No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 219 



August LM), 11)01, Mr. \V. A. Iviug, Cliief Statistician for Vital Sta- 

 tistics, in a conimunicatioii transuiittiiig the pi-eliminai'.y statistics 

 of deaths to the Director of the Census, says: "The most import- 

 ant feature of the results presented is found in the decrease in 

 the general death rate in the registration area of 1.8 per 1,00(J 

 of population, a decrease of nearly 10 per cent., and the decrease 

 in the rates from the particular diseases to which the general de- 

 crease is due. The effect of the advances made in medical science 

 and sanitation, and in the preventive and restrictive measures en- 

 forcd by health authorities is still more strikingly shown in the 

 comparative rate for the registration cities of the coi^ntry taken 

 together." In 181)0, the death rate was 21 per 1,000, and in 1900 

 only 18.0 pei' 1,000, a reduction of 2.4 per 1,000. 'The average age 

 at death in ISDO was 31.1 years; in 11100 it was 35.2." The addition 

 of four years to the average of human life in cities within a de- 

 cade seems almost incredible, but the writer has recently inquired 

 of Mr. King whether, on carefully going over the returns in the 

 meantime, he had seen any reason to modify his conclusions? The 

 reply was, that, on the contrary, they were fully sustained. 



More astonishing, if possible, however, are the results achieved 

 by American sanitarj"^ officers in the cities of Cuba and in Manila. 

 The annual death rate in Havana has been, in the short space of 

 two 3'ears, reduced from 67 per 1,000 to 25 per 1,000, while that 

 terrible scourge, yellow fever, which used to carry off more than 

 one hundred of her people every month, has entirely disappeared. 

 In Santiago de Cuba, similar brilliant results have been obtained. 

 In the city of ^Manila, the results have been not less striking and 

 gratifying. The death rate for the month of October, 1899, the 

 first month for which we have reports, was 01.39 per 1.000. The 

 death rate for ten months of 1900 was 41.99, as compared with a 

 rate of 33.4 for the same ten months of 1901, figures for the other 

 two months not being available. The present cholera epidemic has, 

 of course, raised the" rate, but in the main, the figures go to show 

 that, during the period of American occupation, the death rate in 

 Manila has been lowered nearly fifty per cent. It is true that this 

 wonderful transformation was accomplished under military rule, 

 but this simply means intelligent, honest, fearless performance of 

 duty, backed by an adequate appropriation. 



When such results reported by trained and thoroughly reliable 

 observers can be adduced, it is no longer possible for the most in- 

 credulous to doubt the imme:nse bf>nefits which sanitary science, 

 applied by s.initary officers, is conferring on the world. 



