TUBERCULOSIS AS AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGIC FACTOR 1 87 



"diarrhoea," "enteritis," and others are probably due to tubercular infection. 

 The story of the deaUngs of tuberculosis with infancy and childhood is not yet 

 told by statistics, nor will it be until physicians are much more careful in their 

 certificates of cause of death, and indeed, until science has rendered it less difficult 

 to obtain precise information in many cases.' 



Because of the fact that tuberculosis is most prevalent in the years 

 of early adult Hfe the disease has special sociological and economic 

 significance. It takes away the breadwinners from famiUes at the 

 time when the children are likely to be young and unable to care for 

 themselves. Hence it is one of the greatest causes of poverty and 

 destitution. 



As is well known, the general death rate of males at all ages is 

 greater than that of females. Tuberculosis contributes very largely 

 to this disparity. In Table V some figures are given which make 



this apparent. 



TABLE V 



Annual Death Rate from Pulmonary Tuberculosis (Consumption) per 100,000 



Living Persons 



The difference in male and female death rate is partly accounted 

 for by occupation. Those trades in which the tuberculosis death 

 rate is highest are open only to men. As examples may be named the 

 trades of pressman, bookbinder, marble cutter, machinist, brass- 

 foundryman, etc. On the other hand, very few women have healthful 

 outdoor work to correspond to that of farmers, teamsters, lumbermen, 

 and others with low death rates. Perhaps the real reason for the 

 differences in the death rates is to be sought for in the body differ- 

 ences of the two sexes. As is well known, the female sex is charac- 

 terized by greater constructive metaboKc activity than the male. 



' Tuberculosis in the United States, p. 33, 1908. 



