TUBERCULOSIS AS AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGIC FACTOR 1 93 



those who succumb to consumption at twenty. These last, if they 

 belong to the well-to-do class, have each cost from $i,ooo *to $5,000 

 or more. Even among those in comparatively poor circumstances 

 the cost of raising and educating a child can be little less than 

 $1,000. 



Another way to determine the monetary loss due to premature 

 death is to calculate what might have been earned by the decedent 

 if he had Hved a life of reasonable length. By turning to tables of 

 "life expectation" it is found that if a person Hves to 33 years he 

 may, on the average, be expected to Hve to the age of 66. The vic- 

 tims of tuberculosis die, on the average, at about 33 years. Hence 

 they are cut off 33 years before their time. If a man earn $100 a 

 year more than the cost of his own keep, he would have earned a 

 total of $3,300 in the time lost by his early death. Since, however, 

 most employed persons support not only themselves but a family as 

 well, it is evident that the average loss per year through untimely 

 death is much more than $100. Of course, there are some who die 

 of tuberculosis who have no occupation and are not producers. But 

 taking all these things into consideration, it would seem that $2,000 

 is a very conservative estimate of the money value of the average 

 tuberculosis victim. Most students of the subject use a figure nearly 

 twice as large. With 150,000 deaths each year from the disease in 

 the United States, the annual loss is therefore $300,000,000. A 

 relatively small sum spent for prevention would undoubtedly cut 

 down the death rate by at least one-half and save to the country 

 $150,000,000. 



Money Loss from Illness Due to Tuberculosis. — In the previous 

 paragraph only loss due to death of the patient was considered. 

 But every death means a case of sickness averaging two years' dura- 

 tion. If there are 150,000 deaths from tuberculosis per year in the 

 United States, there must be 300,000 sick with the disease who will 

 die. Besides these, many persons are ill but recover. If these 

 latter cases average one year and there are 100,000 of them, the total 

 number of persons sick in any one year with the disease is 400,000. 

 The cost of illness could not be less than $200 on an average. This 



