Tuberculosis in the United States : Prepared for the International Congress on Tuberculosis, Washington, September 21 to October 12, 1908. Department of Commerce and Labor.

  • United States. Bureau of the Census.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tuberculosis in the United States : Prepared for the International Congress on Tuberculosis, Washington, September 21 to October 12, 1908. Department of Commerce and Labor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    be added to the returns on account of the greater relative negro mor- tahty from tuberculosis if we had effective registration in the South. This is in addition to the number corresponding to the average death rate (white and colored) of the registration area (183.6 per 100,000). The chief objection that can be urged against the view that the number of deaths from tuberculosis in the non- Sparsely settled areas. -ij.' •iii ijijr registration area considerably exceeds that of the registration area is that the former contains much sparsely settled territory, and that it is well known that the mortality from tubercu- losis increases with the crowding together of people. On the other hand, the inhabitants of sparsely settled regions form a comparatively small aggregate of population, and in many localities of this class, as in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, and Texas, there is a considerable influx from other states of invalids suffering from tuberculosis, whose deaths, when they occur, are not charged to the states in which the disease originated. Finally, there is a large margin of possible error and probably of understatement in the recorded deaths from Understatement of tuber- tuberculosis cvcu in the registration area. How culosis m returns or deaths. tip i i i • i many deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis have been reported as due to heart failure, congestion of lungs, debil- ity, inanition, marasmus, and the like? Many deaths from ''chronic bronchitis and bronchopneumonia are really due to tuberculous infection. A majority of the cases of acute serofibrinous pleurisy are tuberculous (Osier), and many of the deaths reported from hemorrhage—practically all of those from hemorrhage of the lungs—are those of tuberculous persons. Keports of deaths from lung trouble, heart disease, and in fact any form of disease, may, either through ignorance or intention, conceal deaths from tuberculosis. At least the proportional number (11.2 per cent) of deaths from tuberculosis to deaths from all Icnovjn causes would also apply to the ill-defmed or unspecified causes. Dr. J. W. Irwin, phy- sician to the Henry Pliipps Institute ^ of Philadelphia, gives a long list of causes of death registered in Philadelphia that he considers to be probably tuberculosis. Among these are: Abscess of chest, hip, lungs; iliac, lumbar, pleural, and psoas abscess; asthma; congestion of brain, chest, lungs; debility; disease of brain, chest, hip, lungs; drops}^ of brain, chest, lungs; empyema; brain fever; inflammation of brain, hip, larynx; marasmus; tabes mesenterica, etc. Among the possibly tuberculosis are: Cachexia; cerebro-spinal meningitis; cholera infantum; convulsions; cyanosis; diarrhea; diseases of spine; typhoid fever [a certain proportion]; inflammation of bronchi, chest, ^ First annual report, page 89.