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WISCONSIN STATE Agricultural Society. 
ed of our “ sins against the stomach,” and that our food is to a 
great extent improperly selected, imperfectly prepared, and in gen¬ 
eral far too hastily, and often too frequently eaten. 
KEGISTRATION. * 
We commend to your consideration the paper which has been 
kindly prepared, at our request, by Dr. Joseph Hobbins, of Madi¬ 
son, in which is set forth some of the more prominent advantages 
ol a regii-tration of vital statistics. This subject is one which has 
engaged much of the thought of this board, and effort is being 
made to give vitality to the existing law on this subject, which, 
though it has lield a place on the statute books for many years, has 
been, so far as the recording of births and deaths is concerned, in 
most places practically a dead letter, and, for all purposes of sanir 
tary study, absolutely valueless. This is evident from the fact that 
two-thirds of the counties make no return whatever of deaths, and 
more than one-half make no returns whatever of births. Marriages 
are reported more or less perfectly in every county of the state, 
with one exception. 
Without registration we can know nothing accurately concerning 
the birth or death rate, or the amount or character of prevailing 
diseases. Believing, as we do, that Wisconsin ranks among the 
most healthy states of the Union, our registration has been so im¬ 
perfect that we have no figures to substantiate our belief, outside 
of the city of Milwaukee, which, “ according to a table compiled 
by the health officer of the city of Brooklyn, in 1875, shows a 
smaller ratio of total mortality than any other city of its size in 
this country.” It is eminently desirable that every state and every 
community should not only know, but exhibit its vital statistics, 
and that the healthfulness of locality should be largely a determin¬ 
ing element regarding residence therein. From such an exhibit 
we believe that Wisconsin could not fail to be the gainer by emi¬ 
gration to it. Thus a tabular statement in the last report of the 
Board of Health, compiled by the health officer of Brooklyn, showed 
the death rate from consumption in twenty-seven American cities, 
and places Milwaukee lowest in the list, with one exception; and 
from the same report we learn that, of sixty-two American cities, 
Milwaukee stands ninth, and, compared with fifty-seven foreign 
cities, it ranks fourth in low annual death rate. Should we exclude 
