104 BIRTH REGISTRATION 



The difference may be indicated by the fact that England, the 

 native home of modern vital statistics and in which country the 

 registration of births has proceeded under national law since 

 1837, has only as recently as August 28, 1907, adopted the 

 Notification of Births Act. The Act is even yet not in force in 

 the entire kingdom, but is subject to adoption by local author- 

 ities (councils or boroughs, urban and rural districts, and of 

 counties), and the returns are made to an entirely different set 

 of officials (health officers, not local registrars) and under an 

 entirely different administrative direction (Local Government 

 Board, not Registrar-General) from those employed for the 

 registration of births and deaths. It is, in fact, expressly 

 provided in the Act (paragraph 4 of section 1) that 



"The notification required to be made under this Act shall be 

 in addition to and not in substitution for the requirements of 

 any Act relating to the registration of births; and any registrar 

 of births and deaths, whose subdistrict or any part thereof is 

 situate within any area in which this Act is adopted, shall at 

 all reasonable times have access to notices of births received by 

 the medical officer of health under this Act, or to any book in 

 which those notices may be recorded, for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing information concerning births which may have occurred in 

 his subdistrict." 



It may be noted as of interest that the necessity of the Notifi- 

 cation of Births Act, as a most important means of giving timely 

 information of the occurrence of births and thus enabling meas- 

 ures to be taken for the prevention of infant mortality, was 

 warmly advocated by members of the English medical profes- 

 sion, who subsequently opposed the bill when the provision for 

 giving a special compensation to physicians for such reports 

 was stricken out by Parliament. It is unfortunate, in every 

 way, that the question of compensation to physicians and mid- 

 wives should be urged by the medical profession in connection 

 with the legislation for the registration or notification of vital 

 statistics, because it at once places the profession in the position 

 of asking a favor, for interested motives, and may be denounced 

 as "medical graft" by many members of State legislatures. It 

 retards the cause of registration, has no good effect whatever 

 on the completeness of the returns, interferes with the thorough 

 enforcement of the law, and, very fortunately, is not sanctioned 

 by the American Medical Association or, it is believed, by the 

 English medical profession as a whole, since they are cordially 

 supporting the Notification of Births Act now that it is in force. 



It may be desirable to require physicians and midwives to 

 notify births to the local authorities. They may be asked to 

 report within 36 hours, or within 24 hours, or as soon as the 



