Statistics of consumption in Roxbury : read before the Norfolk District Medical Society of Massachusetts, at the Annual Meeting, May 17th, 1854 / (printed by vote of the Society) ; by B. E. Cotting ; with an appendix.

  • Benjamin Eddy Cotting
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of consumption in Roxbury : read before the Norfolk District Medical Society of Massachusetts, at the Annual Meeting, May 17th, 1854 / (printed by vote of the Society) ; by B. E. Cotting ; with an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    APPENDIX.* The examination of the statistics of consumption in Roxbury naturally led to a comparison of that city with other places, more or less remote, whose bills of mortality were readily accessible. Taking three years for which there are full official returns, we have compiled the following table:— Deaths for three years—1S50, '51 and '52. Place. Whole N From Consumption. Proportion. Boston, 11,258 1,936 1 in 5.809 Roxbury, 1,105 206 1 in 5.364 Norfolk County, 3,908 812 1 in 4.859 do. without Roxbury, 2,803 606 1 in 4.625 State of Mass. 55,361 11,664 1 in 4.823 do. without Boston, 44.] 03 9,728 1 in 4.533 This table shows that in Boston, as compared with Roxbury, during these three years, there was a slight excess in the proportion of deaths from consumption to the deaths from all causes ; while in Roxbury dur- ing the same period there has been a decided improvement shown in a similar comparison with Norfolk County, and the State, either taken as a whole or after deducting the city of Boston. Whether these facts ought to modify in any degree the general notion that the sea-board, with its execrated east winds, has a greater tendency to produce consumption than the interior country, we leave to others to decide. While Boston has thus enjoyed a greater proportionate freedom from deaths from consumption than its rural suburbs, or the rest of the State, the deaths from consumption within its own limits have latterly conside- rably increased. For the period of ten years, from 1830 to 1840, the proportion of deaths from consumption in Boston was less than for any similar period before or since, being 1 in 7.587. A comparison of Boston with New York and Philadelphia, cities farther south, was also favorable to Boston. In Philadelphia and New York, the proportions for the same period were severally 1 in 5.952 and one in 7.482. The following tables were constructed from official documents, for the purpose of showing the increase in Boston and Roxbury ; and for a com- parison of these cities with other cities and places generally supposed to enjoy a much greater exemption from consumption. * From a paper read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, by R. E. Cutting, M.D., Associate Member of the Society.