From a glance at the Negro mortality figures in Pittsburgh during the first seven months of 1917, ([Table No. XXI]), we observe the startling total of five hundred and twenty-seven deaths (excluding still births) as compared with two hundred and ninety-five deaths in 1915 during the ante-migration period, an increase of seventy-eight percent. While it is true that the Negro population has increased according to our estimate about forty-five percent during the past two years, this expansion in nowise explains the disquieting increase in mortality. An examination of the table also reveals the character of this increase. Pneumonia cases have increased nearly two hundred percent; we also had a marked increase in acute bronchitis and meningitis, and almost twice as many deaths from heart disease.
It is often claimed that the Negro is affected by climatic changes. Transferred suddenly into a northern climate, and compelled to live in all sorts of dwellings, often with no ventilation and light and in congested quarters, he may easily succumb to disease. Unaccustomed as he is to the heavy labor and pace-setting of the Pittsburgh industries, it can readily be seen how rapidly his health is undermined through excessive and hard labor. The fact that there has been no increase in tuberculosis is in accord with the expressed opinion of many colored physicians interviewed, who claimed that this disease is mainly a city product, and that the newcomers, especially those coming from isolated southern districts, are apt to be relatively free from this disease for a considerable period after their arrival in Pittsburgh.
TABLE NUMBER XXII
Record of Negro Morbidity for a Period of Six Months Before the Migration, as Compared with an Equal Period during the Migration in the West Penn Mercy and St. Francis Hospitals.
| Causes | 1915 | 1917 |
|---|---|---|
| Digestive System | 24 | 29 |
| Respiratory and Throat | 54 | 76 |
| Heart and Kidney | 16 | 10 |
| Brain and Nervous System | 9 | 5 |
| Urogenital Diseases | 35 | 44 |
| 138 | 164 |
[Table number XXII] was ascertained from a study of the records of three of the largest hospitals in Pittsburgh, as to the treatment of Negro patients in these Institutions for a period of six months before the migration and an equal period during the migration. Although this table proved interesting, as showing the amount, kind and extent of the hospital morbidity among the colored people, it is not at all conclusive. That the hospital records give no clue to the sickness among the Negroes is apparent from the following: Eighty to ninety percent of the hospital cases examined were ward patients. Very few Negroes can afford private rooms, and almost every colored physician complained of the difficulty he had in securing places for his patients. It is only fair to state however, that one of the largest hospitals in the city, had no such charge lodged against it.
Aside from possible difficulty in securing beds in the hospitals, there is another cause for the scanty number of Negro hospital cases. The Negro not only because of his ignorance, but perhaps even more because of his inclinations to voodooism and superstition, feels an aversion to the hospital, where he thinks the knife and the “black bottle” are frequently used. He is still child-like in many ways, and will prefer all sorts of patent medicines and quack doctors rather than expose himself to the surgeon’s knife in a hospital; and chooses to stay at home among his own people where he may “die in peace.”
TABLE NUMBER XXIII
Comparative Record of the Births and Deaths of Negroes and the Entire City Population, during the Year of 1915 and the First Seven Months of 1917.
