The Geographical Study of "Seasonal Diseases" (II)

[摘要] Based upon the analysis of the calendars of "seasonal diseases" in Japan by localities (postwar conditions compared with prewar conditions), the author assumed that "death from any disease declines in proportion to the general progress of human culture and, moreover, the season of prevalence gradually moves from summer to winter ". In this paper, she has tried to test this assumption by preparing the calendars of seasonal diseases for some Western countries. As a result, it may be concluded that the author's assumpion or the steady migration of diseases from summer to winter has been proved somehowor other.It has also been proved that "the gap between diseases with high death rates andthose with low rates gets wider and wider as human culture goes headway ". This tendency is clearly seen in the calendar prepared for England, France and the United States : the death rate has gone off to less than 10 for such diseases as whooping cough, measles, tyhoid, dysentery, gasteritis enteritis group, and avitaminosis, while on the other hand death frequently occurs from heart diseases, cancer, apoplexy etc.Insofar as "the concentration of the prevalence of seasonal diseases in winter" and as "the gap between diseases with high death rates and those with low death rates are concerned, Japan cannot be regarded as ranking among the cultural countries like England or France. But in near future, it may be expected that the Japanese calendar will gradually approach the pattern of the British one.

[学科分类] 大气科学