Salt Lake Telegram | 1924-03-01 | Page 3 | White Plague Yields Easily to Scientist

WHITE PLAGUE YIELDS EASILY TO SCIENTIST WASHINGTON y ASnI GT March Ch 1 By By- U. U P. P Once P.-Once Once a yea ea Uncle Sam posts the returns from the relentlessly waged battle battlo between science antI anil disease and death To his legions of ot physicians he sa says s 's You Tou are re winning whining here or You are ale losing there And in the sectors sec seC- toes tors where the fight tight is going In their thel- favor lavor they press It it- more vigorously vig vig- confident of their tactics Where it is going against them they take counsel and seek new methods of attack Uncle Sam through his census bureau has just published the re returns re re- turns for the year 1922 Battle Battlo lines are being reformed accordingly Science and medicine hIs hla figures show are slowly winning against tuberculosis the d dread ead white while plague which for BO so so many years took the heaviest toll toU of ot all aU diseases diseases dis dis- eases against diseases of or early In Infancy In- In fancy and those which permanently Impair little children sometimes such as s scarlet fever whooping cough and diphtheria against ty typhoid typhoid ty- ty fever teve- puerperal septicemia and in preventing death through certain accidental causes But Dut according to his returns the battle is not going so 80 well vell against other major diseases The fight tight seems Beems to be losing against diseases diseases dis dis- eases of or the heart Influenza and pneumonia nephritis and Brights Bright's diseases cancer diabetes syphilis and many forms of or accidental death The death rate of the thirty thirty seven seven states of or the United States which comprise the death registration area of ot the nation from which the census bureaus bureau's figures figure I are d dawn d awn In 1922 1922 was 11 II per a a. slight Increase over the low rate of 11 11 6 6 established In tho the precedIng ing lag year jear ear Actual deaths numbered in 1922 against In 1921 To a heavy Increase in the death Tate rate from froni influenza and pneumonia which jumped 60 per cent In 1922 over 1921 jho lie he bureau att attributes the entire in the national death rate in 1922 Yet the figures for tor the nation as asa asa asa a whole are so encouraging as to cause medical officials of or the government gov gov- eminent to regard the relatively poor showing against the maJo major diseases Us eases excluding g tuberculosis with equanimity Losses sustained against heat heart disease nephritis and cancer they say Bay are In themselves an indication IndIcation indication indica IndIca- tion of general progress in the battle bat bat- tle More people are living to the age at which they are liable to these diseases they contend and in great measure their increase indicates I not so much that the diseases ae are 1 on the upgrade but that science has prolonged many lives to yeas years in which these diseases make male progress ress A a quarter ce century ago the death rate was thirty per now flow it is So the battle continues I In recent vears years the tho average a life has been lengthened by it from 42 years to 53 years jears ears according to the Insurance I ance atice companies who deal In death Science will confine contine itself to further further fur tur- i ther study of those recalcitrant ailments all ail ments which now seem to take the 1 crowning years of 01 life lite with the 1 expectancy of raising the average human three h n sl score life e w well years above and the ten Biblical The I I goal Koal now set is 75 years Uncle i Sam will viii tabulate the progress to toward toward toward to- to I ward it it 1