No. 630] 



HUM AX MORTALITY RATES 



7 



VII. The puerperal state. 



VIII. Diseases of the skin and of the cellular tissue. 

 IX. Diseases of the bones and of the organs of loco- 

 motion. 

 X. Malformations. 

 XI. Early infancy. 

 XII. Old age. 



XIII. External causes. 



XIV. Ill-defined diseases. 



It is evident enough that this is not primarily a biolog- 

 ical classification. The first group, for example, called 

 "General diseases," which caused in 1916, in the Eegis- 

 tration Area of the United States approximately one 

 fourth of all the deaths, is a curious biological and clin- 

 ical melange. It includes such diverse entities as 

 measles, malaria, tetanus, tuberculosis, cancer, gonococ- 

 cus infection, alcoholism, goiter, and many other equally 

 unlike causes of death. For the purposes of the statis- 

 tical registrar it has useful points to make this "General 

 diseases" grouping, but it clearly corresponds to* nothing 

 natural in the biological world. Again, in such part of 

 the scheme as does have some biological basis, the basis 

 is different in different rubrics. Some of the rubrics 

 have an organological base, while others, as "Malforma- 

 tions" have a cansational rather than an organological 

 base. 



Altogether it is evident that if any synthetic biological 

 use is to be made of mortality data a fundamentally dif- 

 ferent scheme of classification of the causes of death will 

 have to be worked out. 



Ill 



For the purposes of this study 2 I have developed an 



fication of the causes of death for statistical . T should oppose vigorously 

 well established through the International Classification. It would be most 



