52 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



while none of us dies but once. Since the average life in the 

 United States is now nearly thirty-five years, that would mean 

 at least three hundred and fifty minor ailments for each death. 

 Whatever the exact figures may be, such ailments are very 

 numerous and almost universal. It is a well-established medical 

 principle that when the deathrate increases, the amount of sickness 

 and the number of minor ailments also increase in essentially the 

 same proportion. 



Each sickness, as well as each death, obviously involves a 

 financial loss to the general public. Not only does the sick person 

 lose time and wages, provided he is at work, but he is an expense 

 to the community for food, care, heat, and many other things. 

 He takes the time of people who ought to be otherwise occupied. 

 His absence does harm in office, factory, school, or home. Some- 

 one else has to do his work, and generally does it less efficiently. 

 The minor ailments are also an expense. The man with a cold or 

 a headache may go to the office, but he does less work than usual, 

 although he often will not admit it. Moreover, his work is not 

 so good, for he makes mistakes and loses his temper. Moreover, 

 most people lose at least one day each year because of some minor 

 ailment which does not send them to bed, or cause the doctor to 

 be summoned. Taking all these things into consideration it 

 scarcely seems an exaggeration to conclude that the ten major 

 sicknesses and three hundred minor ailments which accompany 

 each death cause at least $500 worth of damage. On this basis 

 each death means an expense of about $5,500, or approximately 

 $100,000 for the 18 deaths in each 1,000 of the population. In 

 other words, from 1870 to 1910 the deaths in the United States 

 cost at the rate of approximately $100 per year for every man, 

 woman, and child. Even half this figure would be a terrible tax. 



This heavy death-tax is not the same from year to year. We 

 have seen that regardless of the improvement in medical practice 

 the deathrate may within a few years vary over 20 per cent in 

 New England and 50 per cent in Chicago. In the northeastern 



