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TABLE 31. Deaths and Death-rates, 1856-95, Massachusetts.

Five-year

Periods.

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The course of the death-rate from year to year is shown in the foregoing table and in the diagram on page 712. In the table the year 1872 is shown to have had an unusually high death-rate, a fact which appears upon inspection to have been due to the prevalence of several infectious diseases as epidemics.

In that year small-pox caused a death-rate of 6.7 per 10,000, which was more than four times greater than the mean death-rate of the twenty-year period from this cause, and was also much the highest of the whole period of forty years. The death-rate from measles was also nearly double the mean of the twenty-year period, and greater than that of any year of the forty-year period except one. The death-rate from scarlet-fever was a little greater than the mean of the twenty years. That of typhoid fever was greater than that of any year except two in the forty years. That of cholera infantum was double the mean of the twenty-year period, and the greatest of any year in the entire forty years. That of pneumonia was also greater than the death-rate of any year of the twenty-year period except one.

Such a year was also 1849, in a still earlier period, when the death-rate, even with more imperfect registration, amounted to 21.16 per 1,000.

In that year diarrheal diseases (including 1,188 registered as from Asiatic cholera) produced a death-rate of 46.0 per 10,000 living, and amounted to 21.7 per cent. of the total mortality, as compared with a mean of less than 10 per cent. in the forty years 1856-95. Dysentery in that year attained the enormous death-rate of 25.4 per 10,000 living, a mortality far beyond that of any year in the whole period of registration from this cause. The deaths registered as from dysentery in that year were more than the entire number registered from the same cause in the previous seven years of registration.

Deaths by Sexes. The number of registered deaths of males in 1895 was 24,175, and that of females was 23,365.

The death-rate of males was 19.91 and that of females was 18.18 per 1,000 of the living population of each sex.

The following table presents the mortality of the sexes during the census years 1860-95:

TABLE 32.- Mortality of the Sexes in Census Years, 1860-95.

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The disparity between the death-rates of the sexes in Massachusetts was generally less than that of England, which was as 1,121 deaths of males to 1,000 deaths of females in equal numbers living for 1894, and as 1,103 to 1,000 for the whole period of registration, 1838-94.

Deaths by Seasons. In the following table are presented the statistics of deaths by months and by sexes in Massachusetts for the year 1895:

TABLE 33.-Mortality by Months, Massachusetts, 1895.

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In column 5 100 is taken as the annual mean for a monthly period of uniform length.

In the foregoing table, in the figures presented in columns 5 and 6 the inaccuracies due to the unequal length of the months have been eliminated by comparing the daily number of deaths in each month with the mean daily number for the year. It is also quite plain that an estimate of population which may be applied in calculating the death-rate in January and February cannot reasonably be applied to the same purpose in November and December, since the annual increase of the population, amounting in recent years to about 60,000 annually, is thus disregarded. Hence, in estimating the death-rates given in column 4, a quarterly estimate has been adopted based upon the rate of growth from 1890 to 1895, after the method adopted by the Registrar General of England in his weekly reports. By this table it appears that the highest daily number of deaths occurred in February, and the next highest in August and in March, and the least daily number occurred in June, November and May. The percentages of deaths in each quarter of the year were as follows:

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Deaths by Months for Two Twenty-year Periods. In the following table are presented the deaths by months for the two twentyyear periods 1856-75 and 1876-95:

TABLE 34.- Deaths by Months, 1856-95, with Relative Figures for Other Countries.

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*The figures for other countries are the result of observations upon over seventeen million deaths registered in the countries named.

By the foregoing table it appears that in the first twenty-year period the mean daily number of deaths was 71.9 and in the second period 108.4. The months in which the deaths were above the mean were July, August and September in the first period, and January, February, March, April, July, August and September in the second period. In the first period the deaths in the first half of the years compared with those in the last half were as 1,000 to 1,163, and in the second period as 1,000 to 1,045 (in equal periods of time). Nativity. Since no statement of deaths by nativity appears in the registration reports until 1888, the deaths and death-rates of the native and foreign population are only presented for the years 1888-95.

The populations of each group are also given, with estimates for the intercensal years.

TABLE 35.- Population, Deaths and Death-rates, Native and Foreign, for the Years

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The foregoing table shows that the death-rate of the foreign population for the eight years was less in each year than that of the native population, the mean difference for the whole period 1888-95 being 3 in each 1,000 living.

This difference may be partly accounted for by the difference in the age constitution of these two groups of the population, as was stated under the section relating to marriages. The same difference which would produce an increased marriage and birth rate would also produce a diminished death-rate, other things being equal.

Density of Population.

It was shown in the early reports of the Registrar-General of England that the death-rate of communities bears a definite relation to the density of population. The area of a state or county remaining constant, as the population increases the density increases. The proximity of persons to each other and their consequent liability to communicate infectious diseases increase with the density.

In the following table the population of the State is divided into two groups of counties, which may be properly called urban and rural groups. The former contains 56 cities and towns, each having a population of more than 5,000 (census of 1895); the latter has 29 such places.

Nearly nine-tenths of the inhabitants of the former group live in these populous cities and towns, while the population of the latter group living in such places is less than half of the population of the group.

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