THE MORTALITY FROM RABIES IN THE LAST 
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN PHILADELPHIA. 
BY JOHN G. LEE, M. D. 
During the past few months the profession and the public 
have had such a surfeit of the subject of hydrophobia that 
any further remarks may fail to excite that interest which 
all facts pertaining to this dread disease undoubtedly deserve. 
Nevertheless, the following figures, obtained by me from 
the records of our local Health-Officer (thanks to the cour- 
tesy of Registrar Chambers, of that department), may poss- 
ibly prove of interest to those studying its occurrence and 
mortality among the human species. 
As neither in 1860 nor in 1884 were any cases of rabies 
reported to the authorities, our labors are narrowed down 
to the consideration of a period of only twenty-three years, 
from 1861 to 1888 inclusive, during which time sixty deaths 
from hydrophobia”( ?) are registered. These deaths oc- 
curred by years in the following order: 
1861 . . 1 case. 1872 . . 1 case. 
1862 . . 4 cases. 1873 1 “ 
1863 . . 6 “ 1874 . . 3 cases. 
1864 . . 3 “ 1875 . . 2 “ 
1865 . . 2 “ 1876 . . 4 “ 
1866 . . 2 “ 1877 . . 4 “ 
1867 . . 2 “ 1878 . . 2 “ 
1868 . . 0 case. 1879 3 “ 
1869 . . 7 cases. 1880 . . 1 case. 
1870 . . 1 case. 1881 . . 5 cases. 
1871 . . 1 “ 1882 . . 2 “ 
1883 . . 3 cases. St. Louis Medical Journal. 
157 
The smallest figure, 1, was recorded six times,—viz., in 
1861 and 1880, and four times consecutively from 1870 to 
1873 ; as to the higher figures, beginning at 7 for 1869, 6 
for 1863, and 5 for 1881, then scaling downward with 4 
deaths in three different years, 3 cases four times, and, fin- 
ally, 2 cases six times, we were unable to observe any dis- 
tinct periodicity in their occurrence, and hence may assume 
that the placid and unemotional temperament of our fellow- 
citizens has preserved them from the effects of panics taking 
place in other communities. 
Next year’s report of this year’s mortality-statisics can 
not fail to prove intere,ting, on account of the opportunity 
they will afford for special observation as to whether the 
recent scares in neighboring States have exerted any influence 
here. 
As in nearly all deaths due directly or indirectly to trau- 
matic causes, we find the male element largely predominat- 
ing, fifty-two of our sixty deaths being males,—a fact easily 
explained by the reason that men. from the nature of their 
occupations, are more exposed to the bites of rabid animals, 
as for the same reason and on account of the arnpleness of 
dress the gentler sex run far less risk.* Of the fifty-two 
males, twenty-two are recorded as adults and thirty-two 
minors, three of the eight female victims being adults and 
the remaining five minors, the latter in each instance show- 
ing: an excess over the former. 
Considering; the ages of these cases in detail: 
G G 
Period. ] 
So. of cases. 
Period. No. 
of cases. 
1 
to 
2 years. 
1 
20 
to 
30 years. 
7 
2 
to 
5 “ 
5 
30 
to 
40 “ 
8 
5 
to 
10 “ 
14 
40 
to 
50 “ 
(> 
1C 
> to 
15 “ 
9 
50 
to 
GO “ 
4 
15 
» to 
20 “ 
6 
Our figures correspond with the results of other observers,! 
*Vide “Rabies and Hydrophobia,” by George Fleming. F. R. C. S., etc. London. 
1872. 
fVide Fleming, op. cit. 158 
/St. Louis Medical Journal. 
for, while no age up to sixty seems entirely exempt, nearly 
half the victims are children, the disease having taken place 
during what Bouley* rightly calls “the age of imprudence, 
weakness, play, and teasing.” 
A record of the nativity of the dead having been kept on- 
ly since 1871, this feature is therefore incomplete ; though, 
as might be expected in our community, eight foreigners 
are outnumbered by twenty-four Americans. 
The records of the months in which these deaths occurred 
is equally disappointing, beginning as it does only in 1874, 
since which time but twenty-nine persons have succumbed 
to this disease. These cases massed in groups of months 
in their relative order of frequency give us the following 
result: 
December, 5 cases. 
February, 4 “ 
September, 4 “ 
October, 4 “ 
March, 3 “ 
May, 3 “ 
January, 2 cases. 
April, 2 “ 
July, 1 case. 
November 1 “ 
June, 0 “ 
August, 0 “ 
Which again grouped by seasons: 
December, 5 
January, 2 
February, 4 
11 cases. 
March, 3 
April, 2 
May, 3 
8 cases. 
June, 0 
July, 1 
August, 0 
1 case 
September, 4 
October, 4 
November, 1 
9 eases. 
These figures may be too few to show conclusively that 
seasons or months influence to any marked degree the oc- 
currence of rabies in Philadelphia. 
It ought, however, to be stated that an analytical study 
of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Census Reports of the 
United States! shows a different result. One hundred and 
twenty-seven deaths from rabies are reported from the whole 
*Yide “Hydophobia: Means of avoiding its Perils, etc.,” by H. Bouley, of Paris, 
translated by Liautard. New York, 1874. 
{The nosological classification of the Tenth Census does not specify “hydro- 
phobia.” St. Louis Medical Journal. 
159 
country for the three census years. They occurred by sea- 
sons as follows: 
Seasons. 
1850. 
1860. 
1870. 
Total 
Winter 
9 
9 
13 
31 
Spring 
8 
5 
13 
26 
Summer 
. 6 
15 
20 
41 
Autumn 
. 3 
9 
17 
29 
Total . 
. "26“ 
38 
(53 
127 
Grouped by months for the years 1860 and 1870 only, 
August heads the list with 18 cases, followed by June with 
11 ; September, with 10; January, April, October, Novem- 
ber, 8 each; December and February, 7 each; March and 
July, 6 apiece; May coming last, with four cases,— the 
greatest number of cases occurring in the summer. 
Sixty-seven of the total number of cases were minors, and 
sixry were adults, their ages ranging from twenty to ninety 
years. EightjMhree were male and forty-four females; 
thirty-three of the former are known to have been minors, 
as were also twenty-four of the latter. 
These one hundred and twenty-seven cases are about fair- 
ly distributed among the different States and Teritories, 
save that in 1870 the large number of twenty-two cases oc- 
curred in Louisiana. 
As we have seen from the foregoing figures, the disease 
seems never to have committed any great ravages in our city. 
Indeed, while from 1860 to 1884, a period of twenty-five 
years, the expectancy of it occurring among any ten thous- 
and births was 1.8, the real mortality has been but 1.4, to 
every ten thousand deaths from all causes. Phil. Medical 
Times.