The January Bulletin of the Department of Health in New York city shows
that the downward curve of the death rate during 1910 and 1911 was
continued in 1912 and that the lowest point ever recorded in the city
has been reached. In 1911 the death rate was 15.13 for 1,000, while in
1912 it was 14.11. The difference of 1.02 between the two years means
that 5,276 lives were saved in 1912, for, if the rate of 1911 had
prevailed last year, New York’s death roll would have been larger by
just that number. In analyzing the returns it is found that the decrease
has affected those diseases which the Department of Health seeks to
control; namely, the acute infectious diseases, tuberculosis of the
lungs, and the diarrhoea of children. On the other hand, there is a
decided increase in the mortality from those diseases which seem to be
peculiar to our modern society and which are not under public health
control, organic heart disease and Bright’s disease.
The infant mortality rate is low. Calculated on the basis of reported
births the deaths of children under one year number only 105 per
thousand born, and in all probability this is a little too high, for New
York city does not claim to have more than from 90 to 95 per cent birth
registration. The record is encouraging when compared with the figures
for Great Britain and Germany. The rate for England and Wales in 1911
was 130; that for Berlin in 1910 was 157.