No. 630] HUMAN MORTALITY RATES 



L3 



section of the paper is to get the data as a whole before 

 the reader. 



The question may fairly be raised as to whether item 

 22, "Anthrax," should not come in Table I with the blood 

 rather than with the skin in Table VIII. It is a difficult 

 question and one not capable of any absolutely precise 

 solution in the nature of the case. Most fatal cases of 

 anthrax, it' not all, are septicemias, or, perhaps better, 

 bacteremias, due finally to failure of the defensive 

 mechanism of the blood. Furthermore, pneumonic and 

 intestinal forms of anthrax occur. On the whole, how- 

 ever, the weight of evidence seems to be that in the 

 majority of cases at least the organism gains its entrance 

 and first victory through the skin, and that the biological 

 strength or weakness of that organ system determines 

 primarily what will subsequently happen. Fortunately, 

 the total rate from anthrax is so small as to be of no sig- 

 nificance in any general result. 



The causes of death listed in Table II include all of 



TABLE II 



