REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ·

ON

VITAL STATISTICS,

BY J. H. BROWER, M. D.

The committee on Vital Statistics, appointed at the Annual Meeting held in May, 1852, respectfully report, that inasmuch as their appointment was not accompanied with any specific instructions, they have deemed it expedient to confine their deliberations upon this subject to the general question of the expediency and importance of devising effective measures for the registration of the births, deaths, and marriages, and other matters bearing upon or influencing the sanitary condition of the population of the State.

The earnest and efficient manner in which this measure was brought before the Society, at its last Annual Meeting, in the address of its presiding officer, Prof. G. W. Mears, following the unanimous recommendation of the profession, represented in the U. S. National Convention of 1847, leaves not a doubt that the subject is of such primary importance to the best interests of the people, as well as the profession, as to demand its universal sanction, and to justify our most earnest and persevering efforts in urging upon our State government the adoption of such legal enactments as may be deemed necessary to carry out such measures as we may recommend. An uniform and systematic registration law, though somewhat difficult of accomplishment, must necessarily rely for its proper and effective action upon the zealous and energetic efforts of the members of the profession; and your committee have thought it not improper here to introduce to their careful consideration some of the arguments for, and illustrations of the benefits resulting from such a measure.

Registration of births, deaths and marriages, has not received in our country the attention its importance deserve, when we consider all its bearings upon the personal and physical welfare, and the moral elevation of mankind.—

Among the many important purposes it is designed to accomplish, it may be assumed-1st, to preserve facts concerning the personal history of individuals; 2d, to preserve facts concerning the physical condition of communities, as affected by prosperity and civilization; 3rd, to influence and improve the moral condition of the people; 4th, it will ultimately tend to the diminution of disease, and the extension of life; 5th, it will lead to a diminution of poverty, and an increase of the wealth of a people; 8th, it will lead to the diminution of crime, and to the elevation of the moral, physical, and civil condition of man.

The antiquity of sanitary laws reaches to a very early period in the history of the world, and of our profession. Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," considered a knowledge of the causes of diseases essential to the physician; and when asked, who is an honour to his profession, he replied: "He who has merited the esteem and confidence of the public, by profound knowledge, long experience, consummate integrity : who has been led through the whole circle of the sciences: who has a due regard to the seasons of the year, and the diseases which they are observed to produce to the states of the wind peculiar to each country, and the quality of the waters: who marks carefully, the locality of towns, and of the surrounding country, whether they are low or high, hot or cold, wet or dry-who moreover neglects not to mark the diet and regimen of the inhabitants, and in a word, all the causes that may produce disorder in the animal economy."

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In later years, the sanitary welfare and improvement of the people, by physical and descriptive statistics, has attracted great attention in England, France, and other States of Europe from the facts thus collected, are deduced the rules and inferences of health, and the sources of disease and premature mortality—many of which need but to be known, to be avoided: coincident with improvement in the health and condition of individuals, are increase of years and advancement in private and public morals, and in the strength and virtue of the State. The example of the city of Geneva may be cited as illustrating the salutary and beneficient results of a system of registration: it was commenced as early as 1549, and minutely and faithfully carried out. From that date to 1833, the mean duration of life increased more than five times within that period. The progression of the population and increased duration of life, have been attended with an increase of happiness, and the city has arrived at a high state of civilization, while the productive power of the population has increased in a greater proportion than the increase in the number of inhabitants. These results

have produced more expanded views of the value of life and means for its preservation; a more thorough appreciation of the importance of purity in the principal sources of its continuance-air and food; more attention to the comforts of dwellings and clothings; greater energy in police regulations, and a better regulated state of public and private morals. The results in Geneva excited the emulation of other cities; and the governments of Prussia, and other German States, following her example, have instituted statistical societies, from which, from time to time, have emanated most valuable and interesting reports-forming a mass of indisputable facts, showing that the prosperous condition and permanent existence of a government depend upon the general intelligence and virtue of the people. It is believed that only two States in our Union-Massachusetts and Louisiana-have carried into systematic operation the registry law; in the former of which many important and useful results have already been

realized.

Registration alone can determine, with accuracy, questions in relation to the duration of life-to diseases, and causes of death. Insurances on human life and health-now so common in the United States-are based almost entirely upon facts procured in foreign countries, which may vary essentially from those procured among ourselves: such tables are essential to determine questions often arising in determining the value of dower and life-estates. By establishing a system of registration, by which a thorough census of the living and the dead may be taken, and we shall soon have the means of constructing life-tables, which will show the probable expectation of life in any given section of the State, and would form an inportant source of information to all classes of the people.

The locality-the seasons-the number and density of the population, their circumstances as regards wealth, their occupations, sex and age, food, clothing, habits and manner of life, the moral influences brought to bear, and many other circumstances, may be regarded as influencing, favorably or unfavorably, the lives and health of the people; and these, if properly investigated, will place in our possession the means by which we can measure the force of mortality pressing upon a people.

Your committee have noticed with great pleasure, a movement recently made in the Legislature of Ohio, in relation to the enactment of a Registry Law, under the able advocacy of Dr. John L. Vattier, of Cincinnati, to whose eloquent remarks we are indebted for much of the preceding matter of this report. Foremost as our sister State has always been in

wise and beneficient legislation, it becomes us to follow the lead thus given, and by placing the subject, in all its important bearings upon the best interests of the community, before the profession and the public, endeavor to enlist in its behalf the legislative councils of our State. By adopting a systematic and uniform plan of registration and classification, accurate and specific in its details, reliable and trustworthy data would be furnished from different sections of the Union, and thus carry out the measure proposed and advocated by the National Medical Convention of May, 1847, and successfully reduced to practice by many of the States of Europe. Thus, in the language of the Fifth able Report of the Registration Society in England, "a comparison of the duration of successive generations in England, France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, America, and other States, would throw much light on the physical condition of their respective populations, and suggest to scientific and benevolent individuals, in every country, and to the governments, many ways of diminishing the sufferings, and meliorating the health and condition of the people for the longer life of a nation denotes more than it does in an individual-a happier life-a life more exempt from sickness and infirmity-a life of greater energy and industry-of greater experience and wisdom. By these comparisons, a noble national emulation might be excited, and rival nations would read of sickness diminished, deformity banished, life savedof victories over death and the grave-with as much enthusiasm, as of victories over each other's armies in the field: and the triumph of one would not be the humiliation of the other, for in this contention none would lose territory, or honor, or blood, but all would gain strength."

Under these considerations, your committee would respectfully recommend that, in order to bring this important subject into practical operation, Article 7 of the Constitution of this Society be so amended, that an additional clause, constituting a Standing Committee on Vital Statistics be inserted, and defining their duties, to whose supervision all communications relating to this subject be referred, and by whom a report of a Registry law, adapted to the wants and resources of the State, shall be prepared and presented at the next Annual Meeting of this Society.

REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON SURGERY.

MR. PRESIDENT:-The Committee on Surgery beg leave to 'make the following report. The duties of this Committee are not defined, and their unrestricted instructions make it difficult to determine upon the character of their report.

It is to be presumed there is nothing in Indiana Surgery entitling it to be regarded as especially beneficial and skillful; and to present its defects and errors alone would be a thankless and odious task. Until opportunities for acquiring a more thorough knowledge of anatomy shall be afforded or embraced, a number of our most respectable practitioners must feel all the embarrassment incident to the faithful discharge of intricate and responsible duties, with inadequate preparation. While the law keeps a more vigilant watch over our welfare after than before our death; while it imposes a prohibitory tariff upon the acquisition of essential qualifications, and offers a bounty upon ignorance, bad surgery will abouud-the public will be the subjects of it, and practitioners must in some degree be exonerated.

Not only ignorance, superstition, interest, perversity, and indifference, plant each of them a hindrance in the way of those striving to advance in this branch of the profession; but sectarianism in religion, and partizanship in politics, are frequently enlisted in strenuous endeavors to the same end. Thus discouraged, many an ardent student abandons the pursuit, and relinquishes the hope of reaching the goal which lodges the aspirations of his youth.

A steamboat explodes, or a car becomes wrecked, in the impetuous hurry of life, and scores are precipitated out of the world at once; coroners are summoned, juries empannelled, attestations elicited, and true rendition made of the causes of death; thereupon prosecutors become zealous, courts quicken their pace, the press drives its scorpion lash, pulpits resound with reprobation, and threatening resolves embody public in