-126 per thousand. In the depths
of the depression in 1882 it had hit the
bottom, 79 per thousand, but had crept
something approaching normal prosperity
in 1887.
The number of marriages in wartime,
| the statisticians explain, veers sharply
with current events. Normally June and
| September, in order, are the marriage
months. In 1910 this order was re-
versed with the passage of the Selective
Service Act in September. Last year
September was replaced as the second
month by December, following Pearl
Harbor
The divorce rate, the statisticians point
out, naturally declined sharply during
the depression. Women, however dis
satisfied with their domestic situations,
had extreme difficulty in finding any
sort of employment. AS soon as the
business curve turned upward the
animosities toward husbands which may
have been seething for years exploded.
The peak was reached last year with
an average of two divorces per thousand
of the population. With the further
employment of women it is expected to
increase even more
The marriage figures, Census Bureau
statisticians say, are following roughly
the trend of the last war when mar
riages began to increase in 1917, but
dropped off sharply in 1918 due to the
fact that so many marriagable men were
overseas. The second biggest year in
American records-12 per thousand
came in 1920, just after the boys came
home. Thus far in this war the num-
ber of American troops overseas hardly
Is sufficient to make much difference,
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