Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1879 — URBAN MORTALITY. [ARTICLE]

URBAN MORTALITY.

What People Die Of in New York. [From the New York Sun ] During the year hist closed there were 27,005 deaths in this city, a larger number tliu.ii ilie total of 1677 by 802 deaths. This made the annual death-rate of New York 25.28 in the 1,000 of population. The rate is very much higher than it ought to be. The death-rate of London in 1877 was 21.79. While the mortality from zymotic diseases—those against which sanitary precautions are most serviceable—was lees than in 1877, that from the diseases classed as constitutional, local and developmental was greater in about the same proportion. The zymotic diseases are such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, cholera infantum, dysentery, croup and measles. The constitutional diseases include cancer and consumption; the local, pneumonia, heart disease, convulsions, apoplexy, paralysis, and the like; and developmental, childbirth, teething, and old age. The deaths of the city for 1878, as compared with those of 1877, and classified according to the nosological divisions we have given above, and which have long been in use in this country and England, were as follows: Clausen of Diseases. ' 1878. 18<7. Total deaths from all causes27,o* 5 . 26,203 Total zymotic diseases 7.635 8,042 Total constitutional diseases 6,422 5,800 Total local diseaseslo,l97 9.720 Total developmental diseases 1.709 1,615

It will be seen from this table that local diseases carried off the largest number of persons, and this is apt to be the rule in our communities when no epidemic prevails. w The mortality stood about one-third in proportion to the whole, and this is very near the proportion which obtained throughout the whole State of Massachusetts in 1877. If the deaths from zymotic diseases fell off over 400 from the previous year, that gain was more than offset by the increase in the deaths from other groups of diseases, which was about 1,200. Though zymotic diseases as a whole were less fatal than in 1577, the deaths from scarlet fever, which toward the end of the year began to be alarmingly prevalent, and from diphtheria, which usually goes hand in hand with it, were in excess of that year. The portion of the city most infested by these terrible scourges was the Nineteenth ward, and the one least troubled by them was the F if teen th ward,which was happily almost entirely free from them. As throughout this whole region, and elsewhere in climates analogous to ours, the greatest enemy of human life in New York last year was consumption, which carried off 4,477 persons, against 4,044 in 1877. Thejiext most destructive disease was diarrhea, however, caused considerably less mortality than in 1877—2,964 against 3,557. Next in order came the diseases of the brain and nervous system, a class of maladies which the statistics of other communities show are increasing under the stress of modern life, though undoubtedly allowance must be made for the fact that doctors now include in that class affections which formerly were placed elsewhere. Of these diseases of all kinds 2,416 individuals died in New York last year. Pneumonia followed closely after with 2,271 deaths. The other most fatal diseases were, bronchitis, which destroyed 1,248 lives; Bright’s disease, 1,155; heart diseases, 1,098 —a gain of more than 206 on 1877; scarlet fever, 1,095, and diphtheria, 1,010. We may note the almost entire absence of small-pox from the city last year. There were only two deaths from it, the smallest number reported since 1824. This is something unparalleled in the history of that odious disease—that a city of above a million of inhabitants shoiild enjoy for a whole year a substantial immunity from a contagious malady which has been one of the worst with which humanity has had to contend. It affords proof of the efficiency of vaccination. Of the deaths from violence we are glad to record a falling-off from last year —1,004 against 1,026. There were also fewer suicides—l 37 against 148; and fewer deaths from drowning—lß2 against 194. It is, however, painful to observe that there was an increased and a large mortality from cancer—s7l against 495. Against this we can put the fact that of the 27,005 deaths the very considerable number of 1,600 were of persons over 70 years of age. If we deduct from the mortality that of children under 5 years, which was 12,354, and the deaths from violence, suicide, drowning, sunstroke, and alcoholism, which numbered 1,493, we find the percentage of these deaths at ripe years to be about one-eighth.

From the Catholic Director for 1879, which has just been issued, it appears that there are in Great Britain, at the present time, 21 Archbishops and Bishops of the Roman Catholic faith, 2,175 priests and 1,380 churches. These figures show an increase over those of the previous year of 39 jpriests and 38 churches. In Scotland, where the hierarchy has been recently re-estab-lished, there are 6 Bishops, 272 priests and 264 churches and stations. These United States will come back from Paris with 505 prizes. We had only some 900 exhibitors. The National Complaint, Dyspepsia is the national complaint Almost every other man or woman you meet has it, and the result is that the number of pseudo-reme-dies fur it is as numerous as Pharaoh's host Tney are for the most part worthless. There is, however, a searching eradicaht of this distressing and obdurate malady, one whose genuine merits long since rajsed it to a foremost place among the staple medicines of America. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters extirpates dyspepsia with greater certainty and promptitude than any known remedy, aud is a most genial invigorant, appetizer, ana aid to secretion. These are not empty assertions, as thousands of our countrymen and women who have experienced its effects are a wore, but are backed up by irrefragibie proofs repeatedly laid before the publie. The Bitters also promote a regular habit of body, and give a healthful stimulus to the urinary organs. Some of the new styles of Mason A Hamlin Cabinet Organs introduce a style of finish with embos-ed gold-bronze ornamentation, bv a new Bes; at once the most elegant and chaste yet employed on such instruments. Prices are very low for such workmanship.