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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 11 



Table 12. — Recorded deaths in the municipality of Quiroga 



occupation, birthplace, place of residence, and 

 parents of the deceased; death certificate (if 

 presented), cause of death, name of the physician 



who signed the certificate; name of the person 

 representing the deceased, his age, occupation, 

 home address, and nationalitj^; names of two wit- 

 nesses, with their age, occupation, home address, 

 relationship to the deceased, and nationality; sig- 

 natm-es of the representative and the two wit- 

 nesses; and at the margin, indication of the type 

 or class of burial, receipt number, municipal treas- 

 m'er's seal and signatm-e, and fingerprint of the 

 representative of the deceased. Because no one 

 may be buried in the cemetery (which belongs to 

 the municipality) unless the death is registered 

 and fees have been paid, the record of deaths is 

 the most complete of all forms of vital statistics 

 for the period since 1860. Probably only a few 

 stillbirths and young infants are not recorded. 



Among the more important facts that can be 

 derived from the records are fluctuations in the 

 mortality rate, incidence of epidemic years, age- 

 sex-cause of death relationships, relative impor- 

 tance of various diseases, and season and months of 

 greatest mortality. By comparing the figures in 

 table 12 with the population figures for the munici- 

 pality and for Quiroga and its ranchos (pp. 62-64), 

 one can get a rough impression of fluctuations in 

 the mortality rate. 



MORTALITY RATES 



Probably the outstanding conclusion derived 

 from table 12 is that from the beginning of records 

 in 1860 until 1936 there were numerous and rapid 

 changes in the number of deaths which cannot be 

 explained by population changes. These varia- 

 tions were due to the frequent incidence of such 

 diseases as smallpo.x, measles, whooping cough, 

 typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, typhus, and 

 scarlet fever, which would kill or immunize for a 

 season and then remain relatively dormant until 

 another crop of susceptible children had developed. 

 Since 1936 the mortality rate has remained fairly 

 fixed and comparatively low, probably because 

 Quiroga has had doctors in residence since that 

 date. During the 9 years of our most recent 

 record (1937-45) we will assume that Quiroga 

 and its ranchos had an average population of 

 about 4,000. During this period there were 806 

 deaths, or an average of about 90 a year. This 

 would yield a death rate of 22.5 per thousand 

 inhabitants, which can be compared with the rate 

 of 22.4 for Michoacdn and 23.2 for all Mexico in 

 1940. In 1943 the rate for Mexico was 21.5 per 



