On the investigation of the prevalent diseases of the district, by means of a system of registration / by George Hare Philipson.

  • Philipson, George Hare, 1836-
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the investigation of the prevalent diseases of the district, by means of a system of registration / by George Hare Philipson. 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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    A better system, and one upon which entire reliance could be placed, is a plan of registration, for the recording of facts, whereby at brief intervals of time, tables are filled up, bearing on the exis- tence of certain diseases, occurring in different localities, in the same period of time. In a system of registration it would be necessary— 1. —To collect facts. 2. —To classify and compute the facts. In the collection of the facts two elements are needful— A. —To ensure the assistance and co-operation of the whole available scientific strength of the district. A single individual can do little without the help of others, in the carrying out of any plan. From his isolated position, the vast extent of the population, the great difference of circumstances in which they are placed, it is clear that a result, and that even greatly deficient in the approximation to perfection, can only be obtained by the united and devoted efforts of a band of workers. For as in mechanics, power is obtained b}'' a combination of forces, all directed to the same object, so in the investigation of some of the recondite problems in the science of medicine, a leaguing together of those so employed is absolutely necessary. The advantages that would accrue, as well as being of general value, would redound upon each individual. In the words of the Registrar General, the register of the medical practitioner would, at the end of a few years, be of incalculable interest to him; he might refer back to it for im- portant information, transmit it to his sons or successors in practice, analyse the results of his experience, and, in conjunction with his brethren all over the country, would ultimately accumulate a large mass of materials which could not fail to advance medical science; and as medical science is based upon extended observations, the collected notes of a number of individuals scattered over a district would do far more for the advancement of tliis science than the writings of single individuals, no matter how highly gifted in power of observation and writing they might be. B. —The second element needful for the collection of facts is— Uniformity in the system of obsei'vation, consisting of a simple and easy mode of recording the notes. In the classification and computati'^n of the facts, a properly con- stituted plan would have to be fixed tipon, which could best be carried out under the direction of a central authority, independently of the observers of the facts. The subjoined tables represent a system, in which all the numbers are purely hypothetical. In Table I., which may be regarded as the most simple, and that upon which all the others are founded, the first vertical space is
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