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CHAPTER XTHE HEALTH OF NEGROES. 25. The Interpretation of Statistics.-The characteristic signs which usually accompany a low civilization are a high birth rate and a high death rate; or, in other words, early marriages and neglect of the laws of physical health. This fact, which has often been illustrated by statistical research, has 110t yet been fully apprehended by the general public because they have long been used to hearing more or less true tales of the remarkable health and longevity of barbarous peoples. For this reason the recent statistical research which reveals the large death rate atnong American Negroes is open to very general misapprehension . It is a remarkable phenomenon which throws much light on the Negro problems and suggests some obvious solutions. On the other hand, it does not prove, as most seem to think, a vast recent change in the condition of the Negro. Reliable data as to the physical health of the Negro in slavery are entirely wanting; and yet, judging from the horrors of the middle passage, the decimation on the "Vest Indian plantations, and the bad sanitary condition of the Negro quarters on most Southern plantations, there must have been an immense death rate among slaves, notwithstanding all reports as to endurance , physical strength and phenomenal longevity. Just how emancipation has affected this death rate is not clear; the rush to cities, where the surroundings are unhealthful, has had a bad effect, although this migration on a large scale is so recent that its full effect is not yet apparent; on the other hand, the better care of children and improvement in home life has also had some favorable effect. On the whole, then, we must remember that reliable statistics as to Negro health are but recent in date and that as yet no (147) The Health of Negroes. [Chap. x. important conclusions can be arrived at as to historic changes or tendencies. One thing we must of course expect to find, and that is a much higher death rate at present among Negroes than aUl0ng whites: this is one measure of the difference in their social advancement. They have in the past lived under vastly different conditions and they still live under different conditions: to assume that, in discussing the inhabitants of Philadelphia, one is discussing people living under the same conditions of life, is to assume what is not true. Broadly speaking, the Negroes as a class dwell in the most unhealthful parts of the city and in the worst houses in those parts; which is of course simply saying that the part of the population having a large degree of poverty, ignorauce and general social degradation is usually to be found in the worst portions of our great cities. Therefore, in considering the health statistics of the Negroes, we seek first to know their absolute condition, rather than their relative status; we want to know what their death rate is, how it has varied and is varying and what its tendencies seem to be; with these facts fixed we must then ask, What is the meaning of a death rate like that of the Negroes of Philadelphia? Is it, compared with with other races, large, moderate or small ; and in the case of nations or groups with similar death rates, What has been the tendency and outcome? Finally, we must compare the death rate of the Negroes with that of the communities in which they live and thus roughly measure the social difference between these neighboring groups; we must endeavor also to eliminate, so far as possible, from the problem disturbing elements which would make a difference in health among people of the same social advancement , Only in this way can we intelligently interpret statistics of Negro heal the Here, too, we have to remember that the collection of statistics, even in Philadelphia, is by no means perfect. 21.187.121] Project MUSE (2024-04-16 16:33 GMT) Sect. 26.] The Statistics of tke City. 149 The death returns are to be relied upon, but the returns of births are wide of the true condition; the statistics of causes of death are also faulty. 26. The Statistics of the City.-The mortality of Negroes in Philadelphia, according to the best reports, has been as follows :' 47. 6 32.5 31.25* 28.02t Average Annual Deaths per 1000 Negroes. Date. 1820- 1830 1830-1840 .. 1884-t890 .. 1891-1_89::....6_. ~ *Including still-births; excluding still-births, 29.52. t Including...

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