The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1921-06-03
URGES HEALTH
DEPARTMENT IN
HENRY COUNTY
Continued from page one.)


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dous importance. be settled very
readily and very inexpensively by
birth certificates. In addition to this,
II Is a matter of very great import.
ance TO the state that the births OF
its people should be of legal record.
IT Is necessary that we should know
how many are being born, where
they are born, and how many are
dying, as well as the diseases re-
sponsible for deaths or for the low
birth rate, in order that these causes
of death and of inadequate birth
rates may. be successfully com
batted.
In 1919 only 440 births, exclusive
of 10 stillbirths, were reported from
Henry County, giving birth rate
of 1871, when it should have been
rs. or more.
Henderson County had birth
rate OF '---- Z5.9
Carroll County had q birth rate
OF ---------- ----- ---------- 22.l
Decatur County had a birth rate
of 24.S
Gibson County had birth rate
of 49,
Humphreys County had a birth
rate of %. 2
Houston County had a birth rate
OF 24.f
You will see that by comparison
of Henry County's rate with the rates
given for these other counties that
one of two conclusions Is inevitable,
either Henry County Is having a
lamentably low number of children
born or all births are not being reg
istered.
It appears that it is going to be
necessary for the State Board OF
Health to undertake drastic measures
to procure compliance with the vital
statistics law in Henry County, un'
less the people will wake up to the
importance of birth registration.
1t seems, also, to be true that the
law is not being complied with with
respect TO death registration in
Henry County. Only 272 deaths were
recorded in the county in 1920 This
gives death rate for 1920 of only
10. The rate for the state. at large
is above IL, and it is well known
counties it is practically impossible
to secure complete death registration.
/ am inclined to believe that from
80 to SO deaths escaped registration
in Henry County last year. The
law very plainly requires that the
undertaken, or the person acting as
undertaken, shall file with the local
registrar of vital statistics death
certificate before the disposition OF
the body of any deceased person.
In cases where there is no under
taker, the person acting as under
taker is required to file this certifi-
cate, which, under the law, must be
signed by the attending physician
who is required to give on the certifi-
cate the cause of death.
Complete death registration will
accomplish several very important
purposes One of the great outstand-
ing purposes of death registration
is that information shall be had as
to the number of deaths in each
county and the cause of such deaths
This information viii help the ply
sicians of the state, and the public
health authorities, to devise and to
institute measures for the control
of diseases responsible for the de
struction of human life, sand also tc
combat the other evil effects OF com
municable diseases.
The above are only a very few
of the problems OF major import
ance which are of concern to public
health workers in Tennessee, and
which should be of the greatest
concern to the entire public Ma
laria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, in
fantile diarrheas scarlet fever, and
other diseases which are constantly
present in Tennessee, and responsible
for our constant high rates are al
more or less prevalent in Tennessee
and are preventable. Tennessee has
suffered long from undesirable ad
vertisinig because of our excessive
death rates Public health can be
bought in Tennessee as elsewhere.
Henry County could establish a
fine precedent and accomplish q
great deal Tor its people if it viii
avail itself of the provisions oil tbs
recently enacted law which enables
any county in Tennessee to estab
lish a real county department OF
health in charge of a health Officer
paid enough to devote his entire
time to the work of his Office
Under this law Henry County asld the
City of Paris could jointly maintain
such department and nns heath
officer could administer for both
the county and city.
Very truly yours.
OLIN WEST,
Secretary and Executive Officer