562 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



In the West African dependencies registration is established in 

 many towns: thus in Nigeria it is compulsory in Lagos, Calabar, 

 Kano, and Port Harcourt, covering in all about i per cent of the 

 total population. The Gold Coast is better provided with com- 

 pulsory registration in thirty-five towns, one of which is in British 

 Togoland. This covers about 8 per cent of the total population, 

 and in the case of all deaths either a certificate or a post mortem 

 examination is required. In Sierra Leone registration is effected 

 in all the colony, covering some 6 per cent of the total population, 

 but is said to be complete only in Freetown, while the Gambia 

 has registration in Bathurst, containing 7 per cent of the popula- 

 tion, but the data for births are said to be incomplete. In the 

 French colonies registration is compulsory only for French citizens, 

 but a voluntary system is in existence elsewhere. In the Belgian 

 colonies there is compulsory registration for Europeans, but for 

 natives the only records appear to be by Christian missions, who 

 record baptisms, marriages, and burials. 



Data from the systems of vital registration in force are published 

 in annual reports of the medical departments. Each year all 

 such reports are summarized and the data on vital statistics have 

 been arranged in comparative tables by H. H. Scott (193 1-5) 

 and P. G. Edge (1936), and in that form published in Supplements 

 to the Tropical Diseases Bulletin. The data selected. refer particu- 

 larly to the birth, death, and infant mortality rates. So many 

 of the figures are based on unreliable and incomplete data, how- 

 ever, that errors are necessarily included as the authors point out, 

 and many sections of the tables have to be left blank. 



Special data have been obtained, in limited areas, in connection 

 with medical campaigns, accompanied by the examination of 

 large numbers of persons and complete registration of vital events 

 over a short period. In Tanganyika, for example, such an investi- 

 gation was carried out by Dr. A. R. Lester in the Kahama area. 

 Its objects were fully set out in the medical and sanitary report 

 for 1927 (Tanganyika 1927, D.R.), and may be summarized as 

 an attempt to obtain reliable information and statistics from a 

 typical unit of the native community. The investigation lasted 

 from 1927 to 1 93 1 and dealt with an area of over 7,000 square 

 miles and a population of 76,000 divided among four native 



