But the greatest service of vital statistics is the educational influence. Health administration cannot rise far above the hygienic standards of those who provide the means for administering sanitary law. The taxpaying public must believe in the economy, utility, and necessity of efficient health administration. Power and funds come from town councils and state legislatures. To convince and move these keepers of the purse, trustworthy vital statistics are indispensable. Information will be used for the benefit of all as soon as it is possessed by all.
Fortunately the gathering of vital statistics is not beyond the power of the kind of health officer that is found in small cities and in rural communities. If years of study of mathematics and of the statistical method were required, we should despair of obtaining light within a century. But the facts we want are, for the most part, common, everyday facts, easily recognizable even by laymen; for example, births, deaths, age at death, causes of death, cases of transmissible diseases, conditions found upon examination of children applying for work certificates, etc. Where expert skill is required, as at state and national headquarters, it can be found. Every layman can train himself to use skillfully the seven ingredients of the statistical method which it is his duty to employ, and to know when to pay for expert analysis and advice. We can all learn to base judgment of health needs upon the seven pillars,—desire to know, unit of inquiry, count, comparison, percentages, classification, and summary.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Dr. Arthur Newsholme's Vital Statistics should be in public libraries and on the shelves of health officers, public-spirited physicians, and school superintendents.