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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIV 



The second line of Table X, "Ill-defined diseases," 

 furnishes a striking commentary on the relative efficiency 

 of the medical profession in the United States and Eng- 

 land in respect of the reporting of the causes of death. 

 Only about one fourth as many deaths appear in the Eng- 

 lish vital statistics as due to ill-defined and unknown 

 causes as in the United States figures. Happily, the con- 

 ditions in this regard are constantly improving in the 

 Eegistration Area of the United States, due to the well- 

 conceived and untiring efforts of the officials in charge of 

 vital statistics in the Bureau of the Census. They de- 

 serve the warmest gratitude of every American vital 

 statistician for the improvements in registration they 

 have brought about. 



IV 



Having now arranged, so far as possible, all statis- 

 tically recognized causes of death in a biological classifi- 

 cation, we may turn to an examination of the results 

 which such an arrangement shows. In Table XI the 

 totals of Tables I to IX, inclusive, are arranged in de- 

 scending order of magnitude. The results are shown 

 graphically in Fig. 1. 



TABLE XI 

 Human Mortality 



