The geographic distribution of disease in Great Britain.

  • Haviland, Alfred, -1903.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geographic distribution of disease in Great Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    counties (each of the Welsh counties being dealt with sepa- rately), and 623 registration districts, affords us the means of analysing the distribution of any of the specified causes of death contained in the list of the decennial supplement. By this threefold division we are enabled to sift our disease- facts through three gauges of different degrees of fineness. In the first place, we see what proportion the annual number of deaths from a cause of death bears to the popula- tion in each of the eleven divisions; we colour Line or red those divisions which are above or below the average of the country, and then study this gross distribution carefully. Our next process is to colour the counties in the same way, and observe what counties dominated that of the divisions ; and our third process is to discover how the proportional mortality of each county is influenced by the mortality in the districts. Having done this, we review our maps on which are displayed our disease-facts, and then go through systematically the salient geographical, physical, geological, climatological, hydrographical, and social features of each of the divisions, counties, and districts, so as to enable our- selves to observe the coincidences that may exist between the disease-facts and the characteristic features of the several areas under discussion. If during this scrutiny we discover a general law regulating the distribution in each of the three classes, namely, divisions, counties, and districts, our last duty is to crucially test the apparent relation of the mar- shalled facts one with the other, separate the real from the apparent, study the exceptions, and examine their relation to the assumed law. I say assumed law, for we must re- member that until it has been proved it cannot be regarded as a law at all. At the same time, we must bear in mind that in all investigations some hypothesis is requisite, in the first instance, to aid us in our inquiry. There is, however, no need whatever for dogmatically laying down the law at all. Throughout my investigations I have simply stated the