榴莲视频

Modern hygiene has been described as the reaction against the old fatalistic creed that deaths inevitably occur at a constant rate. The study of vital statistics shows that there is no 鈥渋ron law of mortality.鈥� According to a report¹ prepared for the National Conservation Commission fifteen years ago, statistics for India showed that the average duration of life there was less than twenty-five years. In Sweden it was over fifty years; in Massachusetts, forty-five years. The length of life is increasing wherever sanitary science and preventive medicine are applied. In India it is stationary. In Europe it doubled in three and a half centuries. The rate of increase during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was about four years a century; during the first half of the nineteenth century, about nine years a century; during the latter half of the nineteenth century, about seventeen years a century; and in Germany, where medical and sanitary science has reached the highest development, about twenty-seven years a century. The only comparative statistics available in this country are for Massachusetts, where life is lengthening at the rate of about fourteen years a century, or half the rate in Germany.

Such generalizations are, indeed, encouraging in the outlook they present. The promise they hold out for a greater conservation of human vitality through the lengthening of the span of life heartens the sanitarian to renew his efforts; and sometimes it induces the philanthropist to facilitate the efforts of present-day preventive medicine with support of a substantial financial character. Few persons are so constituted, however, that they are quite content calmly to await a benefit that will be long delayed in its arrival. One of the difficulties confronting the advocates of forest conservation by extensive tree planting consists in the long period required for the growth of the tree to marketable maturity. The bustling, up-to-date American is not always willing to anticipate the needs of a coming generation. In the rush of present-day life, he has become accustomed to expect results here and now. The time once required to build a transcontinental railway line or to construct a Panama canal now seems almost like an eternity to one who has become accustomed to observe the ceaseless labors of day and night shifts of workmen, and the overnight delivery of letters from coast to coast: Little wonder, then, if he exhibits some restlessness in the face of a seeming slowness of the movement to conserve human life. At any rate, he needs encouragement through specific examples.鈥�

There can be little doubt that most of this tremendous decrease in the death rate was the direct result of the application of preventive measures by the sanitary officials. How has it come about? From the records submitted,² it appears that in New York City in 1877, 105 children under 5 years of age died out of every thousand living of that age group, as compared with twenty deaths of this age group in the year 1923, a decrease of 81 per cent. If, as is sometimes alleged, the death rate in this group can be taken as a measure of the sanitary progress of a community, there is reason alike for congratulation and for optimism concerning the future. In giving credit for the benefits secured, the health authorities allege that the principal factors in this tremendous reduction of the mortality in this age group have been the control of the infectious diseases of childhood, especially diphtheria; the use of a pure milk supply, attained after years of constant supervision and regulation; the well directed activities of officials charged with constant care of children, and the aid of a great number of side agencies, chiefly philanthropic, working in cooperation with health officials.

Meanwhile, smallpox has become an almost negligible disease in our great metropolis. Deaths from typhoid have reached a low rate: and, as a cause of death, malarial fever has been almost completely eradicated in that city. Diphtheria has, of course, yielded to the modern treatment, and other familiar maladies have shown considerable modification. The New York report states that the increase in the expectation of life has been almost entirely confined to the ages before 35 years. In the future, the health officer must, of necessity, consider steps to be taken to minimize the mortality among those of middle and advanced life. There is much to encourage man today to seek to secure a normal lifetime.

Published Online: April 18, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.18284