EDITORS. J. LANGDON DOWN, M.D., F.R.C.P. 1 HENRY POWER, M.B., F.R.c.s. J. MORTIMER-GRANVILLE, M.D. | JOHN TWEEDY, F.R.C.S. PREMATURE DEATH: ITS PROMOTION OR PREVENTION. CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SERIES: G. W. BALFOUR, M.D., St. And., . CRICHTON-BROWNE, M.D. Edin., SIDNEY COUPLAND, M.D. Lond., JOHN CURNOW, M.D.Lond., F.R.C.P. TILBURY FOX, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P. C. W. HEATON, F.C.S., F.I.C. G. V. POORE, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P. C. H. RALFE, M.A., M.D. Cantab., S. RINGER, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P. M.R.C.P. PREMATURE DEATH: ITS PROMOTION OR PREVENTION. CHAPTER I. THE RUDIMENTARY ARITHMETIC OF PREMATURE DEATH. Of the twenty-five millions (25,000,000) of people who form the population of England and Wales, half a million or thereabout (500,000) die, on the average, every year. Of these deaths one-tenth only (50,000) are of persons who have reached the full term of life, namely, seventyfive years and upwards; nine-tenths are premature, that is to say, are deaths of persons whose lives have been cut short before the expiration of their natural term. Somewhat less than one-fourth of the 450,000 persons who every year die prematurely (24 per cent. = 108,000) die in infancy; somewhat over four-tenths (41 per cent. 184,500), including those who die in infancy, die by the time the fifth year of life is completed; the deaths of = |