Vital statistics : an introduction to the science of demography / by George Chandler Whipple.
- Whipple, George Chandler, 1866-1924.
- Date:
- 1923
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Vital statistics : an introduction to the science of demography / by George Chandler Whipple. Source: Wellcome Collection.
23/612 (page 1)
![VITAL STATISTICS CHAPTER I DEMOGRAPHY Broadly speaking demography is the statistical study of human life. It deals primarily with such vital facts as birth, physical growth, marriage, sickness and death I and incidentally with political, social, educational, religious, sanitary, hygienic and medical matters. In a somewhat narrower sense demography is used as a synonym for vital j statistics. The word ‘demography” is derived from the Greek I words demos, people, and grapho, to write. It is in com¬ mon use in Europe, but is not as well known or its meaning as well understood in America. High authority for its use is found in the name of that most important triennial gathering of physicians and sanitarians, the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography. Demography cannot be called a science in the sense that it is a classified body of knowledge from which laws have j been developed and established. But all sciences in their 1 evolution go through a descriptive stage in which data are ] collected and hypotheses tested. So regarded demog- ' raphy may be called a science, the science of human ] generation, growth, decay and death as studied by statis- ( tical methods.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29811132_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
