No. 630] 



HUMAN MORTALITY HATES 



25 



other chronic poisonings, pellagra, beriberi, and scurvy.) 

 present an interesting problem. The question is whether 

 they should go here or with external causes in Table X. 

 It can be argued that on the one hand, the poisonings are 

 due simply to the ingestion of a deleterious agent and 

 death has no biological basis any more than if a person 

 is struck by an automobile, and, on the other hand, that 

 deaths from the diseases like pellagra and beriberi again 

 simply arise from the fact that the victim lacked a proper 

 diet. But the case is not so simple as this argument 

 would imply. Not all workers in paint factories, nor all 

 inmates of insane asylums or prisons die from these 

 causes. Some survive. And it is reasonable, it seems 

 to me, to suppose that in many cases at least the deter- 

 mining factor in the survival is the relative organic 

 soundness or "strength" of the organs primarily con- 

 cerned in metabolism. On this basis, this group of causes 

 of death is included in Table VI. Fortunately, they are 

 all insignificant contributions to the total death rate. 



Eegarding the other items in Table VI, taken from the 

 "General disease" class of the International Classifica- 

 tion, there is no need for discussion because it is suffi- 

 ciently evident that on a biological classification they 

 belong here rather than with any other organ group. 



The enormous excess of the Sao Paulo death rate for 

 the total of the items in Table VI as compared with the 

 Registration Area of the United States and England and 

 Wales is noteworthy. Examination of the data will show 

 that it arises almost entirely from the excessive death 

 rate in Sao Paulo from diarrhea and enteritis (under 2). 



In the main the causes of death included in Table VII 

 in addition to those which appear in class II, "Diseases 

 of the nervous system and of the organs of special sense" 

 of the International Classification, so obviously belong 

 here as to require no special discussion. Two, however, 

 call for comment. Of these the most important is suicide. 

 In the International Classification suicides are placed 

 under "XIII. External causes," a singularly inept loca- 



