De biometer in kaart gebracht. Zuigelingen- en totale sterftecijfers voor Nederlandse gemeenten, 1812-1939

Abstract

This article describes the first results of a project which has as its central aim the construction of a database and accompanying maps with historical data on infant and total mortality for all municipalities in the Netherlands during the period 1812-1939. After a short overview of earlier attempts made by nineteenth-century doctors and statisticians to construct maps of mortality, we describe the data included in the database. The possible use of the mortality atlas is illustrated by means of four maps, dealing, respectively, with the changing geography of infant mortality between 1840 and 1939, the regional differences in the mortality effect of the potato-blight, and regional differences in the health consequences of the Spanish flue.