Municipal sanitation in the United States / by Charles V. Chapin.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Municipal sanitation in the United States / by Charles V. Chapin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    Parent of how many Children, of whom how many are living. It is evident that if these questions could be truthfully answered we could speedily reach conclusions as to the absolute fertility of our population, and the relative fertility of different classes. We have as yet nowhere in the United States been able to settle these questions by an enumeration or registration of births. The results of the experi- ments in .Michigan will he awaited with much interest. Their value must depend entirely upon the degree of accuracy with which the answers to these queries can lie obtained. The number and date of the burial permit must he noted on the death return in Wisconsin. The Michigan law requires that the return he numbered, and the blanks furnished in New York, have ;i place for a serial number. The Minnesota blanks have a place for date of return. In Connecticut the date when the certificate is received is en- dorsed on the back, and in Massachusetts the date of filing is noted on the back. Name of Informant. The personal and family particulars required for a return of a death must usually he furnished by some one other than the undertaker or the physician. The Michigan law prescribes that the person who gives the information shall sign the return and append his address. Iii Rhode [sland the name of the informant is required (but not the signature). and in New Orleans the ••name, age and residence of the declarant and his relationship, if any. to the deceased.* It is of great convenience to the recording officer and conduces to accuracy if the items on the return arc arranged as nearly as possible in the same order that they are on the permanent record if such record is to he made. Forms of death returns arc shown in Appendices 8 to 1 -1. Births. Records of births like records of deaths are obtained in various ways. One method is 1>\ enumeration. This method is vm unsatis- factory, but is employed in Michigan, Ohio (excepl in cities of the firsl class), and Pennsylvania, and Iowa in 1898 went back to this thod. Until 1896 ii was the onlj thod in Rhode Island. Besides the above states, Kansas, Maine. Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island supplement the reports of physicians l>\ an annual enumeration. In Michigan the township supervisors between 1 April and 1 Jun each year make an enumeration of all births occurring during the year ending on the ;Mst of the preceding December, and forward the returns to the count} clerk: except thai in Detroil the comn :ounci] appoint persons especiall} for this work. In Pennsylvania the