On the registration of causes of death in public institutions and in private practice / by W.T. Gairdner.

Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the registration of causes of death in public institutions and in private practice / by W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    JLL.RHG. ON THE REGISTRATION OF CAUSES OF DEATH IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND IN PRIVATE PRACTICE. BY W. T. GAIRDNER, M.D., PATHOLOGIST AND ASSISANT-PnYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY OF EDINBURGH. [from the monthly journal OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, APRIL 1852.] (Read to the Medico-Cliirurgical Society of Edinburgh, January 7, 1852.) The subject of the registration of deaths is one confessedly of great importance, and of no inconsiderable complexity. I need not in- form the Society, that it has engaged the attention of many of the most respected members of our profession, and, in particular, that the system fixed by the authority of the Registrar-General upon Eng- land, has been met in Edinburgh by a free criticism, which, though unsuccessful in its immediate object, will undoubtedly engage the most serious consideration of future legislators. I shall not need, there- fore, in the remarks which I have to make upon the subject, to apo- logise at any length for suggesting innovations upon an established method ; though these might, under other circumstances, seem to be inexpedient, or even presumptuous, when brought forward as the result of individual experience. Neither shall I think it neces- sary to trouble the Society with any detailed observations as to the system necessary to be pursued, in the event of an act being obtained from the legislature for the registration of deaths in Scot- land, but shall confine myself to the suggestion of reforms within a much more limited circle, though not, I think, on this ground, less calculated than a public measure to advance the great aims of medi- cal and pathological science. My object in the present paper, is to call the attention of medical men to the advantages to be derived from the systematic registration of causes of death in private prac- EDINBURGH : SUTHERLAND AND KNOX.