DIAGRAMS OF INTERNATIONAL VITAL STATISTICS

Prepared by Charles V. Drysdale, D.Sc., 1911

In the accompanying diagrams white strips imply birth-rates, shaded strips death-rates, and black strips infantile mortality, or deaths of children under one year. The amount of the white strip visible above the shaded strip is, of course, the excess of birth over death-rate, or the rate of natural increase of population.

Fig. [1].—Shows the relation between birth and death-rates and infantile mortality in various countries in 1901–05.

Fig. [2].—Relation between birth-rate and corrected death-rates in various countries. (This shows that France is healthier than appears in Fig. [1].)

Fig. [3].—Shows relation between birth and death-rates from various causes in five districts of London.

Fig. [4].—Relation between the birth-rate and death-rate for various arrondissements of Paris in 1906. (Note that the increase in the Elysée quarter is as high as the average in the quarters of high birth-rate.)

Figs. [5] and [6].—Variations of the total population of birth- and death-rates in the United Kingdom and the German Empire. (Note that the fall in the death-rate corresponds fairly closely to that in the birth-rate.)

Fig. [7].—The same for France. (Note that the population is still increasing, although slowly.)

Fig. [8].—Birth and death-rates for France since 1781. (Note that the rate of increase of population in 1781 was no higher with a birth-rate of 39 per 1,000 than in 1901–6 with a birth-rate of only 21 per 1,000. A fall of 17.8 per 1,000 in the birth-rate has resulted in a fall of 17.5 per 1,000 in the death-rate.)

Fig. [9].—Birth and death-rates and infantile mortality for England and Wales. Also marriage rate, fertility of married women, illegitimacy, and variation of diseases. (Note that the illegitimate birth-rate has fallen to half since the fall of the birth-rate set in.)

Fig. [10].—Birth and death-rates and infantile mortality in the Netherlands. (Notice the rapid increase of population as the death-rate falls, and the great fall of infantile mortality, probably due to the practical work of the Dutch Neo-Malthusian Birth Control League among the poor.)

Figs. [11]–13.—Protestant Countries. (Notice the correspondence between the birth and the death-rates and infantile mortality in all.)

Figs. [14]–16.—Roman Catholic Countries. (Note that the fall of the birth-rate has taken place almost equally with that in the Protestant countries, and with the same result.)

Figs. [17]–[20].—The only four countries in which the birth-rate is approximately stationary. (Notice that the death-rate has not fallen—except perhaps in Russia—and that the infantile mortality has not fallen. Also that the highest birth-rate produces the highest death rate and infantile mortality, and the lowest birth-rate the lowest mortality.)

Figs. [21]–[24].—The only four countries with rising birth-rates. The death rate and infantile mortality have increased in every one.

Fig. [25].—Australia. The death-rate has fallen with the birth rate, and is now only about 10 per 1,000.

Fig. [26].—New Zealand. The only country in which the fall in the birth-rate has not produced a fall in the death-rate, and which is not therefore over populated. The infantile mortality is the lowest in the world, and the death-rate less than 10 per 1,000, which gives us an ideal which we can reach in all countries by lowering the birth-rate sufficiently.

Fig. [27].—The City of Toronto. The birth-rate has fallen and afterwards risen. The death-rate has fallen with the birth-rate, and afterwards risen, indicating that the improvements in sanitation have not been the cause of the falling death rate in other countries.

Fig. [28].—Berlin. The birth-rate rose rapidly from 1841 to 1876, and afterwards fell even more rapidly. The death-rate, except for epidemics and wars, rose and fell in almost precise correspondence with the birth-rate.

Fig. [29].—Berlin. The dotted area shows the fertility rate or births per 1,000 married women, and indicates the remarkably rapid fall since 1876. The correspondence of the infantile mortality with the birth-rate shown in Fig. [28] is very close.

Figs. [30] and [31].—Europe and Western Europe. These show that the total population of Europe is increasing faster the more the birth-rate falls, while in Western Europe the birth and death-rates correspond almost exactly. Calculations made from this show that about 25,000,000 fewer births and deaths have occurred in Europe since 1876, due to the fall in the birth-rate caused by the Knowlton Trial and the Neo-Malthusian movement. It should be noted that in the great majority of cases the decline of the birth-rate commenced in 1877, the year of the Knowlton Trial.

CHARLES V. DRYSDALE, D.Sc.

1911.

VARIOUS COUNTRIES
1901–05.

Fig. 1.

VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
CRUDE & CORRECTED DEATH-RATES.

Fig. 2.

LONDON
1905–1909.

Fig. 3.

PARIS
1906.

Fig. 4.

UNITED KINGDOM. Growth of Population.

Fig. 5.

UNITED KINGDOM. Birth and Death Rates.

Fig. 5a

GERMAN EMPIRE. Growth of Population.

Fig. 6

GERMAN EMPIRE. Birth and Death Rates.

Fig. 6a.

FRANCE POPULATION.

Fig. 7

FRANCE.
BIRTH & DEATH RATES.

Fig. 7a.

VARIOUS DISEASES.

Fig. 7b.

FRANCE.
BIRTH & DEATH RATES.

Fig. 8.

ENGLAND & WALES.
BIRTHS & DEATHS.      MARRIAGE, FERTILITY, & ILLEGITIMACY.      VARIOUS DISEASES.

Fig. 9

THE NETHERLANDS.

Fig. 10.

NORWAY.

Fig. 11.

SWEDEN.

Fig. 12.

DENMARK.

Fig. 13.

BELGIUM.

Fig. 14.

ITALY.

Fig. 15.

SPAIN.

Fig. 16.

COUNTRIES WITH NEARLY STATIONARY BIRTH-RATE

RUSSIA.

Fig. 17

ROUMANIA.

Fig. 18

JAMAICA.

Fig. 19

IRELAND.

Fig. 20

COUNTRIES WITH RISING BIRTH-RATES

Figs. 21-23

BRITISH COLONIES

CANADA (Ontario).

Fig. 24

AUSTRALIA (Commonwealth).

Fig. 25

NEW ZEALAND.

Fig. 26

THE CITY OF TORONTO.

Fig. 27

BERLIN.

Fig. 28

BERLIN.

Fig. 29

EUROPE.

Fig. 30

WESTERN EUROPE.

Fig. 31

CHAPTER IV
INFANT MORTALITY

In the preceding pages it was stated that a high birth-rate is always accompanied by a high infant mortality. The material presented in this chapter demonstrates the fact that ignorance of methods to prevent conception forces the wives of ill-paid wage-workers to bear an excess of unwanted children. Figures are adduced to show an appalling death rate of infants under five years of age and the economic distress of the survivors in families unwanted and too large.

MEDICAL GYNECOLOGY. Howard A. Kelly, A.B., M.D., LLD., Professor of Gynecological Surgery in Johns Hopkins University, and Gynecologist to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, etc. D. Appleton Co. New York and London, 1912.

As long as a community can rest content in the belief that a large infant mortality is the natural method of reducing the race of the unfit, the doctrine of laissez-faire can be accepted with complaisance. If, however, it seems probable that the influence of environment must be reckoned as a greater cause of infant mortality and of physical unfitness than the influence of heredity, it may be wiser for society, as it certainly will be easier, to preserve the lives and health of the children born, than to stimulate an increase in a birth rate now diminishing. As it is an open question whether the race as a whole suffers mental and physical deterioration from a diminished rate of production among the superior stocks, it is unquestionably a matter of public policy, as well as of common humanity, that conditions of living in communities should be made favorable to the preservation of the life and health of all infants and children. P. 41.

EUGENICS AND RACIAL POISONS. Prince A. Morrow, M.D. Pamphlet published by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, N. Y., 1912.

Observation shows that the class known as degenerates is increasing much more rapidly than the general population and that their average duration of life has been lengthened. Diseases may be cured, but degeneracy, which is usually due to some inherited defect in the physical, mental or moral nature of the individual, is rarely amenable to curative treatment. It is only through applied eugenics that the vast volume of disease and degeneracy which flows through the channels of heredity can be prevented. Obviously this can be accomplished only through education and legislative restriction upon the procreation of the unfit.

In the making of the child, the mother not only contributes one half of the ancestral qualities which enter into its constitution, but furnishes all the nutrition and energy which serve to support its life. From this point of view the mother is the supreme parent of the child, she is the source of its life and from her blood is drawn the material which contributes to its growth and development. The welfare of the mother is the welfare of the child. We have thus come to recognize the dominant influence of the mother’s relation to the health, as well as the life of the race. A high standard of physical motherhood is the most favorable asset of a nation. Havelock Ellis, in his recent work, on the Psychology of Sex, says, “Nations have begun to recognize the desirability of education, but they have scarcely yet come to recognize that the nationalization of health is even more important than the nationalization of education. If it were necessary to choose between the task of getting children educated and the task of getting them well born and healthy, it would be better to abandon education. There have been many great people who never dreamed of national systems of education; there has been no great people without the art of producing healthy and vigorous children.”

Newman, the distinguished author of the work on “Infant Mortality” declares that the problem of infant mortality is not one of sanitation alone, or housing, or indeed of poverty as such, it is mainly a question of motherhood.

It is not probable that the scientific methods which have been successfully applied to plants and the selective breeding of animals will ever replace the haphazard methods of human reproduction.

There is no fact better established than that a man can transmit only that which he is. If his system is weakened by excess or tainted with disease he can beget only physical weakness, or beings tainted with disease. The syphilitic, the consumptive, the epileptic, the alcoholic, should not produce his kind.

NEO-MALTHUSIANISM AND RACE HYGIENE IN “PROBLEMS IN EUGENICS.” Vol. 2. London, 1913. Dr. Alfred Ploetz, President of the Int. Soc. for Race Hygiene.

Arthur Geissler concluded from a study of about 26,000 births of unselected marriages among miners that the mortality of children was least in the four first-born, and then increased to a very high rate. Following are Geissler’s figures, (marriages with only one or two children are omitted).

Deaths during first year
1st born children23%
2nd born children20%
3rd born children21%
4th born children23%
5th born children26%
6th born children29%
7th born children31%
8th born children33%
9th born children36%
10th born children41%
11th born children51%
12th born children60%

INFANT MORTALITY. Results of a Field Study in Johnstown, Pa., based on Births in one calendar year. By Emma Duke, Infant Mortality Series, No. 3. Bureau Publication No. 9. U. S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau.

The pamphlet embodies the result of a field study in Johnstown, Pa., based on one calendar year. The inspection was made in 1913, of the 1911 babies, so that even the last born baby included had reached its first birthday—or rather had had a chance to reach its first birthday; many of them were dead long before that day. Every mother of a 1911 baby was visited. She was questioned about the health of that child and all her other children. The report takes up the familiar factors—neighborhood environment, sanitary conditions, sewage, housing, nativity, attendance at birth, feeding, age of mother, and like matters. Full information is given on these points. Then the report considers infant mortality from a novel viewpoint—the relation of the death rate to the size of the family. The Johnstown statistics include families varying in number from one child to ten and over, and varying in health from none living to all living. The result of the study of infant mortality in relation to the size of the family is thus stated: “The statistics, based on the results of all her reportable pregnancies, show a generally higher infant mortality rate where the mother has had many pregnancies, but there is not always an increase from one pregnancy to the next.” The following table shows this tendency. It is based on the reproductive histories of 1,491 married mothers who had 5,617 births. Miscarriages are not included.

Infant Mortality Rate for all Children borne by Married Mothers: Table 36
Number of Pregnancies.Infant Mortality Rate.
1 and 2108.5 per 1,000
3 and 4126.0 per 1,000
5 and 6152.8 per 1,000
7 and 8176.4 per 1,000
9 or more191.9 per 1,000
Average149.9 per 1,000

In contemplating these figures we think immediately of wage-earning mothers away from home, ignorant feeding, and lack of care. These are powerful factors in raising the death rate.

Of all the 1911 babies who died before they were a year old, 37% died in the first month of life. So much pain and misery and then no baby after all. All the skill in the world could not have saved those babies who lived only long enough to die.

The infant mortality rate for the babies whose fathers earn under $521 is almost twice as great as for those born into families in the most prosperous group. These figures strengthen the conclusion reached in the study of the babies born in 1911, namely that the economic factor is of far-reaching importance in determining the baby’s chance of life.

One of the tables showing the influence of the economic factor, is calculated on the basis of 1,434 live-born babies with fathers. 187 of these babies succumbed during the first year, giving a general mortality rate of 130.7 per 1,000. In these families a very few of the mothers worked outside the homes.

Father’s earningsLive-birthsDeaths 1st yearInfant mortality rate
Under $62538482213.5
$625 to $89938547122.1
$900 or more1861896.8
Ample4764084.0

Expressed in words, this table asserts that when the family income is under $625 a year, the children born alive die before the first birthday at the rate of 213.5 to the 1,000. In striking contrast when the income is $900 or more, they die only 96.8 to the 1,000. “Ample” was the expression used when the investigator could not obtain exact information as to the amount, but saw no evidence of actual poverty. The same ratio held good when it was calculated for the native-born mothers alone and when it was calculated for the foreign-born mothers alone. Even where mothers are American-born women, staying at home to look after their children, the amount of money to be spent on the child strongly influences its chance of life and death.

According to this table the superiority which children in indigent households show over children in well-to-do households is preeminent skill in dying. When father earns $12 a week the children die at the rate of 213 per 1,000; but when father earns $18 a week, only 96 children per 1,000 pass away the first year of their lives. The lower the father’s wages, the higher the babies’ death rate. Many a death certificate should read, “Died of poverty.”

The following table is compiled from the 5,617 children borne by 1,491 married mothers, in Johnstown, Pa.

Order of BirthDeaths per 1,000
1st and 2nd born children138.3
3rd and 4th born children143.2
5th and 6th born children177.0
7th and 8th born children181.5
9th and later born children201.1

Apparently the size of the family has much to do with the child’s chance of living, and apparently the earlier in the succession the child is born, the better chance of life it possesses. Death warrants await the coming of the youngest born.

Table 42.—Infant mortality rate for all children of married mothers included in this investigation, distributed according to the father’s earnings.
Father’s annual earningsInfant mortality rate
Under $521197.3
$521 to $624193.1
$625 to $779163.1
$780 to $899168.4
$900 to $1,199142.3
$1,200 to $1,200 and over102.2

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CHILDREN’S BUREAU

Julia C. Lathrop, Chief

INFANT MORTALITY

RESULTS OF A FIELD STUDY IN JOHNSTOWN, PA., BASED ON

BIRTHS IN ONE CALENDAR YEAR

By Emma Duke

1915

(Certain tables omitted)