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43
occupier of the house, to forward without delay to the sanitary
authority, as is done now in respect of the medical certificate of the
cause of death for registration. This is the plan recommended by the
Society of Medical Officers of Health, and it is, I believe, the course
adopted in those boroughs where under Local Acts, the disclosure of
these cases has already been enforced. The number of such places
increases every year, and Edinburgh has now to be added to the list.
The extension of the plan in a tentative manner evidently meets with
favour from the Central Sanitary Authority. We may, therefore,
justly feel encouraged to hope that the principle will sooner or later be
carried out in some legislative enactment of general application. Having
regard to the relations of doctor and patient, it is useless to expect
that the desired information will be at all generally given by medical
men until it is made their duty as law-abiding citizens to supply it;
and even then the exaction should be made as little onerous as possible,
whether or not the public service rendered by the giving of such
certificates be recognized be the payment of a suitable fee.
POPULATION, INHABITED HOUSES, &c.
The estimated population of the parish at the middle of 1879 was
156,250. Credit has been taken for an increase of 2,650 during the
year, viz., 2,200 excess of births over deaths, and 450 balance of
immigration over emigration. The number of inhabited houses was
20,210 ; of these, 491 were newly brought into rating during the
year. As the average number of persons to a house (ascertained at
the census) is 7'8, it is probable that the gross population is here rather
under-estimated than otherwise.