Each year I scrutinize a little more thoroughly Myron Wegman's vital statistic summaries. I regard these as kind of report card of the state of health of our patients. One might estimate how effective we are by how the numbers look.
The white-nonwhite mortality differential which Dr. Wegman has noted has been painfully elaborated by Dr. Helen C. Chase. Her compilation of death registration figures shows that, in 1963, infant mortality rate for whites was 22.3, and for nonwhites was 41.7.