Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 288, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1912 — DEATH RATE of THOSE OVER FORTY INCREASING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH RATE of THOSE OVER FORTY INCREASING

AVE THE BABIES!” is a cry that has been ringing through the land with increasing earnestness and with increasing attention, but what of the middleaged American? U Everybody knows that in recent years the death

rate in the United States has been reduced to a remarkable extent, and the knowledge has been received not only with altruistic gratification but with a sense of personal gain by all, regardless of their own time of life. But now comes Elmer E. Rittenhouse with the facts and figures to show that the reduction in the death rate has been due chiefly to that very cry of “Save the babies!" and the fight on communicable diseases, fcnd that it is confined to those in early life. While there has been a reduction in the general death rate of 25 per cent, id the last thirty years, it has been accompanied by a steady increase, amounting to about 27 per cent in the same period, in the mor-

tality of persons of forty years and over. “The average length of an American life,” he says, “has increased about fifteen years during the past century, and yet the span of life Is being shortened. During the last 30 years the general death rate has decreased approximately 25 per cent., and yet the chances of early death after passing the age of forty have steadily Increased.” This, Mr. Rittenhouse finds, is due to the fact that while great progress has been made in checking communicable diseases, other diseases, which afflict middle age and later life, have gone on almost unheeded in this country. Among them are apoplexy, Bright’s disease, heart disease, and arteriosclerosis. The intense life of Americans and Intemperance in eating. drinking, and working have contributed to their prevalence. Above all, our carelessness in regard to life Is blamed, and from this cause come increases in deaths from accident, sub cide, and homicide. ' "While we have every reason,” says Mr. Rittenhouse, “to felicitate ourselves upon the wonderful result of the spread of life-saving intelligence, we must not overlook the fact that we have increased the average length of human life -only by increasing the proportion of people living in the younger age periods, while the average duration of life of those who pass into middle and old age has been constantly shortened. \ "’With all its blessings modern civilization has introduced hazards, habits, and conditions of life which not only Invite but whiqji have increased in many xays physical, 'mental, and moral degeneracy. Insanity and Idiocy are increasing. Disease# ypf, vice, the most insidious enemy of this and future generations, are spreading rapidly, according to medical mjsn. So far we have lacked the "moral courage to openly recognize and fight this scourge. The alcohol and drug habits are constantly adding new victims to the degenerate list and to the death roll. Suicides are Increasing, and now reach the enormous total of 15,000 annually. Lynchlngs and burnings at the stake continue, and are common only to our country. Attempts upon human life by individuals and mobs under trifling provocation, or none at all, are obviously increasing. ' v 7 ' v “In the United States the death rate above the age of forty has steadily increased, while it has remained stationary in England and Wales. The Important organs of the body are wearing out too soon. The diseases of old age are reaching down into the younger age periods. The death rate from the degenerative diseases of the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys, including apoplexy, have increased more

than 100 per cent since 1880. In New Jersey the increase is 119 per cent. In Chicago 159 per cent., in New Orleans 169 per cent These diseases claim over 150,000 lives annually. The doctors tell us that fully 60 per cent, of these deaths are preventable or postponable if the disease is discovered in time. “All of our money, all of our energy. seem to be directed against diseases that can be communicated. Is not a life lost from Bright’s disease as valuable as one lost by typhoid fever? The annual toss from pneumonia aggregates 135,000 lives, a large portion of i which is due to weakened bodily resistance resulting from these degenerative affections. Cancer, a baffling disease of the degenerative class, to which our people in their present physical condition are highly susceptible, claims 75,000 lives annually andp iqcreasing very fast. Deaths from external cancer alone have increased 62 per cent. In ten years." ' This table shows the decrease in the death rate per thousand brought

about by the successful campaign against the diseases of childhood and early life and the increase in those of later life: DECREASE. Per Cent Under age 20 4..... 17-9 Age 20 to 30...,,.»«m,..,.,.*4 11.8 Age 30 to 40. 2.8 INCREASE. Per Cent. Age 40 to 50 13.2 Age 60 to 60. 29i2 60 and over 26.4 “The change in the age constitution of the older groups,” says Mr. Rittenhouse, “has been very slight and does not account for the increase. Nos Is it safe to say that it is due to the early breaking-down of the weakened lives surviving from the attacks of communicable diseases in the younger age periods, for in England and Wales, where they have had virtually the same decrease in the mortality of the early ages as we have, there has been little or no increase above age forty. "One thing is clear —the cause is local to our country- Evidently we have not adapted ourselves to the sudden Increase in the life-strain due to our complex and intense modern existence. Whether or not It is due to the strenuous life or to excessive working, eating, drinking, playing.

and intemperate habits generally, the important fact is that the excessive waste of human life from degenerative causes continues and no general campaign of education or other organized effort has been made to check it. “The remedy appears to be temperate, healthful habits of life, the upbuilding of bodily resistance to disease. But in the meantime, while we

are being educated to apply this remedy, a sane and practical way to secure a measure of immediate relief 16 to urge upon our people the practice of going to their physicians at reasonable intervale, for health examinations to detect these preventable or postponable diseases in time to check them Many of these afflictions develop without notice. The cost of discovering and of overcoming them in their inciplency would be trifling and would be the means of prolonging thousands of lives.” Mr Rittenhouse believes that if the present thirst for knowledge of health and life conservatiop continues to increase it is not only possible but reasonably certain that during the next 30 years the present death- rate of 15 per thousand in the 30 states that keep mortality statistics will be reduced to 10, but this cannot be accomplished without a .hange from the carelessness of human life which he finds characteristic of Americans and a great extension in the public health service. The real race suicide, he maintains, is not in the insufficiency

of births, but in the needless loss of life through preventable diseases. Speaking of the decrease in the birth rate, he says: “We are not only ’•educing the fertility of our race and also shortening the span of life, but we are permitting at least 650,000 lives to bo destroyed annually which we could save by the application of simple and well-known precautions. If we would save these lives, they, together with their natural offspring, would solve the problem of maintaining an adequate surplus of births over deaths. What we need is not necessarily larger families, but more families. . A larger number of small families is surely preferable to a smaller mgnber of large families."

SHOWING THE DECREASE AND INCREASE IN DEATHS UNDER AND OVER FORTY.

SHOWING PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS AT VARIOUS AGES.