Abstract
THIS manual is intended for American public health officials who, in the author's words, have forgotten most of their arithmetic—not to mention algebra. A good deal of space is consequently devoted to the details of tabulation and the making of diagrams. The census and the statistics of births, marriages, and deaths are fully treated. The absence of uniform laws in the different States of the Union, and the mixed character of the population, are sources of many pitfalls for the student. General rates are of little value in dealing with a population of native-born whites, foreign-born whites, and negroes, and the author duly emphasises the need for care in such cases. The more theoretical parts of the book touch on I frequency curves, correlation, and the structure I of a life table. In the chapter on correlation, a coefficient 0.54 is described as low, and cited as an example of the use of the coefficient as “an admirable weapon for exploding false theories.” A public health official would need more technical knowledge than is provided in this book to justify him in rejecting a coefficient of this magnitude.
Vital Statistics: An Introduction to the Science of Demography.
George Chandler
Whipple
By. Pp. xii + 517. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1919.) Price 18s. 6d. net
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Vital Statistics: An Introduction to the Science of Demography . Nature 105, 131 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105131c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105131c0