August 13, 1886.] 



SCIUWCU. 



153 



map is found in the relations of race to the ten- 

 dency to death from this disease. The proportion 

 of annual deaths from cancer per hundred thou- 

 sand Jiving population was, in round numbers, 

 twenty-eight for the whites, and thirteen for the 

 colored. That is to say, cancer is more than twice 

 as prevalent among whites as it is among colored 

 in the same localities, for these figures apply only 

 to the south. On the other hand, cancer appears 

 to cause a greater proportion of deaths in persons 

 of Irish and German parentage, than it does 

 among the rest of the white population, the indi- 



and the contrast was much" stronger in former 

 years than it is at present ; but this cannot be ex- 

 plained solely, or even to any great extent, by 

 difference of temperature, because scarlet fever 

 has often been epidemic in the tropics, and, on 

 the other hand, in many localities in temperate 

 climates it is among the rarest of diseases. 



Diphtheria has been unusually prevalent in the 

 northern portion of the United States for several 

 years. During the census year it caused 2374 

 deaths out of every 100,000 deaths from all causes, 

 while in England, for the year 1880, the deaths 



Chart III. — showing the distribution of deaths from consumption as compared with deaths from known causes. 



cations being that between the ages of fifteen 

 and sixty-five, the Germans are especially liable to 

 cancer ; more so than the Irish, and decidedly 

 more so than the average white population. Now 

 when we remember that the greater part of the 

 colored population is in the south, and the greater 

 part of the Irish and German population is in the 

 north, we have another reason for the differences 

 in mortality caused by this disease in the two sec- 

 tions. 



Scarlet fever is rpost fatal in the north, and, here 

 again, the influence of race comes in, because in 

 the negro race the mortality from this disease ap- 

 pears to be very low. This disease has always 

 been much rarer in the south than in the north. 



from diphtheria were 532 per. 100,000 deaths from 

 all causes ; that is to say, the comparative mortali- 

 ty from this disease in England was less than one- 

 fourth that of the United States for the same 

 period. Diphtheria, again, is essentially a disease 

 of the north, but .especially of the north-west. It 

 causes an excessive mortality in children of Ger- 

 man parentage, sufficiently so to show that here 

 again the influence of race comes into the prob- 

 lem, although, probably, only indirectly, that is 

 to say, it is probable that it is the habits of a 

 peculiar class of people which favors the propaga- 

 tion of the disease rather than any physical pecul- 

 iarities in the structure of their bodies. 



Consumption is a vague term, and, as used in 



