THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. 



773 



1838-40 was, for males, 23*3 ; in 1887, only 19*8 ; for females, in 

 1838-'40, 22*5 ; in 1887, only 17*8. 



From comparing death-rates for the ten years before and 

 after 1872, the year of the passage of the Public Health Act, we 

 find that " no less than 392,749 persons who, under the old regime, 

 would have died, were, as a matter of fact, still living at the 

 close of 1881. . . . Add to these saved lives the avoidance of at 

 least four times as many attacks of non-fatal illness, and we have 

 the total profits as yet received from our sanitary expenditure " 

 (p. 127). " We may add that if the death-rates between 1881-1888 

 are included, the improvement becomes even more striking." Thus : 



Mean annual death- 

 Eecord of years. rate per 1 ,C00. 



Public Health Act, 1872. Ten years, 1862-'7l 22-6 



Four " 1872-'75 21 -8 



Five " 1875-'80 20-79 



" " 1881-'85.. 19-30 



1886 19-38 



1887 18-79 



1888 17-83* 



ForBoston, 1892 23-3 



" London, 1887 19'tf 



" Lowell, Mass., 1892 26*6 



11 Massachusetts, 1892 20- 6f 



We are frequently met here by the statement that improved 

 sanitary measures have nothing to do with vivisection. But, in 

 order to gain the passage of costly sanitary measures, sound rea- 

 sons must be given ; these are drawn almost wholly from the pure 

 sciences of physiology and hygiene, and in just those poiuts which 

 bear on public sanitation science owes much to experiment as an 

 essential part. The truth of this we shall see more and more 

 clearly as we proceed. 



The most encouraging feature in the comparison of the new 

 with the old tables of vital statistics is the decrease in child mor- 

 tality. Newsholme, page 101, gives tables of annual death-rates 

 by age-groups from 1838 to 1887. From this we see that whereas 

 in 1838-'40, in every thousand infants born, 72*6 died uuder five 

 years of age, in 1887 only 57*8 were lost a gain of over twenty 

 per cent. Abbreviating the table, we have, per thousand births : 



* Arthur Newsholme. The Elements of Vital Statistics. London, 1889. 

 f A Summary of the Vital Statistics of the New England States for the Year 1892. 

 Boston and London. 



