Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1883 — Deaths in the United States. [ARTICLE]

Deaths in the United States.

According to the last census, 756,893 persons died in the United States dui> ing 1880. The death rate for the whole Union was, therefore, 15.1 to the thousand. That is a low rate, and yet it was much higher than that given in--1870, which was only 12.8 per thousand, while the death rate according to the census of 1860 was 12.5. But the apparent increase in 1880 was due entirely to more complete returns of deaths, and even the figures for that year cannot be regarded as accurate. Except in a comparatively small number of communities, vital statistics are not gathered in the United Slates after a scientific system. The actual mortality of the Union is probably somewhere between 18 and 19 per thousand, instead of a little over 15. But that is a low rate as compared with European countries, the death rate for the whole of England having been 20.5 per thousand in 1880, and for Scotland 21.3 in 1878. Of the 756,893 deaths recorded in the census returns 640,191 were of whites, out of a total white population of 43,402,970, and l 16,702 of negroes, out of a total colored population of 6,752,813. The apparent death rate, therefore, was 14.74 among the whites and 17.28 among the negroes. A greater relative mortality among colored infants in the Southern States largely explains the higher negro death rate, which must be accepted as proved, we suppose, since, deficient as the mortality statistics among the whites may be, there is good reason for regarding the returns of negro mortality as still more incomplete. Of the deaths reported 391,960 were of males and 364,933 of females, the total living population having been 25,518,820 males and 24,636,963 females. For every 1,000 deaths of females there were 1,074 of males. The proportion of males dying in infancy was also greater than that of females. Of the 390,644 males who died, 163,880 were under five years of age, while of 363,874 females, 138,926 were under five years; that is, the proportion of deaths under five years of age to all deaths recorded was 419.51 per 1,000 among males, while among females it was only 381.85. Nearly half the male mortality was among very young children. The causes of death were reported in only 733,840 cases, and the following table gives the number of deaths from each of the ten principal causes. Consumption 91,551 Diphtheria; 38,398 Diarrhoeal diseases 65,565 Diseases of nervous system 83,670 Diseases of respiratory systemlo7,9o4 Diseases of digestive system 34,094 Enteric (typhoid) fever 22,905 Measles 8,772 Scarlet fever 16,416 Whooping cough.’..... 11,202 Consumption was, as always, the great scourge, and it earned off a considerably larger proportion of fem lies than of males, the deaths from that cause being 40,619 males to 50,932 females.

In the New York Herald we lately observed mention of the speedy cure of Thaddeus Davids, Esq., of the great ink firm, 127 William street, New York, of rheumatic gout by St. Jacobs Oil.—St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer-Prees.