economic disturbances which accompany war, and particularly those which
are manifest among the defeated, which cause a very large part of the
higher death rate.

(2) As already implied, then, economic depression exercises a very
considerable influence upon death rate, particularly when economic
depression causes very high prices for the necessities of life and even
widespread scarcity of food. This cause produces far more deaths in
modern nations than war. The doubling of the price of bread in any
civilized country would be a far greater calamity than a great war.
While modern civilized peoples fear famine but little, there are many
classes in the great industrial nations that live upon such a narrow
margin of existence that the slightest increase in the cost of the
necessities of life means practically the same as a famine to these
classes. Statistics, therefore, of all modern countries, and
particularly of all great cities, show an enormous increase in sickness
and death among the poorer classes in times of economic depression.

(3) Climate and season are rather constant factors in the death rate of
all communities. The rule here is that in northern countries the death
rate is higher in winter, while in southern countries and in great
cities the death rate is higher in summer. Taking 100 as an arbitrary
standard, in Sweden in February deaths rise to 113, in August they go
down to 79; while in Italy in February deaths are at 106 as compared
with the standard, and in August at 111,--the period of minimum death
rate in Italy being in the spring and autumn. In a great city like
Berlin, if 100 be taken as the standard, deaths are 88 in February and
144 in August, owing very largely to the higher death rate of children
in the summer months in great cities.