One source estimates that the life expectancy in the United States did not increase between 1780 and 1890.
For example, the life expectancy of a man in his twenties in the 1780s was 67.4, thirties was 70.1 and fifties was 74.3.
In the 1870s it was 64.3, 66.3 and 72.3.
Those decades were chosen because the data came from diaries and the decades after the Revolutionary War and the Civil War inspired many people to write diaries while memories were fresh. That is, there were a lot of data-points for those two decades.
The increase in life expectancy as the person ages indicates that death-rates for people in the prime-of-life were significant. Cut your skin with an ax...you could die of an infection. Get the flu and you could die.
Cause-of-death data is pretty skinny for that century but we have reasonably good data for 1900. For the years 1900, 1901 and 1902 the official data lists.
Causes 1, 2, 4 and 10 are communicable diseases. Some circles believe that poor nutrition in the 1800s made diseases more lethal due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Causes 3, 5, 6 probably include uncontrolled blood pressure, diabetes and inflammation from dental infections as well as clotting disorders.
- Death by Pneumonia and Influenza at 113478
- Death by Tuberculosis at 113113
- Death due to diseases of the heart at 85681
- Death by diarrhea and intestinal issues 74076
- Death by what we now call "strokes" 64383
- Death by diseases of the kidneys 54536
- Death due to accidents 46302
- Death due to cancer 39860
- Death due to senility 29095
- Death due to Diphtheria or Bronchitis approx 8k/year
Infant mortality and childhood illnesses skew historic life expectancy. Remove the former two and the latter increases.
ReplyDeleteSamuel Wittimore - because today is April 19 - was born in the 17th century and lived to age 98.
Yes, modern medicine has done a lot to increase life span and prevent premature deaths. It's also clogged up the Darwinian filter in the gene pool. As a result the average IQ is now dropping because the truly stupid are now being saved rather than self eliminating themselves. The amount of sheer stupidity I have seen working in ER over the past half century is mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteJust #10. Diphtheria. Before 1930s, most childhood deaths weren't recorded until after 3 years old. Because of Diphtheria and a few other childhood diseases. Once you get to 3 years old, then deaths started counting. And Diphtheria was waiting to collect.
ReplyDeleteThink of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Origins? Getting the recently invented diphtheria vaccine to Nome, Alaska, by dogsled.
Balto? The famous dog? He was the lead dog that took the last and longest leg of the vaccine run, basically dragging a half-dead man and the rest of the dog team and the sled the final miles.
1933. The year that child deaths dropped rapidly. Because of one German and one Japanese, working against the system.
Funny. You know what one of the leading causes of childhood, under 3yoa, not by disease in the medieval and later renaissance and really up to the mid 1800's (especially in rural areas?) Pigs. Free-ranging pigs could suck up a baby or toddler quicker than anything.
My wife's grandmother, born in 1900 said if you contracted pneumonia it was 50/50 that you would survive. When the Spanish Flu hit Philly, she recalled whole families died while their neighbors were fine. They lived in area that still had small farms and they just isolated themselves. In the central part of the city was worse off.
ReplyDeleteAs an amateur genealogist, I discovered the Spanish flu death of a great great aunt, who left three young children, in her early thirties. I can imagine the abject fear as it ripped through the household, wondering if the children would be left parent less. This was in Norristown, just outside Philadelphia, where it was cutting a wide swath through the population.
DeleteOne other extremely tragic direct ancestress lost six children under three, in the 1800’s. Diphtheria was the cause in a few.
My hobby has given me great admiration for the parents of other times.
The mother who lost the six children died young herself, in her fifties. Listed as primary cause of death was exhaustion. I think it could have been grief.
Genealogy led to an interest in mortality causes and trends for me. An arcane hobby to be sure, but utterly fascinating.
DeleteOne other tidbit - going back quite a ways, suicide appears to have always had a social contagion aspect. In a tight geographic area, spikes in suicide are very noticeable. Most of my research is in Philadelphia from the late 1800’s on.
When looking at suicides over time, also look at the methods of suicide.
DeleteBack in the early 1900s, people had a better familiarity with firearms and what they are capable of than they do today. Based on my very limited research, carbolic acid (effectively draino) was a popular choice. Carbolic acid was an absolutely hideous way to go, burning away the esophagus and potentially taking 30 days to kill you.
But, in the early 1900s people had not bought into Hollywood's myth of firearms: bang-bang-you're-dead. (Who wouldn't want to go that fast?) Anyone who has watched an animal die from a firearm knows that there are death throws -- not to mention the mess.
That said, one of my aunts did try using a firearm in the 1920s (after her father had successfully used carbolic acid in the 1910s). She lived for another 50+ years after pulling the trigger. They said you could hear her screaming up to a mile away when her wound was cleaned with alcohol.