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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1896.
85
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desirable to classify the deaths of the district according to the part of the district in
which they occur; and for this purpose any areas of known population ma)' be taken
as representing "localities" for purposes of the Order. Classification on this basis will
be likely to lead to the discovery of real differences when the returns for several years
can be compared together. The same considerations apply to the records of sickness
(Table B). These records should be tabulated for every sanitary district; and it will
be well, before proceeding to fill the columns and the blank spaces, to note carefully
the headings and the footnotes.
What has been said above with regard to the information which an annual report
should contain must bo understood, not as suggesting that the report should be limited
to these subjects, or that more detailed or differently arranged tabular statements may
not be added but as indicating the sort of information required by the Board's Order.
Many Medical Officers of Health will doubtless, with great advantage to the administration
of their districts, furnish much more detailed information respecting particular
questions to which they have been led by the circumstances of the foregoing years to
devote attention, or in the investigation of which they may have arrived at valuable
conclusions. Any information of this kind will be appreciated by the Local Government
Board.
(Signed) R. THORNE THORNE,
Local Government Office, Medical Officer.
December, 1896.