234 BIOLOGY OF DEATH 



but rather the trend of mortality from particular causes. 

 The rate of decline is just as significant, whatever the 

 absolute point from which the curve starts. 



It is difficult to carry in the mind an exact impression 

 of the slope of a line, so, in order that a comparison may 

 be made, I have plotted in Figure 54, first, the total rate 

 of mortality from the four controllable causes of death 

 taken together and, second, the total rate of mortality 

 from the four uncontrolled causes taken together. The 

 result is interesting. The two lines were actually nearer 

 together in 1900 than they were in 1918. They have 

 diverged because the recorded mortality from the uncon- 

 trolled four has actually decreased faster in the 19 years 

 than has that from the four against which we have been 

 actively fighting. The divergence is not great, however. 

 Perhaps we are only justified in saying that the mortality 

 in each of the two groups has notably declined, and at not 

 far from identical rates. 



Now the four diseases in this group, I chose quite at 

 random from among the causes of death whose rates I 

 knew to be declining, to use as an illustration solely. I 

 could easily pick out eight other causes of death which 

 would illustrate the same point. I do not wish too much 

 stress to be laid upon these examples. If they may serve 

 merely to drive sharply home into the mind that it is only 

 the tyro or the reckless propagandist, long ago a stranger 

 to truth, who will venture to assert that a declining death- 

 rate in and of itself marks the successful result of human 

 effort, I shall be abundantly satisfied. 



It has been objected that the decline shown by the 

 four "non-controlled" causes in the example just dealt 

 with is due wholly, or nearly so, to changes in the practice 

 of physicians relative to the reporting of the cause of 



