Percentage of under-sized Bavarian recruits (below 1.62 metres in height) in 1875.
Fitness for Military Service in Bavaria, 1902.
Mortality from Pulmonary Consumption in 1901.
A striking peculiarity of cities, especially large cities, is, as pointed out before, the high mortality amongst men; for this general observation Figure C 83, +male and female mortality in town and country+, offers an example. Whereas the female mortality in Berlin, in the higher age groups, is even lower than in Mecklenburg with its preponderantly country population--which is evidence that in town life there are no inherent circumstances adversely affecting all persons in a high degree--the male mortality in all the age groups is higher, and in some much higher. The special adverse influence on men of town life is also apparent in the upper part of the figure (+comparison of male and female mortality)+. In Mecklenburg the mortality among men is at most 25% higher than among women, and during the period of most intense child production, as well as in the highest age group, it is even smaller, whereas in Berlin the differences are much more accentuated. It may be remarked that the higher male death-rate in Mecklenburg between the ages of 40 to 75 years can only to a small degree be explained by physiological reasons. This is shown for example by the fact that in the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania, Hanover, Hessen-Nassau, and the Rhein Provinces in the country, the expectation of life for men aged 25 years is about equal to that of women.
The higher male mortality in cities is only partially explained by the specific harmfulness peculiar to men's town occupations, though the mortality of peasants and agricultural labourers ranks amongst the lowest. A very important part in this connection may be played by syphilis. How terribly syphilis injures the body, though it is seldom directly fatal, is shown by the experiences of life insurance companies, of which examples are given in Tables C 84 and C 85. With the Gotha Life Insurance Bank, for instance, +the mortality of the syphilitic at the ages of 36 to 50 years+ was found to be nearly double as high (186%) as that of the non-syphilitic.