Opvattingen over geneeskundige statistiek in het Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde rond de eeuwwisseling

Abstract

Ideas on medical statistics in the Dutch Medical Journal round the turn of the century At the end of the nineteenth century the use of figures in medical articles was popular in the leading Dutch Medical Journal (Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde). Surgeons and other medical doctors published statistical compilations of the results of different therapies. For instance comparison of surgical methods, treatment of tuberculosis or diphteria produced information on the therapy to be chosen. Only few medical doctors were interested in the mathematical approach of statistics or the calculation of probabilities. They were not trained in mathematics and they saw little need to improve their command of statistics beyond an elementary level. Statistical analysis had contributed little to some fundamental medical questions as there were the etiology of disease and the effects of different therapeutical methods. Medical statistics consisted mainly of rows of figures from which means and percentages were calculated. In this way mortality, birth-rate and morbidity were presented to the medical public. At first individual doctors and the Commission of Statistics of the Dutch Medical Organisation occupied themselves with the collection of these data. In 1899 a State Statistic Bureau was founded and largely took over this task. Hygienic measures were discussed according to the improvement of the mortality figures. The number of cases of infectious disease such as diphteria, typhoid and scarlet fever were published regularly.