ON THE REGISTRATION OF DEATHS. 
253 
manner in which such registers are kept; and it would therefore 
be matter of very serious regret for the interests of humanity, 
as well as of medical science, if any legislative measure in regard 
to registration should become a law, without care being taken 
to secure that the registers of mortality shall be kept on a uni¬ 
form plan in all parts of the King's dominions , and in such a 
manner as to afford all the information relative to the causes of 
mortality which can reasonably be expected from such records. 
Some of the provisions in the Bills for registration in England 
and Scotland which were last year brought into Parliament, ap¬ 
pear to be well calculated for promoting the purposes here 
stated: and in particular the provisions that books for regi¬ 
stration be kept by persons of some intelligence in every parish 
and every town throughout the country, and that no interment 
shall he permitted to take place in any burial-ground ivithout 
a certificate of the registration of the death being produced, 
appear quite indispensable to the proper regulation of this mat¬ 
ter ; but the forms furnished in the two Bills for keeping the 
registers of death are materially different, and in several respects 
both forms appear essentially defective , and would certainly 
fail of affording all the information which it is desirable, and 
certainly practicable, for such a register to give. 
The second column of the Schedule C. of the Scotch Bill, in¬ 
tended to record the designation and place of abode of the de¬ 
ceased person, for greater precision and minuteness should cer¬ 
tainly be divided into two, and the rank or employment of the 
, person, past or present, or that of his father, or of the head of 
the family in which he lived, be stated in one ; and the exact 
residence, i, e. not merely the town, village, or parish, but the 
street and number, or the division of a parish, in the other; and 
another column should be added here, for recording the exact 
age of every deceased person. 
In like manner in Schedule B. of the English Bill there should 
be a column to indicate the exact residence ; and the column to 
mark the rank or profession of the deceased should state also 
“ or that of the head of the family ” It is quite essential, for 
the purposes that have been stated, to have such a record of the 
mortality, not only of each town or parish, but in every occupa¬ 
tion or line of life, at every age from infancy upwards, and in 
every description of locality (high or low , damp or dry, town 
or country, district of a parish, &c.) as shall enable any inquirer, 
by examination of registers, to obtain and exhibit information on 
these points, for any given time, in the form of tables, and it 
is obvious that for that purpose the age, the exact residence, and 
some indication of the occupation or rank in life of each indi- 
