THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



4i3 



put a merely commercial valuation on 

 the lives saved, it amounts to a billion 

 dollars a year. It would surely be rea- 

 sonable to spend the amount thus saved 

 by better living conditions, improved 

 hygiene and more efficient medical serv- 

 ice to promote further advances in the 

 same direction. 



The death rate has declined in all 

 the great nations, with the possible ex- 

 ception of Eussia and Japan. Thus 

 since 1886 the decrease in England has 

 been about 6, in Germany about 9, in 

 France about 3. These great differ- 

 ences for different nations are in large 

 measure due to the age constitution of 



their populations. Thus England has 

 doubled its population by natural in- 

 crease in sixty years and Prussia in fifty 

 years, but now the birth rate is rapidly 

 declining. There is thus in their popu- 

 lations a small proportion of old people 

 and a decreasing proportion of young 

 children, which in large measure ex- 

 plains why the death rate is lower than 

 in France where the population has 

 been nearly stationary and there are 

 nearly twice as many old people. The 

 death rate for New York City in 1912 

 was 14.5, and for the entire state 15, 

 but this does not mean that conditions 

 are more favorable to health and to long 



1900 1901 1902 1803 1904 1906 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1812 



