6 9 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of all disease. In the United States the want of such a system is in 

 a manner compensated for by the periodical enumeration of causes of 

 death at each national census. Although for obvious reasons such 

 enumeration must be defective, both as regards the actual causes 

 themselves and the number dying within the census year (the returns 

 of 1870 being computed as forty-one per cent, less than the true num- 

 ber), still, the same sources of error and the same elements of truth 

 obtaining, as a rule, in every section, the results of comparisons be- 

 tween different portions of the country contain much less of fallacy 

 and more of fact than might be anticipated. For the last census 

 year, ending June 1, 1870, nearly half a million deaths were collated 

 and appropriately arranged by the Census Bureau, in tables referring 

 both to the country as a whole and to separate States and Territories. 



Among our English kinsmen across the Atlantic there has existed 

 for many years a uniform and comprehensive system of death-regis- 

 ti*ation. Thus, within a brief period of the outbreak after an epidemic, 

 its mortuary figures from every quarter reach the central bureau in 

 London, where they are at once systematically tabulated and pub- 

 lished. The character of the morbific storm is studied, and its course 

 predicted with almost as much certainty and promptness as each ap- 

 proaching disturbance of the elements is foretold and described in ' 

 Washington from a comparison of manifold meteorological phenomena. 

 In the same manner, whatever peculiarities may characterize the 

 mortality by sporadic and endemic affections at different seasons, in 

 various portions of the country, are observed and converted into 

 numerical expressions for analytical study. 



It is unfortunate for the cause of medical and sanitary science that 

 no similar system has yet been established in this country. In our 

 population of forty-odd millions over seven hundred thousand deaths 

 must have occurred within the last twelve months ; and yet, except 

 in the case of our large cities, we are almost as ignorant of our causes 

 of mortality as we are of those which cut off the population of China. 



'She British system, one applicable to the peculiarities of different 

 populations, was devised by Dr. William Farr, the distinguished medi- 

 cal director of the English Registrar-General's office. A statistical 

 congress, under the auspices of the French Government, was convened 

 in Paris in September, 1855, to consider this subject, and it agreed 

 upon a nomenclature of the causes of death substantially the same as 

 that proposed by Dr. Farr. At another congress held in Vienna, in 

 1857, a uniform nomenclature and plan of registration for all the 

 European states was determined upon. Dr. Farr's classification of 

 diseases was not so generally adopted ; but it has since been making 

 its way in Germany and other portions of Europe. This nosological 

 classification, though by no means perfect, doubtless possesses, in its 

 practical relations to public health, advantages over every system 

 that has preceded it. Its divisions are founded upon the manner in 



