INTERNATIONAL HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 13

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH

LEAGUE OF NATIONS’ YEAR BOOK A SURVEY OF PROGRESS The Health Organisation of the League of Nations recently published its International Health Year Book for 1928, a copy of which has been received by “The Dominion.’’ This is the fourth voluble of this publication, and It contains Information concerning twenty-nine countries —Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Prance, Germany, Hungary, Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Rumania, Spain, .Spanish possessions in the Gulf of Guinea, Sweden, Turkey, Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Kenya, British Somaliland, and Tanganyika. The object of the Year Book is to give a survey of the progress made by the various countries in the domain of public health. It indicates new developments in the working of the various health services, gives the most recent data as regards vital and health statistics, and reviews the work of the principal international organisations dealing with public health, such as the League of Red Cross Societies, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the League Health Organisation. The information contained in the Year Book is furnished by the heads of national health services or persons deputed bv them for this purpose.. The statistics and data concerning each of the countries are arranged on the uniform lined adopted by the League Health Organisation, and including twenty-eight standard tables (with the exception of Australia, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain), who preferred to present their statistics in tables specially prepared by their health services. Range of Statistics. The twenty-eight standard tables are designed to present the minimum of vital statistics necessary to allow the reader to “interpret correctly tho information relating to health conditions in the country under consideration, and to compare the health conditions of the various countries. The twenty-eight tables fall into the seven following groups!— • 1. General Demography.—(4 tables . Area and population according to the results of the last two censuses; density of Population and excess oL one sex over the other, according to tho results of the last: two censuses; distribution of the population by age and sex, according to the results of the last census and estimate of this distribution for 182 .. . (last estimate); survey of the movement of tho population, 182- to 10 2 7 Birth Rates—(s tables: Geographical distribution of births in 1828 and 18-7, number of births according to sex and vitality, 1822 to 1827; births and abortions m certain districts; legitimacy and illegitimaev of births for the years 1922 t0>1927, monthly number of live> births, legitimate and illegitimate in 1925, 1926 arid 1927) 3. General Death Rate.—(4 tables. Geographical distribution of general death rate in 1926 and 1827; death rate according to sex for the years 1822 to 1320; death rate according to age and sex,. 192 u and 1926 seasonal distribution of deaths in 1926 and 1827) Causes of Deaths.—(6 tables: Mortality, incidence and case fatality of certain infectious diseases in 1926 and 1927; death rate from tuberculosis according to age and sex in 1926; death rate from tumours, 1925 to 1927; death rate from organic diseases for the years 1920 to 19-7; deaths from puerperal diseases, for the years 1925 to 1927; deaths from external causes and general death rate from natural causes from 1925 to 1927). i , T . 5. Infant Mortality.—(3 tables: Infant mortality according to days and months of age, sex and legitimacy in to 19-6. seasonal variations in the death rate of legitimate and illegitimate children under one year of age in 192 u and 1926: infant mortality according to causes of death in 1925 and 1926). n t 6. Public Health Statistics.—(3 .tables. Public Health Legislation in 1927; institutions for the campaign against social diseases; institutions for the protection of mothers arid children, in 1925, 1926, and on - Curative Medicine. —(3 tables: Statistics of hospitals, etc., in 1925, 19-6 and 1927; statistics of sanitary personnel in 1925 1926 and 1927; statistics of health insurance funds in 1925, 1926 and 1927). The Year Book also contains a survey of industrial hygiene in Germany, Belgium, and Great Britain.