Читать книгу Rural Hygiene - Henry N. Ogden - Страница 9

	Death Rate in
Sanitary Districts	1901–5	1906	1907
New York State	17.1	17.1	17.5
Maritime	19.0	18.2	18.4
Hudson Valley	17.2	17.0	18.2
Mohawk Valley	15.5	16.3	16.6
West Central	15.0	15.6	16.6
Lake Ontario and Western	14.9	15.5	15.9
East Central	14.9	15.4	15.9
Southern Tier	14.4	14.7	15.6
Adirondack and Northern	13.9	15.1	15.3

Death-rates in New York State.

Fig. 1. MAP OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK SHOWING THE SANITARY DISTRICTS

The Maritime District includes the four counties of New York City and comprises about half the population of the state. Its population is almost entirely quartered under distinctly urban conditions, in some parts with a congestion not equaled in any other city of the country. It would naturally, therefore, have a high death-rate, and that it is no higher than it is makes it a matter for congratulation. And yet the rate in New York City is higher than in the other principal large cities of the world. For example, the rates for the five-year period 1900–1904 in Berlin averaged 18.3, in Paris 18.2, and in London 16.9, New York being 19.4 for the corresponding period. The excess in New York is due in part to local conditions and in part to a less active oversight in matters of public health. Similarly, the Hudson Valley District, which embraces the large cities along the Hudson, has a higher death-rate than the state average, whereas the other six districts have low rates, chiefly because of the large proportion of agricultural land and small towns. The last district should be noted particularly, since its rate is remarkably low and its number of cities very small, compared with the area included. The conclusion may be properly drawn, therefore, that statistics confirm the general impression that life in the country is healthier than life in the city.

Accuracy of death-rate records.

One factor must be considered, however, since it plays an important part in drawing conclusions from these kinds of statistics, and that is, the accuracy of the records. In a city in which every one must be buried in a public cemetery, and when the physician, the undertaker, and the sexton all have to keep records which must agree, it is not easy for any burial to occur without the fact being recorded and later registered in the Census Office at Washington. But in the country, a person may be killed by accident, for example, and buried in a private lot without the undertaker recording it at all. The result is that the total number of deaths seems fewer and the death-rate seems smaller than the facts warrant, so that a false idea of the healthfulness of the community obtains. That errors of this sort have existed in the past can be seen by examining the death-rates for New York City and those for regions outside that city for the past ten years:—