SOME DISEASE STATISTICS.
By L. A. S.
From the figures obtained by the census of last year, it appears that the death rate from certain diseases is on the increase, while that from other diseases is on the decrease. On the whole, the decrease is greater than the increase, the difference amounting to ten per cent since the previous census taken in 1890. In other words, the death rate has decreased ten per cent in the last decade. These figures do not apply to the whole country, but to a large territory having a population of about 29,000,000. This decrease in the death rate, it should be further mentioned, is confined wholly to the cities. Of those diseases which show an increase in the death rate, influenza leads. In 1890, 6.2 persons out of each one hundred thousand in this area died from influenza during the year. In 1900, 23.9 persons per hundred thousand died from this cause. Next to influenza come diseases of the kidney. Twenty-four more people in each hundred thousand now die from disease of the kidney than died in 1890. Next comes apoplexy. Whereas in 1890 49 persons in each hundred thousand died of this disease, the number in 1900 was 66.6. Heart disease is also largely on the increase, the figures for this malady being 121.8 per hundred thousand in 1890, and 134 in 1900. The figures for cancer are, in 1890, 47.9; in 1900, 60. A little over 9 more persons per hundred thousand now die annually from old age than died from the same cause ten years ago. This, of course, does not prove that old age is a more fatal ailment now than it was then. Of those diseases which show a decrease in the death rate, consumption leads, with a decrease of 54.9 per each hundred thousand over 1890, the figures for the two years being, in 1890, 245.4 per hundred thousand of the population, and in 1900, 190.5. This disease is now headed, in the territory in question, by pneumonia, from which 191.9 people per hundred thousand now die in a year, an increase of five over the number in 1890. Other diseases which are on the decrease are diphtheria, the mortality from which is only about half what it was ten years ago; cholera infantum, which likewise is only about half as fatal as in 1890; croup, which is but little over a third as fatal now as then; typhoid fever, from which 33.8 persons per hundred thousand now die annually, as compared with 46.3 in 1890; bronchitis, for which the figures are (1890) 74.4 and (1900) 48.3; diarrheal diseases (1890) 104.1 and (1900) 85.1; diseases of the brain (1890) 30.9 and (1900) 18.6; malarial fever (1890) 19.2 and (1900) 8.8. Whooping cough, paralysis, and scarlet fever show a slight decrease. These figures do not always show a decrease in fatality of a given disease, since they are due to increased prevention as well as increased cure. L. A. S.