Abstract: Lemuel Shattuck (1793-1859) was a famous American public health reformer, historian and statistician in the mid-19th century. He introduced statistics into the American system of vital statistics registration and promoted the modernization of the United States demographics. In 1850, he submitted Report of a General Plan for the Promoting of Public and Personal Health to the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts, which built a blueprint for the future development of the American public health system and laid the foundation for the widespread development of the public health movement in the late 19th century. Shattuck is not only a pioneer in the modern American census, but also a leader in public health in the United States.