A report on the health and mortality of the city of Memphis, Tenn., for the year 1852 / by Charles Todd Quintard.

  • Charles Todd Quintard
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the health and mortality of the city of Memphis, Tenn., for the year 1852 / by Charles Todd Quintard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ry, one half of the population died under twelve. But in the first sixty years of the 18th century, one half of the population lived over twenty-seven years. In the latter forty years, one half exceeded thirty-two years of age. At the beginning of the present century, one-half exceeded forty years; and from 1838 to 1845, one-half exceeded forty-three. The average longevity of these successive pe- riods has been increased from eighteen years in the 16th century up to 43.7 by our last report. The readers of Macaulay's History of England will recollect evidence pre- sented on the same point, in reference to the health of Lon- don. As some are disposed to doubt whether much, if any, of this improvement is due to the actual progress of medi- cine—let us refer to the following table, illustrating the pro- gressive decrease in the per centage of mortality during a period of twenty-four years, in one of the largest and best conducted general hospitals in the world—the Hotel Dieu of Paris. Anterior to the great French He volution, the records of this institution show that the number of deaths to cases treated was as one in three and a half—or nearly thirty per cent. In the year 1816, they were reduced to one in four and a half, and the diminution of mortality is progressive to 1840, to which time the tabular returns are completed. S^W. So far as we have had^fctunity to examine there- cords of American Hospitals^fey exhibit the same pro- gressive improvement, both in the diminished per centage of mortality, and in the length of treatment. In the Belle- vue Hospital of New York—with the records of which we have had every opportunity of being acquainted—having in the early part of our professional career been one of its medical staff—there has been quite as great, if not greater improvement than is exhibited in the folloAving table:
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