Report to the Registrar General on the International Statistical Congress at Vienna / by William Farr.

  • Farr, William, 1807-1883.
Date:
[1857]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Registrar General on the International Statistical Congress at Vienna / by William Farr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    which is substantially the same as that which has been in use in England for some years. It came to no decision on tlie question of classification, except that it should be for the present left in the hands of the Statistical Departments. The Section decided :— (i.) That the cause of every death should be investigated, and that it should be returned by the medical attendant. In Austria the medical attendant is bound by law to return the cause of every death which has happened in his practice ; and the body is inspected by a sanitary officer (todtenbeschauer). (2.) Where no such officer exists, the Section laid it down that in the interests of sanitary police and of justice, it should be ascertained through medical agency, if possible, whether death had actually occurred from natural causes, or otherwise ; and where the person deceased had not been attended by a medical man, the cause of death should be especially investigated by the sanitary inspector, or a person appointed for the purpose. (3.) That the several States should adopt the forms of certificate appended to the report. (4.) That the above measures would be illusory, unless in each State a special medical and statistical department were created for the classifi- cation, verification, and discussion of the facts in periodical reports. The three first decisions of the Section were adopted by the Congress ; the fourth, at the suggestion of MM. Legoyt, Farr, and Stubenrauch, and after some remarks by MM. Hopf, Varrentrapp, and Helm, was modified : it assumed this form—that the materials collected in each' State should undergo revision by a medical officer specially appointed, and be by him arranged and discussed in reference to their bearings on statistics, medicine, and the public health. Forms for statistics of societies and institutions for the benefit and relief of the sick were proposed by Dr. Helm—the excellent President of the Section—and by Dr. Stubenrauch. Dr. Seligmann, who is acquainted with English scientific literature, made some excellent general remarks on the statistics of the infirm, and on the statistics of epidemics. Dr. Riedel discussed the statistics of lunatic asylums. Several of the forms which they proposed were appi'oved. I must refer to the official report for details. II. The Section of Judicial Statistics adopted, with some slight modifi- cations, forms of criminal returns which had been prepared by the Austrian Commission. The Austrian Government was requested to put itself in communication with the Governments of other countries, in order to obtain the information necessary to enable the next Congress to discuss and settle forms for the statistics of the civil courts. The Chevalier Hye inserted an interesting note on judicial statistics in the program ; Baron Czoernig, in another note, ably discussed the statistics of the actual distribution of I'eal property and its charges, as well as of the annual changes in its possession and its burthens. The administration of justice on one uniform system in the various provinces of Austria was carried out in 1856; and the judicial statistics of that year were laid before the Congress. Professor Wolowski, of Paris, read the highly interesting report of this committee on the subdivisions of landed property, —its burthens,—and their changes. III. Section for Financial Statistics. President: Ritter von Hock. Vice-Presidents; Governmental Councillor, Schubert of Prussia ; M. Cabanskt, Secretary to the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburgh. Secretaries: Dr. Otto Hubner, of Berlin ; M. Buciiatschek, of Vienna. An able clear note by the President on this great question appeared in the program; with a classification of the various items of income and expenditure. Besides tlicse items a classified tabular view of the public