Licence: In copyright
Credit: Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![(6) Apply this to the increase in the next years. Here P1905 = Pigoi-^ log Pi905 = 4-556303 + - (-0051153) 4 = 4-578043. By consulting the table of logs, the population corresponding to this number will be found to be 37,848 = population at the middle of 1905. Estimates made by the last-named official method are liable to error, even for the entire country, and still more when applied to special districts. Thus the decennial rate of increase of the population of England and Wales in the 100 years has varied from 15*8 per cent, in 1821-31 to ii*6 percent, in 1891-1901. The anomalies are even greater when the official method is applied to great towns. In one decennium such a town may, owing to brisk trade, have a rapid increase of working population with many children, and in the next decennium in consequence of emigration or transmigration there may be little or no increase. The declining birth-rate, which is having a greater effect on the number of population than the declining death-rate, is another cause of disturbance which increases the difficulty in forming a correct estimate of the population in inter- censal periods. A quinquennial census is highly desirable, in order to avoid the doubts necessarily associated with estimates of population in the later years of a decennium, and with the birth and death-rates which are based on these estimates. The Registration of Births and Deaths.—Civil registration of births and deaths began in 1837, but was not compulsory till 1870. It will be going beyond the scope of this chapter to give details of the enactments as to registration. It suffices to state that it is the duty of the practitioner to give a certificate stating the cause of death of his patient to the best of his knowledge and belief. There is no registration of still-births in this country. Many deaths are registered of which the cause of death is not medically certified, and the value of our national vital statistics is considerably diminished on this account. Much improvement is desirable in the medical certification of causes of death. Every medical student ought to receive instruction on this subject before the completion of his studies. Names of symptoms as dropsy, haemorrhage, convulsions ; and obscure names, as abdominal dibcase, should be avoided. If the patient has recently suffered from injury, or recently passed through child-birth, or had a specific febrile disease, this must not be omitted from the certificate. The Registration and Notification of Sickness forms another valuable source of information. Various attempts have been made to secure a general registration of disabling sickness, but with only partial success. District and w^orkhouse medical officers appointed since February, 1879, are required to furnish the medical officer of health with returns of pauper sickness and deaths. This source of information might with advantage be more fully utilised by medical officers of health. Sec. 29 of the Factory and Workshops Act, Nevvsholme's Hygiene.] 23](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21357675_0349.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
