516 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
TABLE II.—Approvimate life tables for the city of New York based on the mor- 
tality returns for the triennia 1879 to 1881 and 1909 to 1911 
Expectation of life, 1879 to | Expectation of life, 1909 to | Gain (+) or loss (—) in 
F 1881 1911 years of expectancy 
Years of mortality 
(ages) 
Males |Females| Persons} Males |Females| Persons; Males | Females} Persons 
raat) SAS ee © oa Ce 39.7 42.8 41.3 50. 1 53. 8 51.9 +10. 4 +11. +10. 6 
| eee! Sade De Say 44,9 47.7 46.3 49. 4 52.9 51.1 +4.5 +5. 2 +48 
JOSE. ALEK SP tea 42.4 45.3 43. 8 45. 2 48.7 46.9 +2.8 +3. 4 +3. 1 
38. 2 41.2 39. 7 40.8 44.2 42. 5 +2. 6 +3. +2. 8 
34. 4 3733 35. 8 36. 6 40 38.3 +2. 2 +2.7 +2.5 
31. 2 34 32. 6 32.7 36 34.3 +1.5 +2 +1.7 
28. 2 31 29. 6 28.9 32.1 30. 5 cs aay f +11 + .9 
25.3 28. 1 26. 7 25. 4 28. 4 26.9 = yer + .3 + .2 
22.5 25.2 23.9 22. 1 24. 7 23. 4 cs byt —.5 — .6 
19.8 22. 4° 2 18.9 21.1 20 —.9 —1.1 —1.] 
he 2 19. 4 18. 3 15.9 Ly ea 16.8 —-1.3 —1.7 —1.5 
14,5 16. 4 15. 4 13. 2 14. 6 13,9 =—1.3 —1.8 —1.5 
12.2 13.8 13 10.8 11.8 11.3 =—1.4 —2 =. 
9.9 11.2 10.5 8.8 9. 4 9.1 =1.1 -1.8 —1,4 
8.5 9.3 8.9 6.9 7.5 7.2 —1.6 —1.8 —1.7 
vo 7.5 7.3°| 5.3 5..7, 5.5 —1.8 —1.8 —1.8 
6.2 6.5 6.4 4.1 4.5 4.3 —2:1 —2.0 —2.1 
5.4 6. 5 5. 5 | 2 2.4 | 2. 2 —3.4 —3.1 —3.3 
+24. 8 +28.7) +26.6 
Siok anwca saree ae See ee coe COR oe See ee iB ig ea —15.3 —17.6 —16.6 
+9. 5 +11.1 +10 
(c) The economic productiveness of the individual as well as of 
the race will be increased. As a consequence individual and national 
wealth will increase and poverty and want diminish. 
(zd) The supply of animal foods will increase and only be limited 
by the available roughage. 
(e) Lastly, we may prophesy an improvement in the general 
physical condition of the race. 
The effective operation of the necessary machinery to apply the 
etiological knowledge we shall briefly sketch may be said to be 
the problem. It is one of great difficulty and complexity and its 
complete solution is far distant. Partial means to control the dis- 
eases of Group 1 are, as we shall presently see, of considerable 
antiquity, and arose from a recognition that persons infected with 
communicable diseases were a danger to the public. Thus there 
developed the field of public health. Originally it arose from a 
purely selfish attitude on the part of society as a whole to protect 
itself from certain infected individuals, whose objectionable char- 
acteristics arose from no fault of their own. To-day we find a 
changing attitude, a realization that if society requires protection 
by enforcing certain restrictive measures on individuals innocent 
of crime, justice demands that these persons receive consideration. 
In addition, the field of public health has recently come to have a 
broader scope, due to the realization that many of our problems, if 
not all, have a sociological foundation, and that a divorce is not 
always possible. Relief will only be secured when these associated 
problems are solved. 
