Continuing notes on William Farr

A series of notes on William Farr.
#Farr
#Susser
#tools
#Condorcet
#Switzerland

Back in 1975, I read this essay in my effort to understand epidemiology. It is in Am J Epidemiology, 1975.

Susser, M. and Adelstein, A. (1975)  "An Introduction to the work of William Farr," American Journal of Epidemiology 101(6): 469-476.

Link to M. Susser & A. Adelstein (1975)

(This is not a stable URL. Perhaps JSTOR has a stable URL and either Jacob or Adnan will do us the favor of writing a comment to this blog, with the stable URL in the note, either via JSTOR or the publisher, NCBI PMC, or other repository.).

Down below are two versions of URL link to Humphreys's edited version of Farr's collected works, possibly not a stable URL:
https://archive.org/stream/vitalstatisticsm00farruoft/vitalstatisticsm00farruoft_djvu.txt

Humphreys, N.A. (ed.) (1885) Vital Statistics: A Memorial Volume of Selections from the Reports and Writings of William Farr, London:  Office of the London Sanitary Institute, 74A Margaret Street, West Edward Stanford, 55, Charing Cross, S.W.

There is a google books version, where it is easier to read the tables via page image, but requires google sign-in:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uvKToo__d5QC

[Down at bottom of page there is a page number tool. Might need to use it to work from page to page. I sometimes get a blank page.]

In 1978, Morton Kramer showed me a table in his bound copy of this book, and allowed me to sit in his office to read the book. Many years later, while we both were professors at Johns Hopkins Schhol of Hygiene and Public Health, Mort inscribed his copy of the book for me as a gift. I've loaned it to JHU Professor Alvaro Munoz, but few others. There now is the online version, from which screenshots can be made, and perhaps the online version is the best place to start reading Farr in the original.

If time is short, I recommend these two starting passages:

During his two years' residence in Paris, Dr. Farr attended the lectures of Orfila, Louis, Dupuytreu, and Lisfranc on various branches 
of medical science ; of Andralon hygiene ; of Gay Lussac and Thenard 
on chemistry ; of Pouillet on natural philosophy ; of Geoffery St. 
Hilaire, Dumeril, and Blainville, on comparative anatomy and 
physiology ; of Cuvier on the history of natural sciences ; and of Guizot 
and Villemain on history and literature. It was during the course of 
his studies in Paris that the subject of hygiene, and of medical statistics 
bearing thereon, began to attract his special attention, and to engross 
his interest. 

AND

On leaving Paris, Dr. Farr and Dr. Bain [physician W.P Bain, Farr’s friend] travelled in Switzerland, and the latter writes : "I had many opportunities of studying and admiring my friend's character. In a diary which I kept of our tour, I find recorded that <Mr. Farr>, while of a simple disposition, is endowed with a vastness of ideas and a philosophic mind.” He gave evidence then of observation and research. “I well remember the scene at our inn at Martigny, when, after a walk to see the celebrated waterfall about four miles away, I returned weary and hungry to dinner. To my surprise, I found the entrance blocked up by at least a hundred of those miserable beings, the Cretins, who inhabited the Valais in great numbers. On inquiry of the landlord he told me that the gentleman inside had commissioned him to get together as many Cretins as he could, so that he might examine them. After some difficulty, I wedged my way into a room, where Mr. Farr was standing ....”

AND search for Farr's notes of admiration for Condorcet, French revolutionary and early contributor to sociology's emergence as a science, who shared a vision of universal education for all people, irrespective of sex, skin color, religion, or other personal or familial attributes used to constrain freedom of non-royals at that time.

Finally, let me draw you attention to archives.org as a bibliographic treasure house, with a handy search tool in the upper right hand corner at the top of each text file: 

https://flic.kr/p/Mb8mZz search tool link image