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11
It was stated in last year's report that although certain
directions are issued as to the deaths that should be credited to
a district, there is no uniformity of practice. In the notes
attached to the Local Government Board Tables, it is stated
that all deaths of residents occurring in public institutions,
whether within or without the district, are to be included among
the deaths of the district, and in the columns for the several
age-groups, and in their respective Wards according to the
previous addresses of the deceased as given by the Registrars.
Deaths of non-residents occurring in public institutions in the
district are in like manner to be excluded. By the term "nonresident"
is meant persons brought into the district on account
of sickness or infirmity and dying in public institutions there;
and by the term "residents" is meant persons who have been
taken out of the district on account of sickness or infirmity and
have died in public institutions elsewhere.
The "public institutions" to be taken into account for the
purposes of the Tables are those into which persons are
habitually received on account of sickness or infirmity, such as
hospitals, workhouses and lunatic asylums.
In future the Returns of the Registrar General will refer to
Sanitary districts and it will be possible to compare the deathrates
as given by the Registrar General with those in thereports
of Medical Officers of Health. Unless some uniformity
of practice can be established, it will be found that the two sets
of figures will differ, sometimes to a considerable extent.
It will be observed that the Local Government Board
Regulations refer to persons brought into a district on account
of sickness and infirmity and dying in a public institution thereIf
the above definition be accepted, fatal accidents should be
included amongst the deaths of the district wherein the accident
occurred, whether the persons fatally injured are residents or
non-residents. Yet among the returns forwarded to me by the
Registrar General were the deaths of three Actonians, one of