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4
USES AND ADVANTAGES OF MORTALITY RETURNS.
The proportion of deaths to the number of living persons in
a town or district, may be considered a fair indication of its
sanitary state. If the diseases which have caused death are
particularized, the information becomes more valuable, and still
more so if the age, residence, sex, and occupation of each
deceased person is described. This is the nature of the information
now furnished by the Registrar's Weekly Returns.
The list of diseases enables us to estimate the number of
deaths which have been occasioned by preventible causes, and
which may be diminished by improvement of dwellings, the
quick removal of refuse, and other matters, as far as possible,
which have the character of directly or indirectly promoting
the spread of disease. I do not think I am stating too much
when I affirm that many mortal diseases depend, for their very
existence, on certain conditions which are perfectly within our
own control; and it may be reasonably expected, as well as
desired, that before many years have passed, such a modification
of those conditions will have been universally effected, that
we shall hold Typhus Fever and Cholera in as little dread as we
do now Small Pox, through the beneficent agency of vaccination.
The parallel also holds good still further. When it was discovered
that the artificial introduction of Cow Pox possessed the
property of keeping off and preventing the graver disease,
prejudice and want of knowledge were the opponents which
obstructed its introduction. Real, comprehensive sanitary improvement
has to contend with the same enemies to our
collective and individual advantage and progress.
The knowledge of the ages at which death has taken place is
extremely useful in directing sanitary investigation. A great
preponderance of deaths among aged persons and children of
tender years, is prima facie evidence of a healthy condition of
the locality, such deaths being closely connected with changes
of temperature and weather, as well as with more evident
natural causes of death.