The elements of vital statistics / by Arthur Newsholme.

  • Newsholme, Arthur, Sir, 1857-1943.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of vital statistics / by Arthur Newsholme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/380 (page 29)
    Such a system is obviously open to the grossest abuse. All this would be remedied if, as Dr. Farr proposed in 1864, medical registrars were appointed, who should preferably be the medical officer of health of the district. It should be part of his duty to make a medical inquisition into the cause of death in all dubious cases. In Ireland medical men hold the position of registrars, and the evidence of Dr. Griuishaw, the Registrar-General of Ireland, appears to show that the causes of death are more correctly certified in Ireland than in other parts of the United Kingdom. Use made of Information furnished by Registration. Weekly and quarterly returns are made by the local registrars to the Registrar-General, Somerset House, London. These are collated and abstracted; and from these alDstracts the periodical reports issued from the General Register Office are prepared. The follow- ing are the chief of these reports :— 1. A Weekly Return of the births and deaths from all causes, and from the chief infectious diseases, in each of thirty-three great English towns, with similar particulars for the registration sub- districts of London, and meteorological and other data for the week. The Weekly Return also embodies important returns from a number of foreign cities. 2. A Quarterly Return of marriages, births, and deaths regis- tered in the divisions, counties, and districts of England, with certain detailed information relating to the deaths in each regis- tration sub-district. 3. An Annual Summary of the births, deaths, and causes of death in London, in the thirty-three great towns, and in sixty-seven other large towns, with an appendix on the metropolitan water- supply. ^ 4. An Annual Report of births, deaths, and marriages in England, containing fuller particulars than the preceding reports, but dealing in detail with registration districts and sub-districts, not with towns, unless they happen to coincide with these. 5. A Decennial Supplement, containing inter alia life-tables representing the experience of England and of its healthy dis- tricts, and an important discussion of occupation in relation to mortality. These supplements contain some of the most im- portant work of the General Register Office, and are invaluable for reference. The last one (for 1881-90), by Dr. Tatham, is indisi)ensable to vital statisticians, and a ^vorthy successor of the