The Measurement of Morbidity

Abstract

This paper stems from a suggestion that it would be worth while to bring to the notice of the profession the progress which has been made and the statistical problems that have arisen in the study of epidemiology in its wider sense, viz. the study, not merely of the spread of communicable disease as was formerly implied by this term, but of the natural history of disease; its prevalence, causation, symptomology and prognosis. It would, however, require a series of papers to cover so wide a field and would demand medical as well as statistical competence. It therefore seemed advisable to use the more restrictive title chosen in order to emphasize the fact that, in the main, consideration is devoted to statistical rather than to clinical aspects.