20 GENEKAL DEATH-EATE FOR ALL AGES, ETC. 



This again proves that the true test of the death and 

 sanitary condition for the old age group is longevity rather 

 than the accidental projportion to the comparatively small 

 nnmber living at this age ; and according to this test 

 Tasmania, with a mean age of 77"71 years for all deaths at 

 age group 60 years and over, is far above any other country. 



Where, as in Tasmania, the mean age of 36*74 per cent, of 

 the deaths esceeds the allotted span of life, " threescore years 

 and ten," and where old age in itself among specific causes 

 heads the list, it is evident that the total death-rate, which 

 includes and conceals this important element, must in itself 

 be a most unsatisfactory test of health or sanitary condition 

 between different countries or places, although fairly good 

 enough where comparisons are made for different years in 

 relation to the same locality. 



Extreme old age, per se, is an infallible index of health, 

 whether due to the life or its environment. Therefore, to 

 mingle deaths from extreme old age with deaths from the 

 more or less preventible causes in any common rate used as 

 a test of sanitary condition, must, as I have shown, frequently 

 result in anomalies and confusion. 



Under any circumstances, as already urged by me in my 

 report on Vital Statistics for 1882, it would seem to be most 

 desirable to separate the deaths from extreme old age from 

 other causes in analysis of matters bearing upon health or 

 sanitary condition ; for although in imagination we could, 

 with Dr. Richardson, conceive of the future Hygeia as 

 perfectly freed from preventible causes of death, yet if it be 

 admitted that the fully ripe aged must die sooner or later, 

 we must also conceive that, as we approach the ideal City of 

 Health, the proportions of death in childhood, youth, and 

 middle age can only diminish as the proportion of old age 

 increases. Thus, when the future Eegistrar-G-eneral can 

 record deaths from extreme old age " 100 per cent,," there 

 will be j)erfect health and peace, and the only value of the 

 annual death-rate for all ages will be merely as a measu.re of 

 the natural increase or decrease of population. From these 

 considerations it is clear that the ordinary death-rate index 

 for Tasmania is not a fair test of her sanitary condition as 

 compared with the neighbouring Colonies, for of all countries 

 with whose statistics I am acquainted there is none which 

 so closely approaches the ideal standard of perfect health. 



It may be that one is generally more satisfied with a 

 bantling of one's own creation ; but, making allowance for 

 this, I am also strongly convinced that the Health Standard 

 proposed by me in 1882 (viz., deaths under 60 years com- 

 pared with the population living under the" same age limit) 

 would more fitly than any other method fulfil all the coudi- 



