The Colored Race 137 



larger figures for the whites in both cases. This shows, I 

 think, that "convulsions," "meningitis," and "cerebral con- 

 gestion," represent nearly the same thing, and taken together 

 we have 497 deaths among the colored against 300 among the 

 whites. So under "worms," death probably came through 

 reflex cerebral trouble, or wasn't "worms" at all. The diag- 

 nosis, of course, has no weight and we can merely conjecture 

 the cause of death. Put together we get a mortality about 

 double that of the whites, the figures standing 844 for the 

 whites against 1405 for the colored. 



In the second group we find a great disparity between the 

 races under "inanition" and "marasmus," while under 

 "cholera infantum " and " entero-colitis " the figures almost 

 correspond. Here, too, careless diagnoses have been made, 

 and with no proper understanding as to nomenclature. As I 

 have already said, cholera infantum is not a common disease 

 here,, but is mistaken for intestinal catarrh and entero-colitis, 

 two diseases which are common here and which carry off 

 great numbers of colored children. Putting this group to- 

 gether, we find a mortality among the colored fully double 

 that among the whites. 



Diseases of the nervous system stand second, and diseases 

 of the digestive system fifth and sixth in the order of frequency 

 as causes of death in the general mortality, and we can see 

 their influence here in the infant mortality. It is, however, 

 especially in this latter group that the colored so far exceed 

 the whites. To the practicing physician it is the first great 

 factor which is brought home to him in a comparison of the 

 vitality of the two races. 



In the third group we have diphtheria, membranous croup, 

 scarlatina, measles, and whooping-cough. Diphtheria and 

 membranous croup are now generally regarded as one and 

 the same disease, and both are more common in whites than in 

 colored, one of the few instances where the colored can boast 

 of less susceptibility. And scarlatina which is so often 

 accompanied with diphtheria, is also less common among the 

 colored. But measles and whooping-cough are both very 

 much more fatal among them. Of measles the Census gives 



