438Chapter 23
1848 deaths per 1901 deaths per Percentage
Disease million population million population change
Airborne diseases 7,259 5,122 –29.4
Tuberculosis (respiratory) 2,901 1,268 –56.3
Bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza 2,239 2,747 22.7
Scarlet fever and diphtheria 1,016 407 –59.9
Whooping cough 42 3 312 –26.2
Measles 342 278 –18.7
Smallpox 26 310 –96.2
Ear, pharynx, larynx infections 75 100 33.3
Water- and food-borne diseases 3,562 1,931 –45.8
Cholera, diarrhea, dysentery 1,819 1,232 –32.3
Typhoid and typhus 990 155 –84.3
Tuberculosis (nonrespiratory) 75 3544 –27.8
Sexually transmitted diseases 50 164 228.0
Syphilis 50 164 228.0
Other diseases attributable to microorganisms
Convulsions and teething 1,322 643 –52.4
Appendicitis and peritonitis 75 86 14.7
Puerperal fever 62 64 3.2
All others 635 458 –27.9
Total attributable to microorganisms 12,965 8,468 –34.7
Other death rates 8,891 8,490 –4.5
Heart diseases 698 1,673 139.7
Cancer 307 844 174.9
Violence 761 640 –15.9
Note: Data for 1848 are an average for the period 1848–54.
Source: Calculated from data in Thomas McKeown, The Modern Rise of Population(London: Academic Press, 1976), pp. 54–55, 58, 60, 62.TABLE 23.2The Death Rate in England from Infectious Diseases, 1848–1901Illustration 23.2
Smallpox Vaccination.If historians
periodized the past on the basis of daily
life instead of war and revolution, mod-
ern history would not start with dates
such as the French Revolution (1789) or
the defeat of Napoleon (1815). A more
important date would be 1796, when Ed-
ward Jenner successfully vaccinated a
young boy against smallpox. The gradual
acceptance of vaccination during the
nineteenth century—such as in this
French scene of 1820—led to the total
elimination of smallpox, a scourge that
had killed more people than wars and
revolutions combined.