March 7, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



229 



Federal Statistics of the Epidemic. — At the 

 Washington meeting of Subcommittee A, the 

 following subjects were taken up: 



Estimates of population. 



Obtaining estimates of Army and Navy pop- 

 ulations by five-year age periods, through ran- 

 dom sampling if necessary, but by direct tabu- 

 lation of army and navy enlistment records if 

 possible. 



Causes of death reported during the epi- 

 demic were to be classified in accordance with 

 the Manual of the International List of Causes 

 of Death and the Index of Joint Causes as 

 published by the Bureau of the Census. 



Infant mortality was to be studied in such 

 manner as to show what part of this mortality 

 was probably due to birth mortality arising 

 out of influenzal illness of the mother and to 

 the factor of neglect. 



Norms of mortality during September, Oc- 

 tober and November were also considered. 



It was also indicated that it was unwise to 

 draw any conclusions from statistics of varia- 

 tions in bacterial flora at various stages in the 

 epidemic or in different localities unless it was 

 shown that all laboratory conditions had been 

 properly controlled. The Army was requested 

 to supply statistics as to influenzal sickness 

 classified by five-year age periods, by date of 

 onset, by duration of illness in days, by prin- 

 cipal complications, showing fatality or lethal 

 rates per one hundred completed cases. 



State Statistics of the Epidemic. — Subcom- 

 mittee B considered the more intimate statis- 

 tics of the epidemic in the states. The sub- 

 committee pointed out that in certain cities 

 and for certain states valuable data were avail- 

 able in the back files which would lead to the 

 determination of the norm of mortality dur- 

 ing the fall and winter months of the year. 

 The social statistics of the epidemic were em- 

 phasized. It was urged that statistics of the 

 effect of the epidemic upon the family should 

 be collected. State and municipal governments 

 were urged to make preparations necessary for 

 the proper statistical study of the epidemic 

 data. 



Municipal Statistics of the Epidemic. — The 

 subcommittee on municipal statistics discussed 



chiefly the available data in the files oi ma- 

 ternity clinics and visiting nursing associa- 

 tions. It was indicated that thorough study of 

 these records would bring out some of the im- 

 portant facts on the obstetrical data of the 

 epidemic. 



MatheiTMtical or Pathometric Study of the 

 Epidemic— The Subcommittee on Pathometry 

 has outlined for itself the problems of mathe- 

 matically testing and graduating the crude 

 compiled data for norms of infant and adult 

 mortality. The subcommittee has in mind the 

 frequency curves of mortality from the several 

 important causes of death during the fall and 

 winter months of the year, especially the 

 curves for infant mortality considered as (o) 

 "birth mortality" and (&) "true infantile 

 mortality." By means of modern analytic 

 methods it was aimed to determine the true 

 " excess mortality " during the epidemic. It 

 was planned also to tit various curves to the 

 observed epidemic data, to compute the equa- 

 tions and the constants of the distributions in 

 the several areas under observation (mean, 

 mode, dispersion, skewness, "excess"). 



The Subcommittee on Pathometry also an- 

 ticipated that it could determine by delicate 

 mathematical tests the prohahle date of the 

 beginning, " peak " and ending of the several 

 waves or phases of the epidemic in the various 

 communities, and possibly, the approximate 

 differential equations representing the several 

 recurrences or recrudescences of the epidemic 

 could be established. 



International Statistics of the Epidemic. — 

 On January 18, 1918 the Executive Board of 

 the Association directed the chairman of the 

 committee on Influenza Epidemic Statistics to 

 initiate correspondence with sanitary insti- 

 tutes and public health associations abroad, 

 with a view toward drafting a program of 

 international study of the epidemic data. 

 The cooperation of the International Statis- 

 tical Institute will be solicited. 



Methods of Influenza Study Applied in Pre- 

 ventive Medicine Generally. — The methods of 

 higher analysis applied to the influenza epi- 

 demic data can be of service to preventive 

 medicine in the study of other diseases. The 



