The causes of death among the assured in the Scottish Widow's Fund and Life Assurance Society from 1874 to 1894 inclusive / [Claud Muirhead].

  • Muirhead, Claud.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The causes of death among the assured in the Scottish Widow's Fund and Life Assurance Society from 1874 to 1894 inclusive / [Claud Muirhead]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this disease as the result of over-indulgence in the use of stimulants, at the average age of 49. 'I'here was no family history of intemperance disclosed in any of the proposal papers. Apoplexy.’ Hy far the greatest mortality of any (»ne of the diseases included in this class was due to Apople.xy, which was responsible for seven hundred and ninety-nine deaths, or 8‘720 per cent of the total mortality. Two hundred and ninety-seven of these members exceeded what was their expecta- tion of life at the time they were admitted to the benelits of the Society, eighty-nine of whom did so by from 10 to 24 years. 'I'he average age at death of the Apoplectics for the three Septennia was 59172, 00'9G9, and 6d'419 years respectively; for the twenty-one years 1874-94, it was G1'42G, which is 3'1G3 years higher than that of the total mortality. By the term xVpoplexy is usually understood that morbid condition of the brain which manifests itself by a more or less sudden loss of consciousness, sensation, and voluntary motion, most commonly due to rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain, by which the patient is usually rendered paralytic, and which is often followed by death after the lapse of a varying interval of time, or by partial recovery. Among the causes which ])redispose to degeneration of the vessels of the brain are Old Age, the poison of Syphilis, of Gout, of Alcohol, etc. The importance of age as a factor in causing Apoplexy among our members is indicated by the number who ex- ceeded their expectation of life by upwards of 10 years; there was a history of Gout in a fair proportion of our cases; in several there was either a personal or family history of a tendency to alcoholic excess; in one case a medical man contracted Syphilis in the execution of his professional duties ; while Bright’s Disease is certified to have accompanied or preceded the fatal illness in not a few. The majority of the patients died within a week after the haunorrhage, many the same day, and a few were struck down at once. As indicated by the average age at death. Apoplexy is a disease of advanced life. One member is recorded as having died of it under 25 years of age, but examination of the papers reveals the fact that it was Sunstroke or Thermic Fever of which he died, and not Cerebral Hremorrhage. These twm diseases were long confounded together, but the symptoms are different, the essential ■one in Thermic Fever being the enormous increase of temperature, often running to 108” or 110° F., the result of exposure to great heat. This young man died in Bengal. From the following table, which shows the number of deaths at groups of ages, and the percentages which these numbers bear to the total number at all ages in each period of time, it will be observed that, roughly speaking, about 30 per cent of our cases occurred below 55 years of age, and 70 per cent at or above that age; also that very few cases are recorded below the age of 35, and that after that age they became frequent. * I have included under this title the few cases which were returned under the indefinite and unsatisfactory heading “ Congestion of the Brain,” which re.seiiibles Apoplexy in some of its forms, and in which instead of hiemorrhage there may be effusion of serum.