A contribution to the natural history of scarlet fever : based upon official statistical records of mortality and morbidity / by John T. Wilson.

  • Wilson, John T.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the natural history of scarlet fever : based upon official statistical records of mortality and morbidity / by John T. Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    German Empire. ) All German Towns with a Population of 15,000 ANto Upwards. Aggregate Population (1891), 11,515,139— Period 1877-84 1885-89 1890-94 Rate 48 K 21^^ 18 Calculated from data contained in the “ Statistische Jahrbiicher fur das Deutsche Reich.” In all these countries there is evidence of a decline in scarlet fever mortality. In Norway and Sweden it is later in occurring, and in Stockholm the amount of reduction is very small. Other European Cities and Towns. Death Rates per 100,000 Population. 1879-86 1888-94 1879-86 1888-94 ! I 1879-86 1888-94 Moscow 63 Vienna 25 18' Turin 10 8 St. Petersburg 65 Hague 16 IO Rome 14 4 Buda-Pesth 45 33 Rotterdam 30 14 Brussels ... 8 2 Trieste 22 24 Amsterdam 30 3 Paris 10 8 Prague 54 35 Venice 4 3 Calculated from data taken from the Annual Summaries of the Registrar-General of England. From the foregoing it would appear that the mortality is heaviest in the towns of Northern Europe; the highest average rates in recent years being those of Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, which are all above 60, while in Paris, Brussels, Rome, Turin, and Venice, the rates are under 10 per 100,000 population. The small mortality from scarlet fever in Souf r Europe, and the comparative absence of the disease in Asia and Africa, lead one to ask whethc. ..j distribution is governed by climatic influences or by racial distinctions. This is a question which to some extent the statistics of the United States, where different races are to be found living under the same climatic conditions, may assist in answering. The geographical distribution of scarlet fever is a most important feature of its natural history, and contrasts markedly with that of measles and small-pox. —r- SCARLET FEVER IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The United States has no national system of registration of vital statistics, such as obtains among other civilized nations. In 1880 only two States, one district and nineteen cities, possessed State and municipal registration records, based on a system of burial permits, and therefore probably very nearly accurate. The mortality of the United States is only known for Census years—not for a continuous series of years—and death rates from particular diseases, such as scarlet fever, are expressed in terms of the total deaths from all known causes, as follows :— Census Year i860, Deaths from Scarlet Fever, 66‘9 per 1,000 Deaths from all Causes. »> »» i87o» it a n a 41’2 i> 11 n a a a 1880, ,, ,, ,, ,, 21*6 ,, i, ,, ,, Taken from the Tenth Census of the United States (1880), Vol. XII. “ Mortality and Vital Statistics,•* Part II., p. xxix. Considering that the general death-rate per 1,000 population was in i860, 12*5, in 1870 127, and in 1880, 15*0, also that the figures relate to a population of about fifty millions, such death-rates are of value as an indication of the scarlet fever mortality during the three Census years, which, it is worthy of note, shews a marked decline. Scarlet fever death rates thus constructed, and for three isolated years, cannot of themselves be accepted as representing the progress of the mortality from this disease during the period embraced. But from what follows it is probable that these figures do indicate the progress of mortality in intercensal years. Vital statistics for a series of years are obtainable from the Annual Reports of the individual State or municipal Boards of Health, and tables prepared from such of these reports as I have been 1 able to procure are here given.