get every advantage that can be provided by the best first-class
hospitals and infirmaries all over the country. We have the best
graduate-trained nurses in constant attendance and the resident
physicians are men of the race who have made marvelous progress for
two decades in all branches of their work.

Since the establishment of the hospital we have had a record of which
few similar institutions can boast. During the first year we have had
more than 140 surgical cases, including abdominal section and other
major operations and yet the death-rate was less than 3 per cent from
all causes.

Our operating room is well appointed, with an abundance of sunlight by
day and gas light at night. Many of the physicians of the South have
sent us cases for which we are very grateful. We have had cases from
Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida,
and Georgia. Until the other cities of the South are able to afford
the facilities and accommodations and the skill and experience of the
Mercy Hospital we feel that it is the duty and should be the great
pleasure of every colored physician to send his surgical cases to this
hospital. I consider this one of the great factors to solve this vexed
problem.

The causes of the great mortality among the Negroes of the large
cities of the South are due to ignorance; vice; debauchery; poor food,
illy prepared; unsanitary environments; their habitation in the
over-crowded tenement houses; in old stables; damp cellars; and low,
damp sections and in narrow, filthy alleys, where the foul air,
improper nourishment, poor ventilation and the want of personal
cleanliness, furnish the proper condition for the development of
disease and death. Correct these conditions and educate the people up
to a thorough knowledge of and a strict compliance of the laws of
health and the problem is solved. The death-rate among our people will
not only be lessened, but I believe the Negro will outlive any other
people on earth.

SIXTH PAPER.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE
CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

[Illustration: H. R. Butler, A. M., M. D.]

HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

Dr. Butler was born in Cumberland county, North Carolina,
April 11, 1862. His early life was spent on the farm, during
which time he received at odd times three months' fr