Studies in the Meaning and Relationships of Birth and Death Rates. II. Density of Population and Death Rate (Farr's Law)

Abstract

This subject was first considered statistically by the late Dr Farr. It is one of the brilliant attempts to extract the real meaning of figures so frequent in his work, but though this theory has not shared in the complete neglect that has been the lot of his attempt to put a quantitative measure to the course of epidemics, it has suffered as much from the kind of patronage with which it is usually discussed. On at least one of the great medical officers of health of his time, however,— the late Dr J. B. Russell—the theory exercised a strong fascination. My own copy of Fare's Vital Statistics came from Dr Russell's library, and the whole passage referring to the law is lined with his characteristic nervous pencil marks, while in much of his work on vital statistics the influence can easily be traced.