RACE. The influence of race upon vitality is one which cannot be clearly distinguished from that of other factors usually associated with it. In the countries of Europe which still furnish most of our information regarding vital statis tics the differences of race are elusive, and in con sequence this distinction is seldom, if ever, drawn in the vital statistics of those countries. For the native population of Australia and New Zea land vital statistics are almost entirely lacking, but what indications there are point to a high death rate and a low- vitality. Statistics on this subject. from South Africa have been but recently organized and are still too slight to be signifi cant. The largest body of evidence on this topic is that furnished by the vital statistics of the United States.
In the year 1599-1900, for which the vital sta tistics of the Twelfth Census speak, 475,640 deaths of whites and 35.710 deaths of negroes were reported in the registration area, including nearly two-fifths of the population of the coun try. mainly in the Northeast States and in cities.
These are deaths enough to give reasonably ac curate rates for the two races. They show a death rate for the whites of 17.3 and for the negroes of 30.2. From the published tables it is impossible to derive the death rate of whites and negroes by ages, but the figures for the colored. 94.3 per cent. of whom were negroes, furnish an approximate index of the death rate of the negroes. The rates are indicated in the follow ing table: The death rate of the colored race in the United States up to the age of twenty-five is apparently about two and one-half times that of the whites, and the difference between the two races is apparently greatest between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. From that age the difference greatly declines, the mortality of the colored being a little less than twice that of the whites between the ages of twenty-five and forty five, and above the age of sixty-five exceeding that of the whites by only about one-fourth.