36 IMPROVEMENT OF OFFICIAL STATISTICS.-THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

St. John Ambulance Association will find their numbers

augmented.It is to be hoped that such will be the case, for the train-

ing is one of practical utility in whatever circumstances’’ first aid " may be required, and if ever what Mr. KIPLINGcalls " the real thing " happens so as to affect our territorialforces directly, it will be too late to remedy deficiencieswhich in peace time we may have regarded with indifference.

a

There is a branch of life-saving and first aid to which it is

most appropriate to call attention at the present season.With the warm weather bathing becomes universal, and withthe advent of the summer holidays drowning accidents figurevery frequently in our newspapers. These, be it remem-

bered, are the fatal cases as a rule, some of which mighthave been averted by means of a knowledge of how to aid a

struggling swimmer or how to resuscitate the insensible bodybrought to shore apparently dead. The cases in which

knowledge of how to save life has figured, particularlywhen it has been exhibited in the less heroic manner bytreating the half-drowned person, are often not reported, andwe would commend the first aid to be rendered in such

cases to the attention of all.

Improvement of Official Statistics.Sir CHARLES DILKE in his address in November last, as

President of the Royal Statistical Society, revived an

important and interesting question which was consideredand reported upon by the Official Statistics Committee

appointed in 1877 by the late Mr. W. H. SMITH when

Secretary of the Treasury, the final report of which com-mittee was issued in 1880. This report suggested thecreation of a small central statistical department for the

general supervision and control of official statistics, and SirCHARLES DILKE in his address strongly urged the increased

necessity, after the lapse of nearly 30 years, for action in thisdirection. At the last meeting of the Royal Statistical Societyon May 16th Mr. ARTHUR L. BOWLEY, M.A., read a paperalso dealing with the desirability of creating a central

statistical authority in order to promote the improvement ofofficial national statistics. In this paper, having regard tothe object in view, it was perhaps natural that Mr. BOWLEYshould have condemned somewhat too generally the value ofthe statistics issued by the various Government departments.The want, however, of uniformity and of general coordinationin the statistics prepared and issued by different executive

departments has long been generally admitted, although no

measures have yet been adopted for carrying out this reformsince the recommendation made in the report of the committeereferred to. Sir CHARLES DILKE and Mr. BOWLEY give manystriking examples of overlapping and even of contradiction in

separately issued official statistics. M. CHEYSSON, an eminentFrench statistician, published in 1882 a report on the condi-tion of Government statistics in various European countries,with a view to the creation of a general supervising and con-trolling authority in France, in order to bring about

harmony, proportion, order, and uniformity of arrangementin national statistics." " As a result of this report a FrenchConseil Superieur de Statistique, modelled on that of

Belgium, was founded in 1885. M. CHEYSSON recommended

in the first instance, and his advice was followed,coordination through a representative advisory committeein order to allay departmental suspicion and opposition.Sir CHARLES DILKE, however, in his address, expressed the

opinion that a mere meeting of statisticians from the

various departments would be an insufficient result of our

labours; a permanent statistical direction is, I think,required." It is obviously necessary, with a view to the

improvement of official statistics, that the chief of the

statistical branch of each Government department chargedwith the preparation of statistics should be a trained

statistician. If this condition were fulfilled it would then

become a question whether M. CHEYSSON’S proposal for thecreation of a consultative council, consisting of the chiefs ofthe statistical branches of the principal government depart-ments, with, perhaps, one or two added unofficial statis-

ticians, would not be preferable to the creation at present ofthe directing central statistical department recommended bySir CHARLES DILKE. It certainly appears that to divorcethe compilation of official statistics from the executive staff

having the control of the collection of the statistical materialwould be a doubtful advantage and would involve some riskof deterioration in the result, since the true value of

statistics depends much upon an accurate appreciation of the

precise method of collection and of its various sources of

possible error. We cannot, for instance, imagine that totransfer to a central statistical office the preparationof statistics of population, births, marriages, and deaths

from the Registrar-General, who is the administrative

chief of the large staff of outdoor officers who furnish the

returns from which these statistics are compiled, would have

any beneficial result. At the same time we wish every

success to Sir CHARLES DILKE’s desire for the creation of

some central statistical authority with administrative or

consultative power to promote greater uniformity and further

improvement of our official statistics which are very generallyadmitted to be necessary.

Annotations.

THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

"Ne quid nimis."

IN the long list of birthday honours published lastweek the following names of medical men occur :-Sir

Thomas Lauder Brunton, LL. D. Aberd. and Edin., M. D. Edin.,F.R.C.P. Lond., D.Sc. Edin., F.R.S., and Professor WilliamWatson Cheyne, C.B., LL.D., M.B., C. M. Edin., F. R. C. S.Eng., D.Sc. Oxon., F.R.S., upon whom Baronetcies havebeen conferred ; Brevet Colonel David Bruce, R.A.M.C.,C.B., F.R.S., Mr. Robert William Burnet, M.D., C.M.

Aberd., F.R.C.P. Lond., and Mr. Peter O’Connell, M.D.,M. Ch. R. U. I., who have received the honour of Knight-hood ; William Henry Power, C.B., who has been promotedfrom a Companion of the Order of the. Bath to be a KnightCommander of his Order ; Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston

Shearer, I. M. S., D.S.O., who has been made a Companion ofthe Bath, and Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Frederick Perry,I. M. S., honorary surgeon to the Viceroy, and principalof the Medical College, Lahore, who has been appointeda Companion of the Indian Empire. Sir Lauder Brunton,