76 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 11 

 Table 13. — Chief causes of death from 1873 to 1910, Qviroga 



1 The number of deaths from unknown causes is shown whenever it falls among the first 5. 



tion of the liver, angina or sore throat was com- 

 monly either diphtheria or a streptococcus infec- 

 tion, pulmonia was some form of pneumonia, and 

 colico, torzon, diarrea, disenteria, tapiado, enteritis, 

 and Jiebre intestinal represented various gastro- 

 intestinal diseases. A very large number of 

 deaths, especially of babies, were attributed to 

 such descriptive causes as inflamacion (inflamma- 

 tion), dolor (pain), debilidad congenita (congenital 

 debility) or recien nacido (just born) — often pre- 

 mature births or babies injm-ed when removed by 

 the midwife — and falta de cuidado (lack of care) — 

 exposure to cold, lack of food, uncleanlincss. 

 Among adults there were numerous deaths attrib- 

 uted to agotamiento and vejez (senile debility or 

 exhaustion), but undoubtedly in many of the 

 younger adults this represented merely cachexia. 

 Other general terms included ataque (attack or 

 fit), insulto (sudden illness), muerte repentina 

 (sudden death), and hidropesia (dropsy). 



Because of variation in terminology and in the 

 use of a physician's certificate we present the 

 chief causes of death in the periods sampled in 

 two tables (Nos. 13 and 15). Table 13 includes 

 the years of least reliability. In the 21 years 

 hsted in table 13 there were 3,749 deaths. Ac- 

 cording to the terminology of entry the first 10 

 causes of death (which accounted for 55 percent 

 of the total) were smallpox, dysentery, pneumonia, 

 enteritis, premature birth or death at birth, fever, 

 diarrhea, enterocolitis, whooping cough, and 

 senihty, in that order. However, if we analyze 



the returns and compare the figures for 1873-84 

 with those of 1897-1910 there are indicated many 

 changes in terminology and a considerable refine- 

 ment of diagnosis. This is especially true of the 

 gastrointestinal and the respiratory diseases, 

 which are two of the three most important groups. 

 The changes in terminology are apparent in 

 table 14. It is apparent that most of what had 

 earlier been termed dysentery was not really 

 amoebic or bacillary dysentery, and most of such 

 cases (and those of diarrhea and colic also) were 

 distributed among the enteritis diseases. Bron- 

 chitis and influenza apparently were separated 

 from pneumonia in the later period, and better 

 diagnosis added to the number of cases of tuber- 

 culosis (consumption of the lungs). 



Table 14. — Gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases causing 

 death in 1873-84 and in 1897-1910 



