XXX 

 DEATH-RATES 



THE chief index or measure of the health of any 

 locality is what is called " the death-rate " of that 

 locality. Although there are several other important 

 evidences as to the healthiness or unhealthiness of any 

 given area, the " death-rate " is the chief and most obvious 

 indication of the advantageous or disadvantageous action 

 of the conditions of any given city or other chosen area 

 upon human life. Its records are more easily kept with 

 an approach to accuracy than are records of cases of 

 sickness not terminating in death. The cause of death 

 has to be certified in civilised communities by a medical 

 man ; the total number of deaths in a year is given by the 

 number of burial certificates. The death-rate is stated 

 at so many per thousand of the population per annum. 

 Thus, in a city of 5 million inhabitants, that is to say, 

 5 thousand thousands a record of eighty thousand 

 deaths in the year gives 16 deaths for every thousand 

 persons living. That is called " an annual death-rate of 

 1 6." The record for any single month may be stated 

 (as it is stated at intervals in the newspapers) " as at the 

 rate of so many in the thousand per annum," by multiply- 

 ing the actual monthly number per thousand by 12. 

 Thus, in the case of the city just cited, if the death-rate 



were the same in every month of the year namely, 

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