" FEVER " 41 



of comparable statistics. If the health officer can 

 compare the total number of cases of fever notified 

 year by year, before and after the mosquito cam- 

 paign is started, all well and good. But he cannot 

 always even do this. There are many tropical towns 

 there are many European towns in which no 

 health statistics are or ever have been kept. He 

 may have to find out the details of disease incidence 

 for himself. 



He should examine the death registers, if there 

 are any. He will find that it is diarrhoea and 

 broncho-pneumonia that kill the most ; many infants 

 have died of these two diseases. Then he will notice 

 that many old people have died of pneumonia and 

 bronchitis, apoplexy, and dropsy a few of old age. 

 But frequently there will be some deaths marked in 

 the register, " Fever " ; and this is especially notice- 

 able in India. What are these ? Are they all 

 malaria ? It will lead him to inquire into the ac- 

 curacy of the methods of registration. This will 

 open his eyes. In England, practically every death 

 that occurs is accompanied by a certificate signed by 

 either the medical practitioner who attended the 

 case in the last illness, or by the coroner ; and the 

 cause of death is written on that certificate. But in 

 countries where there are many natives such certifi- 

 cation is unusual. Most of these natives die without 

 medical attendance their relatives can rarely pro- 

 duce a medical certificate. It may be the custom to 

 send a doctor of the Health Department to view the 

 corpse in order to see that death has not been due to 



