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125
or 91.3 per cent. were certified by registered medical
practitioners, and 28,690, or 5.3 per cent. were certified
by coroners after inquest. The causes of 18,322,
or 3.4 per cent. of the total deaths were not certified.
Whilst the proportion of uncertified deaths has
steadily declined from 4.7 per cent. of the total deaths
in 1879, to 3.5 per cent. in 1885, it has at the same
time varied considerably in different localities'. Thus
in 1886 in the Metropolis, the proportion did not
exceed 1.1 per cent. of the registered deaths, whilst
it ranged from 1.2 in Wiltshire, to 8.1 in Wales. In
1887 the percentage of uncertified deaths was 1.1 of
the total deaths registered in London, whilst in twentyseven
of the largest provincial towns it averaged 3.2,
ranging from 1.0 in Portsmouth to 5.0 in Liverpool,
5.9 in Sheffield, and 7.0 in Halifax. In Paddington
in 1885 there were no uncertified deaths; in 1886
there were 2; in 1887 there were 3.
The necessity of a complete and authentic registration
of deaths has long been recognized. Apart
from its manifold bearings upon social life, and the aid
which it supplies in the tracing of pedigrees and in
facilitating the legal distribution of property, it furnishes
those vital statistics which have both a present
and a future value as trustworthy indications of the
public health, and are the basis, not only of sanitary
science, but also of preventive medicine.