QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MXJNICIPIO — BRAJSTD 

 Table 16. — Co7nparison of deaths in Quiroga with those in Michoacdn and in Mexico 



79 



' The asterisk indicates that the di.sease was not amone the top 10 for Michoacdn, top 31 for Mexico in 1938, 1937, and 1931, or top 24 for Mexico in 1922. 

 ' Average number of deaths per year per 1,000 population for Quiroga in 1937-45. 



dysentery, and to overlook many cases of tuber- 

 culosis, diseases of the nervous system, and 

 possibly typhoid. It is noteworthy that Quiroga 

 has comparatively high rates of death from diar- 

 rhea and enteritis, bronchitis, violence, liver 

 ailments, heart diseases, cerebral hemorrhage, 

 childbirth, tumor, and alcoholism. During the 9 

 years of recent record there were no deaths by 

 suicide, or from leprosy, hydrophobia, paralysis, 

 or scarlet fever; and there were but one death 

 from epUepsy, one from tonsillitis, two each from 

 diabetes, syphihs, erysipelas, and diphtheria, and 

 three each from cancer and typhus. We can 

 conclude that probably the majority of deaths 

 are caused by lack of care of infants and by var- 

 ious water-borne infections. Although violent 

 deaths have maintained a rather constant position 

 in Quh'oga, guns have tended to replace laiives 

 in the settlement of disputes (21 bullet versus 8 

 knife wounds), and motor accidents have assumed 

 more importance. Most of the deaths from auto- 

 mobiles are caused by being hit by a car. We 

 understand that during the late 1920's and the 

 1930's, when automobOe and bus traffic began to 

 assume importance, many pedestrians were killed. 

 This was because the local inhabitants were not 

 accustomed to the speed of automobiles, and also 

 because they at first used the middle of the roads 

 whether they were proceeding on foot or on a 

 beast. 



SEASONS OF DEATH 



We sampled 32 years (distributed from 1860 

 to 1945) to determine the variations in month and 

 season of death. There were a total of 4,689 

 deaths which occurred as follows: July, 619 

 June, 543; August, 447; May, 443; April, 394 

 September, 373; November, 345; March, 326 

 October, 324; February, 299; December, 288; and 

 January, 288. July was the most mortal month 

 11 times, was in second place 9 times, in third 

 place 6 times, in fourth place 4 times, and never 

 was in last position (twelfth). June led 11 times, 

 was second 3 times, was third 6 times, was in 

 fourth place 3 times, and was in last place once. 

 August was in first place 3 times, was second 5 

 times, in third 2 times, in fourth place 5 times, and 

 was in twelfth place once. May was in fust place 

 3 times, in second 5 times, in third 7 times, in 

 fourth 3 times, and was last twice. January had 

 the fewest deaths on 8 occasions; December, 4 

 times; February, 8 times; October, 5 times; March, 

 3 times; November, 3 times; and September, 5 

 times. The rankings do not add up to 32 because 

 on a number of occasions 2 or 3 months would have 

 the same number of deaths and would be given the 

 same rank. For Mexico as a whole, August is 

 the most deadly month, and in Michoacdn as a 

 whole, the order is July, August, and April (aver- 

 aged for 1933-39 only). The years with compara- 



