The times., 1899-08-06
Minutes OF THE DEAD
Records of Mortality in the Bureau
of Vital Statistics.
The Cradle and the Marriage Altar
Also Figuring in Weii-Kept Sta
tistics mt the District Health Of
fice-Epidemics That Haze Play
ed Havoc in the National Capital

AuouJ ouU SCInDFe-lOOklnS DOCKS, pound
! in black leather and stored Systematically
upon series OF shelves within a plain
pine bookcase at the District Health Office
TEEN with priceless information relative
! to the mortality of the District during the
| last quarter of a century. This ponder
Gus weight of paper and leather, of rec
ords, and data, collected and systematized
daily for twenty-five years represents the
complete mortality records of the District
since the establishment of the Health De-
partment. Each volume contains about
200, or more, death certificates such as are
now made out by the attending physician
whenever any person passes to the realm
OF silence from within the limits of the
local municipal jurisdiction. They are
consecutively numbered, evenly and reg
ularly bound, and are thoroughly accessi-
bic to the statistician in charge, and play
a decidedly important part in the lives of
every resident of the District. They are
sought by the vital statistician who loves
to ponder over their yellowish pages in
| search of material for calculations con-
cerning the health of the people of the
Capital.
| The temperance advocate would long to
have the opportunity to leave the time
tinted pages in search of data relative to
| the sobriety of the city, and others would
find an equal interest and means of sat
isfying morbid curiosity were they in a
position to glance over the death certifi-
| Gates of some of the great men, and we'll
known local characters, who have tottered
into their graves over the brink of alco-
holism and whose names are locked within
the bosom of this interesting collection of
records. The morality of the Capital for
two and quarter decades is mirrored up
on occasional pages of these books every
local death by suicide. homicide and the
wnoie gamut of deaths by violence is re-
corded and preserved by the statistician in
charge. 1t is a collection OF records as
interesting as sombre. These bound GER
tihcates may be styled the passports which
are left behind by those who cross over
INTO the vast unknown, the mysterious
ether world about which so little is known,
and all is mystery.
The population of the District at the
present time is estimated as being about
2S0,250. Since the establishment of the
present Health Office ON August /. 1874.
the number of deaths has aggregated more
than l26,OO0, or about half the present
population of the city The average num-
Der of deaths each year is about 5. 0CO. Six
teen is the number generally recorded
each day, although the figures vary from
time to time, according to conditions. In
the same case with the death records are
two other series of ebony black volumes.
One set contains the births that have
been recorded during the past twenty
hve years and the second collection repre-
sents the marriages. There have been 90
600 OF the latter and as far as can be as
certained, 101, 900 births. The exact number
or births cannot be ascertained owing to
the fact that many persons fail TO make
returns, and there is no way in which
the Health Department can tell when a
new human being is brought into the world
IN the District More persons are Begin
ming to realize the Importance yearly of
making returns of births Frequently inn
portant questions before the courts hinge
upon simple birth certificate and thou
sands of men and women, boys. and girls
In the District go through life without any
ofnclal proof of their ages. This is due to
the TACT that their parents failed to make
returns when the children were born.
Last week an aged and apparently heart
rent woman visited the offices OF Vital
statistics OF the Health Department on the
fifth floor of the District Building AMI
sought to ascertain proof that her daugh-
ter was not old enough to marry 1t ap-
pears that the girl was desirous of marry
ing young man, but the mother objected
and maintained that she was not old
enough She had not made out a birth
certificate, however, when the daughter
was born, and the health officer. conse-
quently, could render no assistance The
woman it appears heard that other per-
sons had established their ages by visits
TO the Health Department, and thought
she could do the same thing as far as her
u1C
know until informed afterward that the
other parties had made birth returns while
she had not.
While there is no possible way of COM
pelling birth returns from every mother
or father. every facility is afforded for
securing complete list of deaths The
Law compels the making-out of death Ger
tificates. Until this has been done the
body of the deceased person cannot be re-
moved, no undertaken will tender his serv-
ices, no sexton or graveyard supernten-
dent will permit burial, and no railroad or
steamship line will furnish transportation
out of the District All burial permits and
other papers are based upon the death GER
tificate. which is signed by the attending
physician, and which must be made out
first. Each death certificate is explicit in
the information which it furnishes. Among
the items given are the full name of the
dcCGdStt, SEA, dSe, NOiOit WHETHER mar
ried, single, widow or widower occupa-
ton, birthpaace, duration of residence in
the District, nativity of father and mother,
place and cause of death, duration of last
sickness, name and address of attending
physician, place and date of burial and
the undertakers name. In cases of deaths
from violence all certificates have to be
approved by the Coroner Intemperance
is always mentioned whenever it is recog-
nized to have produced or complicated the
cause of death, and every surgical opera
tion ending with fatal results must be spe-
Gifted. The marriage certificates are equal
ly as explicit, and, furthermore, must be
signed by the contracting parties The
marriage records of the Health Depart
ment are the most complete, and, in fact
the only full list of such unions in the
District.
Marriage certificate number a. of the
collection is dated August 4, 1874. The
contracting parties were George N. Walker
a farmer, and Miss Geneva Leonhardt, of
this city. The officiating minister was the
Rev. Jacob ID. Wilson. The first birth un-
der the regime of the new Health Depart
ment was a girl, the daughter of Edward |
J. and Margaret Gunson, who was intro |
duced to the world August 1, 1874 The |
first death bears the same date 1t is |
numbered '1-2" and is that of Harrison |
an ihidhli hFc uey oiu,
died of cholera infantum, at 910 F Street |
southwest.
When one is told that there have been |
10000 deaths since August l, 1874, the |
first question which naturally presents it |
self is the character of the disease which |
has ended the life of the largest proper |
tion of this number. Consumption, is by |
far, the leader of the list then follow |
acute lung diseases, pneumonia and dar |
rhoeal diseases. the latter being mostly |
children. Fully one-half of the deaths |
from the latter Cause are children and this |