376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE INCREASING MORTALITY FROM DEGENERATIVE 



MALADIES 



By E. E. RITTENHOUSE 



CONSERVATION COMMISSIONER, THE EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY OF THE 



I'N'ITED STATES 



IT is quite generally believed by those who have studied American 

 morbidity and mortality tendencies that there has been a marked 

 increase in recent years in the death rate from chronic diseases of the 

 important and hardest worked organs of the body. They also believe 

 that this increase is reflected in the upward trend of the general mortal- 

 ity rate in middle life and old age. There are those, however, who as- 

 sert — obviously without investigation or analysis of the public statistics 

 bearing upon the subject — that neither of these increases has taken 

 place. 



And there are still others, some of them prominent in the health 

 movement, who express the opinion — also apparently without reference 

 to the records — that the increase is natural and to be expected. Their 

 theory is that the increase, whatever it may be, is due to the saving of 

 lives in the younger ages, chiefly from communicable disease ; that these 

 lives passing into the older periods — many of them with weakened power 

 of resistance — have given us more old people to die than we formerly had. 



Such an increase in the number living in the later ages would 

 merely lead to a correspondingly increased number of deaths, and not 

 to an increase in the death rate at these ages, which is the ratio between 

 the number dying and the number living. 



The areas where the most dependable vital statistics are to be had, 

 show but a trifling increase in the group above age 40 in each 1,000 of 

 the population, while the death rate in the same group shows a very 

 marked increase. 



While the mortality experts of a number of the more important 

 life insurance companies have recognized the increasing mortality in 

 the older ages, and in some instances increased the severity of medical 

 examinations, and in others increased premiums at those ages, only one 

 of the larger companies and one of the smaller ones have given especial 

 attention to the excessive life waste in these ages in their health con- 

 servation work. 



Mortality Statistics 



Much progress has been made in recent years in popularizing our 

 vital statistics, but still much valuable information which should be 



