The Colored Race 



125 



lire is sustained up to the fifth year, when the vital forces 

 having escaped Scylla at least, have gained sufficient head- 

 way to give the individual hope of passing Charybdis and of 

 reaching the alloted term of life. Then reviewing the speci- 

 fied causes of death, we find consumption heads the list, 

 followed by diseases of the nervous system, pneumonia, acci- 

 dents and injuries, diarrhoeal diseases, diseases of digestive 

 system, malarial fever, measles, other diseases of respiratory 

 system, diseases of circulatory system, diphtheria, affections 

 of pregnane}-, enteric fever, scrofula and tabes, venereal diseases, 

 cancer and tumors, scarlet fever, diseases of urinary system, 

 bronchitis, and diseases of the female generative organs. 



The following table giving the age summary for the last 

 nine 3'ears is of interest as showing the high mortality during 

 the first year of life where the colored mortality more than 

 doubles that of the whites. These figures must be viewed in a 

 population of about 25,000 whites and 20,000 colored, or in that 

 proportion. The mortality rapidly falls then for both races, 

 reaching its lowest point between 5 and 10 years, the colored, 

 however, more than doubling the whites. The mortality 

 rises again for both races, reaching its highest point in the 

 decade between 30 and 40, when it falls off" again, and in the 

 decade between 50 and 60 the mortality is about the same for 

 both races. There is but little change in the decade between 

 60 and 70. Between 70 and 80 the colored mortality is greater 

 again, becoming greater still between 80 and 90, and still 

 greater between 90 and 100. This might lead one to think 

 that the colored reach a greater age than the whites. But it 

 must be remembered that the negro's age is usually much 

 over estimated, that few know their right age and they are 

 inclined to add any number of years, so proud do they feel of 

 their senility. And, further, many of these negroes now rap- 

 idly passing away, are survivors of the old regime, when they 

 were well cared for, and had reached at emancipation a safe 

 age which kept them out of the struggle of life. They are 

 relicts of better days for them, pure blooded negroes almost 

 entirely, who passed their first fifty years in slavery, and un- 

 der much better conditions for their physical well being than 

 the new generation can boast of. 



