Diseases and deaths; a statistical survey of 40,130 autopsies at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, 1918 to 1948. II.

The 215,468 diagnoses recorded in 40,130 autopsies on patients treated at the Los Angeles County General Hospital during the 30 years between 1918 and 1948 were reviewed and tabulated. The primary causes of death as determined by the pathologists in these cases were recorded and the incidence of death from each disease in relation to the number of cases in which each occurred was computed. The age, sex and race distribution of patients examined postmortem and the incidence and fatality rates from various pathological conditions changed greatly during the period, owing to many factors, among them changes in elements of the population served by the hospital, an increasing incidence of older patients, and medical triumph over some formerly formidable diseases.