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TO THE CIRCUIT CLERK: 
Dear Sir : The amendment passed at the last session of the Legislature to the law creating a State Board 
of Health, provides for the Registration of Marriages, Births and Deaths by the Circuit Clerks. See pages 132, 133, 
and 134, sections 8, 9, 10, ir, 12 and 13, Laws of 1878. This Act requires that Physicians and others shall make 
a report or return to the Circuit Clerks of their respective counties, of the Births and Deaths occurring in their 
practice, and that the Clerks themselves shall obtain the required information in regard to Marriages. 
The State Board of Health, at a recent meeting, determined upon the Ist of January, 1879, as the date on 
which the Registration should begin. I send you by mail a book in which to record the Marriages, Births and 
Deaths of your county, and blank forms on which Physicians and others are to make returns of Births and Deaths. 
You will please furnish the blank forms to those interested. They will be requested to call for them as they are 
needed. Your record should begin with the Marriages, Births and Deaths that occur on and after the Ist of January, 
1879. Phe Record Book is to be preserved in your office, and it is expected that you will furnish this office with a 
transcript of your books quarterly, viz: Ist April, Ist July, Ist October and Ist January, on blanks which will be 
furnished you. 
You are especially requested, when you record the returns, to write all the items out in full, and when it is 
not possible to obtain the information required by law, to write in such space of the Record Book, the word 
“ Unknown,” that it may be evident the item has not been overlooked. 
The object of the Registration is to obtain such records as will be of great value for both sanitary and legal 
purposes. It is evident that their value depends in great measure on their completeness, and it is hoped that you will 
so appreciate the objects of the law, as to secure for us your entire co-operation in the work. 
Very respectfully, 
wiwt «»»»« 
Superintendent of the Registration of Vital Statistics. 
Secretary of State Board of Health, and