Causes of Death, 1908

From mortality statistics for 1907 and 1908, nearly one-fifth of all the deaths that occurred in the United States were those of infants under 1 year of age, and over one-fourth are of children less than 5 years of age.

“The general death rate of a country is largely dependent upon its infant mortality, because the death rates of infants and young children are high and they affect a relatively numerous element of the population.” (page 8, Mortality Statistics 1908, Dept. of Commerce and Labor)

What were the most common causes of all these deaths among babies? Premature birth, congenital debility, venereal diseases, diarrhea and enteritis, measles, acute bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, whooping cough, croup/diphtheria, meningitis, laryngitis and other diseases of larynx, scarlet fever, and convulsions.

Among adults in large cities (defined as those with a population of 100,000 or greater), the most important causes of death were typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and croup, tuberculosis, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, diarrhea and enteritis, Bright’s disease [kidney disease], suicide, and other violence. Smallpox, plague, yellow fever, leprosy, rabies, and pellagra [a vitamin deficiency, although the cause was not yet known] caused relatively few deaths.

From the Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census’ Mortality Statistics: 1908, Bulletin 104, published in 1909