Causes of death a century ago

Today, November 2, is All Souls Day in the Philippines. Right now, Filipinos are trooping to their respective cemeteries to pay their respects to their deceased loved ones. Before the pandemic, most visited the cemetery earlier to bring food and sleeping materials with them. Like most Filipino celebrations, any activity is always a chance to rekindle relationships with family and friends, and many have mini-reunions right at their mausoleums or family plots.

After meeting Peter Xenos, one of the pioneering researchers into historical demography, last October 27 during a genealogy event sponsored by Family Search Philippines, I was inspired to look over November death certificates and registers of major cities in the country like Manila, Cebu, and Davao from a hundred years ago and find out what people were dying of. Simply put, historical demography uses population to study the history and development of a town, city, or country.

Most causes of death during the Spanish era were simply listed as natural and violent/accidental. Specific natural causes began to be identified at the end of Spanish rule and these included cholera, fever, smallpox, inflammation, tuberculosis, dropsy, and dysentery. Many seniors perished because of hetica, pasmo, and mal viento, three old Spanish colonial terms that referred to, respectively, sickness caused by overeating or not wearing a waistband which caused the belly to swell, sickness after exposure to cold water, and sickness after exposure to draft.

Fast forward to 1922, we get a snapshot of the common causes of death in the Philippines. Records show that 87% of deaths back then were caused by the following general illnesses; respiratory diseases, intestinal diseases, childhood-related deaths, old age-related deaths, kidney diseases, fever, accidents, parasitic diseases, and cancer. When broken down into specific causes, the topmost common were bronchitis (including bronchopneumonia, acute bronchitis, and capillary bronchitis, tuberculosis of the lungs (including chronic tuberculosis, acute peritonitis tuberculosis, and intestinal tuberculosis), old age, usually referred to as senility in most places but called ‘overage’ in Davao City, congenital debility, gastroenteritis, beriberi of infant, stillbirth (including one case of macerated stillbirth in Manila), acute nephritis, chronic enteritis, and typhoid fever.

Many of these reasons are still the causes of death today. The Philippine Statistics Authority lists ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and the COVID-19 virus as the top three killers in the nation in 2021. Neoplasms, also referred to as cancer, was the fourth while diabetes mellitus was the fifth. The Department of Health further reported that the 10 most common causes were diseases of the heart, diseases of the vascular system, malignant neoplasms, pneumonia, accidents, all types of tuberculosis, chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and certain conditions originating in the perinatal period.

But more than these causes of death, the records last century show us that some deaths were not so ideal. For instance, there were two cases in Subangdaku, Mandaue, where a Monica died by “homicide due to cutting or piercing instruments” and a Lope died “due to penetrating stabbed wounds.” Accidental deaths were also recorded, such as Demetrio from San Nicolas, Cebu City, who died by accidental drowning, and an Eden and Umar of Matina and Mintal, Davao City, who died due to accidents, with the latter dying from “accidental wounds.” But the most telling cases were of an eight-month-old girl by the name of Crisanta from Manila who died due to “malnutrition”, and an unnamed four-month-old boy from Lapu-Lapu City who was listed as having died due to “lack of care.”

These are just snapshots of mortality from one month, a hundred years ago. Studying historical demography gives us an idea of how people lived, and how people die.

Happy All Souls Day!