In 1898, the American Public Health Association recommended the adoption of the Bertillon Classification by registrars of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. and that it be revised every 10 years. In 1899, the International Statistical Institute recommended the adoption of the system of nomenclature by all the statistical institutions of Europe. And, in 1900, this detailed classification of causes of death was adopted, with Bertillon as the guiding force promoting and supervising revisions of the International List of Causes of Death every 10 years until his death in 1922.

Parallel to the continued evolution of the International List of Causes of Death, a similar list of diseases dates back to Farr, who also recognized that it was desirable “to extend the same system of nomenclature to diseases which, though not fatal, cause disability in the population.” Even Florence Nightingale, in 1860, urged the adoption of Farr’s classification of diseases for the tabulation of hospital morbidity, but it wasn’t until 1900 that a classification of diseases for statistics of sickness was adopted.

The categories for nonfatal diseases were formed by subdivision of certain rubrics of the cause-of-death classification. Because this international classification of illnesses was a limited expansion of the causes of death, it failed to gain international acceptance. Absent a uniform classification of diseases of illness, many countries prepared their own lists. An English translation of the Second Decennial Revision of the International List of Causes of Death entitled International Classification of Causes of Sickness and Death was published by the US Department of Commerce and Labor in 1910.

In 1928, the Health Organization of the League of Nations Commission of Statistical Experts studied both the classification of diseases and the causes of death. Participant E. Roesle, chief of the Medical Statistical Service of the German Health Bureau, expanded the rubrics of the 1920 International List of Causes of Death and detailed what would be required if the classification was to be used for morbidity as well as mortality statistics. To coordinate the work of the International Statistical Institute and the Health Organization of the League of Nations, an international commission was formed with representatives from both organizations. This commission drafted proposals for the Fourth (1929) and the Fifth (1938) Revisions of the International List of Causes of Death.

In 1936, the Dominion Council of Health of Canada published a Standard Morbidity Code with 18 chapters of the 1929 Revision of the International List of Causes of Death subdivided into 380 specific disease categories. A modification of this list was introduced at the Fifth International Conference in 1938 as the basis for an international list of causes of illness, but no action was taken.