BY R. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 21 



tions required ia a general deatli-rate for testing the health, 

 and sanitary condition of different places. 



Bj this standard two very desirable objects are secured. 

 First, the widely disturbing effect of differing proportions 

 of the old age group is entirely eliminated and truer com- 

 parison as regards comparative health may be attained ; and 

 second, the element of old age, whose proportions over 60 are 

 in themselves good indices of environment, are not mixed 

 up with deaths due to adverse causes, and so producing 

 confusion in the general result, as in the total death-rate and 

 other standards for all ages. The national death-rate for all 

 ages, it is true, is a very simple and ready test, and may 

 still be used with advantage in some countries where the 

 age relations are comparatively stable, but in the Colonies, 

 where these relations are continually disturbed by migration, 

 the Health Standard, as already defined, is more reliable, can 

 be applied universally, is simple, and, for comparison, easily- 

 computed . 



It would also be of the greatest value in the comparison 

 of different cities in Europe, by minimising the errors of 

 comparison arising out of migration between town and 

 country districts. 



To Health Officers, who are responsible for the sanitary 

 conditions of towns, such a test would prove of great 

 advantage, and it would often save them from unmerited 

 opprobrium based upon the unreliable total death-rate index, 

 which takes no account of the important disturbances caused 

 by the variation of age group proportions. 



Mr. ]Sr. A. Humphreys, in 1874, read a masterly and useful 

 paper before the Statistical Society of London, in defence 

 of the general utility of the total death-rate as an index to 

 comparative health so far as England is concerned ; but 

 he admitted its defects, and many of his conclusions have 

 been combated by Mr. Thos. A. Welton, Dr. Letheby, and 

 other well-known authorities on vital statistics. 



As regards the disturbed age groups of the Colonies, how- 

 ever, Mr. Humphreys would probably admit that the general 

 death-rate for all ages would be unsatisfactory and mislead- 

 ing as a comparative index of health. 



These conclusions are fully borne out by placing the 

 results of the two methods side by side as applied to the 

 Australasian Colonies. 



Deaths " Health Standard." Deaths over 60 Years. 

 ALL Ages, Deaths under 60 Years. 

 Per 1,000 Per 1,000 persons under 



persons. same age. 



New Zealand, 1885 10-76 ... 9-51 



Tasmania, 1885 ... 15-40 .. 10-60 



S. Australia, 1885 12-48 .. 10-74 



Victoria, 1885 14-73 ... 12-23 



N. S. Wales, 1884 15 -SS .. 13-24 



Queensland, 1885 19-58 . . 18-48 



Per centage 



Mean Age 



to total 



at 



Deaths. 



Death. 



14-67 



71-36 



36-74 



77-71 



17-48 



72-69 



20-75 



71-54 



16-34 



72'63 



6-38 



70-31 



