Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898.
- Michigan. State Board of Health
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![noi- iiKiuires through how many individuals the rumor has come to him, or whether his informant ever saw the patient alive or dead. This point has perhaps no bearing upon the value of statistics, but in other rela- tions it will be found rather a serious omission. Since a Autal statistics law returns its greatest profit to the state in information as to causes of death, it is desirable that so far as possible all the details of its administration should be in the hands of medical officers. That the mortality returns are often of great value and com- pleteness when compiled by non-medical men docs not argue against this general principle. Rather does it show that intelligent laymen may acquire much medical knowledge in the practice of mortality registration, and suggests that if such men had been trained lirst in medicine they would have been yet better statisticians. A chief need of registration officers has always been a good classifica- tion of deaths for statistical purposes. The science of pathology has now So far advanced that a thoroughly good classification, capable of universal use, is j)ossible, but it is not likely that any State board of health will set about making one. If statistics are to be useful in the broadest waj'. State boards of health must come to a general agreement among themseh'es on this x>oint of classification. At jAresent the need of uniformity does not seem to be very widely felt. tMiat a curious reflection it is that we have so long and carefully kept our irretrievable account against relentless Death, while against Disease, the mitigable agent of Death, we make only occasional entries. The idea of sickness statistics has never been forcibly impressed upon any modern legislature, though it has long been clear to sanitarians that statistics of sickness are of more immediate practical utility than returns of death. The most convincing political argument developed by Edwin ChadAvick in his report of 1838 was that the cost of sickness Avas the principal item in the burdensome jaooz* rates. He did not argue concerning the cost of death. It Avas then, as it is now, cheaper to burj’ a dead man than to supi)ort a sick one. The average assembly-man, so far from being con- vinced, smiles at the enthusiasm of the sanitai-ian who attem])ts to im- press upon him the economic loss involved in disabling sickness; but the same assembly-man Avhen injured through the neglect of a ti’ansporta- tion comiuiny is sure to assess his disability, whether temporary or per- manent, at a good round sum, and the aA'erage juror usually agrees Avith him. If from the A'alue of a hand or an eye so determined, one should try to calculate the cost of total permanent disability from preA'entabh' disease, court and jury Avould spurn the reasoning. The blindness of municipal and state legislatures to these considerations illustrates how easily a tax may be concealed if it be indirect. In the army and navy Avliere the cost of sickness falls directly on the organization, statistics of sickness are ahvays available. Happily it has been shoAvn in one state that statistics of sickness can be systematically gathered Avithout the aid of law. It is the unique dis- tinction of the Michigan State Board of Health to possess continuous records of prevalent sickness for more than tAventy years, and to have established the surpassing value of such statistics. For the ])resent such a ])Ossession must, I fear, I’emain the envy of other Stat(‘ boards of health. One finds it hard to believe that Michigan medical men excel the ])hysicians of other states in mental stature, and one must attribute the sustained success of this system not more to the intelligence and 9](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0069.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
