Death toll

“ When one reads the account of the condition of the densely crowded districts on the south side of the High Street, one is not surprised that the rate of mortality was 40 and over per thousand. That you now enjoy one of the lowest death rates in Europe—15.3 per thousand for last year—is due to the thoroughness with which measures of recognized efficiency have been carried out. ”

“ For the entire country, therefore, it is safe to say that the deaths due to industrial accidents aggregate in the neighborhood of twenty thousand a year. Such a record makes the death rate in all our foreign wars utterly trivial by comparison. The number of deaths in battle in all the foreign wars put together, for the last century and a quarter, aggregate considerably less than one year's death record for our industries. ”

“ In the last year of the war the civilian death rate was up 37 per cent. The infant and child mortality figures quoted above are taken from this Report. To the number of deaths must be added the very much larger proportion of children and adults who survive with constitutions permanently impaired. ”

“ Such an increase in the number living in the later ages would merely lead to a correspondingly increased number of deaths, and not to an increase in the death rate at these ages, which is the ratio between the number dying and the number living. ”

“ When we hear of the annual deaths in some districts being 3.4 per cent., and in the whole of England 2.2, it is simply that 34 die instead of 22, whilst even that is too slightly stated, as the whole of England would show a lower death-rate if the towns were not used to swell it. ”

“ Finally, an absolute demonstration that the progress of mankind, in countries where the new economic conditions have been most influential in producing those disturbances and transitions in industry and society which to many seem fraught with disaster, has been for the better and not for the worse, is to be found in the marked prolongation of human life, or decline in the average death-rate, which has occurred within comparatively recent years in these same countries. Thus, the average annual death rate in England and Wales, during the period from 1838 to 1875, was 22-3 per thousand. ”

“ Because the death rate decreases with improved material, and probably also with improved moral conditions, it is a relatively good measure, at least of the material civilization or progress of a people. We may note that the death rate is measured by the number of deaths that occur annually per thousand in a given population. The death rate of the countries most advanced in sanitary science and in industrial improvement apparently tends to go down to about fifteen or sixteen per thousand annually. ”

“ A detailed consideration of our sickness and mortality during the last year suggests to me a few other remarks, which may, I think, be of practical utility to your Hon. Court.
First, as regards the ages at which death occurs; the respective proportions of timely and untimely deaths may, generally speaking, be inferred from the local death-rates. In general terms, we know a high death-rate indicates that many die before their time—indicates that a proportion of the population, more or less considerable, instead of reaching old age, becomes prematurely blighted and extinguished. ”

“ It seemed as though joy at the abatement of the pestilence had wrought a sort of madness in the brains and hearts of the people. So long as the death rate decreased, and the cases were no longer so fatal in character, there seemed no way of making the citizens observe proper precautions, and, as many averred, the malady increased and spread, although not in nearly so fatal a form, as it never need have done but for the recklessness of the multitudes. ”

“ The public errors created and maintained by taking the proportions of deaths as exponents of the average ages of death, or of the chances of life to the population, may be illustrated by reference to the actual experience amongst nearly two millions of the population, or upwards of forty-five thousand deaths in thirty-two districts, equivalent to as many populous towns, which the Registrar-General has obligingly enabled me to examine for the year 1839. ”

“ This is no longer theory, but can be demonstrated by official mortality statistics. The death rate has declined more rapidly in cities than in rural communities because the cities have given more adequate support to public health organization. ”

“ The death-rate from all causes in 1919 was 12·8. It is the lowest death-rate in the world except one. Lately there has been a betterment in regard to the infantile death-rate, which the hot summers ruling over the greater part of the Commonwealth make the chief cause of public health anxiety. ”

“ The outstanding fact which strikes one at once from this table is the high order of the correlation which exists between the explosiveness of the outbreak of epidemic mortality in these communities and the normal death rate from certain causes of death in the same communities. ”

“ On the supposition that five-and-twenty thousand of the clerical body fell victims to the epidemic, and estimating that of the entire population of the country one in every hundred belonged to the clergy, and further that the death rate was about equal in both estates, the total mortality in the country would be some 2,500,000. This total is curiously the same as that estimated from the basis of population returns made at the close of the memorable reign of Edward III., evidencing, namely, a total population, before the outbreak of the epidemic, of some five millions. ”

“ In England, the capital has more than its share of deaths from whooping-cough, Lancashire coming next, while the death-rates of Monmouthshire, Cornwall and Warwickshire are also a good deal above the mean of the whole country. The lowest death-rates are found in the purely agricultural counties. ”

“ Not only was the ordinary death rate high, but occasionally plagues swept over large areas making fearful havoc in the population. Authorities state that the black death in the fourteenth century took half the population of England. ”

“ From a table showing the ratio per thousand of mortality in the United States Army as compared with the mortality of males between twenty and forty years of age in civil life, it appears that the death-rate from disease among the soldiers is from twice to three times as great per thousand as among civilians. ”

“ It will be noticed that in 1849 the increase over the previous year was about 42,000, while in the following year, 1850, there was a falling off to 30,000 below the number of deaths in 1848. For the period of five years from 1848 to 1852 the annual average of 400,000 remained undisturbed. This would indicate that, when through a powerful influence an excessive death-rate prevails, a large proportion of the weak and sickly is carried off, so that by way of compensation the surviving, healthier population will for a time show a mortality below the average. ”

“ I think we do keep up the death-statistics accurately: and if we do, our cities are healthier than the cities of Europe. Every month the German government tabulates the deathrate of the world and publishes it. I scrap-booked these reports during several months, and it was curious to see how regular and persistently each city repeated its same death-rate month after month. The tables might as well have been stereotyped, they varied so little. These tables were based upon weekly reports showing the average of deaths in each 1,000 of population for a year. ”

“ The usual method of measuring the health conditions of any community, such as a city, town, county, state, or country, is to compute the general death-rate, as it is called; that is, the number of deaths occurring per 1000 population. ”

“ The wholesale slaughter of children in our civilized country is truly appalling. Out of 233,515 deaths at all ages, 94,804, or 40·60 per cent., were those of children under five years of age.
To understand fully the grave import of these records three facts must be noted: first, that the death-rate of a country is always under-stated; second, that town populations increase at a much more rapid ratio than country populations; third, that the death-rate increases in direct proportion to the density of the population. ”

“ From ten to fifteen, the average mortality is lower than at any other period. From fifteen to twenty the number of deaths increases again, especially among women. At this period, the influence of dangerous occupations begins to be seen in the death-rate. ”

“ There is no way in which the water from such a well can become infected. More than eight hundred fifty have been sunk, and the death rate in some towns fortunate enough to possess them has fallen off fifty per cent, as a result. ”

“ There is no reason to doubt that instead of every second man perishing miserably within a few weeks, the rate of mortality might have been as low as that exhibited in the South American Report, viz., one death annually by disease out of 150 men. ”

“ By the zealous labours of the Health Committee, and the liberal application of the pecuniary resources placed at its command by the Act of 1875, the death rate has been reduced from 24.8 per 1,000 in 1874 to 19.1 in 1885, although the mean density of the population has increased in the same period 20 per cent. ”

“ Speaking of the statistics of mortality in the army, Doctor Urquhart surprised us by stating how small a percentage—bless me, I am beginning to talk like a blue-book—results from death in battle and from wounds. And strange as it may appear, the mortality in a? campaign, with all its fatal chances, is less than in barracks at home. He has long suspected this, from the accounts of the men, and having lately, from clear data, ascertained its accuracy, intends urging it at the Horse Guards, or failing there, in the public press,—that the causes may be inquired into and remedied. ”

“ The living were crowded together in many-storied houses, airless and gloomy; the dead were buried close at hand in crowded churchyards. Such unsanitary conditions must have been responsible for much of the sickness that was prevalent. The high death rate could only be offset by a birth rate correspondingly high, and by the constant influx of country people. ”

“ For instance, while Cambridgeshire shows a progressive decline of death-rate, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the urban population has been enormously increased, the death-rate has been steadily rising. ”

“ National Death Rates.—In France, 48 per cent of the deaths are of persons over fifty years of age; and what is more remarkable, 25 per cent are of persons over seventy years of age. The French present the best showing, except, perhaps, the Irish, of any nation as regards long life. Only about 26 per cent of their deaths are of children under five years. About 6 per cent only are of persons from five to twenty years. ”

“ Few people seem clearly to picture to themselves the meaning of a decimal plan in the percentage of death, and few clearly see that there are districts of England where the deaths at least in some years, and when no recognised epidemic occurs, are three times greater than in others. ”

“ If there had been a mortuary registration at Walcheren, or any pestilential stations productive of an excessive mortality in the army, the registries probably would not have given the localities credit for more than half the mortality which belonged to them. The real sickness and mortality of the more depressed town districts are often made to appear lower than they are by the number of cases treated in distant workhouses, hospitals, and dispensaries, for which no credit is given to the locality where the cause of death occurred. ”

“ EPIDEMICS IN BESIEGED STRONGHOLDS When fortified cities are subjected to a long siege the death-rate in them increases considerably; if diseases break out during the siege, they spread beyond expectation and carry away large numbers of people. ”

“ Since 1896 an uncommon mild type of the disease has prevailed very extensively, but the death rate has been exceedingly low, being for the eleven years, 1897-1907, slightly less than one death for each 100,000 inhabitants. ”

“ So common is death in connection with fire that almost every day's paper contains one or more stories beginning "Ten persons were cremated——" or "Four firemen were killed——" And in every case the loss of human life is considered of greater importance than any other incident in the story, and the number of dead always takes precedence over many another startling feature. ”

“ Death-Rate old age, cancer, casualties, etc., 17 will die annually, and no more. And this number is the maximum that will die without the occurrence of some disease due to a removable cause. Taking this standard as the absolute necessary death-rate, we can readily estimate the number of unnecessary or preventable deaths which occur in any community. ”

“ The time has not yet arrived for the pressure of the death-rate it discloses to be fully experienced, because the present large army is comparatively new to the country. But, unless active measures are taken by the India Government and by the military authorities to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission, it is unhappily certain that the mortality will increase with the length of service. ”

“ If we take the average over a longer period, we find that, in the eight years ending 1872, the death-rate in the Metropolis was 24 in the thousand, against 16 in the thousand in the improved dwellings. The disease-rate has been calculated to be about double the death-rate, that is to say, for every person dying there are two persons afflicted with acute disease, preventing them from following their ordinary work. ”

“ The statistics of the life-insurance companies make it clear that the death-rate is not higher in America among the classes that insure than in England. I am credibly informed that American companies expect a longer life among their clients than the English tables of mortality assume.
The endurance of fatigue and wounds in armies has been proved by our Civil War to be as good as that of the best English or Continental troops. ”