No. 630] HUMAN MORTALITY RATES 9 



of detailed statistics on this new classification that the 

 underlying idea of this rearrangement of the causes of 

 death is to put all those lethal entities together which 

 bring about death because of the functional organic 

 breakdown of the same general organ system. The 

 cause of this functional breakdown may be anything 

 whatever in the range of pathology. It may be due to 

 bacterial infection; it may be due to trophic disturb- 

 ances; it may be due to mechanical disturbances which 

 prevent the continuation of normal function; or to any 

 other cause whatsoever. In other words, the basis of the 

 present classification is not that of pathological causa- 

 tion, but it is rather that of organological breakdown. 

 We are now looking at the question of death from the 

 standpoint of the pure biologist, who concerns himself 

 not with what causes a cessation of function, but rather 

 with what part of the organism ceases to function, and 

 therefore causes death. It is to be hoped that the novelty 

 of this method of looking at the causes of human mor- 

 tality will not per se prejudice the reader against it, to 

 the degree at least of preventing him from examining the 

 detailed results and consequences of such classification, 

 which will be presented in what follows. 



There will now be presented in a series of tables the 

 statistical data as to deaths arranged in this classifica- 

 tion. The data given are in the form of death rates per 

 hundred thousand living at all ages from various causes 

 of death, arranged by organ systems primarily concerned 

 in death from the specified disease. The statistics pre- 

 sented are from three widely separated localities and 

 times, viz., (a) from the Registration Area of the United 

 States; (6) from England and Wales; and (c) from the 

 City of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first two columns of each 

 table give the death rates, arranged in descending order 



