William Farr

For other people named William Farr, see William Farr (disambiguation).

William Farr

William Farr (30 November 1807 – 14 April 1883) was a British epidemiologist, regarded as one of the founders of medical statistics.

Early life

He was born in Kenley, Shropshire, to poor parents. He was effectively adopted by a local squire, Joseph Pryce, when Farr and his family moved to Dorrington. In 1826 he took a job as a dresser (surgeon's assistant) in Shrewsbury infirmary. Pryce died in November 1828, and left Farr £500 (equivalent to £38,600 in 2015), which allowed him to study medicine in France and Switzerland. In Paris he heard Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis lecture.^[1]

Farr returned to England in 1831 and continued his studies at University College London, qualifying as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in March 1832. He married in 1833 and started a medical practice in Fitzroy Square, London. He became involved in medical journalism and statistics.^[2]

General Register Office

William Farr, about 1850

In 1837 the General Register Office (GRO) took on the responsibility for the United Kingdom Census 1841. Farr was hired there, initially on a temporary basis to handle data from vital registration.^[2]^[3] Then, with a recommendation from Edwin Chadwick and backing from Neil Arnott, Farr secured another post in the GRO as the first compiler of scientific abstracts (i.e. a statistician).^[4]^[5] Chadwick and Farr had an agenda, demography aimed at public health, and the support of the initial Registrar General Thomas Henry Lister. Lister worked with Farr on the census design, to forward the programme.^[6]

Farr was responsible for the collection of official medical statistics in England and Wales. His most important contribution was to set up a system for routinely recording the causes of death. For example, for the first time it allowed the mortality rates of different occupations to be compared.

Learned societies and associations

In 1839, Farr joined the Statistical Society, in which he played an active part as treasurer, vice-president and president over the years. In 1855 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.^[7] He was involved in the Social Science Association from its foundation in 1857,^[8] taking part in its Quarantine Committee and Committee on Trades' Societies and Strikes.^[9]

Research on cholera

There was a major outbreak of cholera in London in 1849 which killed around 15,000 people. Early industrialisation had made London the most populous city in the world at the time, and the River Thames was heavily polluted with untreated sewage. Farr subscribed to the conventional theory that cholera was carried by polluted air rather than water – the miasmic theory. In addition, through his analysis of several variables and their association with death from cholera, Farr held the belief that elevation was the major contributor to the occurrence of the disease.^[10] He also presented how topographical features are able to prevent certain diseases similarly to immunization.^[11] On the other hand, as a result of studying this outbreak, the physician John Snow proposed what is now the accepted mechanism for transmission: people were infected by swallowing something, and it multiplied in the intestines.

There was another epidemic in 1853, and Farr gathered statistical evidence. John Snow discovered that people supplied with water from two companies in particular: the Southwark & Vauxhall and the Lambeth water companies – which drew their water directly from the Thames were particularly likely to suffer.^[12] Farr took part in the General Board of Health's 1854 Committee for Scientific Enquiries. The conventional explanation for cholera was still multifactorial; Snow's view of cholera as solely caused by a pathogen was not accepted, though his evidence was taken seriously. Farr's research was detailed and showed an inverse correlation of mortality and elevation.^[13]

There was a further epidemic in 1866, by which time Snow had died, and Farr had accepted Snow's explanation. He produced a monograph which showed that mortality was extremely high for people who drew their water from the Old Ford Reservoir in East London. Farr's work was then considered conclusive.

Later life

In 1858, he performed a study on the correlation of health and marriage condition, and found that health decreases from the married to the unmarried to the widowed.^[14] In the period 1857–9 the Office ordered a difference engine, a model designed by Swedish followers of Charles Babbage.^[15] The intended application was the "British Life Table".^[16]

William Farr, about 1870

Farr served as a commissioner in the 1871 census, retiring from the General Register Office in 1879 after he was not given the post of Registrar General. He received the Gold Medal of the British Medical Association for his work in the field of biostatistics and was made a Companion of the Order of Bath in 1880.

In his last years, Farr's approach was obsolescent. Bacteriology had changed the face of the medical issues, and statistics became an increasingly mathematic tool. Medical reformers, too, changed approach, expecting less from legislation and central government.^[17]

Works

In 1837 Farr wrote the chapter "Vital Statistics" for John Ramsey McCulloch's Statistical Account of the British Empire. In January 1837 he established the British Annals of Medicine, Pharmacy, Vital Statistics, and General Science, discontinued in August of that year. He revised a book of James Fernandez Clarke on tuberculosis.^[18]

Farr exploited his GRO post compiling abstracts in a way that went beyond the original job description. In so doing he applied the techniques of Benjamin Gompertz (the Gompertz curve), and the closely allied statistical "law of mortality" of Thomas Rowe Edmonds. Farr, by relying on the existing mathematical model of mortality, could use data sampling to cut back the required computation.^[19] From the GRO data he constructed a series of national life tables.^[20]

The theory of zymotic disease was Farr's contribution to the debate on aetiology. He identified urbanisation and population density as public health issues.^[21] In terms of nosology he classed epidemic, endemic and contagious diseases as "zymotic", seen as diseases of filth and overcrowding.^[22]

In drama

In The Sewer King, an episode in the 2003 British television documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, Farr was played by Norman Lovett.^[23]

Family

Farr's first wife, whom he married in 1833, had the surname Langford; she died of tuberculosis in 1837. He married Mary Elizabeth Whittal in 1842, and they had eight children.^[2] One daughter, Henrietta, was married to painter and illustrator Henry Marriott Paget, the older brother of illustrators Sidney and Walter Paget. Another daughter, Florence Farr, was also a painter and artist and a model of many famous art deco works of art. The Pagets as well as the Farr sisters lived and worked in Bedford Park, the famous artist's colony in West London.

References

↑ Ian Hacking (31 August 1990). The Taming of Chance. Cambridge University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-521-38884-9. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
1 2 3 Eyler, John M. "Farr, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9185. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
↑ William G. Rothstein (2003). Public Health and the Risk Factor: A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution. Boydell & Brewer. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-58046-127-6. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Dorothy Porter (1999). Health, Civilization, and the State: A History of Public Health from Ancient to Modern Times. Routledge. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-415-20036-3. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Luckin, Bill. "Arnott, Neil". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/694. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
↑ Raymond Flood; Adrian Rice; Robin Wilson (29 September 2011). Mathematics in Victorian Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-19-960139-4. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Norman L. Johnson; Samuel Kotz (26 September 2011). Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present. John Wiley & Sons. p. 286. ISBN 978-1-118-15072-6. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
↑ Lawrence Goldman (2002). Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-139-43301-3. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
↑ Michael J. Lacey; Mary O. Furner (25 June 1993). The State and Social Investigation in Britain and the United States. Cambridge University Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-521-41638-2. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
↑ Bingham, P.; Verlander, N. Q.; Cheal, M. J. (2004-09-01). "John Snow, William Farr and the 1849 outbreak of cholera that affected London: a reworking of the data highlights the importance of the water supply". Public Health. 118 (6): 387–394. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2004.05.007. ISSN 0033-3506. PMID 15313591.
↑ "1852 – William Farr's Elevation and Cholera paper". Brian Altonen, MPH, MS. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
↑ Aschengrau, A. & Seage, G. R. (2008). Essentials of epidemiology in public health. Pg:15-21 Sudbury, Mass.: Jones And Bartlett Publishers.
↑ Alfredo Morabia (1 January 2004). A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts. Springer. pp. 133–4. ISBN 978-3-7643-6818-0. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
↑ Tara Parker-Pope (2010-04-14). Is Marriage Good for Your Health? New York Times
↑ Michael Lindgren (1990). Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Müller, Charles Babbage and Georg and Edvard Scheutz. MIT Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-262-12146-0. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Jeremy M. Norman (1 January 2005). From Gutenberg to the Internet: A Sourcebook on the History of Information Technology. Norman Publishing. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-930405-87-8. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Lawrence Goldman (2002). Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-139-43301-3. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
↑ Norman L. Johnson; Samuel Kotz (26 September 2011). Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present. John Wiley & Sons. p. 284. ISBN 978-1-118-15072-6. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
↑ Alfredo Morabia (1 January 2004). A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts. Springer. p. 155. ISBN 978-3-7643-6818-0. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Richard Stone (1997). Some British Empiricists in the Social Sciences, 1650-1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-521-57145-6. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
↑ Thomas Edward Jordan (1993). The Degeneracy Crisis and Victorian Youth. SUNY Press. pp. 217–8. ISBN 978-1-4384-0804-0. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
↑ John M. Eyler (15 August 2002). Sir Arthur Newsholme and State Medicine, 1885-1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-521-52458-2. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
↑ Seven Wonders of the Industrial World 'The Sewer King' (2003). Internet Movie Database

Biographies

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Farr.

John Eyler, Victorian Social Medicine: The Ideas and Methods of William Farr (Baltimore 1979).
Michel Dupaquier, "William Farr" in C. C. Hyde, E. Seneta (eds.), Statisticians of the Centuries (New York 2001) pp. 163–166.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Farr, William.

Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury

20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Charles Ernest Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 R. N. Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley

21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–John Pullinger

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Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 45053623 LCCN: no89016343 ISNI: 0000 0000 7730 0205 GND: 116409657 BNF: cb10269490t (data)

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