RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 131 



effected by the neglect to do so is lost in other directions. The 

 Provincial Governments, through their Boards of Health, are doing 

 much to improve matters by inspection and education, but more 

 might be accomplished if this work was supplemented by means of 

 financial assistance from the Provincial Governments in needy cases. 



Economic Loss from Sickness 



The improvement of sanitation is most important, from the 

 point of view of conservation of human life. It has been stated that the 

 deaths in Canada from preventable diseases alone, amount to no 

 fewer than 40,000 per annum, or about one person in every 200. 



Dr. C. J. Hastings, medical officer of the city of Toronto, has 

 stated that the total number of deaths in the Canadian Expeditionary 

 Force during the first two and one-quarter years of the war was 

 15,755, while during the same time there were 17,350 deaths in the 

 Dominion from typhoid fever and tuberculosis, which two diseases 

 — both preventable — took their greatest toll among those of military 

 age. 



The economic loss caused by this wastage of human life cannot be 

 estimated in figures, but it must be enormous. There is not only 

 the actual loss of life to be measured, but also the loss of productive 

 power which occurs during the period of sickness that precedes death. 

 Added to that, there is the fact that a large proportion of these deaths 

 occur from contagious and infectious diseases which affects the health 

 of those who come in contact with the diseased. Moreover, for every 

 person who dies of sickness there are many others who are left woun- 

 ded and crippled, to become less efficient as producers or a charge 

 on the nation. Some idea of the economic loss in a community of 

 218,149 inhabitants can be gauged from the sickness survey of Roches- 

 ter, New York, which was carried out by the Metropolitan Life 

 Insurance Co. of New York in 1916. Although the instance given 

 is with respect to a city area, the lesson it conveys applies to any 

 kind of community. The report of this survey contains the follow- 

 ing paragraph : — 



"The estimated male population of Rochester, 15 years of age 

 and over, for the year 1915, is 92,552. On the basis of the above 

 sickness rates, we may conclude that there are, throughout the year, 

 at least 2,147 males constantly sick. This means approximately 

 644,000 days of disability for males alone, for we may count 300 

 working days per year per individual. At an average daily wage of 

 $2, the wage loss alone for a year in a city like Rochester would be 

 $1,288,000, and this figure, we have observed, is a minimum. It 

 does not include cost of medical care, drugs, nursing, etc., nor for 



