VITAL STATISTICS. 6 97 



YITAL STATISTICS. 



By CIIAELES P. EUSSEL, M. D. 



^\~T0 subject of scientific research has within the present century 

 JLN received more earnest attention from thoughtful minds than 

 that of statistics. None, moreover, is more worthy of investigation 

 or fruitful of more satisfactory practical results to humanity. It must 

 he confessed that careless or dishonest observers occasionally mis- 

 construe or misinterpret the significance of statistics ; but the same is 

 equally the case with all facts. There can be no doubt that certain 

 truths are demonstrable by figures, and that we must accept almost 

 without qualification the old adage that " figures cannot lie." We 

 should not confound with statistics themselves the erroneous deduc- 

 tions drawn from them so frequently. 



Among the various divisions of statistics the one which relates 

 more particularly to birth, marriage, and death, must always occupy 

 the most prominent place in human interest. It is this to which the 

 expression vital statistics has appropriately been applied, and as "self- 

 preservation is the first law of Nature," so if by a study of this science 

 we can, so to speak, grapple with Death himself and retard his course 

 even for a time, we may assuredly congratulate mankind. This sci- 

 ence, as its name implies, takes cognizance of the essential circum- 

 stances of human existence, while it must obviously possess inherent 

 and intimate relations with other branches of statistical inquiry, viz., 

 those of morals, industrial pursuits, customs and modes of life, mate- 

 rial prosperity, peculiarities of soil and climate, domestic economy, 

 and even political tendencies and events. 



If the deductions gained from vital statistics are to be of value 

 in the preservation of life, those facts which bear particularly upon 

 the preventable causes of death must naturally claim our more im- 

 mediate consideration. The subject of mortuary statistics is, indeed, 

 one of profound interest. All civilized nations have finally recognized 

 its importance, and have by more or less stringent legislative enact- 

 ments enforced the collection, preservation, and proper arrangement 

 and analysis, of those data which constitute its foundation. It must 

 be acknowledged that even exact figures of mortality do not always 

 indicate with positive accuracy prevailing conditions of the public 

 health, especially in the case of affections subject to constant fluctua- 

 tions of type. They are, however, indices which point unerringly 

 in the right direction, and, as such, they are entitled to our most 

 careful consideration. Moreover, they are our sole means at present 

 for approximate investigation of national disease. We may trust that 

 ere long the concerted action of the entire medical profession will 

 furnish us with a constant knowledge of the comparative prevalence 



