3
 
Surgeon General's Office
III
\;1I1W^

"n'y
ESENTED BY
'Y
t.  cSamL
// /
f//ic.
jg Q O Q- 0 w CXVG x 0 O^D xXXDODl! U J O D£>DQ'0 0 "OOP £
 
 
 
REPORT
VITAL   STATISTICS
UNITED  STATES,
MADE TO THE
MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK.
^
YU^c
        BY  JAMES WYNNE,  M. D.,
                    ^\
MEMBER OP THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ; OP THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
  ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE ; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OP THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL
      SOCIETY; OP THE NEW YORK LYCEUM OP NATURAL HISTORY, &c, &c, &c.
i%}mLm
           NEW YORK: H. Bailliere, 290 Broadway.
LONDON: 219 Regent Street.  PARIS: J. B. Bailliere et Fils, Rue Hantefeuille,
        MADRID : C. Bailly Bailliere, 11 Oalle del Principe.

                      1857. 
 
PREFACE.
     The accompanying Report was originally made to the Presi-
dent  and Trustees  of the Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  of
New York, who, in the prosecution of an extended business, had
long  felt the necessity for a more  full  and exact knowledge  of
Vital Statistics upon which to base their operations than  was
attainable.  They had,  indeed, through their medical examiners
and other officials obtained many valuable statistics from all parts
of the Union, which, upon the selection of the writer to make this
report, were placed by  Mr. Winston,  the  President of the Com-
pany, under whose  auspices they were collected, in  his hands,
and together furnish no inconsiderable source of information.
    The statistical records of the General and State Governments,
and the contributions of many individual statisticians, have like-
wise supplied reliable data, of whose  value the reader will have
an  opportunity of determining for  himself.    The  deductions
dr;iwn either from  admitted or supposed premises, are so given 
IV
preface.
 as to enable a comparison to be instituted between the facts upon
 which they are based, and the reasoning consequent upon them ;
 and while all mere speculations are avoided, it is hoped  that the
 principles developed may be found a safe guide in the conduct  of
 a business which involves a trust,  so vast in a pecuniary point  of
 view,  and so  sacred  in  its moral obligations, as that of Life
 Assurance.
     It may be proper to add, that the collection of Vital  Statis-
 tics, upon a comprehensive scale, is a  new subject in the United
 States; and although this Report embraces many points  whose
 elucidation  is tolerably well defined,  yet a large number await
 the collection of those facts which the General or- State Govern-
 ments, or both, must sooner or later gather together.
     It is highly gratifying to  be able to state in this connection,
 that  in  addition  to  the  Company to  whom the  Report was
 originally made, all the Life Insurance Companies in the United
 States, with the  exception  of six or eight,  have,  with, great
 unanimity and much kind feeling, united in defraying the expenses
 of the present publication.   This is  the more pleasing to the
 writer, inasmuch as it not only evinces a desire on the part of
 those engaged  in this important and highly intellectual depart-
 ment of business to secure the aid of science, but is at the same
 time an earnest that, in their esteem,  his labors are not devoid
of value. 
                             PREFACE.                            V

The Companies above alluded to are—
    New York  Life Insurance Company, of New York.
    United States Life  Insurance  Company, of New York.
    The Manhattan Life Insurance Company,  of New York.
    Knickerbocker Life Insurance Company, of New York.
    Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company,  of New Jersey.
    Penn  Life  Insurance Company, of Philadelphia.
    United States Life  Insurance, Annuity and Trust Company,
        of Philadelphia.
    American Life Insurance and  Trust  Company, of Philadelphia.
    Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company', of Boston.
    New Encland Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Boston.
    Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Boston.
    The State  Mutual Life Assurance Company, of Worcester, Mass.
    Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, of Hartford.
    American Temperance Life Insurance Company, of Hartford.
    Connecticut Mutual  Life Insurance Company,  of Hartford.
    International Life  Insurance  Company, of London.
    Liverpool  and London Life  Insurance  Company'. 
 
VITAL   STATISTICS.
                            CHAPTER I.

                        introductory  remarks.

    By a wise provision of Providence, the  period  of death in any indivi-
dual instance  during a state of health,  is always a subject of extreme
uncertainty, and it consequently happens that, although  human life has an
expectation of continuance  proportioned to  its past  duration, and  the
collateral circumstances by which it is surrounded, yet  the  span of  its
existence is liable to be severed at any one moment of its being.
    Were  the  circumstances affecting  its duration always the same,  the
period of life in any particular case might be defined with much certainty;
but as these are found to be  ever varying,  so  the  expectation insepar-
ably interwoven  with them,  becomes a question whose solution depends
in a great degree upon the doctrine of probability.
     It is impossible to determine whether any coming event will happen or  .
not.  Yet it is possible to conjecture the number of cases in which it may
occur, and of these, the number in which its occurrence is probable.   Ma-
thematically speaking the probability of an event, is the ratio of the favor-
able circumstances likely to occur in its  regard, and the proportion of those
in which it is likely to happen to those in which it is not;  thus,  the proba-
bility of throwing an ace with  dice, is one in six.   And again ; when two
dice are thrown, the probability of any given number being uppermost, as 
t
10                       introductory remarks.

seven is likewise one in six;  because, every one of the six numbers on one
of the dice may combine with one of the six on the other so as to form the
number seven; now, as the number of combinations is thirty-six, and there
are six ways in which seven may occur, its chances of occurrence are  six in
thirty-six times, or one chance in six.
     The value of the information  thus obtained is far from being lessened
because of its dependence upon  what at first sight appears to be  vague
and uncertain.   How much the acquired  knowledge possessed by mankind
is exclusively  due to  this  source,  may not  at  first view  be  imagined.
Upon it are  based the actions and judgments which  constitute  the  affairs
of  every  day life—confidence in the succession  of  future events, and  in
part, at  least,  the  almost  miraculous power,  by  which  the  astronomer,
following  with his calculations the flight of the  comet,  long  after  it has
disappeared  from  the  field of his telescope—predicts  the  time  of  its
re-appearance after  a fixed and stated interval.
     But the  problems of the mathematician used in these determinations are
the  mere  instruments, delicate and polished though they may be, by  which
these questions are determined.   The materials  from which  he  fashions
his  work, are  furnished  by those statistical records of the  movements
of population—which  enlightened  governments  have  found  it  to their
interest  to collect  and preserve;  and  here  the  researches  of medicine
become  so intimately  blended  with  those  of  mathematics,  that  their
division is next to impossible, and seems to require that the  prosecutor
of the one should also be  a proficient in the other.
     The  practice of registering births  and deaths, is of extremely antique
origin.   We are possessed of sufficient information in relation  to the habits
of the early inhabitants of Asia and Africa, to  enable us to speak positively
in regard  to the fact that, among the more  influential and polished nations
of these  countries,  registers of this kind  were  kept.   The practice was 
INTRODUCTORY' REMARKS.
11
continued by the Greeks and the Romans, but the records which  contained
the enumerations like those of the  nations that preceded them, have unfor-
tunately been  destroyed; and  their  previous existence is only revealed by
collateral testimony.
     The earliest continuous  register of births, deaths,  and marriages now
extant, is  that kept by the city of Geneva,  in Switzerland,  which dates
back to 1549, and  has been continued  from that time to the present, with
great care and accuracy.  This city, which has attained to a high degree of
refinement, furnishes in the improvement  in  the progression of its popula-
tion and increased duration of  life,  a striking evidence in  favor of the
benefits of the adoption of this system.

     I have before me (remarks Mr. Shattuck) the results of an examination made by
Edward Mallet, a very able work, published in the  " Annates D'Hygiene."  From
this work it appears that human life has wonderfully improved since these registers
were kept.  The number of years which it  was probable that every individual born
would live, appears in the different periods as follows:—

             Period.        Years.    Months.    Days.  Rate of Increase.
          1550 to  1600.....   8         7          26         100
          1600 to  1700___,13         3          16         153
          1701 to  1750 .....  27         9          13         321
         ■ 1751 to  1800.....31         3           5         361
          1801 to  1813.....40         8          10         470
          1814 to  183 3____  45         0          29         521

Showing that the mean duration of life has increased more than five times during
these periods!
     The progression of the  population and  increased  duration of  life has been
attended by a progression in happiness.  As prosperity advanced, marriages became
fewer and  later.  The proportion of births was reduced, but a greater  number
of the  infants  born were preserved, and the  proportion of the  population in
manhood became greater.  In  the  early ages, the  excessive mortality was accom-
panied by  an excessive fecundity.   In the last ten years  of the 17th century, a 
12                       INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
 marriage still  produced more  than five children;  the probable  duration  of life
I attained was not 20 years.  Towards the end of the 18th century, there were scarcely
 three children to a marriage,  and the probabilities exceeded 32 years.   At the
 present time a marriage only produces  2f  children, and  the probability of life is
 45 years.
      Geneva has arrived at a high state of civilization.  The real productive  power
 of the population has increased in a much greater proportion than  the increase in
 its actual number.  The  absolute  number of the  population  has only  doubled
 during three centuries; but the value of the population—the productive powers—
 has  more  than doubled upon  the mere numerical  increase.   In other  words, a
 population of 27,000, in which the probability of life is 40 years for each individual,
 is more than twice  as strong for the purposes of production, as  a popiilation of
 27,000, in which the probability or value of life  was only 20 years for each indi-
 vidual.
      This wonderful  improvement is attributed, among other things, by M. Mallet,
 to the information obtained, rendering the  science of public health better known
 and  understood; to  larger,  better and  cleaner dwellings; to more abundant and
 more healthy food; and to a better regulated public and private  life.  He cites an
 instance of the effects of regimen in the preservation  of life, where 86 orphans had
 been reared in one establishment in  24 years, and one only of whom had died.
 They were taken from the poor, among whom the average mortality was six  times as
 great.

      Most of the countries of Europe have systems of registration, more or
 less  perfect; the oldest of which, however, do not extend back to a period
 beyond eighty years.   That of England,  which  has  been  productive of
I more important results than any other,  dates  from 1838, and is,  conse-
 quently, of less than twenty years' duration.
      In the United  States, although  some  laws  were enacted  in the New
 England States at an early period, yet  no  decisive action was  taken until
 1842,  when Massachusetts, adopting in a great  degree  the plan  of the
 English Registration  Act, had the  honor  to furnish  the nucleus,  around
 which the  registration system, so far as  it has been adopted,  has gathered.
 An Act for registration was enacted in New York, in 1847 ; in New Jersey 
INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.
13
and  Connecticut, in 1848 ;  in New Hampshire,  in 1849;  in Rhode  Island,
in 1850; in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, in  1851; and  in South
Carolina, in 1853.  The results of these various Acts, so far as they have
been made public, are to be found in  the Annual Registration Reports of
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,   Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,
Kentucky  and Virginia.   Some of these  reports, and particularly those
of the State of Massachusetts,  are prepared with much  ability, and con-
stitute valuable  contributions  to  vital statistics.    Others,  as  those  of
Connecticut, are meagre, and less reliable.
     The wide difference manifest  in the general character and  value of
the reports already made, clearly establishes the  fact that  the United States
never can  possess a system  of  registration which will correspond in uni-
formity and value with those  of  the  Governments  of Europe,  until  the
task  and  responsibility of  executing  it  be   confided  to  the  General
Government.
     What  value is attached  to  this information by the enlightened states-
men  of other countries, may  be  deduced from the following remarks made
by the Registrar-General of England:—" The census has been taken decen-
nially with great regularity in the United States of America; and the ages
are  properly distinguished, but  abstracts of the registers of deaths have
only been published by the  cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and
some of the more advanced  towns where  property has accumulated; and
life  is watched over with more care and facility than in the back settle-
ments—scantily peopled with a fluctuating  population.  No  correct life-
table can, therefore,  be formed for the population of America until they
adopt, in addition  to  the census, the system of registration which  exists in
European States."
     " Since an English life-table has now been framed from the necessary
data^ I venture to express a hope, that the facts may be collected and 
14
INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.
abstracted, from which  life-tables  for other countries  can be constructed.
A comparison of the duration of successive generations  in England, France,
Prussia,  Austria,  Russia, America,  and  other  states,  would throw much
light on the physicial condition of the respective populations, and suggest
to scientific and benevolent individuals in every country—and to govern-
ments—many ways of diminishing  the  sufferings,  and ameliorating the
health  and condition of the people;  for the longer life of a nation denotes
more than it  does in  an individual—a happier life—a life more exempt
from sickness and infirmity—a  life  of greater energy  and industry—of
greater experience and  wisdom.   By these comparisons a noble national
emulation  might  be excited;  and  rival nations would read  of sickness
diminished, deformity banished,  life saved—of victories over death and the
grave,  with as much enthusiasm as of victories over  each other's armies in
the field ; and the  triumph of one would not be the humiliation of the other,
for  in  this contention none could lose territory, or honor, or  blood, but all
would  gain strength." *
    In addition to the information collected  under the Registration Laws,
are  the bills of mortality  kept by most of  the populous  towns  in the United
States.   This latter source of information is, at  the present moment, so far
as it goes, the most reliable;  and were  it  on a sufficiently extended scale,
might  supersede  the  necessity for  registration, as  it  obtains under the
present State enactments; but it could never equal in  exactness and value
such a system as  is in  use  in England, were  it extended  to the whole
country, and placed under the control  and management of the General
Government.
    The census mortality returns, although far short  of what  could  be
desired, clearly show the ability of the government, under a proper  regulated
Fifth Annual Keport Register-General of England, p. 19. 
INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.
15
system,  to  collect  and  arrange mortuary  registers, which shall equal in
exactness and value,  those of any country in Europe.   In order to accom-
plish this, or even to give the ordinary census returns an approximation to
correctness,  it is necessary that  the office wotk be executed by those who,
from peculiar adaptation and  long experience, possess  an especial  fitness
for the undertaking.

    " Unless there is machinery in advance  at the seat of Government, no census
can ever  be properly taken and  published.  There is a peculiar education required
for these  labors which neither comes from zeal or genius, but  is the result  only of
experience.  They are  the most irksome   and  trying  imaginable, requiring inex-
haustible patience and endurance, and baffling  almost  every effort  after accuracy.
Long familiarity can alone secure system,  economy, and certainty of result.  This
office machinery exists in all European countries where statistics  are the most reliable,
but there has been none of it in  the United States.  Each census has taken care of
itself.  Every ten years some .one at Washington will enter the  hall of a department,
appoint fifty or a hundred persons under him, who, perhaps, have never compiled
a table before, and are incapable of combining a column of figures correctly.  Hun-
dreds of  thousands of pages of returns are placed in the hands of such persons to
be  digested.   If any are qualified, it  is no merit of the system.  In 1840, returns
were given out by the job to whoever would lake them.  In 1850, such  was the
pressure of work,  that almost any one could at times  have had a desk. Contrast
this with the English system, and reflect that one individual presided over the census
of 1801,  '11, '21 and '31.   In Washington,  as soon as an office acquires familiarity
with statistics, and is educated to accuracy and activity,  it is  disbanded, and even
the best  qualified employee is suffered to depart.   The government may rely upon
paying heavily for the experience which is  being acquired.  Even the head of the
office, whatever his previous training, must  expect, if faithful, to learn  daily ;  and it
is not going  too far to say that a matter of  one or  two hundred thousand dollars  is
the difference between the  amount which a census would cost, conductedby an
office which has had the experience of a previous one, (even if partly or entirely in
new hands, which might often be desirable, since the machinery, as in other offices,
would be kept up,)  and an  office without  such experience.  This can be demon-
strated if required.  Half  of that amount would sustain an office of several persona
from census to census, and defray all of the expenses of an annual or biennial report 
16
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
after the closing of the  regular one, which itself would be  executed with despatch,
with greatly less force, and with a more economical and wiser application of labor.
The permanent force would have no other interest than the prompt execution of the
work."

     In  regard  to the  confidence  to be reposed in  the present mortality
returns, the report  makes the following candid statement:—

    " The federal census of 1850  furnishes the first instance of an attempt to obtain
the mortality during one year in all the States of  the Union, and had there been as
much care observed  in the execution  of the law as was taken in  framing it, and
in the preparation of  necessary blanks^ a mass  of information must have  resulted
relating to the sanitary condition of the country, attained as yet in no other part of
the world.   This, however, would have been  expecting  too much.  It was to take
for granted, first, that  the person interrogated  in each family, whoever he might be,
with regard  to its affairs, would be able to recollect whatever death had occurred in.
it within the period of twelve months;  and, second, to give the true designation of
the cause of such death.  One would think it not unreasonable that  the facts of
actual  deaths would be striking and impressive enough  in every household to be
remembered for a much longer period than a single year; yet the returns of the
marshals have only to be examined with care, and deductions made from them, to
satisfy the most careful observer that in  the Union at large at least one-fourth of
the whole number of deaths have not been reported at all.  Making allowance for
even this error, the United States would appear to be one of the healthiest countries
of which  there is any record.  The varying ratios between the States, as drawn
from the returns, show not so much in favor of or against the health of either,  as
they do, in all probability, a more or less perfect report of the marshals.  Thus it is
impossible to believe Mississippi a healthier State than Rhode Island, etc.  For
rural population the returns are no doubt nearer  correct than they are for urban,
and the  old States are in general better reported than the new.  So far as  the
educated are in question, the assigned  causes of death on the returns, may be  con-
sidered sufficiently near the truth for popular purposes, though falling  far short of
the precision necessary in skillful scientific calculations; but among the large mass
of the community, vagueness and inaccuracy may naturally be expected, even where
the parties are disposed  to speak the truth and make the  best effort  to  do so.  The
physician's certificate of the  cause of death is the only positively reliable  evidence
of the fact. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
17
    " The other points and particulars of inquiry, such as the age, sex, color,  con-
dition, occupation and nativities of parties, the  season of decease and duration of
sickness, stand upon somewhat different ground,  and are, from their character, no
doubt as correctly answered as the inquiries of the census relating to the ages,  pur-
suits, etc., of the living.
     " Upon the whole, then, and we cannot be  too  emphatic on this  point, whilst
this publication of the mortality statistics of the census is disclaimed as of authority
in showing the respective pretentions to healthfulness or  the degree of unhealthful-
ness of the several  States, or of very great scientific worth in showing the specific
causes of death, it  may be  considered of much  value, notwithstanding, in giving
with even ordinary claims to precision very minute phenomena relating to the deaths
of about one-third of a million of people scattered over three millions of square miles
of territory.   The value of such a multitude of facts cannot but be very great, even
although they do not constitute the whole of them.  We are every day accustomed
to draw deductions  for the whole from a  part, and to argue  out the true and com-
plete from the approximate and uncertain.
     " It may also be said in favor of the returns as published, that they constitute
but a beginning, and are not, perhaps, further from the truth than were the  first
attempts in States having registration systems.  The same improvement as  in these
States may be expected hereafter.  The publication of  this  volume will stimulate
investigation and lead to a better understanding of the importance of the subject."
2 
18
TERRITORIAL LIMITS.
                            CHAPTER  II.

                          TERRITORIAL LIMITS.

     The territory embraced within the  present limits of the United States
extends from  N. latitude 29° to 49°, and  from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Oceans.  This vast area contains two millions, nine hundred and thirty-six
thousand,  one hundred and sixty-six square miles, and embraces a more
extended range of soil and climate than that of any other civilized country
upon the globe.   The  opportunity afforded for marking the effects of dif-
ference of climate, temperature,  soil and social institutions, upon the same
people, is without a parallel, and were the statistical data as exact and reli-
able as those of the smaller States of Europe, the information would exceed
in comprehensivness and value, that  of any other country, because more
extensive and general in its range, and involving questions of migration and
the intermingling of races on a scale unknown elsewhere.
     The Alleghany and  Rocky Mountain  ranges divide  the face of the
country into the Atlantic plain and slope, which is washed by the Atlantic
Ocean, and was the earliest settled  portion of the United States, the valley
of the  Mississippi lying between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountain ranges,
watered  by the  Mississippi river and  its  tributaries, and the Pacific slope,
extending from the Rocky Mountains to  the shores of the Pacific Ocean,
and embracing the auriferous region of California. 
GEOGRAPHICAL  DIVISIONS.
19
      The  annexed table gives  the area of each  great division and  ratio  to

the total area of the United States:
Territory.
Area in sq.
  miles.
Ratio of area of
 each slope to to-
 tal area of U. S.
Pacific slope.............................................................
Atlantic slope proper................................................514,416
Northern Lake region...............................................112,649
Gulf region....................................................,. •. 325,537

Atlantic, Lake and Gulf east and west of the Mississippi.......................
Mississippi valley, drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries.................
Atlantic, including Northern Lake................................... 627,065
        ' valley and Gulf or Middle region..........................1,543,099

      Total..............................................................
766,002
 952,602
1,217,562
2,936,166
26.09
17.52
 3.83
11.09

32.44
41.47
21.35
52.55
This is divided into  States  and Territories, as follows
State or Territory.
Alabama..............
Arkansas...........
California..........
Columbia, District of..
Connecticut..........
Delaware...........
Florida.............
Georgia...............
Illinois..............
Indiana.............
Indian Territory (south
   of Kansas.........
Iowa...............
Kansas...............
Kentucky...........
Louisiana...........
Maine..............
Maryland...........
Massachusetts.........
Michigan............
Minnesota Territory...
Mississippi..........
 50,722
 52,198
156,980
    60
  4,674
  2,120
 59,268
 58,000
 55,405
 33,809

 71,127
 50,914
114,798
 37,680
 41,255
 31,766
 11,124
  7,800
 56,243
166,025
 47,156
1.73
1.78
5.32
0.15
0.07
2.02
1.98
1.89
1.15

2.42
1.73
3.91
1.28
1.40
1.08
0.38
0.26
1.91
5.65
1.61
State or Territory.
Missouri..............
Nebraska Territory ..
New Hampshire.....
New Mexico Territory
New York..........
New Jersey.........
North Carolina......
Ohio.................
Oregon Territory....
Pennsylvania .......
Rhode Island........
South Carolina.....
Tennessee..........
Texas...............
Utah Territory......
Virginia.............
Vermorit............
Washington Territory
Wisconsin..........

   Total............
	Va
	o a
c »	8*
	
KS	^s
<	cm3
67,380	2.29
335,882	11.44
9,280	0.32
207,007	7.05
47,000	1.60
8,320	0.28
50,704	1.73
39,964	1.36
185,030	6.30
46,000	1.57
1,306	0.04
29,385	1.01
45,600	1.55
237,504	8.09
269,170	9.17
61,352	2.10
10,212	0.35
123,022	4.19
53,924	1.84
2,936,166	
r3i>
11
 1
34
 4
23
35
21
27
 5
24
39
31
25
 3
 2
12
33
 8
17
      The  interior  valley of  North  America begins within the  tropics and

terminates with  the polar circle,  traversing  the  continent  from  south  to

north.   Dr. Drake says:  " Of the area of this  great inter-mountain region 
20
DISTRIBUTION  AND
it is not easy to speak with any precision.  This valley cannot be estimated
at less  than three-fourths  of the  continental surface.   Its northern half is,
however, rendered  nearly uninhabitable, by the state of its surface and
climate; and, therefore, the portion which presents objects  of  immediate
interest to the medical etiologist,  does not exceed three  millions of square
miles, of which as yet not more than one-third has acquired  even a sparse
population."
     The Rocky Mountains,  which constitute the  western boundary of  the
great valley? are a continuation of the  Cordilleras of Mexico; and  acquire
an elevation in some places of fourteen thousand feet.   The physician who
would understand the true character  of the  climate  of the interior valley
from south to north,  cannot too strongly fix his attention on this lengthened
and elevated chain which effectually cuts it off from the genial influences of
the Pacific Ocean, and bestows upon it the characteristics of an inland and
peculiar climate, differing  altogether from any to be  found on the western
portion of the European continent.

     The entire  population, according to the census of 1850, was 23,191,876.
The estimated population for each succeeding year to 1860, is as  follows:—
                Years.                            Aggregate.
                1851, ..........................23,873,71V
                1852, ..........................24,575,604
                1853,..........................25,298,126
                1854,..........................26,041,890
                1855, ..........................26,807,521
                1856, ..........................27,595,662
                1857, ..........................28,406,974
                1858, ..........................29,242,139
                1859, ..........................30,101,857
                1860, ..........................30,986,851 
AGES OF  POPULATION.
21
      The distribution of the population of 1850, among  the  States and Ter-

ritories, according  to their respective ages, is given in the  annexed table:—
STATES ASD TERRITORIES.
Alabama............
Arkansas...........,
California...........
Columbia, District of.
Connecticut.........
Delaware...........,
Florida.............
Georgia............,
Rlinois.............,
Indiana............
Iowa..............,
Kentucky...........
Louisiana...........
Maine...............
Maryland...........
Massachusetts ........
Michigan .........,
Mississippi..........,
Missouri............,
New Hampshire......
New Jersey.........,
New York..........
North Carolina......,
Ohio................
Pennsylvania........
Rhode Island.......,
South Carolina.......
Tennessee...........
Texas  ..............
Vermont............
Virginia............,
Wisconsin ...........
 x   f Minnesota.....,
.12 <g J New Mexico....
5;'E 1  Oregon.......
H   [Utah.........
Under 1
 year.
20,375
 6,642
   273
 1,319
 7,646
 2,554
 2,236
24,858
26,681
32,296
 6,099
30,073
12,232
13,995
16,482
23,192
10,898
16,086
23,231
 6,111
13,556
76,337
24,734
56,884
64,331
 3,610
15,801
30,151
 6,194
 6,594
36,308
10,424
   168
 1,233
   310
   432
1 and un-
  der 5.
110,668
 31,514
  1,628
  5,428
 32,808
 10,899
 12,371
129,939
115,479
135,416
 28,191
133,919
 61,202
 61,781
 69,162
 90,853
 49,143
 88,975
 93,947
 26,952
 54,828
327,093
117,384
253,442
281,066
 14,106
 91,417
140,117
 30,594
 31,055
184,163
 40,948
   751
  7,566
  1,778
  1,744
5 and un-
 der 10.
10 and un-20 and un-
  der 20.   der SO.
119,389
 33,480
  2,300
  6,731
 39,190
 13,071
 13,380
141,835
130,622
157,714
 31,016
151,829
 65,458
 74,453
 78,269
102,797
 59,576
 94,355
105,176
 33,264
 63,761
377,605
131,341
291,286
318,226
 15,591
 97,184
157,608
 32,549
 38,153
208,260
 42,279
    721
  8,727
  1,873
  1,369
Total...........  629,446 2,868,327 3,241,268 5,420,4218,949,797 1,976,700  89,077
193,820
 53,375
  7,510
 11,725
 77,486
 21,842
 19,846
230,552
206,790
246,200
 45,476
243,745
105,098
138,768
134,124
203,765
 92,449
147,564
167,881
 70,095
110,473
675,980
214,097
475,981
524,540
 30,402
161,524
260,517
 50,657
 70,494
344,407
 62,801
  1,030
 14,048
  2,652
  2,70'
50 and un- 80 and un-
  der 80.    der 100.
 273,717
 74,255
 77,587
 21,435
 159,097
 34,690
 33,041
 312,440
 316,670
 345,431
 70,303
 346,618
 238,019
 223,081
 229,349
 451,194
 155,196
 221,976
 252,760
 129,446
 194,149
,326,860
 300,568
 734,741
 903,085
 65,725
 238,845
 339,180
 81,172
 123,512
 509,714
 128,097
   3,136
 24,246
   6,014
   4,448
 51,328
 10,328
  2,795
  4,808
 51,083
  8,076
  6,247
 62,955
 53,309
 69,005
 10,884
 72,377
 34,058
 66,471
 52,995
115,027
 29,633
 35,244
 38,776
 47,571
 50,147
298,462
 76,179
161,589
210,814
 17,148
 57,837
 71,224
 10,903
 41,605
130,825
 20,322
    264
  5,138
    597
    676
 2,063
  248
    31
  216
 3,212
  333
  243
 3,142
 1,076
 1,988
  190
 3,482
 1,196
 3,787
 2,504
 6,433
  627
 1,232
  973
 3,473
 2,441
13,256
 4,337
 5,722
 8,474
  943
 3,020
 3,548
  270
 2,659
 7,210
  326
    7
  406
    5
    4
100 and up-
  wards.
163
 24
  7
 10
  9
 36
221
 18
 32
  1
157
176
 13
131
 19
  9
140
 45
 12
 25
 88
249
 58
 75
  3
206
148
 39
 10
389
  2
40
      By a calculation  of the ratios of each age, as given in the  above table,

the following results are obtained :
Age.	Number.	Ratio.	Age.	Number.	Ratio.
	629,446 2,868,327 8,661,689 8,949,797 1,976,700	2.71 12.37 37.35 38.59 8.52		89,077 2,555 14,285	.39
					.01
5 " 20............					.06
20 " 50					
				23,191,876	100.00
-H 
22
CHARACTERISTICS OF INHABITANTS.
     This population is composed of the inhabitants who assisted in the for-
mation  of the government in 1789, and their descendants—of those who
have since  emigrated,  together with  their offspring,  and  of  those who
were admitted into the Union, when the territory which they inhabited was
annexed, as in the  case of Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, and California.
The number from this latter source was at the time of the several admissions
comparatively insignificant; that from Louisiana being 77,000;  from Flo-
rida, 10,000 ; and from New Mexico and California,  60,000.  The increase
from this source, by propagation, however, has been such as to constitute a
very considerable item in the present population returns.    One remarkable
feature attending the admission of the inhabitants  of Louisiana and of the
French west of the Mississippi  by the  extension  of the western  boundary
of the Union, has  been  the  large  number of  intermarriages between the
French  population, and those descended from an English ancestry, born in
the Atlantic States.
      These  geographical  divisions into  sea-coast, mountain,  and inland-
valley regions, exercise a considerable influence over the progress of popu-
lation, but much less than those of. high and low latitudes and the differences
in social position which obtain in the different States of the Union.
     In  estimating  the movements of population  in this country, the con-
federate character  of the  government must  never be  lost sight of.   The
power reserved by each State to enact its own laws, has given to each part
of the Union an  individuality which is marked and important.  The  social
influences surrounding the inhabitants of two neighboring States,  as Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut, or Virginia and Maryland, may not be very dif-
ferent, but they are widely so between remote parts of the Union.
     The stern and rigid habits  of the New England Puritans—the substan-
tial and frugal customs of the  Hollanders who colonized  New York__the
careful thrift of the Quakers of Pennsylvania—the  generous and hospitable 
PROBABLE  FUTURE INCREASE.
23
character of the early settlers of Maryland—and the careless and noble traits
of the gay  cavaliers who settled Yirginia,  are still manifest among their
descendants, modifying their character and  affecting, in  a very  decided
manner, the population of their respective States.
     These observations apply more especially to the States which skirt  the
Atlantic, yet they are not without force in those  in the great valley of the
Mississippi.   The migration  from State to State has had some  influence on
the population of every State, and in some instances, as that of New York,
has effected  so decided a change, as greatly to modify their early charac-
teristics.
     " Some reflections upon the future growth  of the  population of the
Union, will  not be  improper in this place.   The facts  embraced in  the
census show a regular diminution in the ratio  of total as well as  of natural
increase  from decade to  decade, up to  1840, making corrections for the
admission of new territory, and the shorter period than ten years included
between the census of 1820  and  1830.   From the  declining per  cent, of
females and young children,  Professor  Tucker argues  that  the natural
increase  of the  population  is  inversely as  its density in all of  the States,
and that the increase of the whole population, for the decades after 1840,
would be 32;  31.3; 30.5;  29.6;  28.6;  27.5 per  cent.   Should  emigra-
tion, however, remain as it was then, or be but slightly increased from year
to year, the series, he supposed, would be 31.8; 30.9; 30;  29;  27.9;  26.8
per cent.   The results upon either series will be here shown, but upon both
they fall greatly short of the fact for 1850.   The ratio  from 1840  to 1850
increased over three per cent, instead of declining as before from the  pre-
vious decade, a result not to be accounted for  by the  admission  of Cali-
fornia, New Mexico, &c. 
24
UNCERTAINTY OF STATISTICS.
                                      Population        Population
            Years.                    on first series.     on second series.
            1850...................22,400,000       22,000,000
            I860....................29,400,000       28,800,000
            1870....................38,300,000       36,500,000
            1880....................49,600,000       46,500,000
            1890....................63,000,000       59,800,000
            1900....................80,000,000       74,000,000."
                                    [Compend.  U. S. Census, 1850, .p. 130.]
     This table  is based  upon the assumption of an increase of population
in a geometrical ratio, without an adequate compensation  for those  causes
which  are  always  operating to increase  or  diminish  this  ratio,  and
which are so variable in their character as to elude all fixed geometrical
rules.
     Could a population be found in which the increase arose  solely from
births and the decrease of deaths, entirely unaffected by migration, it would
be found that the excess of births above that of deaths in each year,  would
be in a fixed ratio to the number living at the beginning of the year, which
progression, with a knowledge  of the circumstances affecting  the  rate  of
mortality, might be determined;  for, if the number of births above that of
the deaths,  bore an  exact ratio  to the population living,  at any one fixed
period, the increase could be measured and its results determined by a pro-
cess in geometrical progression.
     But as there is no country,  and probably no part of  a  country, where
the population  has  remained for any length of time so stationary as to be
unaffected by migration, it follows, that in  order to  make a tolerably near
approach to the ratio of increase, the effect of this migration must be taken
into  consideration; and as it is extremely dinicult to determine with any
degree of precision, either the numbers or the  ages  of  those who enter or
depart, so it is proportionably dinicult  to fix the rate  of increase or decrease
for any length of time dependant upon their absence  or presence. 
MORTALITY RETURNS.
25
     Besides, all the facts upon which these tables of the future progress of
population are  based,  have  been taken from  the  movements of  the
living;  whereas, in order to  ascertain  with any  exactness the  probable
increasing population, it  is  necessary to determine the numbers and  the
ages of those  who die,  as  well  as of  those  who  survive.  The seventh
census  is the only one that has attempted to supply this  last element of
calculation.
     These returns  show an aggregate of 320,023 deaths for the year begin-
ning June 1st,  1849, and ending June 1st, 1850,  or  one  death to  every
72.5 inhabitants.  The report itself, in estimating the value to be attached
to these  statistics,  supposes that one-fourth of the whole number of deaths
which have occurred in the Union during the period  of one year prior to the
enumeration of 1850, have not been reported.   Assuming this as the error,
the whole number of deaths reported and  not reported would be 400,028,
or one death to 58  inhabitants.
     The average  mortality of the English population for the five  years,
1838-42, was 2.207 per cent,  or nearly one in  forty-five.   The  following
table from the  sixth report of the Registrar-General, gives  in a condensed
form, the rates of  mortality of several  of the principal European States,
including England.  The enumeration in this latter country being confined
to England  and Wales, exhibits  a much  more favorable standard  than* it
would if Ireland and Scotland were included.
	Tear.	Population.	ANNUAL DEATHS.		ANNUAL MORTALITY.	
			Tear.	Number.	Per Cent.	Living to 1 Death.
	1841 1841 1840 1840 1842	15,927,867 34,213,929 14,928,501 21,571,594 49,525,420	1838-42 1838-42 1838-41 1839-42 1842	346,905 816,840 392,349 651,239 1,856,138	2.207 2.397 2.658 2.995 3.590	45 \
						42 ;
						38 !
						33 /
						28
						
—[Qth Registrar-General's Report, p. xxxix. 
26
MORTALITY STATISTICS CORRECTED
    A comparison of the mortuary records of the United States, with those
of the European countries above enumerated, would lead to the belief that
a much larger number of unenumerated  deaths  had occurred than is pre-
sumed by the census reports.  Were the  arbitrary assumption  to  be made
that the number of unrecorded deaths was  equal to one-half, instead of
one-fourth, of those recorded, the aggregate number would be 480,080, or
one death  to 48.31 of the living, which  produces a result much more in
accordance with those of other countries  in  which reliable mortuary statis-
tics are kept, than the hypothesis of the census report;  and for this reason,
and for this alone, is entitled to more confidence.
    Prof. Tucker, in  his ingenious observations upon the probabilities of
life in the United States,  has deduced the relative  number of  deaths, from
the returns of the living, with results somewhat corresponding to those just
given.
     " The details of the census of 1850,"  remarks Prof. Tucker, " compared
with those  of the census of 1840, fortunately afford us materials for making
this interesting estimate with a near approximation to the  truth, as we shall
thus see.
     " It is clear that the difference between the whole population of 1840,
and the part of the population of 1850 over ten  years of  age, would show
the number of deaths in ten years, if the country had neither emigration
nor immigration.  The emigration, however, is insignificant, and the number
of immigrants with their increase, we have now the means of ascertaining.
But as  our numbers in 1850 were augmented by the accession of Texas,
New Mexico, and California, as well as by immigration, the population thus
acquired must also be deducted.   Having found the mortality of the whole
population of 1840, that of  those who have  since come into existence,
and are of  course under ten in 1850, will be the subject  of separate esti-
mate, for which  the census also furnishes materials.   Let us  now see the
result :— 
                       BY RETURNS OF  THE LIVING.                     ^'


      Of the whole population of 1850....................... 23,191,877
      The whole number under ten is.......................  6,730,044

      The number over ten is .............................. 16,461,832

     " To  ascertain  the number of immigrants to be deducted from  the

16,461,832, we must ascertain—1. The number of immigrants under ten on

the 1st of June,  1850.   2.  The number  over ten who had died  between

their arrival  and  June, 1850.   These  numbers are  exhibited in  the  fol-

lowing table :—*
	No. of children	No. of	No. of child-	No. of	No. over
Whole No. of	under ten,	years to	ren under	deaths, to	ten,
immigrants.	when they	June,	ten, June 1,	June 1,	June 1,
	arrived.	1850.	1850.	1850.	1850.
83,504	12,825	9*	642	10,110	72,752
101,107	15,166	8*	2,275	11,105	87,727
75,159	11,274	n	2,817	7,299	64,043
74,607	11,190	6*	3,916	6,182	65,509
102,415	15,362	6+	6,912	7,068	88,435
147,051	22,057	4*	12,131	8.167	126,753
220,882	33,027	H	20,867	9,384	190,631
296,387	44,450	H	24,760	9,135	262,492
296,938	44,540	H	37,783	5,215	253,940
223,984	33,597	i	22,270	2,357	199,357
1,622,034	243,488		134,373	76,022	1,411,639
     " If, then, we deduct from the 16,461,832, the population of 1850 over

ten years of age, the number of emigrants over that age equal to 1,411,639,

and also the number over  ten in the newly acquired territories of Texas,

&c, which  by computation  is about 135,000, the  difference will  be

14,915,193, which is  the number of  the  survivors of the  population  of

June 1, 1840.    As this population was  17,069,453, a. deduction of the

14,915,193 survivors shows the number of  deaths in ten years to have been

2,154,258, averaging  215,425.8  a year.  As in computing the rate of mor-
   * In the computation of deaths contained in th« above table, I have, with some hesitation, allowed a
somewhat greater mortality than is warranted in the Carlisle life tables, those of Quetelet, and others, since I
have assumed one-tenth of the children of the immigrants to be under one year, which probably greatly over-
rates their number at an age when the rate of mortality is far greater than at any other age.
1840-1 .
1841-2 .
1842-3 .
1843-4 .
1844-5 .
1845-6 .
1846-7 .
1847-8 .
1848-9 .
1849-50 
28
MORTALITY STATISTICS CORRECTED
tality the deaths are  compared with numbers beginning with 17,069,453,
and gradually descending through the ten years to 14,915,193, we  must
take the medium between those  numbers, which is  15,992,324.   Now,  if
this number be  divided by the annual deaths,  215,425.8, it will show the
average  annual  mortality to  be  1 in 74.2 in that part of the population
which is over ten years of age.
     " To ascertain the mortality of those under ten, our data are somewhat
less precise and satisfactory.  Two modes of making the  estimate present
themselves, which lead to different results; and when we  shall have more
full and reliable  data than at  present, truth will  probably be found to lie
between them.
     " First.—If we assume that the mortality of the children under ten  is
the same in the United States as  in  France, according to their  respective
numbers—and there is no obvious reason why it should be materially dif-
ferent—then, according to the tables  which we owe to the  patient labors of
Heuschling, the number of deaths of the  children under ten in the United
States, in 1850, was 224,868, exclusive of the children of immigrants be-
tween  1840 and  1850.   If to this number we add the deaths  of  the popu-
lation over ten, 215,425, we have  440,293 for the whole number of deaths
in 1850, which exhibits a mortality of 1 in 43.4.
     "  Secondly.—If, however, we adopt the unsatisfactory  data afforded by
the seventh census, then we may thus  estimate the average  mortality.
According to that census, the number of  white  and  free colored children
who died under one year of age, was 43,055, which  it must be recollected
included the children  of  immigrants, with the  increase of the  population
generally, for the year 1850.   Let  us deduct ten per cent,  for this portion ;
for, though the  children of immigrants appear not  to have  exceeded an
11 th or 12th  of  that  class, yet, in consideration of  the admitted greater 
BY RETURNS OF THE LIVING.
29
mortality, both of immigrants and their children, 10 per cent, does not seem
too much for their proportion of deaths.   If to the number, thus reduced
to 38,749, we add the number of slaves who die at that early age,  10,481,
we shall have 49,230 deaths of children in the first year after their birth.
     " What  is the number for the other  nine years ?   It may be approx-
imated in this way. The whole number of white persons from 5 to 10 years
of age, and from 10 to 15, is 5,106,257,  one-tenth of which  may be  pre-
sumed to give the number of those whose  age is about ten.   If one-tenth of
this tenth be  deducted (for  the  children of immigrants,)  the remainder,
459,563,  will exhibit the number of children ten years old in  1850,  of the
population of 1840.
     " Their annual number of  deaths we  will assume to be 1 in 120, which
assumes a somewhat greater  mortality than is  estimated at this period of
life by the most approved life tables of Europe.   This would be 3,998.7 for
the annual deaths of the whites of 10 years  of age, and 852.2 for those of
the colored race,  in all 4,852.   But as there were 49,230  deaths of both
classes in the first year of the decade,  and 4,852  in the last,  the mean—
27,041—gives us  the annual average  deaths of one-tenth  of the children
under 10, or 270,410 for the whole number.   To this, if we add 215,425 for
the deaths of persons over ten,  we shall have 485,836 for the annual  deaths
of the population of 1840, excluding all accessions from foreign sources.
    The  population of 1850, with that exclusion, is as follows :—
      Gross amount.......................................  23,191,876
      From which  deduct the immigrants, with their increase, at
       the rate of 3 per cent, per annum from the time of their
       arrival.................................   1,840,233
      Accession from Texas, &c...,................    200,000
                                               --------2,040,233
21,151,643 
30
ANNUAL MORTALITY.
     " The mean between this number and the 17,069,453, the  population
of 1840, is 19,110,548, which, divided  by 485,836^  the total number  of
annual deaths, we have  an average mortality in the year of 39.3 for the
whole population, white and colored, bond and free."

     These deductions are certainly curious, and in the absence  of more
positive elements of calculation,  are  entitled to respectful consideration.
The number of deaths,  as made apparent by the mortality returns, is evi-
dently under-estimated:  the extent of the error can only be approximated by
the assumption of such data as are supplied by the returns of the living; and
although the conclusions derived from this source are by no means beyond
question, yet they furnish the best means of correcting the error, at the dis-
posal of the philosophic enquirer. 
AGES OF  POPULATION.
31
                            CHAPTER III.

                  PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF POPULATION.

     The extreme rapidity with which the population of this country has
increased, has led to the adoption of the popular belief, that because its per-
centage of increase  has exceeded that  of any  other  country, it is conse-
quently the most healthy of all others.
     Eminent statisticians, and particularly those of other countries, deducing
their results  from the living alone, have arrived at  a  different conclusion.
Mr. Chadwick, in his work on the  "Pressure and Progress of the Causes of
Mortality among Different Classes of the Community," published in 1844,
remarks:—
     " Notwithstanding the earlier marriages, and the extent of emigration,
and the general increase of the population, the whole  circumstances appear
to me  to prove this to be the  case of a population  depressed to  a low
age, chiefly by the greater proportionate pressure of the  causes of disease
and premature mortality.   The  proportionate numbers at each interval of
age, in every 10,000 of the two populations, are as follows :—
                                 United States of America.      England and Wales.
        Under 5 years  ................   1744  ............     1324
        5 and under 10 ................   1417  ............     1197
       10     "     15 ................   1210  ............     1089
       15     "     20 ................   1091  ............      997
       20     "     30 ................   1816  ...........    1780 
32
YOUTHFUL CHARACTER  OF POPULATION.
United States of America.      England and Wales.
30 and under 40 ................   1160
1289
40          50 ................    732  ............     959
                      .........    436.............     645
50    "     60
60          70 ................    245  ............     440
                   ............    113  ............     216
70    "     80
80
90 ................     32  ............      59
90 and upwards
4  ............       5
                                      10,000                10,000
  Average age of all the living......22 years 2 months.      26 years 7 months.

     " Here it may be observed, that whilst in England there are 5025 per-
sons between 15 and 50, who have 3610  children or persons under 15;  in
America there are 4789 persons living between 15 and 50 years of age, who
have 4371 children dependent upon them.   In England  there are in every
ten thousand persons 1365 who have obtained above 50 years' experience;
in America there are only 830.
     " The moral consequences of the predominance of the young and pas-
sionate in the American community, are attested by observers to be such
as have already been described in the General Sanatory  Report as charac-
teristic of those crowded, filthy, and badly administered districts in Eng-
land, where the average duration of life is short, the proportion of the very
young great, and the adult generation transient.
     " The difference does not arise solely from the greater proportion of
children arising  from a greater increase  of population,  though that is  to
some extent consistent with what  has  been proved  to  be the effect of a
severe general mortality; the effects of the common cause of depression is
observable  at  each  interval of age; the adult  population  in America is
younger than in England, and if the causes of early death were to remain
the  same, it may be  confidently predicted that the American population
would remain young for centuries. 
IN THE UNITED STATES.
33
                                                         Years.   Months.
      The average age of all alive above 15 in America is......   33      6
      The average age of all alive above 15 years in England and
        Wales is..........................................   37      5
      The average age of all above 20 years in America is......   37      7
      In the whole of England the average of all above 20 years is   41      1."

     The average age of the whole population, according to the census of
1840, is correctly given by Mr. Chadwick.  The average age of  the white
population is 22.71 years.   The returns  of 1850 show an increase of the
aggregate age, from Mr. Chadwick's estimate, from  22.16, to that of 22.89
years, and of the white population from 22.71 to 23.10, which, as  compared
with the previous census,  furnishes a highly favorable result :—■
                   Classes.                        Average age.
                  Whites........................23.10
                  Free colored ....................  24.54
                  Slaves..........................  21.35
                  Aggregate......................22.89

     A country whose population is so distributed that the larger proportion
of its members  are of an age which  fits them  for  active employments, is
placed  under circumstances the  most favorable  for  advancement.   Mr.
Shattuck has proposed a division of society into three classes, for the  pur-
pose of determining the number of those fitted for employment,  and those
which are not—those under fifteen years of age he denominates the depend-
ant class, because dependant upon others  for support; those between fifteen
and sixty he calls the productive class,  because they are in the full  possession
of their energies, and competent not only to produce a sufficiency for them-
selves, but likewise for those who  are dependant  upon  them ; those above
sixty he defines as the aged class.   With the view of ascertaining the con-
      4 
34
PROPORTION  OF  PRODUCTIVE
dition of the population as affected by this standard, the following table  has
been constructed:—
	Whites.		Free Colored.		Slates.		Aggregate.	
	Number.	Ratio per ct.	Number.	Ratio per ct.	Number.	Ratio per ct.	Number.	Ratio per ct.
	8,002,715 10,720,175 819,871 10,307	40.93 54.83 4.19 .05	171,181 238,859 24,169 286	39.40 54.97 5.56 .07	1,455,774 1,630,095 114,752 3,692	45.43 50.87 3.58 .12	9,629,670 12,589,129 958,792 14,285	41.52
								54.28 4.14
								.06
								
Totals ..................	19,553,068	100.00	434,495	100.00	3,204,313	100.00	23.191,876	100.00
								
    In this, as in the preceding table, an advance  in the elements  of pro-
ductiveness are manifest.  The productive class of the white population in
1830, was 51.01 per cent., and the burdensome, composed of the young and
the aged, 48.99 per cent.   In 1840, the productive class was 52.35, and the
burdensome,  47.65 per cent.  ; and in 1850, the former class had  increased
to  54.83 per cent, while the latter  had  declined  to 45.17  per cent,
being an  increase  of  2.48 per cent,  in the productive capacity of the
whole  population,  and a  corresponding decline in  the  ratio  of those
requiring support.   The productive  class in England is 56.70 per cent, of
the population ;  and in Sweden, 56.93 per cent., being about two per cent.
higher than in the United States.
    It is  a question whether a larger amount of the results of produc-
tiveness may  not be evolved,  with a less per centage of productive capacity,
numerically, for a long consecutive period  of years in the United States
than in England or Sweden.  In both of these countries, as well as  in most
others, except this, upon which extensive observations have been made, the
density of population is such  as to  require a large proportion  of  the fruits
of the earth garnered each year to maintain the population.
    When from any cause the crops fall greatly short of their usual amount,
much distress is produced among the laboring population, who depend  for 
AND  BURDENSOME  CLASSES.
35
their  daily supply  of food, upon  the  earnings  of their daily labor.   The
proportion which the  rate of wages bears to the necessaries of life being
largely diminished by the exaltation of  the prices of food, occasioned by
the scarcity,  the amount of food  consumed  by the  laboring classes is les-
sened in  quantity, and not unfrequently deteriorated in quality.
     The effect of a diminished supply of food  is to  lessen the capacity for
labor,  and to  induce disease.   It is  consequently  found that  dysentery,
fever, and frequently severe epidemics, are the  constant attendants upon
short crops in such communities as reside in the more populous countries of
the globe.
     The failure of  the potato crop in Ireland  in 1846 and 1847, was  fol-
lowed by one of the most  severe visitations  of typhus fever  which  has
ever desolated that country.
     The  Prussian Government, whose  registration system is so perfect, as to
give a very accurate  idea of the  movement of its  inhabitants,  became so
much alarmed  at the effect of the diminished  crop of 1855, as to induce
it to order a series  of experiments to  be made  upon  Indian.Corn,  as  an
article of food, for its humbler population, in the event  of the  deficiency
amounting to a serious inconvenience.   This provident act was induced by
a full knowledge of the baneful  effects of short crops as revealed by the
 registration system.
     The  large amount of land under cultivation in  the United States, and
 the abundant harvests invariably secured, furnish to each  individual a
quantity of food exceeding  threefold  in amount that used by the average
laboring classes on the continent of Europe, and places all thought of a small
 supply out of the question.
     With the exception of some  few  employments  in the more populous
 cities, labor is always in demand at such remunerative wages as to admit of
 the purchase of nutritious food, not only in  quantities  sufficient to sustain 
36
RELATIVE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE.
 life, but to gratify the cravings of the most inordinate appetite. The artizan
 in town, and the laborer in the country, are supplied each day with a sub-
 stantial repast of animal and vegetable food.   This is a matter of universal
 occurrence, and extends to every section of the country, and with but few
 exceptions to each  department  of industry.   These  exceptions are to be
 found principally among the females in populous cities, who gain their live-
 lihood by plain sewing,  the manufacture of cheap clothing,  and like unre-
 munerative occupations.
     " The standard of comfort for the laboring class is much higher  here
 than it is in England, so far as  it concerns the  consumption of animal food,
 in consequence of the peculiar  circumstances of this country, where the hus-
 bandry and useful arts of a cultivated people  are  conjoined with the  thin
 population of a rude one.   In every part of Europe, population and the arts
 have advanced at the same rate; and the ascertained slowness of the rate
 supposes  straitened  means  of subsistence  in  every stage of the  progress.
 This is conclusively proved, as  to England, by  the fact that her population,
 which, in 1377, had been  2,350,000, had increased in 1800, that is,  in 423
 years, only to 8,872,980 ;  since nothing but great difficulty in obtaining the
 means of subsistence, and extreme discomfort  with the great mass  of the
 people, could have retarded the period  of duplication with our progenitors
 to upwards of two hundred years."*
     That a population  supplied with an  abundance  of substantial food, is
 competent to perform a greater amount of labor than a similar population,
 but illy provided for in this particular, is evident. What is the direct effect
 upon the physical energies of the population of the United States, produced
 by this condition of things,  can only be ascertained by an accumulation of
statistical evidence.
* Tucker's Progress of the United States, p. 112. 
EMPLOYED AND IDLE CLASSES.                    37
     The  employments of  the industrial classes furnish a  tolerably fair
indication of the available labor of a population.  With  this view, the fol-
lowing  summary of the pursuits  of the population of the United States
is given :—

     " Of the free population in 1850, amounting to 19,987,563, the number
of males above fifteen years  of age who were employed in  different branches
of industry was 5,371,876.   Supposing the number of females, who in their
appropriate employments are at least as industrious as the  males, to be equal,
then the industrious class of both sexes above fifteen amount to 10,743,562.
The difference between this number and that of the whole  free population
is 9,243,811.  If from this residue we deduct the tenants of the poor-houses,
hospitals, jails, and penitentiaries, the superannuated and the children under
fifteen, all of whom are either too young to work, are  already employed or
qualifying themselves  for future employment,  the  remainder, constituting
the voluntary idle and unproductive class, would be  an inconsiderable por-
tion of the community, as may be thus seen :—

  Whole number, after deducting the working classes.............. 9,243,811
  Children under 15 by the census...................... 8,173,896
  Persons over seventy by the same.....................   308,686
  Paupers by the same ................................   50,352
  In hospitals for the insane, blind, &c, by the same......   50,994
  In State prisons and penitentiaries, by the same.........    5,646
  In jails and houses of  correction......................    7,444
                                                       ------ 8,597,018
        Whole number of idle class  .............................   646,793

     " It would  thus seem that the whole number of the  idle class of both
sexes between the ages of fifteen and seventy is less  than  3 per cent, or one
person in thirty-three of the free population; and though  the labor to which 
38
CHARACTER OF OCCUPATION.
man is inevitably destined is occasionally excessive or  irksome, yet in the
main his bread is sweetened as well as  moistened by the sweat with which
it is earned:—*

     Of these, there are engaged in—

      1.   Mental  pursuits....................   179,032  or   3 per cent.
      2.   Producers  ........................  2,544,777  " 42
      3.   Manufacturers  ....................  1,229,607  " 24     "
      4.   Commercial pursuits................   316,053  "   6
      5.   Miscellaneous......................  1,102,422  " 19     "

                                              5,371,876   100     "
* Ibid Appendix, p. 44. 
EMIGRATION,
39
CHAPTER  IV.
EMIGRATION.
     The  effect of emigration upon  the population of the United States is

an important one,  and requires especial consideration.   The  entire foreign

population  in  1850  was 2,210,839,  and  its  ratio  to  the  white  and  free

colored population, 11.06 per cent., which is thus distributed;—
   States and Territories.


Alabama..............
Arkansas..............
California..............
Columbia, District of....
Connecticut............
Delaware..............
Florida................
Georgia................
Illinois.............
Indiana................
Iowa.................
Kentucky..............
Louisiana...............
Maine.................
Maryland..............
Massachusetts..........
Michigan..............
Mississippi.............
Missouri..............
Total Foreign.
Per ct. of foreign
to white and free
col'd population.
  7,638
  1,628
 22,358
  4,967
 37,473
  5,211
  2,757
  5,907
110,593
 54,426
 21,232
 29,189
 66,413
 31,456
 53,288
160,909
 54,852
  4,958
 72,474
X
 1.78
 1.00
24.15
10.35
10.11
 5.84
 5.73
 1.13
12.99
 5.51
11.05
 8.78
24.33
 5.39
10.82
16.18
13.79
 1.67
12.19
  States and Territories.


New Hampshire.....
New Jersey..........
New York..........
North Carolina......
Ohio...............
Pennsylvania........
Rhode Island.......
South Carolina......
Tennessee..........
Texas..............
Vermont...........
Virginia...........
Wisconsin..........
       (Minnesota...
       New Mexico
       Oregon.....
       Utah......

  Total............
Total Foreign.
Per ct. of foreign
to white and free
col'd population.
 13,571
 58,364
651,801
  2,524
218,512
294,871
 28,111
  8,662
  5,740
 16,774
 32,831
 22,394
106,695
  2,048
  2,063
  1,159
  1,990
2,210,839
 4.27
11.93
21.04
  .43
11.03
12.75
15.66
 3.06
  .75
10.86
10.45
 2.36
34.94
33.70
 3.f5
 8.72
17.53
11.06
     Of these, 961,719 were born in Ireland;  278,675 in  England;   70,550

in  Scotland;  29,868  in Wales;  147,711  in British America;  54,069  in

France ; 10,549 in  Prussia ;  573,225  in the rest of Germany ;  946  in Aus-

tria ;  13,358 in Switzerland;  12,678 in Norway; 9,848 in  Holland; 3,559

in  Sweden;  3,113  in Spain;  3,645 in  Italy;  5,772  in the West  Indies;

1,638 in Denmark ; 1,313 in Belgium ;  1,414 in Russia;  1,274 in Portugal; 
40
EFFECT OF  EMIGRATION.
785 in China;  585 in the Sandwich Islands; 13,317 in Mexico;  and 1,543
in South America.   From this it would appear that  the British subjects,
born either in  Great Britain, Ireland, or  British America, who had emi-
grated to the United States, numbered  1,488,523, and constitute two-thirds
of the whole foreign-born population.
     In the selection of their  residence, the immigrants have manifested a
decided preference for some sections of country over others;  thus, while in
the  Middle States they constitute  one-fifth of the population, and in the
Northern and Eastern a little  less than one-eighth, their ratio in the South-
western is diminished to one-twentieth, and in the Southern  States to one-
fiftieth of the whole population.
     The two  States least affected by foreign emigration are North Carolina
and Tennessee;  the  whole number in the former State  being 2,524, and
constituting but forty-three hundredths of one per cent, of  the entire  popu-
lation ;  and in  the latter 5,740, and making three-fourths of one per cent, of
the whole number of inhabitants.   In South Carolina, the  number  of foreign
inhabitants is 8,662, and bears a ratio of 3.06 per cent, to the entire  popu-
lation.  Of these, 4,643 reside in the city of  Charleston, and 4019 in the
rural districts,   The  foreign population of  Charleston constitutes  21,28  per
cent, of the whole.
     Indeed, there appears to be  a marked desire  on the part  of  immi-
grants to select  populous cities, rather than rural districts, as a place of
residence.   The  annexed table,  showing the proportion of Irish,  German
and  Prussian immigrants residing in  the  large  cities, will develope this
proposition:
Irish.................
Germans and Prussians.
In United States.
961,719
583,774
In large cities.
382,402
212,559
Ratio per ct. to whole.
39.76
36.43 
CONDITION OF IMMIGRANTS.
41
     The annexed  exhibit of the native and foreign population of the  fol-
lowing European States, shows how much more decided the effect of this
element is in this country than in Europe :—
	Census.	Whole Population.	Foreign Population.	Per ct. of Foreign Population.
Great Britain and the island) in the British seas..	1851 1851 1851 1848 1849 1846	20,959,477 35,783,170 1,407,747 4,918,855 3,056,879 4,337,196	56,665 378,563 13,042 26,465 70,855 76,479	0.27 1.06
				0.43
				0.54
				2.32
				1.76
				
     Much the largest  proportion of emigrants who arrive in the United
States are in the most  humble  circumstances,  frequently with constitutions
shattered by privation, and with slender means to provide for themselves
even the most  simple necessaries  of life.   From early association,  aided,
perhaps, by  the necessity of the  moment, they are accustomed to herd
together (for they cannot be said to live) in large numbers, in those parts
of our populous  seaports  where rooms are less expensive, and a residence is
least desirable.
     Surrounded by all the elements of disease which abound in the densely
crowded and illy ventilated portions of populous places, the victims of pre-
vious privation, and of  present want, it might  naturally be  inferred that
the mortality among them would be very great.   It unfortunately happens,
however, that few bills of mortality are  kept in such a manner as to afford
a satisfactory solution to  this question.   Those of New York,  and some  of
the other cities, give  the nativity of the  persons deceased,  and in this
manner some clue may  be had to the  ratio of deaths  among  the adult
population.   The  mortality returns of Boston  and Providence show, that
that the mortality among the offspring of the immigrant population, who
inhabit  large cities, particularly in the earliest period of life, is very great, 
42                     CONDITION OF  IMMIGRANTS,
and far exceeds that which occurs among the native population.   Admitting
an equality between the immigrant and native population in all other circum-
stances, than that of the density of their numbers, and the disposition of the
former to crowd themselves into an inconceivably small space, and there is
left in this source alone a wide disproportion as to the chances of life against
the immigrant;  for, under like circumstances, the more  closely individuals
are congregated together, either  in their habitations or their  persons, the
greater is the danger of disease, and the less the probabilities of life.   The
annexed extract from  the North American Review,  giving a description of
a certain district in Boston, is corroborative of these  views :—
     " The district selected for comparison comprises Broad, Cove, and Sea
streets.   These streets  are situated near the wharves.  They are built prin-
cipally upon made land, and have numerous blind alleys leading from them.
The streets and alleys are badly drained, and crowded with an overflowing
population.   A large  number of the houses have  no means of sewerage
whatever, and all their  refuse of every description stagnates about the yards,
spreading on every side poisonous  exhalations, laden with  disease and
death.   A majority of  the houses  contain several families, and some of them
have no less than  nine or ten.  Even the cellars of the houses  are often
inhabited, and in some instances one  cellar leads to  another, and this to a
third, a sort of dungeon, all inhabited by human beings of both  sexes and
every age.  The population of these  three streets is 2813, of whom 2738
are foreigners and only 75 Americans.   The mortality was one in 17.6 of
the population, or 5.65 per cent, and this was  a year  (1850) remarkable
for its healthiness.  What it would have been in a sickly year,  we dare not
conjecture.
     " We were at first inclined to regard these figures as an exaggeration,"
adds the above writer.    " We could not believe that a portion of Boston is 
AT PRESENT AND HERETOFORE.
43
annually almost decimated of its population.  But a careful re-examination
has confirmed the accuracy of the statement."*
     Notwithstanding these evils, the immigrant  is generally much better
provided for upon his arrival in the United States at  the present time than
formerly.
   " The sufferings attendant on immigration to America are believed to be
now much less than they were in the earlier periods of its history.  The fa-
cilities and safety of navigating the ocean have been vastly increased since
the first settlement of the  country.  This continent and the European have,
by the rapidity, frequency and regularity of communication, been compara-
tively made one country.  Now-a-days, the European  emigrants,  as soon as
they arrive at these shores, have stopping places filled with  an abundance
of the necessaries of life; and when want or sickness befal them, as is often
the case, the charitable institutions are opened to soothe their sufferings, and
often the hand of individual charity is extended to them  in a manner to
touch their hearts with emotions of gratitude.  But in the time of our fathers,
no white man welcomed  their coming,  no  smiling villages  cheered  their
hearts, and, as they advanced to the places of their settlement, they  found
nothing but a wilderness and wild beasts, and what  was often worse than
wild beasts—the savages.   And now the emigrant, if he plants himself down
in the wild lands of America, has the conveniences of an easy transportation,
and is furnished at every step of his path with an abundance flowing from a
bountiful soil and laid up  by an industrious  and  frugal people.  We  have
not the means at hand of  showing  distinctly and exactly  the  comparative
distresses; but if the subject were fully inquired into,  we have no doubt but
that the sufferings and mortality of immigrants  to America  are  now very
much less than they were  formerly;  and we regard this as  one of the evi-
dences of improvement in the condition of mankind."!

  * North Am. Rev., No. CLII., July, 1851, pp. 121-2.      t Chickering's Immigration, p. 53. 
44                     CONDITION  OF IMMIGRANTS.
     What will be the ultimate moral and physical effect of this immense
tide of emigration none can determine.  Mr. Chickering thus sums  up his
reasoning concerning it:—
     " This migration  of  masses, numbering of late years  more than  one
hundred thousand annually, now  nearly  three hundred thousand annually,
not in the warlike  spirit of the Goths and Vandals who overran the  Roman
empire, and destroyed the monuments of art, and the evidences of civiliza-
tion, but in the spirit of peace, anxious to provide for themselves and their
children the necessaries of life, and apparently  ordained by Providence to
relieve the countries of the old world and to serve great purposes of good
to mankind,—is one of the most interesting spectacles the world  ever  saw.
This movement is to go on till the western  continent is filled with  inhabi-
tants.  The future destiny of these States none  can tell; every accession of
new comers introduces new elements of moral and political  power into  the
community, besides the insensible changes which are constantly taking place.
If past experience has shown the result of this  immigration to America to
have been a modification  of  our institutions and manners from year to year,
do not the signs  of the times  indicate some danger of important changes
in the  very structure of society, as the current becomes more and more
swollen in consequence of the  facilitated  means of  conveyance, and of the
multiplied necessities of emigrating." 
RELATIVE PROPORTION  OF BIRTHS.
45
                             CHAPTER V.

                                BIRTHS.

     The number of births according to the census returns for 1850, occur-
ring among the white and free colored population for  the year preceding
the enumeration was 548,837, being 2.75 to every 100 persons,  distributed
as follows:
States and Territories.	Births.	Ratio per cent.	States and Territories.	Births.	Ratio per cent.
	12,265 5,483 273 1,248 7,646 2,495 1,322 15,239 26,681 32,296 6,099 23,805 7,292 13,995 14,036 23,192 10,898 8.687 19,632 .	2.86 3.36 0.29 2.60 2.06 2.80 2.75 2.90 3.13 3.27 3.17 3.09 2.67 2.40 2.85 2.33 2.74 2.93 3.30		6,111 13,556 76,337 16,648 56,884 64,331 3,610 6,607 23,090 4,765 6,594 25,153 10,424 168 1,233 310 432	1.92
					2.77
					2.46
Columbia, District of....			Ohio................		2.87 2.87
					2.78
					2.45
					2.33
					3.02
					3.09
					2.10
					2.65
					3.41
			*| Minnesota ... Terri- 1 New Mexico.. J Utah........ Total............		2.77
					2.00
					2.33
					8.80
					
				548,837	2.75
					
     This table exhibits a great  disparity in the productiveness of the  dif-
ferent populations of the various States.  While in the Territory of Utah,
under  the  influence of its peculiar  institutions, the ratio is 3.80 per cent,
in California it dwindles down to the insignificant one of 0.29 per cent.
     In this connection, the proportion which the females bear to the males, 
46                   RELATIVE PROPORTION  OF BIRTHS
and the  ages of the  former, is important.   These  proportions  are here

given.   For every hundred males  there are  in  the different States, of the

ages mentioned, the following number of females:—
States and Territories.
Alabama..........
Arkansas..........
California..........
Columbia, District of
Connecticut........
Delaware.........
Florida...........
Georgia...........
Illinois............,
Indiana...........
Iowa.............,
Kentucky.........,
Louisiana..........
Maine.............,
Maryland.........,
Massachusetts......,
Michigan
20 and un-	30 and un-	40 and un-
der 30.	der 40.	der 50.
98.2	84.6	85.8
87.1	73.8	74.3
3.5	4.5	6.0
112.1	97.0	99.1
99.4	96.7	101.6
99.7	97.3 '	94.9
78.0	65.9	67.9
97.0	90.9	92.4
88.8	79.1	80.5
92.5	86.7	90.9
93.6	76.7	76.6
92.5	85.2	88.7
79.9	54.8	54.4
93.8	93.5	94.9
95.0	90.5	92.0
106.4	96.5	99.8
89.7	81.9	76.2
86.9	74.5	77.1
States and Territories.
Missouri............
New Hampshire.....
New Jersey........
New York..........
North Carolina......
Ohio...............
Pennsylvania.......
Rhode Island.......
South Carolina......
Tennessee..........
Texas..............
Vermont...........
Virginia............
Wisconsin..........
     1 Minnesota..
Terri-  I New Mexico
tories.  j Oregon ....
     J Utah......
20 and nn
 der 80.
 85.7
102 5
102.2
 99.8
107.8
 94.1
 98.7
103.6
101.5
100.7
 74.8
 93.4
100.0
 82.5
 48.9
 99.1
 83.7
 70.4
0 and un
der 40.
 75.0
103.3
 95.5
 91.1
108.2
 88.8
 92.3
 98.6
 98.3
 98.4
 60.6
 97.4
 97.0
 71.4
 34.8
 80.8
 40.6
 78.5
40 and un-
 der 50.
 77.1
103.8
 93.9
 88.9
107.9
 87.4
 91.6
105.5
100.2
101.2
 62.9
 95.9
 96.2
 72.6
 45.1
 82.3
 47.0
 78.7
     This table furnishes a very satisfactory solution why a wide difference
in births should exist between Utah and California, the proportion of females
of  an age to adapt them for child-bearing being large in the former, while
it is insignificant in the latter.   In Utah, there are 101 females between the

ages of 15 and 20, 70 between 20 and 30,  78.5 between  30 and  40,  and

78.7  between 40 and  50, to every one hundred males;  while  in  Califor-
nia, there are but 19.1 between 15 and 20,  3.5  between 20 and  30, 4.5 be-
tween 30 and 40, and 6 between 40 and 50, to each one hundred males.

     A comparison of Utah, however, with some other sections of the Union,
as the District  of Columbia,  and the  States of  Massachusetts, New Hamp-

shire, North Carolina and Tennessee, shows it to possess a considerably less

proportional  number  of females of the ages above  indicated  than these

States.   In the  District of Columbia, the relative number of females included

in these ages is greater than in any other portion of the United States. 
IN DIFFERENT STATES.
47
     The number of births in the parts of the Union above indicated, do not
by any manner of  means maintain a ratio  corresponding to the number of
females;  those of  the  District of Columbia being  2.60 per cent;  of Mas-
sachusetts, 2.33; of New Hampshire, 1.92; of North Carolina, 2.87; and of
Tennessee, 3.02.
     The most recently settled Western States appear  to  be most  prolific.
Thus, the ratio of  births in Arkansas is 3.36 per cent. ;  in Illinois, 3.13 ;  in
Indiana, 3.27; in Iowa, 3.17;  in Missouri, 3.30 ; in Wisconsin, 3.41.  This
difference is doubtless  due to the  fact that a larger  proportional number of
females are joined in  wedlock,  in the Western  than the  Eastern States.
Unfortunately, the returns do not give the relation of the family to its head,
and it is consequently  impossible to ascertain, among  other important en-
quiries, the number of  those who are living in a single, married, or widowed
state, with any degree of certainty.  The inference, however, that  a larger
proportional number of persons  are married in  the Western than in the
Eastern States, is based upon tolerably authentic grounds,  and among others
upon results of the above table of births.
     European authorities,  when  instituting a comparison into the  relative
number  of births which  occur  among their own populations, are accus-
tomed to attach great importance to  the abundance  or scantiness of the
crops, and more especially to the wheat crop, as a cause  for  producing an
increased or diminished number of births among a given population.   Mr.
Milne, in his able work on  Annuities, has  given a table exhibiting the pro-
gress of  the population of Sweden and Finland, and  the character of the
crops from 1749  to 1803, a period of fifty-four  years,  for the purpose of
illustrating this point.   The table very clearly establishes that the ratio of
births to that of the population,  was not uniform, and that those  years in
which the least number took place, were those which followed a deficient
crop. 
48
PROPORTION  OF BIRTHS AFFECTED
     " It will be observed," remarks  Mr. Milne,  " that any material reduc-
tion in the price of wheat, is almost always  accompanied  by an  increase
both  of  marriages and conceptions,  and by a decrease in the number of
burials, consequently an increase in the excess of births over the deaths.
     "Also, that  any material  rise in the price is generally attended by a
corresponding decrease in the  marriages and conceptions, and by an in-
crease in the burials;  therefore,  by a decrease in the excess  of the births
above the deaths.
     " Thus it appears, that an increase in the quantity of food, or in the
facility wherewith the laboring classes can obtain  it, accelerates the popula-
tion, both by augmenting the actual fecundity,* and diminishing the rate of
mortality, and that a scarcity of food retards  the increase of the people by
producing in both ways opposite effects."
     With the view of further illustrating this proposition, Mr. Milne con-
structed  a table of the  numbers of the  marriages,  baptisms, and burials in
England and Wales, taken from the population  returns, with the price of
wheat, as given in the Appendix to  the Committee of the House  of  Com-
mons, and certified by the Receiver of  Corn Returns.
     "This  table also  shows, that  an increase of food increases the actual
fecundity, not only by promoting  new  marriages, but by rendering  those
already contracted more prolific.  Thus :—
There were in the year	Marriages.	Conceptions.	When the price of the quarter of Wheat was
1790 1792	70,648 74,919	255,508 264,028	£2 13 2 2 2 11
Differences..	4,271	8,520	£0 10 3
    * By the actual fecundity, that part only of the absolute physical power of propagation is here
to be understood which the actual circumstances allow of being developed." 
BY FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE SEASONS.
49
    Whereby it appears that a fall of 10s. 3d. in the price of the quarter
of wheat was attended by an increase of 4,271  in the number  of the annual
marriages,  while  the annual  conceptions were augmented by nearly twice
that number.  Again—
There were in the year	Marriages.	Conceptions.	When the price of the quarter of Wheat was
1795 1797	68,839 74,997	256,781 270,535	£3 14 2 2 13 1
Differences..	6,158	13,754	£111
    Where  the increase  of the conceptions,  accompanying the  fall  of
wheat, was more than double that of the marriages.*
    The reliability of the facts adduced by Mr. Milne, and the  correctness
of the reasoning based upon them, when applied to the populous communi-
ties of the Old World, do not admit of question.  They cannot, however, be
applied with equal force to  the inhabitants of the New, and especially to
that portion embraced within the limits of the United States, because, as it
has been already stated,  the crops are never so short in  any part of the
Union as to prove a cause of serious distress to the inhabitants.
    But notwithstanding the fact,  that there is no portion of the Union
where labor is not repaid by a sufficient remuneration to procure  an ample
supply of food, yet the facility  of obtaining  this in the newly-settled States,
is' so  much  greater than  in  the older, more especially where they contain
populous cities, as to  produce a decided impression  upon  the population
which inhabits them.
    Even among the humbler classes, who, by their numbers, exercise  a
preponderating influence over the movements  of  population,  and among

                         * Milne on Annuities, p.  390.
       6 
50
EFFECT OF GENEROUS DIET IN
whom adventitious wants may be easily laid aside, the assumption of. the
burden of a family becomes a subject of much more serious consideration
in the older States, where a large part of their earnings must necessarily be
expended in their maintenance, than in the new, where the necessaries of
life can be obtained upon the most reasonable terms.
     A very natural effect of these causes, is to increase the number of mar-
riages in the new States, and to render those already contracted  more  pro-
lific.   This  deduction would lead us to anticipate that  in any population
returns, a larger  number of births would  be recorded in the new States
which are affected by these influences, than in the old, where their effect is
either not felt, or if so,  in a diminished degree.
     It has been asserted that misery tends to the  contraction of frequent
and reckless marriages,  and consequently serves to swell the number of
births.  Ireland is often cited  in illustration  of the truth of this position.
A recent writer says : " That  the ignorance of artificial wants and the  des-
titute condition of the Irish,  are strongly conducive to early marriages. As
a natural consequence, there is hardly a peasant of twenty who is not married,
and invariably the greater the destitution of the people, the greater is the
rapidity with which they contract the marriage union."
     The Irish census of 1841 includes the  number  of married, unmarried,
and widowed persons of each age;  and so far  from establishing the  facts
above enunciated with such apparent confidence, proves that the number
of persons above the age of fifteen who are unmarried in Ireland, is greater
in proportion than in any country from which returns have been made, thus
confirming the position established by Nicander, Wargentin, Messance, and
Milne, and  other early statisticians, that  the increase in the number of
births is inseparably associated with a good harvest and a consequently fair
supply of food, and that the reverse of these  conditions tends to a diminu-
tion of their number. 
INCREASING THE RATIO OF BIRTHS.
51
     In Ireland, where, even before the taking of the census of 1841, plen-
tiful harvests  had  for  many years  been  far from frequent,  and after
proved the exception rather than the rule, a large proportion of  unmarried
persons might be expected.  The annexed tables, taken from the Registrar-
General's Report, furnish important data upon this point:—
Men.				
Ages.	Unmarried.	Married.	Widowers.	Total.
17-26 26-36 36-46 46-56 56	633,753 235,589 63,358 29,176 25,864	55,407 310,492 324,187 234,110 217,811	669 6,335 13,914 22,549 68,161	689,829 552,416 401,459 285,835 311,836
17 and upwards	987,740	1,142,007	111,628	2,241,375
17-46	932,700	690,086	20,918	1,643,704
Women.				
Women aged 15-45.	Estimated numbers in 1841.	Number who bore children in 1842.	Proportion of child-ren registered to 100 women.	Women to one birth nearly
Unmarried ....	1,733,576 2,078,078,	489,849 35,294	23.3 1.7	4 59
     By this report it appears that of the 689,829 males, between the ages
of 17 and 26, but 54,407 were married, and 633,753 were unmarried,—thus
disproving in the clearest manner the  general  allegation, that in  this im-
poverished country the rule is to contract early marriages.  Of the entire
male population, between the ages of 17 and 46, amounting to  1,643,704,
but 690,086 were married.
     Among the female portion of the population, between 15 and 45 years,
numbering 3,811,654,  but 1,733,576,  or  45.48 per cent  of  those  whose
age fitted them for procreation, were married. 
52
CONDITION OF THE IRISH
     It would be extremely desirable to ascertain  the  absolute effect pro-
duced by migration  from one county to another,  and  especially from  one
where the means of obtaining a livelihood were  precarious, to another,
where they could  be readily obtained.  It unfortunately happens that here
the census returns afford but slight information, and  even the registration
reports of the several States do not appear to cover this ground.
     Nothing is more marked than the change in the habits of the Irish
people, in relation to their  food upon  their arrival  in this country.   Dr.
Wilde, in his " Table of Deaths." which accompanied the census of Ireland,
of 1851, states,  " that the blight which recently fell upon the potato, pro-
duced a deadly famine,  because the people had cultivated it so extensively,
and  were  accustomed to  its use  almost  exclusively, and  when  it  failed
millions became as utterly destitute as if the  island were incapable of pro-
ducing  any other species of sustenance."   There  are  few, in the United
States, who do not so far abandon the exclusive use of the potato, to which
they were accustomed at home, as to make it an inconsiderable part of their
ordinary  meals, which  usually consist  of  an  intermixture of animal and
vegetable  food, of which latter the potato,  it  is true, forms a chief ingre-
dient  Bread is likewise partaken of freely by them, and is as extensively
used among the Irish as among the native population.
     It is not possible to conceive how a people, who were so much attached
to the use of the potato, that a revolution in diet  in this respect required
" even more  than the  stern necessity of want before  it could be accom-
plished, or any other description of food made palatable to them," should
so suddenly  and  generally  have abandoned  their  ancient  customs and
adopted a new diet, when the old one was easily obtained at reasonable rates.
    A remarkable feature in the population returns of Ireland, is the large
diminution of population which they exhibit between the census of 1841
and that of 1851. 
IN IRELAND  AND AMERICA.                      53
     According to the returns  of 1841, there were  4,019,576 males,  and.
4,155,548 females, or 8,175,124  inhabitants.   The returns of  1851 show
3,190,506 males, and 3,361,463  females, or 6,551,970 inhabitants, being a
decrease of 1,623,154 inhabitants in ten years.
     Mr. Thorn, in his Statistics of Ireland, thus accounts for this deficiency :
     " The  emigration of the United Kingdom  during the last five years
gives an annual average of 284,534 persons. If this emigration be analyzed,
the results as regards Ireland will be much more striking.   The decrease in
the population of Ireland between 1841 and 1851 was 1,623,154.  Assuming
that nine-tenths of the emigration from Liverpool during those ten years
was Irish, and adding thereto  the emigration direct from Ireland and in
ships chartered by the Land and  Emigration Commissioners, we  have  the
following result:—

      Nine-tenths of emigration from Liverpool ..............   813,844
      Emigration direct from Ireland .......................   441,237
      Irish in ships chartered by the Land and Emigration Board    34,052
            Total Irish emigration in the 10 years  ............ 1,289,133
      or more than three-fourths of the whole decrease.

     " In regard to the emigration of 1851, the Emigration Officer at Glas-
gow states that of 14,435 emigrants who sailed from the Clyde to America,
about one-third were Irish.  Proceeding then  in  regard to other places on
the same estimate, we should assume the Irish emigration of  1851 to have
been—
      Nine-tenths emigrants from  Liverpool....................185,414
      Emigrants direct from Ireland..........................  62,350
      One-third from Glasgow................................   4,811
      Emigrants to Australia  in  ships chartered  by the Land and
        Emigration Commissioners............................   4,797
Making a total of............................ 257,372 
54
CONDITION OF  THE IRISH
      " By the census return, the population of Ireland, on the 31st March,
 1851, amounted to 6,551,970.  Assuming that this population  were  in-
 creased  by births at the rate  of one per  cent, per annum, which (taking
 into  account the emigration) was  the  rate of increase between 1831  and
 1841, it would give an annual  addition of only 65,157.   The emigration,
 therefore, of  1851, while it nearly doubled the  estimated average emigra-
 tion  of the  preceding ten years,  exceeded any probable  increase of the
 population by nearly 4 to 1. But this calculation, unfavorable as it appears,
 is clearly below the truth; for the  classes that emigrate include a large pro-
 portion  of the  youngest, the  healthiest, and  most  energetic of the adult
 population, on which the excess of births over deaths mainly depends.   We
 should  be disposed to believe  that those who remain, including an unusual
 proportion of the old, the most feeble,  and most  destitute, do  not at the
 most do more than replace, by births, their losses by deaths.  If so, it would
 follow that the  annual decrease of the population in Ireland is not less than
 the annual amount of the emigration, and that unless the emigration be soon
 arrested,  the country  will be deserted by its original population.  The
 Colonial Land and Emigration  Commissioners,  in their twelfth report, state,
 that they do not believe that

    " ' The emigration will be arrested by anything short of a great improve-
 ment in the position of the laboring population in Ireland ; all those obstacles which
in ordinary cases would be opposed to so wholesale an emigration appear in the case
of the Irish to be smoothed away.  The misery which they have  for many years
 endured has destroyed the attachment  to  their  native soil; the  numbers who have
already emigrated and prospered remove the apprehension of going to a strange and
untried country, while the want of means is remedied by the liberal contributions of
their relations and friends who have preceded them.   The contributions  so made
either in the form of pre-paid passages or of money sent home, and which are almost
exclusively provided by the Irish, were returned to us, as in 
IN IRELAND AND AMERICA.
55
      1848, upwards of.....................................£460,000
      1849 ................................................  540,000
      1850 ................................................  957,000
  and 1851...............................................  990,000

   " ' And although it is probable that all the money included in these returns is not
expended in emigration, yet as we have reason to know that much is sent home  of
which these returns show no trace, it seems not unfair to assume that of the money
expended in Irish emigration in each of the last four years a very large proportion
was provided from the  other side of the Atlantic' "

     This large emigration,  together with the increased  mortality induced

by the famine, which reached its culminating point in 1847, affords a satis-

factory solution  for this remarkable deficiency—a large- proportion  of what

Ireland has  thus  lost in  population, the  United  States appears  to have

gained.

     The city of Boston has classified the nativities of the parents of the

children born within its jurisdiction.  Erom the returns of the City Regis-

trar, for 1855, the following table was compiled :—
     Birthplaces of Parents.


Boston  ...................
Massachusetts (out of Boston)
Maine...................
New Hampshire..........,
Vermont ................
Connecticut..............
Rhode Island.............
Other American States ....
England.................
Fathers.	Mothers.
369	430
467	408
288	330
251	190
89	62
26	23
13	28
134	122
221	165
     Birthplaces of Parents.


Scotland.....................
Ireland......................
France......................
Spain and Portugal ............
Germany and Northern Europe..
British American Provinces.....
Other Foreign Countries........
Unknown....................

  Totals....................
  78
3,019
  34
   4
 346
 221
  54
 152
  59
3,231
  23
   4
 273
 252
  29
 137
5,766
     This table exhibits a very large proportion of births among the foreign

population—the  greater  number of which were of Irish parentage, 3,019

fathers, and 3,231 mothers, or 50.30 per cent, of the whole  being emigrants

from that  country.  The  census of 1855  makes the  entire  population  of 
56
INCREASE OF  BIRTHS.
Boston 162,748 ;  which, with the ratio of births,  is distributed  in  Wards,
as follows :—
         Wards.                     Population.      Births.      Ratio.
           1.....................   19,264        764 as 1 to 25.21
          n.....................   15,963        715 " 1 " 22.32
         III.....................   13,175        469 " 1 " 28.09
         IV.....................    7,912        123 " 1 " 64.32
          Y.....................   10,428        340 " 1 " 30.67
         VI.....................   11,597        266 " 1 " 43.60
        VII.....................   18,430        750 " 1 " 24.57
        VIH.....................   12,690        434 " 1 " 29.24
         IX.....................    9,541        308 " 1 " 30.97
          X.....................   12,553        445 " 1 " 28.20
         XI.....................   13,264        511 " 1 " 25.96
        XII.....................   17,931        691 " 1 " 25.95
                                   162,748      5,816
     When compared with the returns of the Irish census, as just  noticed,
these statistics  lead to the irresistible conclusion,  that notwithstanding the
incidents of bad air, crowded lodgings,  and the privations attendant upon
emigration  among the poor, the physical  condition of  this people  is so
altered by emigration, as to render them much more prolific in this country
than in their own.   A high degree of prosperity however is not always evi-
denced by a great increase of births, because, among the  poor it frequently
occurs  that excessive mortality among  infants, by relieving the mothers of
their charge, predisposes to an increase of births.  In instituting a compari-
son, therefore, the rate of mortality among the young as well as the number
of births  should be taken into consideration.
     How much the habits of the Irish population of Boston predisposes to
infantile mortality may be  gleaned from a knowledge of the localities they
inhabit  The largest number of Irish are to be found in Ward No.  8, of the
old division.  " This  section of the city contains the least number of inhab- 
AMONG THE FOREIGN POPULATION.
57
ited houses, and at the same time the greatest number of persons to a house,
there being an avarage 21.18 individuals to each house.   Two houses in the
ward contain  19 families each; five houses were occupied by 10 families
each;  fourteen by 9  families  each;  thirty-two by 8; and fifty-six by  7
families each."
     Most of the apartments thus occupied are illy ventilated, and many are
underground  or cellar dwellings, where the  needy occupants in addition to
a depraved air,  are subjected to the evils incident to poverty which, under
the best circumstances, is accompanied by its train of privations.
     From these facts  it is reasonable to conclude, that the infantile  mor-
tality in this ward is much greater than in those portions of the city where
the inhabitants are better provided with airy and wholesome dwellings.  As
will hereafter be seen, the early mortality of children of foreign  parentage
greatly exceeds that occurring among  those born of native  parents,  and
largely contributes to swell the infantile mortality, which  characterizes the
mortuary records of the  chief towns in the United States.
7 
58
RECORD OF  BIRTHS
                            CHAPTER VI.

               RECORD OF BIRTHS IN THE SEVERAL STATES.

     The reports of Massachusetts which now contain the results of up-
wards of fourteen years of registration, furnish very authoritative data, so
far as the  movements of population in  that State are concerned.  They
reflect high credit upon the State under whose  auspices they  were pro-
duced, and the gentlemen engaged in  their elaboration.   These reports
furnish  conclusive  evidence of  the  manner in  which the population is
affected by a large increase of foreign immigration, and its diffusion among
its population.   Of all the births and marriages which have occurred since
1849, in Boston, Lowell, Fall River, Lawrence, and perhaps other populous
towns, the  proportion of the foreign to the native, has been as two of the
former to one of the latter.
     The ratio of increase has steadily been in favor of the  foreign births.
The  counties most affected in this particular are  those within whose limits
are centered most of the manufacturing establishments of the State, which
are very numerous, and give employment to a  large number of workmen.
In these establishments, in one capacity or another, employment is obtained
by a large number of persons of foreign birth, and hence the  influence exer-
cised over  the movements of population.  In  those  rural districts where 
IN MASSACHUSETTS.
59
manufacturing establishments do not exist, this influence is not felt.   Thus,
in the three counties of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket, which are  essen-
tially agricultural, the foreign population does not exceed ten per cent, of
the whole.
     The ultimate effect of this extensive immigration upon the future con-
dition of the State, considered in a social or political point of view, how-
ever interesting  to  the political economist, lies beyond the limits of the
present enquiry,  which is necessarily confined to its effect upon the increase
or decrease of population, and the influence  it exercises  in elevating or
depressing its physical standard.
     The first registration report of Rhode Island gives the following  as the
number of births which occurred in the  year ending 31st May, 1853.   Of
American  parentage, 874.   Foreign, 663.   Unknown, 322.  Total,  1859.
Of which 1810 were white and 49 colored.
     The  entire population of the State in 1850,  was 147,549.   A large
number of districts failed to make the  necessary returns, deducting those
which failed from the population, it would leave 96,373 as the portion
among whom the 1859 births occurred which have been recorded, being 1
to 51.84 of the inhabitants.  The census returns estimate 3,610 as the num-
ber of births for 1850,  which is a much more probable  number  than that
given by the State authorities.
     The  second  and third Registration Reports of this State are much more
exact and reliable than the first.   The number of births, according to these
returns, in
             1853 was................................... 1793
             1854 "   ................................... 2105
             1855  "   ................................... 2926

     " We cannot," adds the report, " estimate accurately the proportion of 
60
RECORD  OF BIRTHS
 births to population.   The city of Providence stands  in this respect on a
 wholly different footing from  other places, the city being canvassed for this
 particular purpose, by inquiries from house to house.  The  births for 1855
 were ascertained in January, 1856.  The average monthly number was 133,
 or nearly twenty in a  month  more than were reported in  previous years.
 They were  one to every thirty of the inhabitants of the city, by the census
 of 1855.
     " In the city of Providence, there  were 720 children born in the first
 six months  of  the  year, and 880 in the last six months.  This difference is
 wholly in the  births of children of  foreign  parentage.  ' The children of
 American parents born were, during the first six months, 319,  and during the
 last six months, 320, showing  no  difference of any consequence in the sea-
 sons; while the children born of foreign parents, were 358 during the first,
 and 497 during the last six months of the year,—a difference of 139.  The
 children of mixed  parentage  are omitted.'   This difference is ascribed to
 the depressed  condition of public health  during a large part of-the year
 1854, in the summer  months of which  there  was a  great increase of mor-
 tality, mostly from cholera.  This increased mortality was almost confined
 to the foreign population.  ' We have in this fact another illustration of the
 disastrous effects of an epidemic upon the prosperity of a community, and
 of the  importance of sanitary precautions.  An epidemic not only destroys
 the lives of the people, but also reduces the number of children born.'
    " In other parts of the State, there were but sixty more births reported
 as occurring in the last than in the first six months of the year.
    " The parentage of  children born is exhibited, in the tables for 1854
 and 1855, in a somewhat different manner  from that which was adopted
previously.  The cases of < mixed' parentage,—where one parent was Ame-
rican, and the other foreign—are distinguished from others.   We will show,
in a concise  form, the births for these two years arranged under three heads, 
IN RHODE  ISLAND.
61
American, Foreign, and Mixed.   Those of unknown parentage are omitted
in casting the percentages :—
	American.		Foreign.		Mixed.		Unknown.	Total.	
	No.	Percent.	No.	Per cent.	No.	Per cent.	No.	No.	Per cent.
Newport County .... Towns of Prov. Co... Washington County..	238 108 477 328 1266 132	75.08 70.29 77.56 62.71 42.83 80.00	57 60 113 181 1512 29	17.98 25.11 18.37 34.61 51.15 17.58	22 11 25 14 178 4	6.94 4.60 4.07 2.68 6.02 2.42	65 50 24 60 5 12	382 289 639 583 2961 177	100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
Whole State......	2609	54.18	1952	40.54	254	5.28	216	5031	100.00
     " It may be desirable to compare the proportions for the two years
together, and also with the results obtained in Massachusetts within a few
years past, which will be seen to correspond very closely with our own :—
	Rhode	Island.	Massachusetts.
1854.		1855.	1853-1854.
54.71 40.59 4.70		53.82 40.50 5.68	54.53 40.63 4.84
100.00		100.00	100.00
     " The proportion of births of purely foreign parentage in Rhode Island
is almost precisely the same  in  the two years; but there is an increase of
about one per cent, in the ratio of mixed parentages.   Of these, 124 in the
two years were of American fathers and foreign mothers, and 130 were the
converse.   In the two years taken together, the births of American father
and foreign mother, form 2.58 per cent, those of foreign father and Ameri-
can mother form 2.70 per cent, of the whole number.
American
Foreign .
Mixed___
Total. 
62
RELATIVE PROPORTION  OF BIRTHS
     " As stated in our former report, the births of foreign parentage are in
much higher proportion than were the foreign-born  population, at the time
of the last census.  In 1850, the foreign-born inhabitants were not quite
one-sixth of all in the State,—16.17 to 100.   In the years 1854 and 1855,
the children  born of foreign parentage were full two-fifths (40.54 to 100)
of all those born in the  State, whose  parentage was reported.   This great
difference is almost exactly the same as mentioned in our last report  It is
probably made up of two elements, the increased proportion of foreign-born
inhabitants since  1850, and  their being actually more productive for their
number.   This last circumstance may depend in part on physical and social
differences; and in part on the higher proportion of individuals in the early
adult age.   Such a characteristic may be expected among a class formed by
large immigration of persons of both sexes.
     "The births of foreign parentage in 1854 and  1855, were in higher
ratio than the foreign inhabitants in 1850, in every county; the ratio being
more than twice as high  in Providence city and Washington county, and
more than three times as high in Kent county.
     " In the city of Providence, we can compare the births of each class
with the population by the census of 1855.   In so doing, we will quote
from  the City Registrar's  Report: ' The  population  of the city, according
to parentage,  by  the  census of  1855,  was, American,  27,897,  Foreign,
19,432 ;  but  the  children born during the  same year, if we put those of
mixed parentage according to the birth-place of the father, were, American,
685, Foreign, 915, showing an excess of 230  children of foreign parents.
Comparing the births with the population, the results are asfollows :—

American population..  58.94 per cent.  American children horn.. 42.81 per cent.
Foreign population.... 41.06 per cent.  Foreign children horn___57.19 per cent.' 
AMONG NATIVE AND FOREIGN POPULATION.
63
     " The births of American parentage in the city were one to 40.7 of the
American-born inhabitants; the births  of foreign  parentage were one in
21.2 of the foreign-born inhabitants.  The  births of mixed parentage are
here classed according to the birth-place of  the fathers.   It appears, then,
that in the city of Providence, the imported population  are  very nearly
twice as productive, for their number, as the native."
     The population of Rhode  Island is largely engaged in manufacturing,
and it is  highly  probable that the same  influences are  at work as are
developed by the admirable statistics of Massachusetts, in that State.   The
percentage of foreign to the whole, is nearly 16  per cent., and but little
short of that of Massachusetts.   Of the entire foreign  population of the
State, 23,111 in number, 21,434 are from Great Britain and Ireland, 15,944
being from Ireland alone.   The larger  proportion of these are  centered in
towns and about the manufacturing establishments.
     The registration returns of Connecticut for six years, give the number
of births for each year consecutively, as follows :—
1848 ........  6,850
1849 ........  7,238
1850 ........7,578
1851 ........ 8,362
1853 .........  8,302
1854 ........  8,439
     The ratio of births to the population in 1850,  was one in each forty-
five of the inhabitants.   The census returns estimate the number of births in
1850 at  7,646, which varies  but little from the registration returns.   No
record is made of the parentage  of those who are born, and consequently
no comparison can be instituted.
     From the returns of New Jersey, it would appear that the number of
births in 1854 were less than in 1850—the census returns of that year enume-
rating 13,556 births, while  the registration returns for 1854, give a total of
but 12,602 births for that year.  The registration report does not include the 
64
REASONS FOR GREATER FECUNDITY
number  of births in the whole State, as thirty-seven townships scattered
through  the various counties are noted as not making any return whatever,
or omitting the number  of births.  By deducting the population of these
townships  from that of the whole State, a tolerable approximation to the
truth may be obtained.
     The registration reports  of Kentucky, for  1852 and 1853, which are
more reliable than those of any other State, except Massachusetts, show
that the number of births in Kentucky in 1852, was 25,906, and in 1853,
26,757.  The number returned in 1850, by the census, was 23,805.
     The various statistics of births derived from all sources, give an aggre-
gate  ratio  of one birth  to  each  thirty-five  of the inhabitants.   That  the
number  has been considerably under-estimated, does not admit of doubt.
Many instances of carelessness and omission have already come to light,
and how  many remain undetected can never, in all probability, be ascertained.
      There are  reasons  why  the United  States  should exhibit a large
number of births, instead of the small one indicated by  the returns.   The
argument already adduced,  that a plentiful  supply of food and  fecundity,
go  hand in hand, should operate with peculiar force, in  the case of the
population  of this country.   As  its supply of food is  superabundant, so
should the increase of its population by birth be great.  Again, the number
of children, under one year  of age, in 1850, was 629,446.  Now, when the
large number of  deaths which  occur  in  the  first  year are taken into con-
sideration, it becomes obvious that a larger proportion of births must have
occurred than are represented by the records, in order to admit of the ex-
istence of this population.
     There  are two sources  from which a population may derive increase,
one by birth, and another by immigration. Allowing the full latitude to the
capacity of the latter, which has been assigned to  it by Professor Tucker, 
IN NEW  THAN OLD COUNTRIES.
65
Mr. Chickering and others, it still requires a larger  increase by births than
one in thirty-five, to account for the increase of the population of the whole
country, admitting the ratio of deaths to approximate  the per centage pre-
viously assigned to them.
     The annual average births in the principal countries of Europe are  de-
tailed in the annexed table :—
	Annual Bieths to 100 Pebsons Living.			Persons Living to one Annual Birth.
	Legitimate.	Illegitimate.	Both.	
	2,632 2,992 3,507 3,452	.205 .216 .260 .422	2,837 3,208 3,767 3,874 4,284	35
				31
				27
				26
				23
				
     While the number in England reaches 1 in 31, in Prussia 1 in 27, in
Austria 1 in 26, and in Russia 1 in 23, there appears to exist no cause why
in the United States, where the increase in population is so much  greater
than any of these countries, the number of births should  be but 1 in 35.
     Now all those who were  under one  year of  age,  at the taking of the
census in 1850, must have been born within the  twelve  months preceding.
If to the 629,446 persons below the  age of one  year there enumerated,  be
added twenty per  cent for  loss by deaths, which corresponds  tolerably
well with the Massachusetts returns,  the number born in that year would
have been  755,336, or one to each thirty inhabitants, a number nearly cor-
responding to that of England,  and much more in accordance  with the
ratio of increase of population than the estimate of births heretofore given.
     It  is rendered obvious,  by a comparison of the relative proportion  of
births  in different parts of the  country, that the same  causes which have
been found to exercise an influence in the increase or diminution of their
        8 
66
BIRTHS IN THE UNITED STATES.
numbers in other countries, operate with equal force  in  this,  and if the
causes to which reference has been made be  found to  produce results in
obedience to acknowledged laws, when applied to a  comparison of one
section with another, there is no reason for not admitting their application,
when making a comparison of  the country with other countries as a whole.
     With the view of ascertaining the  natural increase of the whole popu-
lation by birth, Professor Tucker instituted a comparison between the white
females in the several States, as returned by each census, and the number of
children under ten years of age.
     An examination of  the percentage  of  births is given by Professor
Tucker, while it  clearly  demonstrates  a gradual falling off of the whole
number, as compared with the existing population, at the  same time shows
a much greater number than one birth to each thirty-five inhabitants, after
making a proper  deduction  for loss by deaths in the early periods of life.
These results, so far from exciting surprise, are precisely what might  have
been  anticipated in a new country whose  increase of population has  been
rapid, and a considerable portion of whose territory has  within the  memory
of those now living been converted from a wilderness into well  peopled
districts, covered  with cultivated  fields, and  considerable towns.   In the
earlier period of these settlements experience demonstrates that the number
of married persons is more numerous, and the  proportion of births greater,
than at a later period, when  questions of prudence  operate in retarding
marriage, and diminishing the relative number of births. 
PROPORTION OF  THE SEXES.
67
                           CHAPTER  VII.

                 PROPORTION  OF THE  SEXES AT BIRTH.

    The proportion of the sexes at birth would appear to be regulated by
some  general  law, which operates with tolerable uniformity in giving  a
slight preponderance to the male over the female births.  Although this
proportion is nearly the same in all countries and at remote periods of time,
yet it is liable  to a slight variation, which manifests itself in every return of
births, so that  it rarely happens that two  returns exhibit the  same relative
number of male and  female births.
    The reason for the want of uniformity in  returns apparently collected
under like circumstances, and yet which approach so nearly as to produce
an admirable equipoise among the sexes,  is among the questions  for which
no satisfactory solution has been offered.
    Dr. Curtis, in the eighth registration report of Massachusetts, has given
a table comprising the number of births  which occurred in that common-
wealth,  for  the five  years intervening  between  January 1st,  1845,  and
January  1st,  1850, with the months in which they  took place, and the
number  of  male  and female births.   This  table,  which embraces 92,272
births, is appended :— 
68
PROPORTION OF  THE
	Whole Number.		Sex.		Proportion.		Females in
Months.		Males.	Females.	Unknown.	Males.	Females.	Males.
	7478 7533 83 5 2 7920 6804 6934 7804 8267 8251 7974 7446 7509	3833 3817 4283 4030 3552 3565 3918 4225 4136 4115 3899 3855	3572 3640 3977 3771 3194 3306 3833 3992 4053 3791 3499 3586	73 76 92 119 58 63 53 50 62 68 48 68	51.76 51.18 51.85 51.66 52.66 51.81 50.22 51.44 52.18 52.06 52.70 51.81	48.24 48.82 48.15 48.34 47.34 48.19 49.78 48.56 47.82 47.94 47.30 48.19	9319
							9558
							9286
							9357
May..................							8989
							9301
							9910
							9440
							9164
							9208
							8975
							9301
							
Total...........	92,272	47,228	44,214	830	51.65	48.35	9362
							
     In  the  fourteenth registration report  of Massachusetts,  Dr.  Shurtleff
has given a table containing the births for five years, ending with 1855,
which is also appended :—
Sex.	1850.	1851."	1852.	1853.	1854.	1855.	Aggregate.	Per Centage.
	14.137 13,392 135	14,949 13,613 119	15,246 14,432 124	15,798 14,965 157	16,352 15,469 176	16,785 15,888 172	93,267 87,759 833	51-33
								48 16
								51
								
Totals..................	27,664	28,681	29,802	30,920	31,997	32,845	181,909	100 00
								
       The construction of these tables  is different, and intended to answer
•  different questions, yet they both reply to the one which is  propounded to
  them as to the relative proportion of the sexes at birth.
       Together they embrace the record of 274,181 births, and extend over a
  period of eleven years.  It will be seen, that in obedience to the law already
  spoken  of, the number of male births  is  invariably in the  preponderance,
  and  in   correspondence  with  the law  of  variation, the  relative  pro-
  portion  of  the two sexes is never in any two returns alike.  Of the 92,272 
SEXES AT BIRTH.
69
births included in Dr. Curtis's table, 47,228 were males, and 44,214 females.
This gives the relative proportion of  107 males to 100 females, but during
the last two years the males bore the  proportion of 108 to 100 females.  In
the year 1850, the excess of male births was 745 ; in 1851,1,336 ;  in 1852,
814; in 1853, 833; in 1854, 883; and in  1855,  897.  Thus the relative
proportion of the sexes  within certain limits  is ever varying—the year
1849, which had an excess of 1,066 male births was succeeded by a year in
which they had declined to 745,  and this again was succeeded  by one in
which they had risen to 1,336.
     Dr. Curtis separated the births  which  occurred  in town in the year
1849, from those which  took place  in rural districts, with the following
result :—
                                                   City.      Country.
      Males         .......5,344  ..   7,985
      Females       .......5,106  ..   7,167
      Unknown.......       16  ..    155
                  Total        .    ...    .    .    10,466  ..  15,307
      Proportion of Females in each  10,000 Males  .    9,555  ..   8,976
     This table  shows,  that while the percentage  of male births in the
country was 52.70, it had declined in town to 51.14, or 1.56 per cent  less
than in  the country.  The- division  denominated  " city,"  contained  nine
cities and three towns, having over 10,000 inhabitants  each.
    The 1859 births, which are noted in the registration returns of Rhode
Island, for the year 1853,  are divided into 942 males,  899 females, and 18
unknown, being in the ratio of 104 males to  100 females.   It may be noted
as a curious circumstance, that of the  thirty-nine births occurring in Provi-
dence county among the colored inhabitants, but seventeen were males, and
twenty-two were  females.  The  preponderance  of all the births in  the
county,  however, was in favor of the  males. 
70
PROPORTION  OF THE
     Of those which took place in 1854, 1081 were males, 1003 females, and
21 are unknown; and of those which occurred in 1855, 1492 were males,
1421 females, and 13 of unknown sex.
     "  The number of males born," adds  the  report, " in all our returns,
exceeds that of females, in  the proportion of a little  more than four and
four-tenths per cent.*   An excess  of male over  female births is generally
found in prosperous communities.   It is  a remarkable  fact,  one which we
may be happy that the information now before  us  gives us  no means of
illustrating, that periods of general calamity are followed by a lessened pre-
ponderance  in  the number of male births, or even an excess of  females.
Thus it has been observed that children born nearly a year after the preva-
lence of epidemic cholera, in Philadelphia and  also in  Paris, twenty-five
years ago, show a preponderance of female births.  On the other hand, the
favorable circumstances of  plentiful food, pure  air, wholesome and sufficient
occupation, without overworking,—all have been found to increase  the  pro-
portion of male births.  In this point of  view,  our  returns  are not  very
favorable indications of the state of our people.  In Massachusetts, for the
five years, 1849-1853,  the excess of male births was about seven per cent.
In  Philadelphia,  according to Dr. Gouverneur Emerson,  who has directed
particular attention to this point, it is about 7 per cent. ;  in England, about
5;  in  France and Prussia, about  7 ; while ' in  the  rural districts of the
United States, and especially in the newest settlements,' it is supposed to be
not less than 10  per cent.   We trust that fuller returns will enable  this
State to make a more favorable show ; and we  note this comparison, not to
throw  a slur on the manly force of our State,  but to provoke, if possible,
more exact  attention hereafter to  this inquiry, which is considered one of
the tests by which the  welfare of a community  may be judged, f

               *  That is, for every 1000 females, about 1044 males were born.
                      f 2d Registration Report Rhode Island, p.  16. 
SEXES AT BIRTH.
71
     The number of births in the City of Providence for 1856 was 1675, of
which 891 were males, and 784 females.   The proportion was one birth to
29.3 inhabitants.
     " The proportion of the sexes shows a remarkable increase  in the rela-
tive number of males, being  53.19 males and  46.81 females in  each  100
children born, or 113.6 males to 100 females.  In  the  State of Massachu-
setts, during six years  from  1849-54 inclusive, the proportion was 51.37
males,  and  48.12 females in each  100 children born, and in the State of
Rhode  Island  for the  year  1855, the proportions were, males 51.22  per
cent, females 48.78 per cent, or 105 males to 100  females.
     " Bearing  in mind the proposition stated in last year's report, that ' the
proportion of the sexes at birth depends upon the location,  occupation, and
sanitary condition of a community, the proportion of males being greatest
where all circumstances are  most favorable  to health and  prosperity,' the
proportions for the year 1856, would indicate an unusually healthy condi-
tion of the city.
     " The proportion of the sexes born in Providence during two years was:
          " In 1855, males  50.44 per cent.; females 49.56 per cent.
            In  1856, males 53.19 per cent.; females 46.81 per cent."*
     The table  of births for the State of New Jersey, already given, divides
the sexes into 6,153 males, 5,646 females,  and 803  not  designated, or 108
male to 100 female births.
     The number of births returned  under the registration system of Vir-
ginia for 1853, was 31,518, divided as follows:
            Males,........16,180
            Females,.......14,160
            Unknown,     .......   1,178
                Total,.......31,518
* 2d Report of E. M. Snow, M. D., Registrar of Providence. 
72
PROPORTION  OF THE
     Or in the proportion of 114 males to 100 female births.  The returns
embrace the  births in 114  out  of 137 counties,  leaving 23 counties from
which returns were not received.  The births embraced in the census report
for 1850, were 25,153.   A comparison with this return renders it  probable
that  the number of births returned by the 114 counties in 1853 is  tolerably
accurate.
     From the returns of Kentucky the following table is deducted :—
         Births in                 1852.
        Males,    .   .    .    13,625
        Females,    .    .      12,109
        Unknown,     .          172
           Total,   .    .    .    25,906

     A very remarkable feature connected with the returns of births in Vir-
ginia and Kentucky is the large preponderance of male  over female births.
It unfortunately happens that no returns are made by other neighboring
States  by which to institute a  comparison.   There are some reasons for
placing reliance  upon the accuracy of these returns so far as they have been
rendered.  The inhabitants of both of these States are, for the most part, en-
gaged in agricultural pursuits, the number of manufacturies and  populous
towns  being comparatively small, and the residents of  the country greatly
preponderating over those of towns.   Agriculture in these States,  as indeed
in all southern States, is  considered a dignified occupation, while commerce
and the mechanic arts are deemed ignoble.   The direct  effect of  this state
of things is to entice  into  the  pursuit of agriculture the most intelligent
and cultivated class of the  community and to leave in  town those who are
least so.
     There  is consequently scattered over every portion of Virginia and
Kentucky  an agricultural  population of high  intelligence, who are the
 1853.       Males to 100 Females.
13,027          112
11,805          110
  173
25,005 
SEXES AT BIRTH.
73
patrons of the humbler classes surrounding them, and take great interest in
the most minute details of their daily concerns.   An individual engaged in
collecting statistical information among such a population as has been de-
scribed,  would find  no difficulty in obtaining the  facts from those whose
opinions were entitled to confidence.
     From  this it would appear extremely probable,  that the sex in the
cases of reported births, was correctly ascertained.   But the wide disparity
in the  proportion of the sexes at birth, observed in Kentucky in  the two
years of registration,  being  no less than two per  cent., together with the
great difference, existing between this State and Virginia, as compared with
the more northern States, where births  have been recorded, as indeed with
the observations of the European States, would lead to the belief that some
error existed which time and careful scrutiny may hereafter develope.
     The city of Charleston,  in South Carolina, while taking a census in
1848, obtained by the personal enquiries of its agents the number of births
which had occurred in the year for which the census was taken, the results
of which are as follows:—
Wards.	WHITES.			SLAVES.			FREE COLORED		
									
	Males.	Females.	Totals.	Males.	Females.	Totals.	Males.	Females.	Totals.
1	40	30	70	44	44	88	4	2	6
2	45	49	94	78	61	139	10	7	17
3	70	76	146	50	45	95	4	7	11
4	74	81	155	86	76	162	13	9	22
Total....	229	236	465	258	226	484	31	25	56
     As the facts here exhibited are somewhat curious, it has been  deemed
advisable to allow the report from which they are taken to explain them for
itself.   It may be proper to remark, that the census report and accompany-
        9 
74                       BIRTHS IN CHARLESTON.
ing tables were prepared by Dr. J. L. Dawson, who has for many years held
the post of City Register,  and  as  such has prepared  the yearly bills of
mortality, and  Dr.  H. W. De Saussure, editor of the Southern Journal of
Medicine and Pharmacy.
     " The proportion which the male bear to the female births, in each class
of the population, appears from the following table :—
Male,
Female,
 WHITES.
      i
Births.
 229
 236
465
      Proportion.
49.24=97.00 : or 100.
50.76 100.    to 103.00
100.00
Male,
Female,
 SLAVES.
Births.              Proportion.
 258        53.31=100.00 : or 112.03
 226        46.69   87.58 to 100.
484
1000.00
Male,
Female,
FREE COLORED.
  Births.              Proportion.
.   31        55.36=100.  : or 124.01
   25        44.64    80.63 to  100.
56
100.00
     "It appears that during the  year 1848, the male births among  the
white population were less by 3 per cent, than the female.   This must be
considered an exceptional year in this respect, for in almost all years in
which enumerations of the population have been made, the  males have
exceeded the females, and a reference to the subject of ' public health' will
show that the male deaths exceed the female.  As  there are  no other years,
however, with which the births can be compared,  the present proportions 
MALE  AND FEMALE POPULATION.
75
must remain, to be corrected by future observations.   Among the slave and
free colored population, the male  exceed the female births  by 13, and 20
per  cent. ; there must, however,  be a greater mortality of males  in these
classes at the early ages than of the females—for at  10 years the females
exceed the males among the slaves, and  the  female free colored exceed the
males at all ages."*
     With the exception of the births of the  white population of Charleston,
which may be looked upon  as  an anomaly,  and not in conformity  with
the  laws  which regulate the proportion  of the # sexes in that city even,
all  the records  adduced  show  a  preponderence of  male  over female
births  sufficient,  notwithstanding the higher rate of mortality prevailing
among the male sex,  to give  them a slight advantage in numbers in each
section of the  country except the  New England States,  where  the female
population is in excess, as will be seen by the following table:—
   Geographical Divisions.         Males.
New England,.....1,346,680
Middle States,   ....   3,186,102
Southern States,  ....  1,154,010
South-Western States  .  .   1,069,991
North-Western,   ....  3,135,333
Territories and California,  .   134,286

     Whether the ratio of  increase and mortality,  with  slight variations, is
uniformly the same  under all varieties of climate, temperature, and  indi-
vidual relations, or whether the male sex is exposed under some circum-
stances to a higher rate of mortality than the female,  and the equality is
maintained  by an increased relative number of male births, are questions
which  the statistics of the United States at  present collected, do not afford
a solution for.   Those of the different countries of Europe, although extend-
Females.	Proportion of females to 100 males.
1,358,415	100.87
3,112,945	97.70
1,137,156	98.54
980,791	91.66
2,888,030	92.11
49,329	36.73
* Census of Charleston, page 181. 
 76                       HOFACKER AND SADLER

 ing over a greater length of time, and possessing more exactness, are neces-
 sarily limited as to their range of climate, and could not answer this enquiry
 as  satisfactorily as those of the  United States, if they were equally exten-
 sive and reliable.
     But whether the laws  which regulate  the relative proportion of the
 sexes at birth, in old and new countries, in hot and temperate latitudes, in
 town and country, be diverse or the same, as an element of information and
 a  matter for curious  speculation it furnishes one of the most  important
 enquiries connected with  births,  and is absolutely indispensable to a just
 estimate of population.
     " Taking the average  of the whole of Europe," says  Dr. Carpenter,
 "the proportion is about 106 males to 100 females.  It is curious, however,
 that this proportion is considerably  different for legitimate and illegitimate
 births, the  average of the  latter being 102£ to 100, in places where the
 former was 105f to 100.  This is probably to be accounted  for by the fact,
 which is one of the most remarkable contributions  that has  yet been made
 by  statistics to physiology, that the sex of the offspring is influenced by the
 relative ages  of the parents.   The  following table  expresses the average
 results obtained by M. Hofacker, in Germany, and by Mr. Sadler, in Britain,
 between which it will be seen there is a manifest correspondence, although
both were drawn from too limited a series of  observations.   The numbers
indicate  the  proportion  of male births to  100  females under the several
conditions mentioned in the first column:
                             Hofacker.
Father younger than mother,  .   .  90.6
Father and mother of equal age,  .  90.0
Father older hy  1 to 6 years,  .  103.4
  "    "    "  6 to 9  "   .   . 124.^
  "    "    "  9 to 18  "     !  143.7
  "    "    " 18 and more,  .    200.0
                               Sadler.
Father younger than mother,  .     86.5
Father and mother of equal age, .   94.8
Father older by  1 to 6 years, .    103.7
  "    "    "6 to 11  «   .  .   126.7
  "    "    " 11 to 16  "    .    147.7
.  "    "    " 16 and more,   .   163.2 
UPON  THE SEXES AT BIRTH.
77
     From this it appears, that the more  advanced  age of the male parent
 has a very decided influence in occasioning a preponderance in the numbers
 of male infants, and as the state of society generally involves a condition of
 this kind in regard to marriages, whilst in the case of illegitimate children
 the same does  not hold good,  the difference in the proportional  number
 of male births is accounted for.   We are not likely to obtain data equally
 satisfactory in regard to the influence of more advanced  age on the part of
 the female parent  as a difference of 10 or 15  years on that side is not so
 common.  If it existed to the same extent, it is probable that the same law
 would he found to prevail in regard to female children born  under such
 circumstances as has  been stated with regard to the  male ;—namely, that
 the mortality is  greater during embryonic life and early infancy, so that the
 preponderance is reduced."*
     A question akin to the one  just  discussed,  and indeed  necessarily
 linked with it is, that  of  the  proportion of still-born to those  who  survive
 and the relative proportion of the sexes among them.   In regard to both
 the absolute number of still-born and their  relative division into sexes the
 returns are exceedingly  incomplete.  The  State of Massachusetts is  now
 enabled  to furnish  the most  complete  records, but even among  the or-
 dinarily  exact statistics of that  State, in  a  very large proportion of cases,
the sex of the still-born  child has been  overlooked.
    During  the five years, 1849-53, in which  142,830 living births  are
recorded, there occurred  2,618  still-born cases,  of  which 827 were males
and 574 females, and  1,217 where sex is not  designated:—
               ■n   ,v  „           Still-born.        Proportion of Still-born
               Born Allva                            to each 10,000.
               142,830            2,618              180
    " It has been a subject of complaint  in  nearly every report,  that suffi-

                         * Carpenter's Physiology, p. 1014. 
78
NUMBER OF  STILL-BORN
 cient pains have not been taken in  ascertaining the sex and other particu-
 lars relating to stillborn  children.  A very little labor would ensure  more
 accurate returns than are now had on this particular, which is of consider-
 ably more  importance  in vital  and mortuary statistics  than is generally
 attributed to it by those who  have little  or no interest in investigations of
 this sort.  As far as results have been obtained that can be relied upon, it is
 very certain that the prevailing  sex  in this Commonwealth has been males.
 It is hoped that future abstracts Avill  show that more regard  is beginning to
 be felt on this subject of statistical  inquiry."*
     The returns from Virginia show  the following results :—
              Born Alive.           Still-born.           Proportion of  Still-born
                                                     to each 10,000.
               31,518              836                   268
     The registration report  of Kentucky  for  1852,  contains,  in round
 numbers, 800 cases of still-born children.   The  report,  in alluding to this
 portion of the return remarks,  that the  still-born certainly appear to be in
 large proportion—no less than  3.09 per cent, of all the births.   This may be
 so, yet  there is reason  to believe that it is too large, because a number of
 children are returned as still-born who have names.   There is  reason to
 believe that  a  number of assessors  mistook the precise import of the terms
 "alive" and  " dead," and returned as dead those which were dead at the
time of making the assessment, f
     The number of still-born returned for 1853,  is 633 ; of which 467 were
whites and 166 colored:—
                                      Still-born        Proportion of Still-born
                                                       to each 10,000.
                                        467               228
                                        166               313
	Born Alive.
Whites, .	. . 19,796
Colored,	. . 5,209
Total  .  .   .  25,005           633
252
* 14th Registration Report for Massachusetts, p. 192.
t Registrar Report for Kentucky for 1852, page 105. 
TO THE LIVING  BIRTHS.                          79
                       SEX OF STILL-BORN.
                      Males.       Females.
White,.....270         191
Colored,    ....    90          72
Unknown,	Total
6	467
4	166
Total,
360
263
10
633
     For the purpose of enabling a comparison to be instituted between the
relative  proportion of still-born to the living births in this country and
Europe, the following tables have been introduced.
ABSTRACT OF THE BIRTHS IN PRUSSIA,  FRANCE, SAXONY AND BELGIUM.
Births.
Prussia (1820-34)—Males,......3,906,544
Females,
Total,
* France (1842.)—Males,
                 Females, .
      Total,   ....

t Austria (1834-7-9.)—Males,
                      Females,
      Total,    .    .  ■   .

% Saxony (1832-41.)—Males,
                    Females,
                        Total,

§ Belgium (1842.)—Males,
                  Females,
                     Total,   .
3,686,473
Still-born.
147,705
109,363
7,593,017	257,063
506,309	17,969
. 476,587	12,397
982,896	30,366
1,259,372	
1,189,627	
2,448,999	30,147
338,239	17,618
317,102	12,839
. 655,341	30,457
70,676	3,196
. 67,459	2,336
138,135
5,532
* M. Moreau de Jounes.
f Beecher, pp. 259-261.
\ Hoffman.
Census. 
80
RELATIVE PROPORTION OF STILL-BORN
     The annexed table from an excellent article on Infantile Mortality, by
Dr. Tripe, shows the  percentage of  males and females among the still-born
in the countries mentioned:—
Percentage.
	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.
France (three years)	. 67,356	46,637	100.0	69.2
Austria (four years) .	25,288	17,351	100.0	68.6
	. 38,312	28,359	100.0	74.0
Saxony (ten years)	. 17,618	12.839	100.0	72.9
Prussia (three years)	. 24,838	19,036	100.0	76.6
     "The results of this table," adds Dr. Tripe, "are very striking, for we
see that to each 1000 males who are still-born, there are in France only 692,
in Austria 686, in Prussia 766, in Belgium 740, and in Saxony 729, still-born
females.   The variations in the ratios are by no means great, and they  are
yet smaller in each  country during a  period of years than those shown in
the above  table for  different  countries.   This cannot be proved here,  for
want of space.  It will be noticed that the variation does not amount to five
and a half per cent., although the statistics are collected from such different
nations and races; showing that the law is  general,  and that  the cause of
the excess of male deaths over those of females commences at the earliest
period of life, and diminishes, as we  have already shown, as age advances,
even from the first month,  and most probably week, of extra uterine life.
     " This opinion receives very  strong confirmation by a comparison of
the ratios of still-born male and female children with those of children who
die during the first month.   We  find in Belgium that the proportion of
still-born  female children to that of. males is 740 to 1000; whilst that of
deaths under one month  old is  749 to  1000; and in England (years
1839-44) 765 to 1000."*
* Brit, and Foreign Med-Chi. Review for April, 1857, p. 348. 
IN EUROPEAN STATES.                         81
    Among the earliest records of the proportion of still-born to those born
alive, are those given by Mr. Wargentin, in 1776, of the births in Sweden
and Finland, for nine years, ending in 1763.   During these nine years there
were—
                                                       Proportion of still-
                                 Born alive.      Still-born,  born to each 10,000.
          Males,     .    .    .     44,954        1269        282
          Females,   .    .     .     43,078         963        217
                                  88,032        2205        250

     These results are interesting as a standard of comparison, because they
were made at a period of time comparatively remote from  the present, and
during the interval which has elapsed many changes are supposed to have
been  introduced into the  practice of obstetrics, by means of which labor
is facilitated, and  the  life of the foetus  placed in  less jeopardy.  Yet a
comparison of the returns in both countries shows  about the same results,
and certainly does not furnish as strong an argument in favor of the advance
of obstetrical skill as might naturally  have  been anticipated. In this respect,
the returns  from Virginia and Kentucky are less favorable  than those from
Massachusetts ; for while the former  assimilate very nearly to those derived
from Sweden, by Wargentin, the latter exhibit a decided  diminution in the
number of still-born.   The inference  is that  the Massachusetts returns are
more complete in this respect, than those of Virginia and Kentucky.
     It has been observed that in every return the number  of  still-born
males was greater than  that of the females.  Dr. Clark, the physican to the
Dublin Lying-in Hospital, contributed a paper to the Royal Society, which
appeared in the seventy-sixth  volume of the Philosophical  Transactions,
assigning' as a  chief cause for the  greater  number  of male  than  female
deaths, the increased size of the male foetus, which not  only  requires more
        10 
82                        dr clark's theory.
sustenance before birth,  than the female, but has  greater  difficulties  to
encounter in the process of parturition.  Whenever therefore  any delicacy
of constitution on the part of the mother,  prevents her from yielding  to
the foetus in utero a proper amount of nutriment, or a physical malformation
presents an obstacle at the moment  of  birth, the  chances  of death are
largely  increased in  the male child over those  of the female.
     These observations are undoubtedly correct,  and  have received the
confirmation of subsequent writers.  An  additional  cause assigned by Dr.
Clark in the  same  paper, although supported by some  plausible reasons,
does not appear to be quite so clear.   This is  that the greater size of the
male child renders it more liable to the inherited infirmities of the father,
as well as to the results of the defective constitution of the mother. 
effect of the seasons  on conception.
83
                        CHAPTER  VIII.

                the  effect  of seasons on conception.

    The effect of the seasons  in  influencing  conception, is  as elsewhere
quite manifest in the returns of  births in the United States.
    The table for  five years,  prepared by Dr.  Curtis,  from the  Regis-
tration Reports of Massachusetts, (page 68,) shows that the largest number
of births occurred in March, and that the next months most prolific  in
births  were August and  September.   From  this isolated example, the
inference might be  drawn that June  was the month most  favorable  to
conception, and that November and  December were the  next most favor-
able months, these being the months in which the conceptions took place
which  produced the births in March,  August and September.  The least
number of  births occurred in May and  June, from which  it might be infer-
red that August and September were the least  prolific months in the year.
    Dr.  W.  L. Sutton, of Georgetown, Kentucky, has  prepared a table,
from the births occurring in that State in 1853, to illustrate this point, which
is annexed:—

        Date of Conception.                     Male.         Female.
            March,                      M 1,431     M 1,302
            February,     ....     1,162        1,038
            January,   ....       1,111        1,035 
84
effect of the  seasons
te of Conception.	Male.
November,	1,128
December, .	1,133
June,	1,106
July,	1,024
August,	946
May,	960
October,	987
September,	919
April,	m 909
     From this table it would appear the month of March was by far the
 most prolific, and that February and January followed next in  succession;
 while October, September, and April appear to be the least prolific.
     The wide difference in the proportion of births in the different months
 of the year observable in  this, table, is somewhat  remarkable, and would
 appear to indicate that the returns upon which it is based are far from com-
 plete.
     By a comparison of the results of these tables, it will be seen that the
 prolific months in that prepared by Dr. Curtis are not the same as in that
 arranged  by Dr. Sutton.   Upon this  point there appears to be no corres-
 pondence, and  it  would  seem that the most reasonable inference to be
 drawn from the facts as thus  enunciated,  is that if  fecundity is  influenced
 by particular seasons, and in this respect is amenable to fixed laws, then the
 laws which so regulate it are not  the same in  the  States of Massachusetts
 and Kentucky.
     Mr.  Milne, for the purpose of determining this question, arranged two
 tables, one for  Sweden and Finland, based upon the observations of Mr.
Nicander, which gives the annual averages of conceptions for twenty years,
terminating with 1795;  the other for Montpellier, in the  South  of France,
                * M indicates Maximum, and m minimum, in all these tables.
 Female.
   984
   966
   897
   906
   972
   896
   863
   886
m842* 
ON CONCEPTION.
85
upon  data procured from the  Memoir of  M.  Morgue,  which gives the
averages of conceptions for twenty-one years, terminating with 1792.
    A table formed of these is introduced, in  order that a comparison may
be  made between them  and those  of Drs. Curtis and Sutton.  The com-
parison is valuable,  not  only because of the  space of  time which has
elapsed  between  the making of  the observations, but also  because they
were made  in countries bearing a parallel to each  other  in point  of geo-
graphical position;  thus  Sweden may be said to possess a climate some-
what  similar to Massachusetts, while Montpellier and Kentucky correspond
with each other in this respect :—
TABLE SHOWING THE INTENSITY OP FECUNDITY IN EACII MONTH.						
In Sweden and Finland.			Month.	In Montpellieb, France.		
	Conceptions.			Conceptions.		
Marriages.						Marriages.
						
	Male.	Female.		Female.	Male.	
1519	4276	4106	January,	1044	1156	596
1385	4210	4020	Febry.	M1185	M1221	M1155
1369	4287	4066	March,	1067	1173	159
1792	4452	4277	April,	1145	1210	403
1393	4377	4213	May,	1090	1183	526
1957	4525	4376	June,	989	1056	472
1()71	4342	4163	July,	916	918	447
m 732	3889	3763	August,	m 863	934	434
1539	3696	3547	Sept.	866	m 909	523
M 4267	m3632	m3508	October,	940	993	444
3251	39'27	3726	Nov.	1007	1086	025
■3798	M4708	M 4485	Dec.	1033	1080	m 142
24,073 '	50,321	48,250	Total, 12,145		12,919	5,926
                Proportion of those born alive to the still-born in Sweden:—
                          Males,   )  „„ 1nriAn (  310
                          Females, [  as 1f0'000 \  238
                          Total,   )    t0    (  275
                Still-born males to still born females, average 13,558 to 10,000

     Upon an examination of the Swedish table, it will be seen that  in the
month of December the greatest number  of  conceptions  took place, while 
86
EFFECT of the seasons
the fewest occurred in September and  October.  The Montpellier table, on
the contrary, exhibits the largest number in February, and the smallest in
August and September.  Now, there does not appear to be any more corres-
pondence, in the maximum periods of conception, between Sweden and the
South of France, than there is between Massachusetts and Kentucky ;  but if
a comparison be made between Sweden and Massachusetts, and a  similar
one between Montpellier and Kentucky, it will be seen that in both instances
there is a remarkable identity between them.  In Sweden and Massachusetts
the month most  favorable to conception is December, while in Kentucky
the largest number occurred in March, and in Montpellier in February.
    The isolated facts connected with the  births of Kentucky for a  single
year, and those  of Massachusetts  for  five  years, do  not furnish sufficient
grounds upon which to found a conclusion  as  important as this, yet when
taken in connection with other  circumstances attendant upon the movements
of population, it seems difficult  to  resist the  conclusion,  that in different
latitudes there  are different  laws affecting the human species, beginning
with conception and terminating with the last moment of existence.
    Mr. Milne,  whose opinions are  usually  adopted with great caution,  and
are entitled to the highest respect,  sees, in the tables he adduces, decided
evidence of the influence of the seasons  upon conceptions, and concludes
that if it were not for the disturbing element of marriage, which is not so
accurately regulated  as that of births, this influence would be still more
manifest.
    " The rate of frequency of the conceptions in Sweden does in fact come
twice in the year  to a maximum,  and twice  to a minimum.  Taking the
totals for an example, it will be  found  that having  been at a maximum in
December, they begin the year by decreasing, and. continues to fall till
February,  when they attain  their first  minmum ;   then rise till  June,
when they are at their first maximum from that time  they continue to fall 
ON CONCEPTION.
87
till October, when they are at  the minimum  of the whole  year,  and from
thence they rise  till December, when  they attain to  the maximum of the
year."*
     If the table of Massachusetts were substituted for that of Sweden, and
analyzed by the above quotation from Milne, it would be found to corres-
pond in all its parts, and to present a parallelism too exact in detail to  be
otherwise than the result of a fixed law, which operates  at  the present day
upon a  population far removed from the scene of the original observations,
and which had scarcely an existence at the time  they were  made, as it did
in the last century upon the inhabitants of Sweden.
     And although  the correspondence  in  detail between Montpellier and
Kentucky is not as exact as that between Sweden and Massachusetts, yet it
is sufficiently so to seem to  indicate the direction of a general principle, and
it is  more than probable that when the returns of Kentucky shall  have
attained the exactness which characterizes those of Montpellier, and cover a
sufficient  space of time to  give them  authority, they will develope with
greater  exactness  the operations of this law.
    The  opinion  is entertained  by Mr.  Milne, that if it were not for the
derangement produced in the movements of conception by marriage, that
the maximum would occur about midsummer instead of the winter months,
as shown by the European tables above inserted.
* Milne on Annuities, p. 503, 
88
RELATIVE PROPORTION OF MARRIAGES.
                         CHAPTER  IX.

                              MARRIAGES.

     The number of marriages to that of births is about one of the former
to four of the latter, yet notwithstanding their small number, the irregu-
larity of their distribution is supposed to exert such an influence over the
natural  order  of births as to disturb, in the manner heretofore indicated,
the effect of the different periods of the year  upon them.  The Swedish
and  Montpellier tables are accompanied  by a column giving the number of
marriages which took place in each month, based upon the same  elements
of calculation as the columns of births, for the purpose of illustrating their
effect upon births.
     Subjoined will be found  a table of the marriages which  occurred in
Massachusetts for twelve years, ending 31st December, 1855, so arranged as
to indicate the number in each month, and a comparison of the whole with
the last year.  The number of marriages thus tabulated amount to 105,700.
This number although small when placed  in  comparison with those em-
braced in many of  the tables of the older countries of Europe, and indeed
with that of the Swedish tables already introduced, exhibits with  tolerable
certainty, the habits of the population in this regard upon whom the selec-
tion of time mainly depends. 
IN THE  DIFFERENT MONTHS.
89
January.
February
March ..
April...
May___
June....
July---
August .
1855.	12 Years.	Average.
1,131	9,311	776
1,001	7,088	591
m658	m5,806	m484
1,079	8,829	736
1,118	9,645	804
900	8,152	679
896	7,160	596
824	6,906	576
September..........  1,038
October.............  1,229
November...........jMl 516
December.........
Unknown........
Totals.
46
12,329
  9,057
 10,824
M13.984
  8,313
   005
105,700
Average.
  754
  903
Ml,166
  693
   50
8,808
     While this table exhibits great similarity of results so far as particular
months are concerned, yet it shows a great  disproportion  in the  number
of marriages in the different  months.   The  largest  number took  place
uniformily,  throughout the whole period of twelve years, in the month of
November, while the least occurred in March.
     The  following table, showing the number of marriages which  took
place in Kentucky, in 1852 and 1853, and the months in which they were
solemnized, indicates December as the maximum, and July as the minimum
months:—
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December,
Unknown,
Total,
1852.	1853.
348	346
357	365
398	435
326	304
272	316
300	294
283	276
390	435
521	■ 499
581	604
558	515
755	656
16	116
5,105
5,161
11 
90                  SEASON OF  MARRIACE INFLUENCED

     The  preference for particular months  would appear  to  indicate that
some peculiarity in the habits and customs of the inhabitants of the different
States lay at the foundation.  Mr.  L.  Shattuck  assigns as a reason, that
November is the  month  in  which occurs the  New  England  festival of
Thanksgiving, Avhcn family circles meet together  and are presented to their
newly-formed marriage connexions.
     This  period  of festivity, so universally  observed by the inhabitants of
New England, is almost entirely disregarded by the residents  of  the South-
ern States.  Dr. Sutton supposes that the festivities of Christmas may induce
the more frequent selection of December, in  Kentucky.  It is quite certain,
that in the two States whose marriage  returns are here given, the festive
period takes place in different months, and this difference is manifest in the
number of marriages which occur in each, at the season which is celebrated
with most glee by its inhabitants.
     The large number of marriages  among foreigners, included in the  Mas-
sachusetts returns, could not have been influenced by this custom, which is
purely local,  and derives its origin from the early Puritan settlers of  New
England.   An examination of  the returns in detail, for each registration
year, shows that  the marriages among the foreign residents are not largely
in excess at this  period,  as are those among the natives of New England,
which would seem to corroborate the correctness  of the cause assigned by
Mr. Shattuck,  more particularly  as similar causes  are supposed to produce
like results in other countries.
     Mr. Wargentin remarks, that there are always many  more  marriages
contracted during the autumn and winter in  Sweden, than in the spring and
summer, because  the harvest produces abundance, and the cattle are killed
in autumn, so that the bulk of the people, who are neither  sufficiently  rich, 
BY NATIONAL FESTIVITIES.
91
nor economical  to maintain an equable expenditure, a$e  then best able
to give the entertainments that are customary on such occasions.*
     " And M. Mourgue  informs us that at  Montpellier,  the month of Feb-
ruary always furnishes the greatest number of marriages at the epoch  la fin
du  Camaval, and  next  to that the month of November, before the  epoch
called les Avents^'f   The seasons which succeed both of these  epochs are
those of fasting,  in which the Catholic Church,  the  prevalent one at  Mont-
pellier, discountenances  as far as possible the solemnization of  the rite of
matrimony.  Besides, the  end of Carnival  is a period of more boisterous
hilarity than the Thanksgiving  of New England or  the  Christmas holiday
rejoicings of the Southern States.
     The  ages of the persons who contract marriage relations,  furnishes
a very important element in all questions tending to  elucidate the influence
which this compact  has upon society.   Upon this  subject the  Registrar
General of England, with great propriety  remarks,  that "it is not a little
remarkable,  that  although  the increase of  population and  the influence of
early and late marriages on the  welfare of nations,  have for the whole of
the present century occupied  public attention, and been made  the basis of
theories which have guided or based  legislation, no provision has  yet been
made for determining the simplest fundamental facts—the foundation of all
reasoning on the subject—such as the  age of mothers, of children, and  the
numbers of married and single persons at the several periods of life.  Upon
many of these points the greatest ignorance prevails, writers on population
depending on rough approximations, derived from scanty, imperfect and
erroneous  data,  because the censuses and registers  have not yet been taken
and abstracted upon a comprehensive  and well considered plan."
      These observations,  which  had  exclusive  reference to  the English
                  * Memoires abreges de TAcaJemie de Stockholm, p. 32.
                           f  Milne on Annuities, p. 501. 
02                     AGES  OF PERSONS  MARRIED
system of registration and mode of taking the census, at the time they were

made, may be applied with equal force to the plan adopted by this Govern-

ment for enumerating the  population.   In  some  of the  continental States,

not only are the ages of the parties who marry noticed,  and their relative

number  to those  in single life given, but the mother is  followed in  her

subsequent married life, and her age re-noted at every successive birth of a

child, so that it is  possible to ascertain the average number  of children born

to each marriage, and  the  age of the mother at  the period of the  births.

The  value of the information  thus  given is evident, and  there  is no reason

why similar results may not be ftbtained in the United States.

     The following tables exhibit the  number at  the several specified ages
of each sex, who  have been  married in Massachusetts,  for six years and

eight months, beginning May 1st, 1844,  and  terminating January 1st,
1851 :—
Ages or Men.
Under 20......
 20 to 25,.....
 25 to 30,.....
 30 to 35......
 35 to 40......
 40 to 45,.....
 45 to 50,.....
 50 to 55......
 55 to 60,.....
 60 to 65,.....
 65 to 70......
 7o to 75......
 75 to 80......
 Over 80......
 Unknown,___
Totals,
    A similar table, including similar results,  for Kentucky, for  the years
1852 and 1853, are likewise subjoined :—
					AGES OF WOMEN.										
©	« c*	o CO	3	©	3	©	«	so	SO	©	B	o CO	o	a	
■a			O	o				o	o	o			«	a	as
		1ft	<=>												o
S=				©3	•**			la	so	so	t-	*■		D	
476	183	22	1											6	688
5664	8710	1159	112	19	3									79	15,746
2080	6186	3131	397	71	13	3		2						67	11,950
426	1637	1533	734	120	42	7	1							56	4555
98	448	589	457	295	56	19	3							13	1978
30	137	281	321	206	146	24	9	2			1			15	1172
7	34	92	162	182	107	65	24	2	2	3				6	686
1	17	40	64	103	104	74	39	10	2		1			5	460
2	3	• 13	23	50	58	55	43	26	C	5				2	286
	3	2	14	19	44	51	50	24	16	1				5	229
	2	2	2	12	5	17	36	29	23	5	1			1	135
			1	4	10	4	9	6	15	4	3		i		57
		1	i		0 1	1	3	3	7 1	4	1 1	1 1			23 5
5	15	7	5					1	1					836	870
8788	17,375	6872	2294	1081	691	320	217	105	73	22	8	2	i	1091	38,840
 
IN NORTHERN AND  SOUTHERN STATES.
93
	AGES OP WOMEN.															
Ages																
Men.	Whole No.	Under 20.	20 to 25.	25 to 30.	30 to 85.	35 to 40.	40 to 45.	45 to 50.	50 to 55.	55 to 60.	60 to 65.		65 to 70.	Orer 70.		Unk'n.
Under 20	614	520	167	15	5		1									4
20 to 25,	4732	2577	1822	238	48	13	4		3							27
25 to 30,	2331	988	1024	251	46	10	1	1								10
30 to 35,	894	267	389	142	71	10	4	1	4							6
35 to 40,	672	83	186	105	49	33	8	4								4
40 to 45,	296	30	90	* 52	61	36	21	3	i							2
45 to 50	200	8	46	39	33	39	17	5	9	2						2
50 to 55	148	11	21	29	23	24	17	22	2				1			2
55 to 60	77	2	7	10	7	16	10	15	3	5						1
60 to 65,	66	3	4	8	5	9	8	13	10	5	2		2			2
65 to 70	35		3	1	2	5	7	7	6	1	1		2			1
Over 70	29		3	1	2	2	6	4	1	4	5		5			
Unknown	372	17	29	7		2										315
Total..	10,166	4397	3791	900	362	199	104	68	29	17	8		10			376
    And also  a table, based upon similar results in Belgium, for  the year
1841 :—
	TOTAL	MAKRIAGES IN BELGIUM.	
		Men.	Women.
Jnder 21,		774	2,831
21 to 25,	.	. 4,677	7,421
25 " 30,	■	. 10,067	9,082
30 " 35,		. 6,527	4,928
35 " 40,		3,636	2,791
40 " 45,		. 2,037	1,477
45 " 50,		934	753
50 " 55,		512	357
55 " 60,		310	126
60 " 65,		244	67
65 " 70,		112	28
70 " 75,		36	13
75 " 80,		8	2
80 and upwards,		2	—
29,876
The foregoing tables, showing the results of the marriages contracted 
94
AGES OF FEMALES  MARRIED
in the States of Massachusetts and Kentucky,  so  far as the age of the
parties is concerned, and adapted from the Belgium returns, exhibit in a
concise and  admirable  manner,  the age  and condition of the  persons
who have  contracted this relation.   It is hardly possible to  devise a tabu-
lated form which  shall express the facts so clearly and concisely as the
one just given.
     From the Massachusetts Returns it appears, that of the 38,840 females
who formed marriage relations,  8,788 were under 20,  17,375 between 20
and  25, 6,872 between 25 and 30, 2,294 between 30 and 35, 1,081 between
35 and 40, and 2,437 above that age.  Of the males, 688 were less than 20,
15,746 between 20  and 25,  11,950 between 25 and 30, and 10,456 above
that age.
     There are peculiarities which  do  not admit  of tabulation,  and yet
are interesting.  Dr.  Curtis, in his remarks upon the marriages which took
place in Massachusetts, mentions some of these :—

     "  Age presents also quite an interesting topic for consideration.  During
the twenty months we find  marriages among persons of all  ages  between
13  and 91.  The  youngest individual  married was a female of  13 years,
several instances of which occurred.  The youngest male was 16, who mar-
ried a female of 19 ;  the youngest couple was a male of 17 and a female of
14 ;  a male of 20 and another of 25 married each a female of 13 ; a male
of 19,  one of 21,  and another  of 27, married  each a female of 14; two
males of 25 each, two of 28 each, one of 30, one of 35, and another of 47,
married each a female of 15 ; and a bachelor of 50 married a girl of 19.
     "  Although the male was usually the  eldest of the allied couple, yet
many instances happened where the reverse obtained ; thus we find a male
under 20 married a female over  40 ; a bachelor of 24 married a widow of
42 ;  a bachelor under 35 married a widow over 60; and  another  bachelor 
IN MASSACHUSETT AND KENTUCKEY.
95
under 40  married a widow over  75.  A female of 18 married the second
time, and one of 59 married the fifth time.  A male of 30 married the third
time.  One of 36 and another of 45 married the fourth time each.  Among
those at later ages in life we find a male of  81 married a female of 69;  but
the oldest couple married were Mr. Calvin Kilborn, of Princeton, and  Mrs.
Susan Saunders, at the respective  and respectable ages of 91 and 70.   He
is a farmer in good health, of sprightly habits and good mental  faculties,
still  remembering  the  scenes  and "incidents of travel"  which he  ex-
perienced in 1777, when he went  as a fifer  at  the  Bennington Alarm.   It
seems worthy of notice that in this office, and almost  side by side, are  the
official records of Mr. Kilborn's enlistment  in Capt. John White's company
which marched to Bennington in July,  1777, and  also of his marriage in
November, 1848,  more  than threescore and ten  years  having intervened
between these  interesting events.   He has always  been able to do  the
work on his farm to the present time, with but little assistance.
     ;' The following statement will be found to possess interest by showing
the number and proportion of marriages at the different ages of the sexes
during  the  last five years  and eight months, viz., since May 1, 1854, 7229
males and 7453 females, whose ages were not stated, have been omitted in
the calculations :—
CD "3 d	Males,	401	10,115	7941	2430	1203	748	486	322	218	172	9ft	67	29	5	24,232
£	Females,	5871	11,313	3751	1329	723	450	260	174	99	47	38	14	4	1	24,(i78
		o	id					o	in							
								io	VO		SO				o	
Ages,			o	o	o	o	o						3	o		"c3
		t>	CM	C>1	o CO	1Q CO	o	•S*	o IO	IO 1Q	O so	SO	c	m	> O	, o Eh
ss "S	Males,	1.66	41.74	32.77	10.04	4.97	3.08	2.01	1.33	.90	.69	.39	fl8	T>	.02	100
i^	Females,	24.40	46.98	15.58	5.52	3.00	1.86	1.01	.72	.41	.19	.16	.06	.02		100.
     " The above  abstract indicates,  so far as can  be illustrated by  an
analysis of upwards of 24,000 marriages, the- ages of parties to which were
\ 
96
AVERAGE AGE AT MARRIAGE.
stated, that  the  probabilities of marriage under the age of 20  years  are
nearly fifteen  times as great with females as they are with males, and that
between the ages  of  20 and 25 they are  much nearer equal, though still
somewhat in favor of the  female;  but after the age of 25, till death,  the
probabilities of marriage are about two to one in favor of the male.
     " Again we perceive above, that of all females  married, the chances
that this interesting event will take place prior to the age of 20,  are about
as one to four  of all the probabilities that they will  ever marry; that is,
when a female arrives at the age of 20 years and is unmarried, one quarter
of the probabilities of her  ever being married are  gone.   If she passes to
the age of 25 unmarried, nearly three quarters  of her probabilities are lost,
and if she is unmarried  at the age of 30, she has passed nearly nine-tenths
of  her chances of ever becoming a  wife.    The  case is  different  with
males, more than  one-half  of whose  marriages  occur subsequent to  the
age of 25.   But  the period of  life between 20 and  25 appears  the
most probable of  all  the quinquennial periods of matrimonial alliances to
both sexes."*
     The returns from Kentucky show that of the 10,106 females who were
married in 1852 and 1853, 4397 were under 20, and 3,791  between 20 and
25.  From this it appears that of all the females whose  marriages were  re-
turned, 43.24 per cent, were under the age of  twenty, and 37.29 per  cent.
between the ages of twenty and twenty-five, or 80.53 per  cent, under  the
age of twenty-five.  In  Massachusetts but 24.40 per cent, of the females
were married under 20,  and 46.98 per cent,  between  20 and  25, or 71.38
per cent, under the age  of twenty-five.
     These tables indicate a very marked difference between the Northern
and Southern portions of the Union, in regard  to marriage, if Massachusetts
* 8th Massachusetts Registration Report, p. 99-100. 
IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES.                      97
is to be considered a type of the former, and Kentucky of the latter, which
must  manifest itself in all  the  future  movements  of population, seriously
affecting their births and deaths, and influencing in a  very decided manner
the relative probabilities of life among the natives  of  the one or the other
sections of the United States.     •
     A comparison, instituted by Mr. Shattuck, between persons contracting
marriage  in Massachusetts  and Belgium, for the first time, from dates
already given, shows the average age in the  two places to be—
                                          Males.       Females.
            Belgium,      ....   29.47        27.43
            Massachusetts, ....   25.84        22.69
     The elements upon which this computation was made, are derived from
the Massachusetts Returns  for 1845, and those of Belgium for 1841.
     A similar one, based  upon the Kentucky returns, shows the average
age at marriage to be—
                          Males.          Females.
                          23.98         21.03
     These tables  show that in Belgium more men and women  marry be-
tween the ages  of twenty-five  and thirty, and  in Massachusetts, between
twenty and twenty-five,^than at any other  period of life.   In  Kentucky,
more women marry below twenty, and more  men  between twenty and
twenty-five, than at any other age.  Massachusetts  is thus made to occupy
an intermediate position between Belgium on the one hand, and  Kentucky
upon  the  other.   The average age at marriage is found steadily to decline,
so as to present the remarkable difference of 5.49 years among the  males,
and 6.40 years among the females, between Belgium and Kentucky.
    A natural  deduction from  these  premises  is, that as women  marry
earlier, the number  of children will  be greater,  and the sum of  those
       12 
98
PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS IN
Avho  attain  to maturity less than in those countries whose marriages are
contracted at a more mature period.  How far this result may be  modified
by a lower latitude, and a  consequent increase of temperature, the means
are not at hand for determining.
     The principle is well established  in physiology, that the human body
matures much sooner in warm countries than in cold, and that the female in
the former reaches a physical development which enables her to assume the
functions of a mother, at a  much earlier age than in  higher latitudes.  In
the tropical regions of Asia, for example, the female reaches a point of de-
velopment at eight which in the more temperate latitudes of Europe and
America is not attained until  fourteen.   A system of reasoning therefore,
which would  place  the inhabitants  of these extreme countries  upon a
parallel in this regard, would be fallacious, because as nature has  in  each
surrounded the human species by a  combination of circumstances, which
are entirely different, the one from the other, so it-has doubtless established
a series of natural laws to govern and regulate the movements of the human
race in  each different latitude, or variety of climate under which they may
be placed.
     Were it  not  for this  compensation man must necessarily have been
restricted to one particular belt of the earth's surface, instead  of covering it
all with his footsteps, and claiming the whole for his dominion.  A limit is
thus defined to the animal and the vegetable kingdoms.   The lion  and the
elephant are  never found to  inhabit the same  latitude as  the ox and the
sheep, nor are the  latter ever  associated in companionship with the  rein-
deer and the  Polar bear.   The banana  and pine-apple  never flourish in a
temperate region, nor do the apple and peach  survive transplanting to the
frigid zone.   In this extensive  department of nature, a particular place is
assigned to each distinct species of either  kingdom, admirably adapted  to
the wants of its being, or the purposes it is intended to subserve. 
                    WARM AND  TEMPERATE LATITUDES.                   •*•'

     Man alone is endowed with a capacity for universal migration.   Pos-
sessing  no natural covering of his own, he is enabled in each latitude to
adapt to himself that which is  best  suited to  the  climate.  In  the  frigid
zone he invests himself with  the skins  of animals,  covered with thiok fur;
in the temperate latitudes, he fabricates a clothing from  the wool of the
sheep ;  and under the influence of the intense heat of the tropics selects a
light linen texture,  or almost entirely dispenses with  the use of external
garments.
     These analogies are introduced for the purpose of exhibiting the great
variety of circumstances under which man may be placed, and to serve as
a caution against too hasty a generalization. It is true that the limits of the
United States do not embrace the extremes of climate  and temperature to
which allusion has been made ; nor do the States of Massachusetts and Ken-
tucky represent its   extremes.  It does, however, possess in this regard a
range of latitude and variety of climate, not only more extensive than any
other civilized country,  but nearly  equal to  that of  all the countries of
Europe, whose governments possess a system of registration.
     Moreover, as the changes of temperature  are much greater in the
United States than in those European countries, a knowledge of the  move-
ments of whose populations are revealed through their population returns,
it follows that the changes of climate from warm to cold, and  the  reverse,
are reached in traversing a less number of degrees of latitude in the United
States than in Europe ; and hence while Massachusetts has  all the character-
istics of a northern  climate, without its greatest intensity, so Kentucky pos-
sesses, in  a modified degree, the climatic influences of a Southern latitude.
     It must also be borne  in mind that the  climate of Europe and the
United States are so different as not to be represented by the same parallels
of latitude, and it  has hence been  seen  that  notwithstanding their dif-
ferences in this respect  the South of France  and Kentucky, as  southern 
 100                         IMPORTANCE  OF

 localities, and Sweden and Massachusetts as northern ones, bear a marked
 correspondence with  each other.
      If these observations  have any force, they would lead to the belief that
 the striking differences which have thus far been seen to exist in the move-
 ments of the population of Massachusetts and Kentucky, are not accidental,
 but in accordance with the laws which regulate and control them respectively
 —that these laws have shades of variation as they are made to operate upon
 the inhabitants of various latitudes, and that similar results are not uniformly
 to be expected—that while  nature  has provided  in  the  most wonderful
 manner for the maintenance of the  species and  the preservation of a just
 equilibrium among the  sexes, it has adopted different formulas to accom-
 plish this "end for different circumstances.
      This is abundantly manifest in the  difference of the rates of mortality
 between town and country populations, and  the manner in which after a
 high mortality nature repairs the loss  by an acceleration of the functions
 of reproduction, so that the number lost by death is  compensated for by the
 number of births.  Now, if these  differences are  developed under different
 circumstances in the  same locality,  it  is fair to infer that they are more
 likely to be developed in places whose latitude and climate have little or no
 correspondence with each  other.   Nothing short of an accurate and uniform
 system  of registration applied to every  part  of  the  United  States, and
 continued for a period sufficiently long to correct the errors  which, will
 unavoidably become associated with  it can determine this question.   In the
 meantime there is sufficient evidence to show  that the laws which regulate
 the  population of  any given place  in  Europe,  as  Geneva, arc not more
 admissible of  general  application  in  the United States,  than they are in
 Europe, although a single place might doubtless be found where the iden-
tity of movement would be as exact  as  in those  of the  places already put
in  comparison with each other. 
EXTENSIVE OBSERVATIONS.
101
     It is because these rules are not general in application, that whenever
any considerable sum is at  stake upon the expectation or value  of life,
observations are made  from  various  points  and  comparisons instituted
between them.  Milne  did not rest satisfied with the quiet little town of
Carlisle,  embosomed in the centre of rural  life, in  England,  or the accurate
observations of that excellent old gentleman who officiated as  its medical
man (Dr. Heysham), but extended his enquiries on the one side  to Sweden,
and on the other to the south of France, and after becoming enriched with
the  labors  of Nicander and Wargentin,  in  Sweden, and  Mourgue, De-
parcieux, St.  Cyran, and Duvillard, in France,  and in his mathematical
deductions by Euler, La Place and Halley,  produced his valuable work on
Annuities, which is chiefly important because its range of enquiry is general,
and its deductions extensive.
     The ratio of marriages to the population  is  found  to  vary  in dif-
ferent places.  The Massachusetts returns  give an average of one marriage
to every 102 inhabitants of the entire State.  In  Suffolk county, in which
Boston is located,  the number  was one in 64; while in Worcester  county
the number was one  in 104, and in Dukes county one in 151.
     The  registration report of Kentucky, in alluding to the  number  of
marriages which took place in that State, says:  "It appears that there were
7,430  marriages in the  State during the  year 1852, of which 5,105 are
returned by the assessors, leaving 2,325 or 39 per  cent,  unaccounted for.
We  had,  therefore,  one  marriage  to every 102.92 white  persons  in the
State.  The proportion varied very much  in different counties.   In Harri-
son and Jefferson the proportion was  one in 50.34, and 54.90 respectively;
whilst in Simpson and Livingston, the  proportion was one in 239 and 216
respectively.1'"
     The  clerks of the respective counties  in the  State of Kentucky, as  of
1st Registration Report of Kentucky, p. 105. 
102
MARRIAGE RETURNS
many of the other  States, issue a license authorizing the contemplated mar-
riage to take place, which certificate is presented to the clergyman who
performs the marriage ceremony.  A record of the issue of the certificate is
always made in the clerk's office, by which means it is possible to determine
the number  of  marriages  which have  taken place.   In this instance it
appears to have furnished  a check upon the records  of the assessors,  and
shows that they failed to return 39 per cent,  of the marriages which actually
took place.  The correction, it will be observed, is confined to the white po-
pulation, and properly,  because all the  marriages  noted were  among  this
portion of the population; the laws of the State  of Kentucky, and  indeed
of all slave States,  not recognising any legal ceremony, nor requiring  any
registration  or  certificate,  in marriages among  the  colored  inhabitants.
Similar omissions, as to numbers, appear  to have been made in the succeed-
ing year, so that it is probable that the number of marriages which actually
took place among  the white population of the  State, in two years, was
about 15,996, or one marriage to  every  100 of the white population.   In
regard to those marriages actually reported, there  appears to exist no reason
to doubt the accuracy  of the returns as  to  age, or at  least that they form
as near an  approximation as can reasonably be expected.
    As to the marriage returns embraced in the census for 1850,  Mr. De
Bow remarks :  " The ratio of marriages is very nearly one  person married
to every two hundred persons, varying between the States from one to 316,
as in Delaware, one to 150,  as in New Mexico, as one in 192,  as in Massa-
chusetts, a sufficient proof of the incompleteness  of the returns."*   It was
hardly to be expected  that in  this particular  the census should  afford
perfectly reliable  information, because the marshals whose duty it  was to
gather these statistics, entered upon  their task, without previous guide or
* Compendium of U. S. Census, 1850, p. 104. 
IN DIFFERENT STATES.
103
direction.  The returns, as given  below,  although acknowledgedly incom-
plete, are introduced as the best standard of comparison with those gathered
in the several States at hand.
States, &c.	Married.	i	states, &c.	Married.
Alabama,	. 3,940	New Hampshire,		2,613
Arkansas,	2,112	New Jersey, .		. 3,719
California,		New York,		31,465
Columbia, District of	373	North Carolina,		. 5,275
Connecticut, .	. 3,213	Ohio,		22,328
Delaware,	564	Pennsylvania,		" . 19,858
Florida,	431	Rhode Island, .		1,327
Georgia,	4,977	South Carolina,		. 2,005
Illinois^	. 9,183	Tennessee,		7,872
. Indiana,	12,423	Texas, .		. 2,232
Iowa, ....	. 1,824	Yermont,		2,653
Kentucky,	8,091	Virginia,		. 8,163
Louisiana,	. 2,890	"Wisconsin,		3,015
Maine,	4,886	m	'Minnesota, .	39
Maryland,	. 3,703		~New Mexico, .	916
Massachusetts, .	10,347		Oregon,	168
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri,	. 4,257	CP H	L¥tah, .	404
	2,774 . 6,989	T	otal,	. 197,029
     Neither the marriage returns  of Connecticut, which are included in
the Registration returns, nor those of New Jersey,  which are computed at
4,242,  appear to be more reliable than those returned by the marshals, and
included in the United  States census, from which  it will be  seen by com-
parison they differ largely.
     The returns of Massachusetts and Kentucky, as corrected, furnish toler-
ably correct information as to the relative proportion of marriages to their
respective populations.   It would be just to apply them to the whole Union, 
104
RATIO IN DIFFERENT COUNTIES.
as fair representatives of distinct portions, which would give a ratio of one
marriage to each 101 of the population.  This  proportion is much greater
than among the populations of any of the European States, which have ren-
dered returns, except Russia, to whose population in some respects that of
the United States bears a strong affinity.
     " Our returns  (remarks the Rhode Island  report) are  inadequate to
show what has been the real proportion of marriages to the  population.
But those who are acknowledged and recorded as having been made happy
in this way, are, (if we take the population from the census of 1850,) in
the last seven months  of  1853, at  the rate of one  for  every  91.99 in a
year,  and in  1854, one  for every  70.46.   From the  whole  population,
however,  we  ought,  perhaps, to subtract that  of towns which made no
returns  of marriages, so as to  base our calculation on  the  'represented*
population.'   Doing this, the ratio  would be, for the last seven months of
1853, at  the  rate  of one  to  74.36  in a year,  and  for  1854,  one person
married in every 64.71.  In the first report, it was one to 81.636. *
    In England, there were living to each marriage,    .    .    .  131 persons.
      Austria,   "    "    "    "      "       ...   124   "
      France,    "    "    "    "      "        ...  121   "
      Prussia,   "    "    "    "      "       ...   113   "
      Russia,    "    "    "    "      "        ...   90   "
* 2d Registration Report of Rhode Island, p. 23. 
STATISTICS OF MORTALITY.
105
                             CHAPTER X.

                               MORTALITY.

     The statistics of mortality are much  more palpable in their immediate
results,  to those  who do not directly concern themselves with the move-
ments of population, than either those of births or marriages, and they have
consequently not only attracted a larger share of public attention, but have
likewise induced a larger amount of municipal and State legislation.   There
is scarcely to be found a populous town,  in any country, marked by a high
degree  of civilization, which does not preserve a record more or less perfect
of the deaths which take place among its inhabitants.
     In  most of the populous  places in the United States, these mortuary
registers cover a comparatively large number of years, and it is therefore
no difficult task to ascertain the rate of mortality peculiar to each, and with
some degree of precision  the ages upon which this mortality  falls.  The
outlets  of human life,  in the guise of various diseases, are likewise taken
notice of, to a sufficient extent, to mark the influence of the locality, if any
peculiarity exists,  upon its inhabitants,  and to  determine the species of
disease  most fatal to its population.
     In  country districts, previous to  the establishment  of the system of
registration, so far as it at present prevails, as a general rule,  no mortuary
        13 
106
MEANS  OF DETERMINING MORTALITY
records were kept, and there consequently existed no means of determining
their mortality, or standard by which the relative value of life in town and
country could be measured.   The only information  at  present in existence
concerning  the number of deaths which take place in the rural districts of
the United States, is to be found in the returns of the States which  have
adopted a system of registration, and the marshal's  returns to the general
government, included in the census for 1850.
     As to the first of these  means of  determining the  rate of mortality
among the rural population of the  United States, it  is perhaps sufficient to
say that in but seven out of the thirty-one States comprising  the Union, is
this system of registration in operation at all, and in some  of those in which
it does exist the returns are so imperfectly made as to deprive them of much
of their value.
     In regard to the  enumeration, as made by the agents of the general
government when taking  the census of  1850, it is quite certain that it does
not include all the deaths which occurred during the year  prior to June 1st,
1850.  This  subject has already been  alluded  to, and some reasons have
been given for fixing the number of omitted deaths at a certain increased
ratio above those enumerated.
     In addition to  the bills of mortality kept  by the various cities in the
United States, and which ^furnish an  excellent  means of determining  the
error in the census returns, and of correcting it, the registration returns of
at least two of  the States supply  valuable data,  and constitute excellent
standards of comparison.  There is  no more reason for refusing credence to
the facts connected with the deaths  reported by the takers of the census so
far as age, and name of disease are  concerned, than there  is to any other of
the various departments of enquiry which came  within their cognizance.   In
the collection of facts, as extensive as those of the enumeration of the popu-
lation of a country embracing  many millions of inhabitants scattered  over 
IN THE UNITED  STATES.                         107
a vast area, or  of  the various incidents  connected  with this population,
whether pertaining to industrial statistics, or the increase of  their numbers
by  birth,  and  their  decrease  by death,  extreme accuracy  is  not to  be
expected.   A certain margin is always left to  that inseparable incident to
all  human  affairs  and  all human  reasoning—probability, which it is the
province of mathematics to bridle and reduce to subjection.
     Those  fluctuations  of population, which are affected  by  births and
marriages, with  much  less reliable data than is  furnished by  the records of
mortality within reach, have, it is thought, been  determined  with consider-
able precision, and there  exists  no  reason why similar results may not  be
obtained so far as mortality is concerned.
     The aggregate of all the deaths included in  the mortality statistics of
the census for 1850, distributed among the States in which  they occurred,
is given in  the annexed statement:—■
Alabama..............I  4,812
Arkansas..  ...........   1,654
California.............     794
Columbia, District of....     427
Connecticut............   2,924
Delaware..............     044
Florida.................     507
Georgia...............   5,176
Illinois................i  6,386
Indiana...............j  6,882
Iowa.................]  1,140
Kentucky.............|  7,983
Louisiana.............i  7,351
Maine................',  3,882
Maryland..............j  5,127
Massachusetts..........j  9,978
Michigan..............i  2,423
Mississippi...........   4,629
4,279
1,367
 111
 41!)
2,857
 565
 424
4,74'.l
5,2y3
5,826
 904
7,050
4,605
3,752
4,494
9,426
2,092
4,092
Aggregate
 Deaths.
 9,910
 3,021
  905
  846
 5,781
 1,209
  931
 9,925
11,759
12,708
 2,044
15,033
11,956
 7,584
 9,621
19,404
 4,515
 8,721
Missouri............
New Hampshire.....
New Jersey.........
New York..........
North Carolina......
Ohio...............
Pennsylvania.......
Rhode Island.......
South Carolina......
Tennessee..........
Texas..............
Vermont...........
Virginia...........
Wisconsin..........
     1 Minnesota ..
Terri-  I New Mexico
lories. ( Oregon.....
     J Utah.......
 6,854
 2,038
 2,513
24,446
 5,227
15,818
15,532
 1,103
 4,207
 6,179
 1,641
 1,534
 9,735
 1,575
   19
  580
   32
  131
 5,438
 2,193
 2,952
21,154
 4,938
13,139
13,019
 1,078
 3,839
 5,696
 1,368
 1,595
 9,324
 1,328
   10
  577
   15
  108
Aggregate
 Deaths.
12,292
 4,231
 6,465
45,600
10,165
28,957
28,551
 2,241
 8,047
11,875
 3,057
 3,129
19,059
 2,903
   29
 1,157
   47
  239
     Of the  323,023  deaths included in the foregoing  abstract,  172,878
were males,  and 150,145  females.   The difference  between the male  and 
108                  MALE AND  FEMALE MORTALITY
 female deaths being 22,733.   The ratio per cent, of the male deaths to the
 males living being  1.46, and of the female deaths to the living  females,
 1.32:—
                                                To 100 deaths of both sexes.
         Whole No.        Males.        Females.        Males.       Females.
          323,023       172,S78      150,145       54.02       45.98

     The proportion of deaths would be as 1,000 males to 919 females, or a
 difference of 81 ; which corresponds tolerably well with similar observations
 made in different countries,—the difference in some cases being somewhat
 over, and in others below, that observed in the United States.
     This excess of male over  female  deaths  is of almost  universal occur-
 rence.  The returns of some of  the  States, however, show nearly an equal
 number of deaths for  each sex,  or,  as in  the  case of New Hampshire and
 Vermont, a preponderance of female deaths over those  of the male sex.   In
 the former  of  these States the aggregate number of deaths was 4,231, of
 which 2,038 were  males and  2,193 females,  and  in  the latter 3,129,  of
 which 1,534 were males and  1,595 females.
     The returns of Massachusetts give an aggregate  of  19,404 deaths, with
 a  preponderance of male  deaths.   The registration report increases the
 number for  1849 to  20,423,  of which 10,019 were males, 10,208 females,
 and 196 of unknown sex.  The report, in commenting upon this peculiar
 fact, states:  "We hear notice that a majority among  the deaths are females.
 This  is true in reference  to the  mortality of the  whole State.   In the
 country districts alone,  however, the preponderance  of female mortality is
 so much  greater than  it is in the whole State,  that it casts the balance on
 the other side in the cities.   If we knew the per cent which the number
among the living of each sex bears  to the other, in the  cities and in the
country, this might perhaps be accounted for in part, or in whole.  It is to
be presumed, that  the  female  sex  predominates in  the  State,  and to a 
IN DIFFERENT STATES.                       109
greater degree in the country than in the city.   This is to be inferred from
the fact,  that although in 1849,  among the births 52.06 per  cent, were
males,  and 47.94 per cent, females, in the  State, among the deaths under
five years of age 53.82 per cent, were males, and 46.18 only were females;
and that  more males than females resort from the country to the city as resi-
dents,  while the proportion of the  sexes, between those who leave the State
and those who enter it, is probably such as to produce  no  great effect in
this particular."*
     In the accompanying table the deaths which occurred under five years
of age, and the  aggregate for  1849, are so placed as to show the relative
proportion of those who died under five years,  and their sex, from which it
would appear that although the  whole number  of  deaths of all ages  in-
cluded a greater number of females than males, yet among those which took
place in  the first five years, the excess was among  the  males in  the propor-
tion, for  the whole State, 53.82 per cent, to 46.18  of female deaths :—
Localities,	Births.				Deaths under Five Years.				Whole Number of Deaths.			
	Number,		Proportion.		Number.		Proportion.		Number.		Proportion.	
	M. | F.		M.	F.	M.	F.	M.	F.	M.	F.	M.	F.
State,............	13,329 112.273		52.06 51.14 52.70	47.94 48.86 47.30	4169 2117 2052	3577 1875 1702	53.82 53.03 54.66	46.18 40.97 45.34	10,019 4710 5309	10,208 4617 5591	49.53 50.50 48.70	50.47
	5344 7985	5106 7167										49.50 51.30
												
     " This abstract shows that the great excess of male mortality occurs in
the earlier ages.  Had we taken these who died under one year old, the ex-
cess would have been still greater.  The disparity will be seen as follows:—
			State.		City.		Country.	
			Number.	Proportion.	Number.	Proportion.	Number.	Proportion.
Deaths under one year of age,	}	Females,....	1994 1558	66.13 43.87	996 810	55.14 44.86	998 57.16 748 ! 42.84	
			436	12.26	186	10.28	250 14.32	
								
* 8th Registration Report for Massachusetts, p. 109. 
110
MALE  AND FEMALE MORTALITY
" The excess of males was, in every 10,000—
                          Births.
In the whole State,........'  412
In the Cities,..............   228
In the Country,......,.....   540
Deaths under Deaths under   Total of
  one year.    five years.    . Deaths.
  1226      764      — 94*
  1028      606        100
  1432      932      —260*
   " There are various causes of death which press with unequal force upon
the sexes.   Those which seem to be the  severest upon the  male, are dis-
eases of brain, except insanity; diseases of the lungs, except consumption ;
diseases of the heart, liver, most forms of  fever, and the various causes of
death, by violence.   The mortuary tables  of the last and former years also
indicate quite clearly that those diseases which are more  or less peculiar to
the young, such as cholera infantum,  croup, hydrocephalus  or water on the
brain,  infantile  diseases, and  ulceration or canker, select a  major part of
their victims  from among  the  male population.  The majority of deaths
from cholera  were  males,  while those from  dysentery and  typhus  were
nearly equal as to sexes, "f

     The annexed table,  which exhibits the relative proportion of the sexes
at all ages for the year included in the estimate of deaths  as  given above,
will enable a comparison to be instituted  into the relative  number of the
living and the dead :—
Ages.	Females to 100 Males.	Ages.	Females to loo Males.
Under 1,	.....	50 to 60, .	110.4
1 to 5,	98.2	60 to 70,	. 118.3
5 to 10, .	99.1	70 to 80, .	128.5
10 to 15,	. 97.7	80 to 90,	. 146.4
15 to 20, .	114.0	90 to 100, .	199.4
20 to 30,	. 106.4	100 and over,	. 225.0
30 to 40, .	96.5	Unknown,	17.4
40 to 50,	99.8		
	* Excess of Females	, Ibid. p. 110.	
 
IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.
Ill
    Of all the 994,514 inhabitants of Massachusetts in 1850, 505,997 were
females, and 488,517 males, being an excess of 17,480 females over males.
    The population of the  District of Columbia consists  of 18,494  males,
and 19,447 females, or  an  excess  of 953 females.  The deaths which oc-
curred in  1849, as taken from the Census Returns, were 846, of which 427
were males, and 419 females.
    For the purpose of enabling a more general comparison to be made,  a
table is presented containing a summary view of the progress of population
in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, which, like Massachusetts and  the District
of Columbia,  contains a larger female than male population :—
WUKTEMBERG.*
		Population.		Deaths.	
Year.	Males.	Females.	Total.	Males.	Females.
1833,	773,561	813,887	1,587,448	20,428	26,066
1834,	776,965	816,102	1,593,067	36,451	35,252
1835,	786,619	825,180	1,611,799	25,660	45,505
1836,	793,973	832,692	1,626,665	28,481	26,663
1837,	798,259	836,264	1,634,523	31,309	30,402
1838,	806,311	843,528	1,649,839	28,885	27,540
1839,	815,057	851,342	1,666,399	27,151	26,327
1840,	824,457	858,711	1,683,168	26,883	26,216
1841,	831,656	865,560	1,697,216	29,763	28,598
1842,	840,339	873,179	1,713,518	29,895	28,976
     It will be seen, by an examination of these returns, that notwithstand-
ing the fact that in Wurtemberg  the  female  preponderates over the male
sex,  yet the largest number of deaths uniformly occur among the male  por-
tion  of the population.
     From  these  comparisons it would appear that in Massachusetts, and in
all probability in the contiguous States, a  different rate of mortality affect-
ing  the relative proportion of male and  female  deaths occurs, from  that
* Count Beroldigen." 
112
MALE AND FEMALE MORTALITY
which  is presented by the returns  of the District of Columbia and the
Kingdom of  Wurtemberg, and which by  comparison would probably  be
found more extensively to prevail.
     If no  further data were offered,  than that of the  record of the deaths
for 1849, it might  reasonably be inferred  that the  enumeration was  erro-
neous and unworthy of credit; but the additional evidence furnished by the
consecutive registration returns of twelve years, places this question beyond
the possibility of a doubt.  These returns invariably show that more female
than male deaths occur in each successive  year—thus of the  20,301  regis-
tered in  1853, 7,942 were males, 10,201 females, and 149 of unknown sex,
being a preponderance of 268 female deaths.   An abstract of the deaths of
five years,  including 1849, already alluded to, and 1853 just noticed, shows
that of 92,174 deaths, the sexes of which were known, 45,855 were males,
and 46,319 females.
     Now, the uniformity of these results is too exact,  and the period of
time covered by the observations  too extensive to  admit of  any doubt as
to their  correctness,  and it remains  to  be seen upon what principle this
apparent disparity can be reconciled.   Mr. Shattuck  has constructed a table
for two years, which so admirably  demonstrates this disparity, that it is
inserted without comment:—
	To every 10,000 Males there were Females.		Showing a difference op
	Born.	Died.	
In 1844 ....................	9,508 9,744	11,241 10,978	1,733 1,234
1845.....................			
			
     "It maybe  asked," he  remarks,  "what becomes  of this difference?
The answer is principally to be. found in the  greater number of males than 
IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.
113
females, which the State furnishes to people other parts of the Union,  and
to traverse the world.   From the census of New York city, just published,
it appears that 16,006  of its inhabitants were born in New England,  and
throughout all the Western States New England men are found.  It would
be an exceedingly interesting enquiry, how many emigrants have been fur-
nished each year by Massachusetts.   And  if a good system of registration
had been in operation, we should have been able to show how many have
gone hence to spread  the wholesome influence of the land of their birth in
other  States  and Qther  regions.   If every  10,000  births furnish 1,250
emigrants, the 25,000 births which  have  been estimated to take place in
the State annually would furnish over 3,000 to spend the remainder of their
lives in other lands than that of their nativity."*
     The census for  1850 gives the birth-place of  each white inhabitant of
the United States, so far as they could be  ascertained ; and that they have
been arrived at  with tolerable correctness is evidenced by the fact, that of
19,987,563 inhabitants, the places of birth of all except  39,146 are given.

                                            born in Massa-
                                                             894,818
                                                             695,236
                                                             199,582
                                                    11,366
                                                    16,535
                                                    18,495
                                                    11,888
                                                    15,059
                                                   -------     73,343
     In other States and Territories,  .     .     .     .     .     126,239

            * Letter of Mr. Shuttuek to the Secretary of State of Massachusetts, p. 81.
         14
Of these,  the whole number of persons
  chusetts is,     ....     .
Residing in "
   "     in other States,
Of which  there are in Connecticut,  .
"     "     "  " Maine,
"     "     "  " New Hampshire, .
            "  " Rhode Island,
"     "     "  " Vermont, 
f 14
EFFECT OF MIGRATION
     From these statistics, as well as those already given,  it is evident that
the  population of  Massachusetts has  been affected  in the most serious
manner by the extensive emigration and  immigration  to which  it has been
subjected.  There is  probably not to be  found upon  record  an instance
of a population in which these two causes have so effectually combined to
change the population  of an  entire State  as  that of the one under con-
sideration.
     It is true, that  in many of the  States of the  Union there exists a
greater relative proportion of persons of  foreign birth, than in that of Mas-
sachusetts, as in Wisconsin, where the number of these is 34.94 per cent.,
or in California, where it reaches 24.15, or in the older State of New York,
where  it  amounts to 21.04 of the whole population,  instead of 16.18 per
cent., as  in the case of Massachusetts.  But notwithstanding the immense
emigration from  New York, which  has  gone to swell the populations  of
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin,  Indiana,  Illinois, and  the other free States  in
the  valley of the Mississippi, or that from Virginia and North  Carolina
which  has gone to people the new slave States of the Union, and which in
many instances exceeds  in relative proportion that of the  emigration from
Massachusetts, yet in no one has the combined effect of the emigration and
immigration produced such palpable results in  this latter State.
     How many  natives of  Massachusetts, in  quest of a  new home were
males,  and how  many  females,  there is no means of determining.  It is
highly probable that  many of those who changed their residence for that
of neighboring States either went in families, or returned after a period to
bring with them  a partner who  had  engaged their  affections  before their
migrations.   Of these, the relative proportion  of the  sexes would doubtless
be the same as  was  to be found in the State  from which they emigrated.
Aniono- those who selected for themselves a residence in States more remote
from that of their birth,  the proportion of males was doubtless greater than 
ON MASSACHUSETTS.
115
that of females, because the occupations and habits of life of the former fit
them for more extensive migration than the latter, who for the most part
are found to change their abode under the auspices of their male relatives,
either as parents or husbands.
    Judging from the large number of marriages which occur among the
residents of different  States, as shown by the census returns for  1850, it is
probable that comparatively few who were unmarried when they left home
and made  their residence in a remote State, ever returned to marry, and
hence as the emigration from, is greater than the emigration to, most of the
New England States, and doubtless embraces a larger proportion of males
than  females, the native  female  population must  necessarily  be in the
ascendant.
    Now,  what effect these circumstances have upon the direct question  at
issue, the  relative  proportion of  deaths among  the two sexes, as made
manifest by the returns of  Massachusetts, is left for each to determine for
himself.   It may be proper  to state, that although no entire registration
district  in England exhibits a larger proportion of female than male deaths,
yet single counties,  in rural districts, as  Northamptonshire and Bedford-
shire, among  the South Midland  Counties;  Suffolk,  among the Eastern;
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, among the Southwestcvn ;  and North Riding,  in
Yorkshire, are among those whose female  deaths  are more numerous than
males.  The  Austrian Provinces of Illyria Corinthia, and  Illyria Carniolia,
as well as the  Prussian Province of Westphalia, likewise show an excess of
female deaths.
     This excess  of  female  mortality,  wherever  it exists, is exclusively
confined to rural populations.   The returns from all populous  places, in the
United States, show,  that large towns are more inimical to  male than female
life, and that the proportion of deaths to the living of each  sex among males
is greater  than among  females.  In  this respect the New England States, 
116
COMPARATIVE  MORTALITY
where an excess of female mortality alone is found, do not form an excep-
tion to the general rule.
    Another enquiry of equal importance with the one just discussed, is the
relative proportion of mortality between the two sexes at  different periods
of life,  for the purpose  of elucidating which the following table is intro-
duced,  giving  the  number  of males  and females who died  at each  age
throughout the United States, as returned by the census of 1850 :
Under 1,
1	and	under 5,
5	u	" 10,
10	a	" 20,
20	a	" 50,
50	u	" 80,
80	u	" 100,
100 and over,
            Totals,    ....    172,800               150,045

     Although  this table  is freely admitted not to  contain all the deaths
which took  place in the  United States  for one year, yet it is presumed to
give a tolerably accurate account of those which come within  the range of
its observation.  The omission is a general one, affecting some portions of
the country more,  and others less, as the marshals were  more or less fortu-
nate in procuring answers to their enquiries, or zealous in prosecuting them ;
but in no instance  have the whole number of deaths  which took place in an
entire State been included in their reports.  The relative division of deaths
into male and female, and their distribution among  the  respective ages,
with the exception, perhaps, of those which took place in the earlier years,
correspond so well with the observations made by the registers of the States
where notice is taken of the deaths which occur among the rural population
Males.	Female*
29,569	24,696
36,349	32,364
11,549	10,172
13,760	14,485
48,773	41,734
26,511	20,840
5,152	5,020
173	190
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES.
117
and with those of other countries, as to  lead to the belief, that they were
returned, with tolerable accuracy, to the  census bureau at Washington.
     This  table  shows,  in  the  aggregate,  a preponderance of male  over
female deaths, in each period of  life included, except that from ten to
twenty years  of age, in which  the  excess  shifts to the  female side of the
table, to return  again to the male side  at the  next period of life, which
unfortunately embraces a  stretch  of thirty years,  from twenty to  fifty, in
the early part of which, if a division had been made, it would have been
seen "that  the female deaths were more numerous than the male.
     Mr. Quetelet has given a table  of the proportion of male and female
deaths at  different ages, for the town and country of Belgium, from which
it appears that for every female death, there occurs the following propor-
tions of male deaths, at the ages respectively named :—
Age.	City.	County.
1 to 2 years,	1.06	0.97
14 to 18 "	. 0.82	0.75
21 to 26 " . .	1.24	1.11
26 to 30 " .	. 1.00	0.86
30 to 40 " . ■	0.88	0.63
40 to 50 "	, . 1.02	0.83
50 to 60 " •	1.07	1.18
60 to 70 "	. 0.96	1.05
70 to 80 " . .	0.77	1.00
80 to 100,	. 0.68	0.92
    From this it appears that at about two years the deaths in the two sexes
are nearly equal; between the ages of 14  and 15, which is the period of
puberty, the female  deaths preponderate.   Between those of 21 and  26
the male deaths are in the ascendant,  from 30 to 40 the excess of mortality
shifts again to the female side, and continues with them  during the period
of procreation.
* Ouetixet, Sur L'Homme, vol. 1, p. 167. 
118
MALE AND FEMALE  MORTALITY
     L'influence des sexes  est extremement prononcee dans tout ce qui con-
cerne les deces; deja meme elle se fait ressentir avant que l'enfant ait pu voir
le jour.   Pendant  les quatre annees de 1827 a 1830,  on a compte dans
Flandre occidentale 2597 morts-nes, dont 1517 de sexe masculin et 1080 du
sexe feminin ;   ce qui donne un rapport de 3 a 2 environ.   Cette difference
est considerable, et comme elle se reproduit  dans les  tableaux de chaque
annee, elle doit etre attribute a une cause speciale.
     Du reste, cette mortalite n'affecte pas seulement les enfants males avant
leur naissance,  mais encore a peu pres pendant les dix  ou  douze  premiers
mois qui la suivent, c'est-a-dire a peu pres pendant le temps de rallaitenient.*
     During the decennial period from 1828 to 1837,  the  number of deaths
in the  Kingdom of Sardinia was     .....   1,203,250
            of  which    .     .     .    603,185 were males
              and     .     .    .      600,065   "  females,
being  in the neighborhood of 195 males to 194 females,  or in the propor-
tion of 100, 52 of the former to 100 of the latter.

     " II sesso maschile par dunque predominare nelle morti come  nelle na-
scite,  ma in ragion di gran lunga minore ;  onde la popolazione maschile
dello Stato viene crescendo con progrcssione piu rapida che la popolazione
femminile;  avremo anzi opportunita di vedere in altro luogo che, mentre
ne' primi anni del decennio che consideriamo  la popolazione femminile
eccedeva  la popolazione maschile  negli  Stati  di S. M., il  contrario avviene
dal 1832 a questa parte;  tuttavia si dee osservare, che le emigrazioni assai
piu frequenti negli uomini che nelle  donne, col diminuire  il numero delle
morti maschili avvenute in  patria fan pur comparire minore del vero  la ra-
gione de' maschi a quella delle femmine nelle morti.
     " Questo  fatto del predominio delle morti maschili non e ne eguale, n6
* Quetelet, Sur L'Homme, vol. 1, p. 163. 
IN DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.
119
costante in tutte le divisioni;  esso ha luogo con diversa proporzione  nelle
quattro Divisioni che seguono,  nelle quali si trovano :
                                                         Moit.
                Divisioni.                            Maschi per 100 Femmine.
          Torino,........101  12
          Alessandria,.......102  89
          Aosta,........101  97
          Nizza,........100  85

     Nelle altre quattro divisioni succede il contrario, e si hanno :
                                                         Morti.
                Divisioni.                            Maschi per 100 Femmine.
          Savoja,........98 22
          Cuneo,........99 95
          Novara,........99 98
          Genova,........99 95.
     " Queste differenze cosi leggieri, ed ora in un senso,  ora nell'altro, par
che debbano attribuirsi acagioni accidentali,  anziche aniuna legge costante
come quella che si osserva nelle nascite.   Ne si puo dire  che la  mortalita di
ciascun sesso segua la ragione della rispettiva popolazione; poiche  se cosi e
infatti per le Divisioni di Savoja, Torino, Cuneo ed Alessandria, il contra-
rio succede in quelle di No vara e  di  Genova,  nelle quali muojono piu nu-
merosamente,  ed in quelle  di  Aosta e di Nizza,  nelle quali muorono piu
uomini,  abbenche in esse il numero delle donne sia il maggiore.  In gene-
rale la ragione de' due sessi nelle morti dipende dalla ragion loro nella po-
polazione, della legge di mortalita  per eta che a ciascuno compete, dal nu-
mero delle emigrazioni e delle immigrazieni, e daU'eta cui queste sogliono
aver luogo.
     "Havvi tra le citta e le campagne una sensibile differenza  nella ragion
de' sessi nelle morti, essendo maggiore nelle prime la mortalita degli uomi- 
120
MALE  AND FEMALE MORTALITY
ni,  nelle ultime la mortalita delle donne.   Fanno tuttavia eccezione le citta
di Torino e di Genova, nelle quali le morti femminili  di gran lunga supera-
no  le  maschili, tuttoche in entrambe queste citta la popolazione maschile
(comprendendo in essa la truppa di guarnigione, e per Genova  la popola-
zione  del porto) grandemente superi la popolazione  femminile;  infatti m
Torino la prima sta alia seconda come 128 al  100.   Ecco le tavole su cui
le precedenti  osservazioni sono fondate :
                                                       Morti.
                                                Maschi per 100 Femmine.
          Ne' Communi Kurali,.....99 74
          Nelle cittti in complesso,    .....   104 87
          A Torino,........94 13
          A Genova,........95  66. *
     It thus appears,  from the observations deduced by M. Quetelet,  from
the  eastern portion of Flanders, that during  the  four years  intervening
between 1827 and  1830, the number of male still-born, as well as those who
died in early life,  was largely in advance of  the female  mortality.   The
female mortality, indeed,  does not, according to the  facts deduced by this
distinguished  authority, begin to approach that  of the male until the age of
fourteen, and  is not in the ascendant prior to the age of from twenty-six to
thirty.
     Although the observations made by the Royal Commission of Sardinia,
just quoted, do not give the relative proportion of male and  female deaths
at particular ages, they yet  furnish some valuable information in relation to
the number of deaths in different places, from  which it appears that while
in SQme places, as in  Turin  and Alexandria, the female deaths were in the
ascendant;  in others, as Genoa, and  Savoy, they predominated on the side
of the males.    The proportion of  male  and female deaths,  in  town and
* Inform. Statis. dalla R, Comm. Sup., Torino, 1843 ; Movito. della Pope., p. 664. 
                          IN  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.                      121

country, in  Sardinia, appears to be particularly marked, being in the  pro-
portion of 99 males to 100 females, in rural districts, while it reaches 104
males to 100 females, in town.   In this respect these observations corres-
pond with those made in different parts of  the United States, as well as the
more northern countries of Europe.
     The annexed  table  of  deaths demonstrates that although the excess
of mortality, in  Massachusetts,  is  uniformly on the  female side, yet during
the early period of life, it is largely on that of the male :—
Years.
1852,
  u
  il



1853,
  u
  u



1854,
  u
  a



1855,
  n
  u
   Sex.
Males,
Females,
Unknown,
   Totais,

Males,
Females,
Unknown,
   Totals,

Males,
Females,
Unknown,
   Totals,

Males,
Females,
Unknown,
   Totals,
 Total.
 8,978
 9,396
   108
18,482

 9,942
10,210
   149
20,301

 10,710
 10,558
   146
 21,414

 10,285
 10,386
   127
 20,798

 39,915
 40,550
   530
 80,995
Under 1.
 2,026
 1,641
   83
 3,750

 2,248
 1,807
  120
 4,175

 2,321
 1,786
    81
 4,188

 2,416
 1,937
    89
 4,442

 9,011
 7,171
  373
16,555
 Under 5.
 3,719
 3,101
   94
 6,914

 4,192
 3,595
  125
 7,912

 4,337
 3,637
   105
 8,079

 4,267
 3,694
  106
 8,067

16,515
14,027
  430
31,072
20 to 30.
   808
 1,285

 2,093

   976
 1,307

 2,283

 1,109
 1,493

 2,602

   550
   705

 1,261

 3,443
 4,790

 8,233
All othera.
  4,451
   5,010
     14
   9,475

   4,774
   5,308
     24
 10,106

   5,264
   5,428
     41
 10,733

   5,462
   5,987
     21
 11,470

 19,951
 21,733
    100
   41,78
Aggregate, Males,
          Females,
    "     Unknown,
            Totals,
15 
122
MALE  AND FEMALE MORTALITY
     The general experience of Life Assurance Companies, in  Europe and
 in this country, is  in  exact correspondence  with the results of the  above
 table,  and there seems to be no  reason why the law  of mortality in this
 regard should not correspond in the United States with that found  to obtain
 in  different  European  States.   The experience  of  the  Gotha  Bank, in
 Germany, is  pertinent to this subject :—

     " Another feature which appears to  characterise the class of persons
 who insure  their lives,  and results from  Mr. Hopf's analysis of the  Gotha
 statistics, is the much  greater  mortality  of women at the  earlier periods of
 life ; in mixed populations, the reverse holds  good.  Thus, in the quinquen-
 nial periods, 26  to 30,  31  to 35,  36  to  40,  the  mortality of men is
 respectively  0.77, 0.88, and 0.98 per cent, while that of women at the same
 periods  of life  is 1.66, 1.79,  1.92.   After 40, the difference  ceases,  and
 at the most   advanced  periods the  females acquire an  advantage  over
 males.   The  Gotha Bank do not insure pregnant women, nor have they ever
 succeeded  in determining a  case  of fraud on the part of a female;  and
 yet, as the  author  observes,  the  numbers  before  us clearly  prove that
 'females understood better than males to gain advantage  in the assurance.'
 The following is his explanation of the fact:—

    ' 1 think we must seek the principal cause of it in the circumstance that women,
 from the greater haslifulness peculiar  to their sex, frequently do not  communicate
 all their bodily infirmities and irregularities to their physicians, much less to others,
 and feel themselves much less under obligation to  give notice to the assurance office
 of what they consider then' own secret  respecting the condition of their hody.'

     And again :—

     ' There is no doubt that a greater proportion of females who assure their lives
at the younger years, die early.  The deviation is too  significant and too constant
to be considered accidental.  We are not able to explain it by any other supposition 
IN  DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.
123
than by the circumstance that women feel internal hidden infirmities and defects in
a higher degree than men, and have a presentiment of approaching danger in conse-
quence of them, which  impels them to assure their lives, or that they understand
better and more skilfully than men to hide the  true state of their health, and to
deceive by it even their medical men.'

     " It  is,  however,  to  be  observed  that  the  greater   mortality  of
females below the age of forty does not apply in England, where the mor-
tality of the two sexes is equal at that period of life.  Our own experience
would tend to show that this great  mortality among females before  the
climacteric, in Germany, is due rather to the greater fatality in childbirth,
than to  the hidden  defects adverted to.   We throw  this out merely as an
impression obtained by inspecting numerous returns of foreign agencies,
than as  a fact, since nothing but the comparison of extended statistics can
serve to determine  such a question.   We  should  have  no difficulty  in
accounting for the  circumstance, if proved to be  based in truth, from the
much more frequent  employment of midwives during labor,  in  Germany,
even among the higher classes, than among ourselves.
     " We pointed out at the commencement of our remarks on the subject
of life insurance, that insurers, as a class, present  a much more favorable
average duration of life than their uninsured compatriots.  This, however,
would not be the case, were it  not  for  the surveillance  exercised by the
police of the insurance companies—their medical officers.
     " Persons who feel the taint of  any disease  that may sap their vital
power,  are even more likely  than others to insure their lives, in order to
secure a provision for their wives and children.   Were they admitted at the
ordinary rates, the favorable averages spoken of as peculiar  to the insured
would soon be reduced below the average of the general population.   It
can only be by careful and conscientious appreciation of all  the injurious
influences to which mankind are subjected, and by a deliberate weighing of 
124
COMPARISON  BETWEEN
 the circumstantial as well as the direct  evidence bearing upon  the  health
 of an  individual,  that a  medical examiner to  an insurance  company can
 completely fulfil the duties of his post.   He has to guard against nervous
 anxiety in watching over the interests of his company, quite as much as
 against a laxity in examining the applicants for the benefits of the institu-
 tion.   The shock to a person in  average health  on being declined on the
 ground of some imaginary predisposition, and the injury inflicted upon him
 by thus refusing him the benefits of assurance, not easily obtained elsewhere
 when once refused, are matters for the serious consideration of the medical
 officer of an insurance company.*

     The annexed table,  prepared by Mr. Kennedy, late  Superintendent of
 the Census Bureau, showing the per  cent, of mortality in  Massachusetts,
 Maryland, and England,  among male and  females, at each  age,  likewise
 illustrates this point:—Before introducing it,  however, it may be proper to
 state,  that as the officer upon whom the  arrangement  of  the  details of the
 census devolved, Mr. Kennedy bestowed much  labor  to perfect this new
 but important branch of statistical inquiry, and had  the answers corres-
 ponded with the instructions in point of exactness, the information would
 have  been  everything  that could be  desired.   Unfortunately,  however,
 neither in the returns made by  the marshals, nor in  their collation after-
wards, was the same care taken, as in the preparation of the forms  adopted
 for their  guidance.   Nor is either  he or Mr.  De Bow to blame for the
meagerness of the medical statistics which Congress felt so little interest in,
as to order their publication after a tardy delay, on the sole condition of not
 exceeding 400 pages, instead of the elegant  form originally  contemplated
 by the officers in charge of the census office.
* British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. 35, p. 112. 
MASSACHUSETTS AND MARYLAND.
125
ANNUAL DEATHS PEK CENT—1850.
	Massachusetts.		Maryland.		England—1841.	
Ages.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.
0 to 5...........	7.105 1.168 0.452 0.572 0.998 1.253 1.513 2.067 3.482 6.767 15.000 35.240	6.052 0.983 0.573 0.831 1.170 1.346 1.325 1.654 2.960 5.762 13.470 27 540	5.466 1.041 0.477 0.605 0.896 0.991 1.884 2.433 3.405 8.977 15.157 31.132	4.875 0.855 0.606 0.757 0.938 1.146 1.249 1.712 3.285 7.221 12.280 23.430	6.838 0.955 0.509 0.718 0.949 1.080 1.410 2.230 4.232 9.150 19.850 37.390	5.860
5 to 10............						0.922
10 to 15............						0.542
15 to 20............						0.801
20 to 30............						0.942
30 to 40............						1.121
40 to 50............						1.308
50 to 60............						1.938
60 to 70............						3.761
7o to 80............						8.378
80 to 90............						18.850
90 to 100............						34.570
						
     The mortality returns of many of the States would appear to indicate
that a difference exists between the northern and southern States, in regard
to the relative mortality of the sexes in the middle  period of life, from
thirty to forty, and that the relative proportion of female deaths to those of
males, was greater at this  particular period in warm than in cold climates.
The facts are not sufficiently numerous or  well  defined, to give anything
beyond a mere shadow to this suggestion;  but if,  hereafter, under a more
careful  collection  and analysis of facts it assumes a visible and substantial
shape, it will furnish the starting point for many curious speculations which
naturally suggest themselves to the mind upon its mere supposition.
     Dr. Sutton, in order to exhibit  the  force  of mortality upon  the sexes,
at different ages, formed a table, showing the number of persons of different
sexes living in Kentucky, in each period of life, as designated by the census
for 1850, together with the number of deaths,  and the  proportion of deaths
to those of living at the periods given, as taken from the State Registration
Returns for 1853. 
MALE AND FEMALE  .MORTALITY
Ages.		Number	ok Living.	NUMIIKR	ok Deaths.	Deaths to	Living 1 to A,
		Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.
Under 1	year,	. 15,749	15,014	1,112	845	14.16	18.00
1 to 5,		71,938	65,981	974	867	73.85	76.10
5 to 10,		. 77,138	74,7S1	371	341	207.96	219.30
10 to 15,	.	77,713	65,196	224	236	316.93	275.88
15 to 20,		. 54,881	55,957	250	306	219.12	182.86
20 to 30,	.	89,336	82,782	507	620	176.20	133.52
30 to 40,		. 56,162	49,648	240	389	234.00	127.37
40 to 50,	.	35,567	33,011	224	263	159.22	125.52
50 to 60,		. 21,197	19,567	188	22!)	112.75	85.44
60 to 70,		11,058	11,173	189	164	58.56	68.13
70 to 80,		. 4,793	4,689	165	148	29.05	31.68
80 and over,		1,766	1,873	116	94	15.22	19.91
This	table is best explained by			the constructor of it,		who remarks:—	
      " By examining this table closely, it will be observed that for the first
  six periods, the totals of deaths  are greater than the  sums of males and
  females.  This is caused by there being one or more deaths at those ages
  in which the sex is not stated.   In the census are a certain number of per-
  sons whose ages are unknown;  and  the same is  true of the persons who
  have died; but no connection  is presumed to exist between those thus re-
  turned in the census and in the assessor's book, for which reason they are
  both omitted in this table.
      " This table shows an awful mortality during the first years of life—no
i  less than one  in  15.64  (or 6 per cent,  of all children  born,) dying within
  the first year.  If we reflect, too, that, of necessity, there must  have been
  many deaths which  were not  returned by the assessors; and again, that
  these infants  were  more  likely  to be forgotten than older persons,  we
  shall  be satisfied that this mortality,  great as  it appears, is yet far short
  of the  truth.  We  must  observe,  too,  that  in every  100  dying  during
  the first  year, about 57  are males and 43 females.  After  the first year 
AT DIFFERENT AGES.
127
the ' value' or ' expectation' of life is  much greater.  Thus,  more died
during the first year than during the next four.  Doubtless the chances in-
crease as the time from birth increases ; so that during the second period of
four years, only one in 74.70 died;  and the male excess is greatly reduced.
During the third period, from 5 to 10, the chances of life have trebled from
what they were during the second—the male excess rather increased.   The
fourth period, from 10 to 15, shows the  greatest  expectation  of life—only
one dying in 310.   Here the chances of life have shifted, and the excess
of mortality is among the females.  From this time, the expectation of  life
gradually declines; until after the eightieth  year, it is reduced  to about
what it was during the first year.   The excess of mortality,  too, continues
with the females,  until the tenth period,  from 60 to 70, when it again re-
turns  to the males, and there continues to the end of the list.
     " Since constructing the foregoing table,  and writing the comments on
it, I have examined carefully a similar  table prepared by the Registrar-
General of England, and find that his table  corroborates surprisingly both
the general correctness  of my table, in early life,  and the remark made as
to the number of infants whose deaths have been  omitted. From that table,
it appears that instead of one child dying under one year in every 16 born,
or 6 per cent, in England, 20.51 per cent, males, and 15.44 per cent, females
die within the first year;  thus demonstrating the  enormous  mortality of
that period;  and  by legitimate  inference,  the  great  number of deaths
among  infants which are not returned in  our report.
     " In his table, as in mine, from births to the period  " 10 to 15,' the
excess of mortality remains with the males.   In 10 to 15, and up to 30 to
40,' there is a very slight excess of male deaths; and through all succeed-
ing periods,  the  excess  remains  with   the  males,  and increases as  age
advances.  Whether more  extended observations will show an  approxima- 
128
MORTALITY  STATISTICS COMPARED.
tion of the proportion of ages and sexes to the English  tables, we must
leave for time to determine.
     " I have looked  into the  relative mortality of the two races in early
life, and find that of the 3,812  which are returned as having died under 5
years, 2,674 were whites, being one in  284  of the  white  population, and
1.138 were colored, being one for every 195 of the colored  population." '
     The remarks which  preceded Dr. Sutton's  table, relative  to the mor-
tality of the two sexes, at the middle period of life, is not only corroborated
by it, but extended beyond to a point which it is thought  will  not be
sustained by more general observations.
     A comparison of the  Swedish and Montpellier mortality tables will show
that the difference in the  relative mortality of the two sexes at  this particu-
lar epoch of life, which has just been alluded to, as a possible characteristic
feature of northern and southern mortality in the United States, also exists
in the northern  and southern counties of Europe, so  far as these tables are
an indication of the value of life among their respective populations.
     The importance to be  attached to  these comparisons,  between male
and female life,  cannot well be over-estimated, because it will be found that
in proportion as the expectation of life increases in value,  in  like manner
will the proportion of deaths between the sexes assimilate more closely to
each other.   Whatever cause tends to disturb these relations, as the hazards
of early infancy, or the epidemics which prove  fatal to later years,  or the
change of habit from  a rural to city life, operates directly in abridging the
span of human existence.  A population whose  aggregate age at death is
large,  is uniformly  a  population  in which the  relative  number  of deaths
among  each sex,  in proportion to the living of that sex,  does not differ
materially ; on the other hand, a population which presents a low aggregate
age at death, is  one which  exhibits a  great disparity in the deaths of the
different sexes.
                     * 2d Kentucky Registration Report, p. 126-7. 
INFLUENCE
OF LOCALITY.
L29
                            CHAPTER  XI.

                       LOCAL  INFLUENCES.

     The influence of locality in determining the rate of mortality, is made
quite manifest by a comparison  of the various registers kept  in  different
places, and indeed is perceptible to most  persons without this  comparison.
The various natural divisions of country into sea-shore  and inland regions,
extended plains and mountain elevations,  fruitful valleys and rugged preci-
pices, have each a very manifest influence over the health of those who in-
habit them.   Nor are those geological formations which divide the surface
into alluvial and sandy regions, and  scatter immediately beneath the soil
which reposes upon them limestone,  granite,  sandstone, and  other rocks,
giving a whole belt of country to the one  formation, and  another belt  to
another, less  potent  in  the  development of  the diseases peculiar to each,
and which constitute the chief outlets of  life.
     But apart from these natural causes which are  incident to each parti-
cular locality, and which spring from the  surface of the earth,  is  that more
potent one of climate, which often modifies those causes that give character
to each especial district, and assigns to each latitude its particular type  of
disease.
     Hence the inhabitants of so vast a country as that of the United States,
which embraces almost every variety of natural division and geological for-
        16 
130
INFLUENCE OF LOCALITY
mation, and, although possessed of a temperate  climate, is yet subjected
upon its southern and northern limits, in a modified degree, to the influences
of  a tropical and frigid  one, are,  as may  well  be supposed, subject to
a great variety of influences, which operate in determining the rate of mor-
tality, and fixing the relative value of life.
     It is evident that these are not always the same, nor are they amenable
to  the  same laws; and any standard of comparison which would  assign a
fixed rate of mortality to the  whole  United States must necessarily be de-
fective and unreliable.
     It might reasonably be expected that in each  great division of country
the period of life upon which death made  its heaviest  demand,  after the
passage of the infantile one, would be. different; and indeed in infancy and
the earliest years of childhood, the same result, in a more modified degree,
might be expected.  Among  the diseases of maturer years,  and especially
those which fall with most intensity upon middle life, many are confined to
certain well  defined geographical limits,  beyond which  they rarely extend,
so  as  to form  a characteristic feature in  the  mortality of those  localities
placed beyond  their confines.
     Thus the intense autumnal fever, with its biliary complications  and con-
gestive type  which prevails along the southern tier of States, and gradually
loses its characteristics and intensity as it extends  northward, is never seen
in the New England States, or in  those  which skirt the Canadian border.
Nor is the typhoid fever, which prevails  in the  northern States,  especially
in cool weather, a frequent visitor to  the warm latitudes of Georgia  and
Alabama.
     Both of these are so modified by a change of climate,  as  to  develope
themselves in an  altered form, in the  latitudes which intervene  between
these two  extremes.   Exposure to cold, which in a northern  latitude would
develope itself in inflammatory affections, intense  in  degree, but  pure and 
UPON  THE RATE  OF MORTALITY.
131
simple in character, in a southern one, give  rise to  complications  which
seriously  alter  its character,  and affect  its mode of treatment  and pro-
bable  result.   An inflammation  of the lungs or their investure, which in
a northern  latitude would constitute a simple  pneumonia or pleurisy, as
far south  as Virginia, would become  complicated with an affection of liver,
giving rise to bilious pneumonia or pleurisy, which is a much more serious
disease, and requires a different mode of treatment.
     These examples are sufficient to  show the influence of climate and loca-
lity in the development  of diseases,  and in the  modification of  the  same
disease, and naturally lead to the expectation  that  as  the  causes  which
operate in  each  are  not always  the  same,  and the circumstances under
which disease is  manifested are diverse, so the results as developed  in the
demand upon life, would be different
     A striking evidence of the effect of locality and climate, in affecting
the rate of mortality, is presented by the returns of the British army, whose
duties, in guarding the immense possessions of that government,  have made
them the inhabitants of every variety of climate.   The annexed table of the
annual average mortality among the troops of this kingdom,  is  given upon
the authority of Dr. Balfour, at  the  time Assistant-Surgeon to the Madras
army  :—
    AVERAGE ANNUAL MORTALITY OF TROOPS AT  DIFFERENT STATIONS, NATIVES OF
                              BRITISH ISLANDS.
                                             . ,.  .,      Annual mortality
                Station.                       Authority.     per 1,000 troopl
          New South Wales,    .    .    .    Marshall,      14.1
          Cape of Good Hope,     .    .     Reports,        15.5
          Nova Scotia,     ....        "          18.0
          Malta,.....         "          18-7
           Canada,.....       "          20.0
           Gibraltar,     ....         "          22,1
           Ionian Islands,   ....                  28.3 
132
STATISTICS OF THE ENGLISH
Station.	Authority.	AllftiliU JI1LT1 per 1,000 ti
Mauritius, ....	Reports,	30.5
Bermuda, ....	u	32.3
St. Helena, ....	u	35.0
Tenasserium Provinces,	a	50.0
Madras Presidency, .	Quetelet,	52.0
Bombay,.....	a	55.0
Ceylon, ....	Reports,	57.2
Bengal,.....	Quetelet,	63.0
Windward and Leeward Command,	Reports,	85.0
Jamaica,.....	u	143.0
Bahmas, ....	u	200.0
Sierra Leone, ....	cc	483.0*
     It must be borne in mind that these troops were natives of the British
islands, and consequently exhibited a much higher  rate  of mortality than
the natives of the  respective  countries in which  they were stationed;
yet with  this  reservation,  the  table  demonstrates  most emphatically the
effect of climate upon general mortality.  The difference in the rate of mor-
tality between native and foreign troops is shown  by the  annexed  table,
exhibiting the mortality of troops serving in  their native countries.   Thus
among—
British regiments at home,
Maltese at Malta,      ....
Hottentot corps in Africa,
Native Bengal army,   ....
Native Madras army,    .
Native Ceylon army,  ....

Annual average of native troops per 1,000,
Mortality per 1,000.
    15.9
     9.0
    12.5
    13.0
    15.0
    25.8
15.2
* Journal London Statistical Society, vol. 8, p. 195. 
AND AMERICAN  ARMIES.
133
     The  annexed  extract  from the statistical  report  of the sickness and
mortality of the  United States  Army, is introduced to  develope the same
proposition :—
Regions.
Coast of New England,...............
Harbor of New York, ...............,
West Point........................
North Interior, East..................
The Great Lakes.....................
North Interior, West.................
Middle Atlantic......................
Middle Interior, East,................
Newport Barracks, Kentucky, ...,.....
Jefferson Barracks and St. Louis Arsenal
Middle Interior, West,................
South Atlantic, .......,.............
South Interior, East,.................
South Interior, West.................
Atlantic Coast of Florida,.............
Gulf Coast of Florida.................
Texas, Southern Frontier,.............
Texas, Western Frontier,.............
New Mexico,........................
California, Southern,.................
California, Northern,.................
Oregon and Washington,..............
Mean strength.
 3,963
 9,387
 6,901
 3,553
10,346
 7,230
 6,299
 2,456
 1,454
 5,580
 5,319
 2,800
 5,919
10,013
  835
 2,299
 4,450
 6,324
 5,873
 1,707
 1,599
 1,831
Number treated.	Deaths.
6,935	36
31,397	183
31,635	28
6,426	39
22,784	140
16,707	77
14,262	117
6,373	36
3,670	59
19,587	263
20,804	107
6,870	58
17,426	234
35,312	228
2,408	21
10,262	70
15,693	235
23 051	174
11,738	139
3,200	30
5,420	70
4,253	29
RATIO PER 1,000 OF MEAN
     STRENGTH,
1,749
3,345
4,584
1,808
2,202
2,310
2,264
2,594
2,524
3,510
3.911
2,453
2,944
3,531
2 883
4,463
3,526
3,645
1,999
1,874
3,389
2,322
 9.0
19.5
 4.0---
10.9
13.5
10.6
18.5
14.6
40.5
47.0
20-0
20.7
39.5-"
22.7
25.0
30.4
52.8-~
27.5
23.6
17.5
43.7
15.8*
     Neither of the results obtained by the returns given  above,  are to  be
taken as a standard by which  to measure the relative value of life among
the resident populations of the locality where the observations were  made,
because in addition to the circumstance that the life of a soldier is exposed
to influences peculiar to itself, all of  those noticed in the British army, and
the portion of those in  the United  States who were stationed at  southern
posts,  resided in climates to which  they were strangers, and  in which they

were subject to  influences not felt by the native residents.
     It has  been seen  that the relative annual  mortality of the  different
countries,  which possess  a  record of the  deaths  that  have  taken  place
* Mortality Statistics United States Army, p. 494. 
134
ARMY STATISTICS NOT ALWAYS APPLICABLE
among  their  respective  populations,  under the influence of the natural
causes to which allusion  has been  made, and such artificial ones  as they
have chosen to surround themselves with, is quite different—the empire  of
Russia showing one death to each twenty-eight  of its inhabitants,  while  in
England the  mortality declines to one in each forty-five.   A subdivision  of
each  country shows that mortality is greater in some rural districts than
others,  and in all presents a wide difference between town  and rural  life.
Hence the law of mortality prevailing in Liverpool and  the metropolis is
not applicable to the rural districts  either of the north  or south  midland
counties,  nor is that which defines the limits  to human existence at each
period of life, the same in France and Sweden.
     In the United States, with the error of the  census returns corrected,  so
as to give an annual mortality of one to each forty-eight of the  inhabitants,
a result is obtained which differs from each of the countries in  Europe,  in-
asmuch as it presents a lower standard of mortality.   This standard of mor-
tality, which after all is based  somewhat  upon speculation, is not by any
means reliable, and it will consequently be necessary to arrive  at  the law
which governs it by an examination of its individual details.
     Parallelisms in different latitudes are not always to be expected ; but,
inasmuch as  they  have been  found  to exist  between  different  parts  of
the United  States and Europe, corresponding in geographical  position,
in other portions of this enquiry,  it is anticipated they will be found in this;
and although the results of the observations in no single  country in Europe
may be found to correspond with this, yet different parts  of the entire con-
tinent may be selected,  irrespective  of the government  under  which they
exist, which will assimilate to  corresponding parts of the United States.
The advantage of these comparisons has already become  so  manifest, that
nothing further need be said in their behalf at the present time.
    There is one circumstance connected  with the climate of  the United 
TO CIVIL LIFE.
135
States, which would  lead  to  the  belief that  the  correspondence  between
different localities in Europe and this country, apparently similarly situated,
might not always be sustained, or lead to analogous results.  This is the
greater heat  of the American summer.
     The prevailing winds in Europe, as well as America, especially, during
the summer season, are from the west.  In that portion of the United States
embraced within the  limits of the  valley of the Mississippi,  as  well as in
that stretched along the Atlantic sea coast, the effect of  these winds, whose
course is for  an immense distance over dry land, with no intervention of sea,
is largely to  elevate the temperature.   In Europe, the wind fresh  from the
Atlantic Ocean produces  a directly  contrary effect, and modifies rather
than  elevates the temperature.  This effect is strikingly manifested upon
vegetation.   There is no part of the United States where the heat of summer
is not] sufficiently intense  to ripen maize, and it  consequently flourishes in
the northern as well as the Southern States.   In Europe, with the exception
of the low latitudes, it is found impossible to bring this plant to maturity for
the want of  a summer heat sufficiently intense to  ripen  it.   It is, therefore,
reasonable to expect  that in elevated  latitudes, as well  as in southern ones,
the mortality, in July and August, when the period of  intense heat culmi-
nates, will be proportionably greater  than in countries similarly situated in
other respects in Europe.
      " The isothermal lines, first employed by Humboldt to measure the heat
 and cold of  the earth, and to connect places having the same  mean temper-
ature, differ  sensibly from  the lines of latitude.  We need not  now enter
into details how the earth's annual rotation and oblique motion,  in relation
to the sun, the centre of  the  system,  fixes the tropical limits of the  sun's
apparent declination south and north of the equator, and produces alternate
winter and summer on either side of  the line, as  it  will be evident that the
mean annual temperature obtained at different latitudes must decrease from 
136
ISOTHERMAL  OBSERVATIONS.
the equator to the poles.  Had the whole surface of the earth been uniform,
presenting the  like relations to radiant heat,  unaffected  by the  unequal
action of disturbing causes, the mean temperature of every point would
have  been in proportion to the radius of the parallel  latitude.   But the
mean temperature of places, calculated according to Dr.  Brewster's formula,
from an equatorial mean of 81° 50' Fahr., differs considerably from the mean
obtained by observation.  The mean temperature is usually higher at the
same latitude in the Old World than  in the New, and in north latitude than
in south.   Thus the isothermal line  of  59° Fahr. traverses the  latitude of
46° in Europe, but descends to latitude 36° in America.   The general causes
which disturb the symmetrical distribution of  temperature, are  the annual
variations of the upper equatorial and lower  polar currents of the atmos-
phere, the differences of its contained humidity, the unequal distribution of
land and water in various countries, the peculiarity of the surface land, and
its relative height above the  level  of the sea—all  of which causes have
more  or less  influence in determining the local temperature or climate of
countries, and  in fixing the isothermal lines  that  mark out  the  zones of
disease."*
* British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. XXXVIU., p. 243. 
GENERAL  CONFIGURATION OF TERRITORY.              137
                           CHAPTER  XII.

               NATURAL DIVISIONS OF  THE UNITED STATES.

     It has already been stated  (page 18) that the territory of the United
States is physically divided into three distinct sections, separated from each
other by lofty ranges of mountains, and  containing peculiarities rendering
an examination of each a matter of the highest consideration.  The first of
these great divisions is occupied by the Atlantic plain and slope, which ex-
tends from the Atlantic to the crest of the Alleghany mountains, and  is the
oldest as well as the most populous section of the  country.   The  second is
embraced in the wide valley, bounded  on the one side by the Alleghany, or
Appalachain  chain, and on  the other  by the Rocky Mountains, and is  tra-
versed by the Mississippi River and its tributaries.   The third extends from
the Rocky Mountains to the shores of  the Pacific, and, with the  exception
of California, contains but  a slender population, and  is traversed by vast
wastes of unexplored territory.
     The Atlantic plain and slope, stretching  from  the  river St. Croix upon
the north, to  the coral reefs of  Florida upon the  south,  presents  south of
Cape Cod an  unbroken front, upwards  of one thousand miles in extent, to
the waves  of the Atlantic, unrelieved  by any of those  bold prominences
which destroy the tameness of landscape.  After passing Cape Cod, whose
        17 
138
THE ATLANTIC PLAIN,
shores are low and sandy, northward, the highlands near the ocean, and the
numerous harbors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine,  open upon
the sea in the midst of bold and picturesque hills, which contrast agreeably
with the tame and monotonous scene of the more southerly coast.
     Receding from the shore, this vast plain, at first level, becomes elevated
into hills, which  increase in  boldness  and  diversity, until they  finally rise
into those lofty ranges of mountain peaks, which  bound the Atlantic slope
on its western side.
     The  breadth of this plain is not in all  places the same.  Beginning in
New England by a narrow line,  confined almost  entirely to  the sea-coast
and the subjacent islands, it gradually expands as it proceeds southward,
until in the Carolinas the mountains recede two hundred miles from the sea.
     A well defined line  of primary rocks, extending longitudinally through
the whole length of this  plain, from the New England States to North Caro-
lina, marks the  point of  demarcation between  the low and level  plain
skirting the sea shore, and the elevated land which finally loses itself  in the
lofty summits  of the Alleghanies.   This  line of primary rock,  which main-
tains an average elevation of great uniformity of between  200 and 300 feet
above  the sea,  presents a visible  barrier  to  the  flow of the tide, and is
marked in almost every stream that crosses it, on its way to the ocean, by a
series of waterfalls or turbulent rapids.
     The appearance  of  this  chain of rocks clearly indicates that it once
formed the shore of the ocean, and presented to the resistless beating of its
waves, a  long but not  very  elevated range of cliffs.  The  aspect of the
plain, stretching towards  the sea, is  also  strongly corroborative of this
view.  It is low, flat,  sandy, and covered by an abundant  series  of alluvial
deposits, and is furrowed out  to the level  of the  tide  in every part by a
multitude of inlets which are not unfrequently associated with large patches
of marsh, or salt-meadow land. 
AND SLOPE.
139
     The upper part of the valley, divided by this line of rocks,  is nearly of
the same dimensions as that skirting upon the sea, and presents at the onset
a range of gentle  undulations which swell  into  bolder  and bolder forms,
until it sweeps over the blue ridge  and rises into  mountain  peaks.   It is
principally composed of the older sedimentary and  stratified primary rocks,
and presents a fine hilly country, luxuriant  in vegetation,  rich  in scenery,
and possessed of a number of rivers,  and  a water-power  of great value.
Professor H. D. Rogers has called the alluvial  range east of the line of
primary rocks the Atlantic plain, and that west of it the  Atlantic slope.
     Most of the principal towns on the Atlantic are built along this line of
demarcation, clearly showing the powerful influence exerted by geological
phenomena upon the  distribution of population.   This line of  primary rock
may be traced from  the  city of New York,  in  the falls of the Passaic at
Paterson,  the Rariton at  New  Brunswick,  the  Delaware  at  Trenton, the
Schuylkill at  Philadelphia,  the  Patapsco near Baltimore,  the Potomac at
Georgetown, the  Rappahannock  near Fredericksburg, the  James  River at
Richmond,  the Brandywine near Wilmington,  the Congree  at  Columbia,
and the Savannah at  Augusta.
     The whole surface of the extensive territory limited by the Alleghany
mountains, as well indeed as the greater part of  the entire continent north
of the Isthmus of Dareiu, is overlaid with a strata  of  earth and  pebbles of
evident diluvial origin, varying  in thickness from  ten to  twenty feet,  fre-
quently leaving large surfaces of the rocky formation exposed, and as often
burying them in an investure of thirty  feet  in depth.
     West  of this mountain chain, which not only presents a variety and
beauty of landscape  as grand  and  attractive as the  loftiest  peaks of the
Alps or the  Pyrennees, and is rich beyond calculation in its treasures of coal,
iron ore,  and  other minerals, the interior valley of the  Mississippi spreads
by a wide and continuous sweep to the Rocky Mountains on the west. 
140
THE INTERIOR VALLEY
     These mountains, which  are  a continuation  of the Andes  of South
America,  and the  Cordilleras of Mexico, obtain  an elevation of fourteen
thousand feet, rising into occasional peaks of upwards of sixteen thousand
feet.
     This valley is traversed from north to south upwards of three thousand
miles by  the Mississippi  river.  This  parent  stream receives the waters
from numerous tributaries coursing through every portion  of the valley,
and forming highways upon which an immense commerce is carried.  Cities
of considerable size have arisen upon the banks  of these rivers in various
parts of the valley to accommodate the traffic, and the bottom lands in their
vicinity have become covered by a comparatively  dense rural population.
     A very remarkable phenomena in the arrangement of this valley is the
uniformity of its slopes.  One of these reaches from the Alleghany Mountains
to the Mississippi river, a second and larger extends from the Rocky Moun-
tains to the same point, and a third gradually rises from the Gulf of Mexico
to the head waters of the  Mississippi, with so  gradual an ascent as not to
attain an  elevation of more than  1,000 feet in the  whole  distance.  The
slope west of the Mississippi is  regular, while that  on the  eastern side is
occasionally broken into hills,  and embraces the most fertile territory in the
United States.
     This  immense valley  contains vast  spaces covered by  marshes,  and
small lagoons, and others of equal extent, especially near the Rocky Moun-
tains, whose sandy and arid soil affords but a stinted and scanty vegetation.
Beneath  this variety of surface reposes the formations  of every geological
era,  from the alluvion of the Gulf of Mexico to the primitive rocks of the
more northern section.
     In all these  varied formations the greatest order  and  simplicity are
observed, and it is probably here, above all other sections of the globe, that
the geologist can best  read in its vast  pages the history  of the earth's 
OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.
141
geological formation.  The primitive and metamorphic rocks, it is true, are
seldom seen, and are only exposed by upheaval from their natural positions,
but the lower silurian, the upper silurian, the Devonian and the carboniferous
strata, present themselves in  unvaried regularity  over  wide districts of
country.
     The extensive ranges of silurian rocks are, for the most part,  composed
of limestone, in every variety, from hard and dense, to soft and friable.
     That these geological characteristics exercise a considerable influence
over health, is well known.  Their connexion is too immediate and self-evident
to the medical man  to require examination in detail.  The prevailing type
of disease is dependant  as much, and perhaps more, on the  predominant
rock  of the  country, than upon any other cause.   Climate,  temperature,
hygrometic condition of the atmosphere, and prevailing winds,  may have
much to do in influencing the general peculiarities of maladies in particular
localities ;  but all these  agents combined are incompetent to  generate the
cause  which  frequently dwells in the rocky formation.  Where the sub-
stratum is composed of clay-slate the country is level, and the soil is in an
especial degree retentive of moisture, and consequently ponds and marshes
abound, and intermittent fever prevails.  A limestone formation, especially
of a friable species, is characterized by a luxuriant vegetation, a picturesque
landscape, and a high grade of autumnal fever.  In  the region of sandstones
the surface is hilly, and frequently  mountainous, arid, and less productive,
the streams are pure and  rapid, and stagnant water is unknown.  This is
the region characterized above all others for eminent salubrity.
     It will be seen that there is no section which does not  possess local
causes of salubrity and disease, entirely independent  of the  great geogra-
phical divisions into which the country, as a whole, naturally resolves itself.
When a sufficiently minute series of statistics are obtained, the effect of these
local causes will  furnish the medical etiologist  with interesting subjects of 
142                     RANGE OF TEMPERATURE

investigation.   The  Transactions  of  the  American  Medical Association
contain some  papers on  local  epidemics,  which are  valuable  in this
connection.
     In forming an estimate of climate in temperate latitudes, such concomi-
tant  circumstances as proximity to the sea, or large inland  bodies of water
exposure to winds and elevation, must not be  overlooked.   Thus,  in high
latitudes, the sea-coast is always  warmer than  the interior in winter, and
cooler in  summer.   The mountainous  regions of New Hampshire and Ver-
mont, although but a comparatively trifling distance from the coast, are  so
much colder during the winter season, that  it is the constant practice  of
valetudinarians to  leave those elevated situations during  this  inclement
season to pass the winter in Boston, or other portions of the sea coast.
  The following  table,  prepared  under  the  direction  of the Surgeon-
General of the United States Army, is illustrative of this point:—
S3	«S				(VlNTER			Spring.		Summer.			Autumn	
	si 6-			Dec.	Jan.	Feb.	March.	April.	May.	June. July. 1	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.
				34.95 23.31		31.87	40.58	54.66	61.94	1 69.27 72.98 1	75.57	65.48 G6.75	54.45	37.90
				42.24 27.15 1		34.73	42.35	53.15	59.00	1 67.25 73.16 1	71.39		58. 16	41.85
51.56 53.10	101. 88	10 0	111 88		30.04 34.71			52.39 51.50		71.60 70.6(1			52.61 55.59	
     West Point, New York, is on the same parallel of latitude, and distant
one and a half degree of longitude from Fort Trumbull  (New London, Ct.)
The former is inland,  whilst the latter is upon the sea coast.   Here, proxi-
mity to the sea, renders the winters 4.67° milder, and the summers 1° cooler,
than at West Point. 
ON SEA-COAST AND INLAND.
143
     This  difference  is  still more manifest in that portion of the North
American continent  lying above the boundary of the United States.   In
Nova Scotia, which is nearly surrounded by water, the thermometer seldom
indicates a temperature greater than 88° in summer, nor less than 8° below
zero in winter; whilst in Canada, occupying the same parallels of latitude,
the thermometer in summer rises as high as  97° and occasionally 100°, and
the oppression is as  great as  in equatorial latitudes.  In winter, a cold of
30° below zero, is frequent, and the thermometer indicates a range during
this season of from 8° to 30° below zero.
     The report of the  Surgeon-General contains the results of a variety of
observations made at different places for the  purpose of marking the effect
on  temperature  by  proximity  to, or  distance from the sea, from which
it  would  appear  that  the winters are  8.38°  colder, and the  summers
6.99° warmer,  in the  inland than on the  sea coast.
     It may be proper to remark that many of the inland military posts, are
situated in the new country beyond the western border settlements, and are
exposed to the bleak winds from the Rocky Mountains, which course with-
out  opposition across the open belts  of prairie, forming so prominent a
picture in  this western landscape.   Those  who reside  in  these prairies
believe, and perhaps justly, that the sun's rays obtain  a greater intensity in
their open and almost boundless fields, than where the scene is diversified
by the green foliage  and agreeable shelter of the thick forest.  It is highly
probable, therefore, that a comparison between localities less exposed, and
in more cultivated regions, would  not  exhibit  the  same difference of tem-
perature between the sea-coast and interior, as appears from the observations
of the medical officers of the army.
     The small numerous islands which dot the surface of the ocean on the
shores of South Carolina and Florida, are famed for their salubrity and uni-
formity of temperature; while the interior in summer is parched beneath 
144
CLIMATE OF THE  GREAT LAKES.
 the intensity of a burning sun.  The temperature  here  seldom  attains  a
 higher elevation  than  80° or 83°, which, combined  with  the pleasant sea-
 breeze, almost continually playing over their surface, renders them delightful
 and healthy places of resort for the inhabitants of the main land.
     The immense chain of inland lakes on the  northern frontier, comprising
 a larger collection of fresh water than is to be found elsewhere on the sur-
 face of the globe, exercises, as may be supposed, a decided influence on the
 temperature of the  country in juxta-position  with them.   It is estimated
 that these lakes contain 11,300 cubic miles of water, about half the quantity
 of fresh water on the globe, and reach for a distance of 1900 miles, covering
 over 94,000 square miles with water. Their depth is proportionably great—
 in some  places, as in Lake Michigan, the sounding line having gone to the
 depth of 1800 feet without reaching bottom.
     The effect on climate produced by proximity to rang es of mountains
 in the United States is very marked.  The salubrity of those portions of Vir-
 ginia,  Maryland and Pennsylvania, lying at  the  foot of the Alleghanies, is
 doubtless in a great measure induced by the  immediate presence of this ex-
 tended chain of lofty mountains.  The  superior  healthiness  of this section
 of country is so famed,  that large numbers  of visitors from the  lowlands
 and large cities, are in  the yearly custom of  resorting thither during the
 summer and autumn months, when the heat of town is most oppressive, and
 the malarial country most  prolific of  disease.
     It not unfrequently happens, however, that the protection afforded by
 mountains against the strong winds,  operates  unfavorably on the mainte-
 nance  of a wholesome atmosphere, and hence we  often find, deep valleys in
 the midst of high  and precipitous mountains without a proper outlet, op-
pressed by a degree of heat which is almost  insupportabable.  In  those
mountain gorges, on which the wind falls obliquely,  and without sufficient
force to sweep away the vapours arising from the surface, which constantly 
AND  MOUNTAIN REGIONS.
145
arise, laden with exhalations from the soil, an unwholesome moisture is ever
present, the air stagnates and looses its vital properties;  even the water is
supposed  to  loose its healthy qualities,  and the  situation becomes in the
highest degree prejudicial  to health.   Positions of this kind are seldom in-
habited in the United States, owing to the extent of its territory, and the
facility with which even the poorest persons can  change  their abode.  In
Switzerland and Scotland the melancholy effects of such a locality are ren-
dered too visible in the miserable race of beings inhabiting them, who are
the constant  and incurable victims of scrofulous and rachitic affections, and
who drag out a bare animal existence of mental imbecility and bodily suf-
fering, oppressed by evils which they have neither the ability nor the inclin-
ation to cast  off.
     Elevation above  the level of the sea exercises a decided influence over
the climate of any particular latitude.   The temperature of the atmosphere
is found to decrease  in successive  and  regular gradation as it leaves the
earth's surface, so that in the  ascent  of the  lofty mountains, within  the
tropics, the traveller experiences every change  of weather, from the oppres-
sive heat of the summer's sun on the plain  below, to  the  piercing cold of
eternal frost, on the lofty summit above.   The  variation of temperature has
been found, with occasional variations, to equal one degree for  every  three
hundred feet  in temperate climates.  This subsidence of temperature with
elevation is doubtless dependent on the extreme rarity of the atmosphere at
a distance from the earth, and the consequent facility with which it is per-
meated by heat, as well as the radiating powers possessed by the earth, which
enables it  to return the atmosphere a portion  of the solar rays previously
absorbed.
     The atmosphere  is condensed in proportion to the force by which it is
compressed, and expands in exact ratio to the diminution of that force. It
follows that  the  superincumbent  strata  of  air,  being  compressed  Vith
      18 
146
EFFECT OF ELEVATION.
greatest force in its  most dependent part,  and that dependent part being
nearest the earth's surface, its density will there be greatest, and this  density
will diminish in exact proportion to the ascent of the column of air.   Now,
the air, when under a certain compression,  has a certain capacity for latent
heat, which is increased by a diminution of the compression, and diminished
by its  increase.  If a column of aifi, at a certain distance  from  the earth,
receive a certain number of sun's rays, and then be suddenly brought clown
to a position  where it will occupy a denser medium, its particles being com-
pressed, a portion  of the latent  heat  becomes  sensible, and is given off to
surrounding bodies.
  The following observations, made by Mr. Green,  in an serial voyage, ex-
hibits this declension of temperature :—
   " The thermometer at the earth's surface indicated a temperature of 74°
    At an elevation of  2,952 feet, of          .     .     .     .     .72
                      7,288   "      ......    70
                      9,993   "        .          ....  69
                "   11,059   '•     ......    45
                "   11,293   "        ...... 38 "
making a  difference  of 36 degrees between  the  earth's  surface and  the
highest elevation attained,  or about one degree  for every 311 feet  of  alti-
tude.   However, much more confidence is to be placed in the statements of
Humboldt and Sir John Leslie, who believe the difference to be more marked
nearer the surface  of the earth.
    The human body is supposed to  be affected by the rarefaction of the
air  at  great  heights, as well as by a diminution of the temperature.  On
this point,  however,  there  exists a  diversity of opinion, some maintaining
that all the unpleasant  effects experienced in these ascents  are to be attri-
buted  to the fatigue  consequent on so difficult a journey;  whilst others
affirm  that these  effects are due alone to the  character  of  the  atmos- 
SOURCES OF  MOISTURE.
147
phere.  Under ordinary circumstances the equality of pressure from the air
is so equally balanced without and within, that although a pressure is main-
tained equal to about 32,000 pounds, it is  not  felt.  If any considerable
portion of this pressure be  removed,  the bloodvessels, especially of  the
mucous surfaces, are more easily ruptured, and hence hemorrhages from the
lungs and other parts of the body are more apt to occur.  Strangers visiting
Potosi,  in South America, which is the most elevated town  of any size in
the world, being upwards of 13,000 feet above the level of the ocean, do not
recover from the unpleasant effects produced by a rarefaction of the air at
this height under a year, and pulmonary complaints are much more frequent
among them than the inhabitants of the low country.
     Taken as a whole, all the gentle slopes on this continent descend east-
wardly towards the Atlantic, and the abrilpt ones rise on its western aspect.
In this respect a manifest difference is observed between this continent and
Europe, which gradually declines westwardly towards the Atlantic.
     This general configuration necessarily gives rise to a moister and more
temperate  climate  in  Europe than  in America,  in  the same parallels of
latitude. This effect would be much more obvious were it not for an admir-
able compensation made by  the presence of the gulf stream and  the trade
wind that accompanies it,  From  this source, not only the Atlantic  coast,
but the Mississippi valley, which is exposed at its southern extremity to the
Gulf  of Mexico, derives a larger proportion of its moisture, and is  equalized
with that of Europe.   The trade wind, fresh from the gulf stream, spreads
itself along the whole Atlantic region and upon the slopes of the Alleghanies
loaded with vapor obtained from the ocean,  and not only supplies this part
of the continent with  a  copious supply of water, but  even distributes its
favors, in a less degree however, to the Mississippi region, through its great
inlet on the Gulf of Mexico.   Were this great interior valley exposed to the
southwest winds from the Pacific,  instead of  being shut out  from them by 
148                       EFFECT OF MOISTURE

the Rocky Mountains, its  climate  would doubtless  be  softer and  more
  uable, and its influence over health and disease largely modified.
     There is, perhaps, no concomitant of the atmosphere more immediately
concerned in the maintenance of the functions of the body, more influential
in the preservation of health, and more active in the production of disease,
than moisture.   Man constantly exists not only in an atmosphere  of air,
but likewise in one of aqueous  vapor, which insinuates itself between  the
particles of common air, and pervades to a greater or less extent the entire
etherial ocean, seriously  modifying it, and  influencing its  action on  the
animate creation.
     The human body is composed, in a great proportion, of fluid particles,
which are incessantly in  a state of motion—sometimes slow, and at other
times rapid—that find a ready egress by means of the exhalent vessels, both
from the external and internal open  surfaces.  In a dry state of the  atmos-
phere,  especially when combined with an elevated temperature, the  exha-
lents are exceedingly active, and give off a greater  amount of fluids than are
required to be parted with  for the due performance of the functions of the
body.  For this reason the desire for liquid  aliment is manifestly increased
in summer.  Every one must have observed the difference in the amount of
liquid  taken in  a dry or a damp day,  at the same  season of the year;
indeed, this appetite, when  not  unnaturally created, and when the body is
in a state of perfect health, is almost entirely dependent on the hyrometic
condition of the atmosphere for the variation in its demands.
     In Arabia and the interior of Africa, where the air contains compara-
tively little moisture, the inhabitants exhibit a dry  and rigid muscular fibre,
and  possess an exceedingly small supply of fluids.  In  the  British Islands,
and the coast  of  New England,  in our own country, where the quantity of
moisture contained in the atmosphere is unusually great, the  inhabitants
exhibit a greater  proportion of fluids in their  organization  than any other 
UPON  THE HUMAN BODY.
149
people on the surface of the  globe.   In Mexico, the table lands are cele-
brated for the dryness of their atmosphere.   The rapacity with which  it
seizes on  fluid particles is said to be  so  great, that the flesh of animals
seldom becomes putrid, even  during the heat of summer.   The fluid por-
tions combining with the atmosphere, the  solid are preserved by means of
this process of natural drying.  The Indians upon the southwestern frontier
resort  to  this method of securing their food  by  jerking the flesh of the
buffalo.
     The influence of moisture, as experienced by its presence or absence in
winds, is very well known.  Those winds which pass  over a large extent of
water are moist, light and warm, and exert a beneficial  influence over the
system,  whilst those which find their way over a considerable tract of land
are drier and heavier.  In warm countries,  the winds from land,  freighted
with the  additional heat derived from the burning  soil, and deprived of
the greater proportion of their moisture, are  dry, hot, suffocating, and are
frequently productive  of the most  dreadful  effects to  those  travellers,
who, on the deserts of Africa, or the plains of India, are exposed to their
action.
     This  aqueous vapor, so necessary for the due performance of the animal
functions,  has  its  force determined, and  its  quantity  established in the
atmosphere, by locality, temperature, pressure, and motion of the air.   In its
atrial form, vapor,  like all the other constituents of the mixed atmosphere
in which we live, is colorless and transparent;  but in  the act of condensing,
it imparts to the atmosphere a certain  degree of opacity, proportioned to
the conglomeration of the watery particles.   The visible vapor, arising from
the condensation  of the transparent portions of  the watery atmosphere,
becomes manifest to our senses, in the  form of clouds,  mist and fog; and
when the collection is too large to be sustained by the buoyancy of the air,
it descends upon the earth, in rain, hail, or  snow. 
150
EFFECT OF MOISTURE.
    The vapor in the atmosphere is derived  from the evaporation of water
at the earth's surface.   This process takes place with greater rapidity at a
high than at a low  temperature, in a  dry than in a moist atmosphere,  in an
agitated rather than in a quiet air, and hence a warm climate and dry winds
are highly favorable to its production.
    These general observations will enable the reader to understand why
certain localities in the same latitude are different  from others.  With these
characteristics of territory before him,  he will  readily comprehend why
the same  degree of latitude  presents a great variety of forms of disease,
some  of which  are  referable  to one  condition of climate  and others to
another,  and will be prepared to  explain many  apparently contradictory
phenomena  which present themselves  in the investigation  of the causes
of mortality in  so  extensive  and diversified a  country as that embraced
within the limits of the United States. 
INFLUENCE OF SEASONS.
151
CHAPTER XIII.
                        INFLUENCE OF  SEASONS.

    The following table exhibits the number of deaths which occurred in
each of the four seasons of the year, in each State of the Union :—
States.	Spring.	Summer.	Autumn.	Winter.
Alabama,	2,084	2,229	2,852	1,686
Arkansas,	756	718	933	548
California,	54	92	417	322
Columbia, District of,	236	253	189	146
Connecticut,	1,399	1,162	2,127	1,026
Delaware,	273	380	345	209
Florida,	226	252	247	174
Georgia,	2,559	2,535	2,692	2,051
Illinois,	2,492	3,333	3,649	1,742
Indiana,	2,765	3,540	4,160	2,039
Iowa,	523	526	605	356
Kentucky,	3,436	^ 4,942	4,060 -	2,424
Louisiana,	2,784	^3,505	"- 3,053	2,514
Maine,	1,882	1,774	2,569	1,334
Maryland,	1,385	2,730	2,561	1,777
Massachusetts, .	3,945	3,964	7,645	3,583
Michigan,	1,117	1,047	1,325	832
Mississippi,	2,089	2,371	2,645	1,460
 
152
DEATHS IN EACH  SEASON.
States	Spring.	Summer.	Autumn.	Winter.
Missouri,	2,160	5,422	2,842	1,507
New Hampshire,	1,013	990	1,459	751
New Jersey,	1,463	1,750	2,175	J,037
New York,	10,101	12,444	14,843	7,602
North Carolina,	2,707	2,678	2,425	2,697
Ohio,	6,122	9,520	9,010	4,159
Pennsylvania,	7,649	7,517	8,129	4,042
Rhode Island,	473	520	817	520
South Carolina,	1,997	2,058	2,259	1,465
Tennessee,	2,924	3,818	3,039	2,244
Texas, .	585	706	804	691
Vermont, .	890	672	941	590
Virginia,	5,144	5,489	4,576	3,608
Wisconsin,	768	630	963	509
Minnesota, .	6	10	7	..
New Mexico, .	288	235	214	292
Oregon,	13	5	9	14
Utah,	56	97	30	52
     From  these  returns it will  be seen that  the  summer and  autumn
months proved more fatal than those of winter and spring.  In most of the
Northern States, as Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
New York, the most fatal season was autumn ; while in many of the Southern
States, as Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Louisiana,  the  period of
greatest mortality was summer.   This does not appear to be  invariably the
case, as in  Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South  Carolina,  the  number
of deaths in summer and  autumn nearly correspond, but slightly  prepon-
derate on the side of autumn.
     The influence of  Asiatic cholera,  which prevailed as an epidemic
during the summer of 1849, may have had some effect in changing the
relation of  the deaths to the four seasons in which they are  classed,  as it
certainly had in the case of Missouri,  where 5422 deaths are recorded in 
IN DIFFERENT STATES.
153
the summer quarter,  and but  2842  in  the  autumn; but it is presumed
generally to have  had but  slight effect,  as the persons  who  were victims
were  usually of the humblest  class in towns, and had but few friends to
report their deaths to the authorities,  by whom these  returns were made;
besides, the whole number of deaths reported as having died of cholera, in
the United States, is 31,506, while it is known  that 5,071 died from this
disease, in the city of New York alone, and as many more in St. Louis,   The
great mortality which pervaded the  whole valley of  the  Mississippi, from
this disease, is, of course, not to be found in these returns.*
     With scarcely an exception, the season of winter is to be  found least
prolific of disease.   This diminished mortality does not appear to be confined
to any particular section of country,  but  embraces  with  equal force the
States located in the colder latitudes  of  the north, and the milder ones of
the south, and contrasts in the most striking manner with the  results of the
registration returns of England.
     From an examination of these, it will be seen that the  heaviest demand
upon life, in England, is in  the  winter season, when, according to the census
returns, it is least severely taxed here,  and that the periods of freest exemp-
tions from disease there are  those upon which it  falls with greatest severity
here.  Now, while this table exhibits in  the most positive manner  the in-
fluence of the seasons upon disease, it at the same time shows  clearly how
very materially the law of  mortality in England and the United States is at
variance, and demonstrates the necessity of great caution in the use of the
former when applied to an elucidation  of the value of life in the United
States.
     This great winter  mortality in England " exhibits,"  remarks the Re-
   * Report on Asiatic Cholera in the United States, in 1849, by James Wynne, M. D.  Appendix C to the
Report of the General Board of Health, London.
        19 
154
DWELLINGS IN DIFFERENT  SECTIONS
gistrar-General.  ain a striking light the fatal effects of cold."  The degree
of cold in the northern  part of the United States is not only equal to that
of England during the winter months, but far more intense, and if the mor-
tality was due to cold alone, it  should be far  outstripped by that of this
country, while in fact, with a lower depression  of the thermometer than in
England, this particular season is more healthy here than  there.  But  the
Registrar-General  alludes to  another  cause   which  may operate with
greater force in England than in  this country,  and certainly does so in the
rural districts.  This is  "the crowding and privations to which a consider-
able part of the population is necessarily more exposed in cold than in warm
weather."
     A manifest difference in the habits of the inhabitants of the  two coun-
tries is  their relative  division into town  and  country populations.  Eight
hundred and fifteen towns in Great Britain, in 1851, contained an aggregate
population of 10,556,228 persons, nearly equal to one-half of the  whole
population, from which it would  appear that the whole was nearly equally
divided between those who resided in towns and those who dwelt  in  the
country, giving a slight  preponderance to  the latter.
     The aggregate town  population  of  the United States in  1850, who
dwelt in towns of not under 4,000 inhabitants,  was about  3,000,000.  Mr.
De Bow estimates  " that the village,  town and city population includes
about one-fourth of the whole," leaving as residents of rural districts three-
fourths of the population,  instead of  one-half, as in England and Wales.
     The statistics  of neither  country  show any excessive crowding  of  the
population into  a small number  of tenements,  and will doubtless surprise
those "who have derived their information upon  this point from a knowledge
of some wretched and confined portion of  a populous city in either country,
where,  notwithstanding the census  returns,  overcrowding does exist to a
very alarming degree. 
OF THE  UNION.
15.1
     The number of dwellings in Great  Britain and Ireland, according to
the census of  1851,  was  4,717,172.   The  number in the United States,
in 1850, was 3,362,337.
     The relative distribution of the population among those of the United
States has been given in the  census  returns, from which it would  appear
that upon an average there was a house for  every six persons,  and  ninety-
three houses for each hundred families, which are thus distributed :—

   „     ,.._...     Dwellings of white and
   Geographical Divisions.      fre£ colored
  New England,   .   .  .   448,789
  Middle States,  .  .  .   1,046,131
  Southern States, .  .  .   423,681
  Southwestern States, .     359,511
  Northwestern  States,  . 1,041,332
  California & Territories,    42,893
'amilies of white and free colored.	Ratio	of families to 100 inhabitants.
518,532		19.01
1,175,612		18.01
426,691		17.88
366,802		17.65
1,066,777		17.54
43,781		23.68
          Total,   .  .   .  3,362,337          3,598,195            18.00

     " Upon the average for the Union, there are 16.82 houses for every 100
white and free colored persons, or a little less than one  house to every six
persons, the ratio between the States varying from 15.17  dwellings to every
109 persons in Rhode Island to 25.6 in California.   The proportion of fami-
lies to dwellings in the Union is as 107.01  to 100.   In  Utah  and Oregon
there is one dwelling to every family;  in  Louisiana 100  to every 110; in
Connecticut 100 to 114;  in Massachusetts and Rhode Island  100 to 126,
&c,  &c."—Compend.  Census.

     In  conjunction with this  is placed a  tabulated statement,  embracing
similar information concerning the several principal European States:— 
156
DWELLINGS IN EUROPE.
„ Numberi Countries. „,„„	3F Persons to Dwelling.	Number of each 1	Persons to Family.	Number of Families to each Dwelling. *	
1801.	1851.	1801.	1851.	1801.	1851.
Scotland, . . . 5.46	7.80	4.42	4.81	1.236	1.620
England & Wales, 5.64	5.47	4.69	4.83	1.204	1.132
Great Britain, . . 5.61	5.71	4.64	4.83	1.209	1.182
France,........	4.85	... •	3.97	....	1.222
Austria,........	6.89		4.44	....	1.551
Prussia,.......	8.13	....	5.13	....	1.585
     " The average number of persons to each dwelling in Ireland, in 1851,
was 6.35 ; and in Belgium in 1846, 5.42.
     The  number of dwellings in Ireland  in  1851 is stated at 1,047,735,
making the  total for  the British empire, including the islands, 4,717,172.
Adding the  dwellings of the slave population, at least,  on the average, as
good as those of the operative classes of Europe, and  estimating one dwel-
ling for six slaves, the total dwellings in the United States will be 4,197,914.
By comparison,  one dwelling to every 5.82 persons in Great Britain,  and
one to every 5.52 persons in the United States."—U. S.  Census.
     It would seem from these statements, which  must be considered as
authentic, that ample provision has been made  in  each country included in
these tables  to provide a requisite supply of house room for its inhabitants;
and  it might reasonably be anticipated,  that  with a sufficient  number of
houses to accommodate six of the entire population in each, that excessive
overcrowding could not take place.
     The reports, however, of  the English  commission to enquire into the
condition  of large towns, as well as those  of the  Committee  of the Legis-
lature of New York, to  enquire into the condition  of tenant-houses in the
city of New York, the Sanitary Committee  of Massachusetts, and the report
of the First  Committee on Public Hygiene  of the American Medical Asso-
ciation,  show that the  tendency of the poorer classes  of the inhabitants of 
INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS.
157
populous cities on both continents is to congregate in large numbers in the
most confined and unhealthy portions of the places in which they reside.
     The evidences are too manifest to admit of a denial of this fact, and it
becomes a matter of importance therefore, in  estimating the relative  salu-
brity of a country, to ascertain Avhat portion of this class of inhabitants are
residents of town, and what portion reside in  the country.  The estimate
of Mr. De Bow  has  assigned  to  three-fourths of the population of  the
United States  a  country residence.   The justness of this  estimate is con-
firmed by the statistics  of the  occupations of the free male inhabitants of
this country over fifteen years of age, from which it would appear that of
5,371,876,  whose  occupations  were defined, 2,400,583 were  engaged  in
agricultural pursuits.
     The registration  returns  of the respective States, although  varying
somewhat  in detail, appear to corroborate the  correctness of the census
returns, in regard to  the  seasons upon which  mortality makes the largest
demands.   Mr. Shattuck prepared a table  showing the percentage of deaths
in each of the four seasons which occurred in  Massachusetts  in the two
years terminating with 1845, from which it would appear that the greatest
mortality occurred in  August  and  September,  and  the least  in May  and
June:—
                 Months.                               1844.       1845.
    Winter—January, Februarj', March,   .     .    .    23.82      24.70
    Spring—April, May, June,     .     .    .    .     21.21      20.41
    Summer-—July, August, September,    .    .    .    28.80      29.86
    Autumn—October, November, December, .    .     26.17      25.03
     In this table the winter has been made  to  terminate  with the 31st of
March, instead of the 1st  of March, as it  is presumed to have done,  in the
computation of deaths given  in the census returns.   The English report
adopts the same arrangement of months, as that selected by Mr. Shattuck. 
158
INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS
     As a difference appears to exist as to the division of the seasons, it may
be more satisfactory to define the months in which the mortality absolutely
occurred,  and with this  view a table is  presented, giving  the number of
deaths which occurred in the State of Massachusetts, during  the three years
terminating with January 1st,  1856, and the months in  which they took
place :—
Months.	Males.	Females.	Unknown.	Totals.
January, .	2,296	2,344	10	4,650
February,	2,212	2,214	36	4,462
March,	2,555	2,621	43	5,219
April, .	2,450	2,481	21	4,952
May,	2,227	2,239	38	4,504
June,	2,103	m 2,052	17	m 4,172
July,	2,780	2,679	32	5,491
August,	M3,716	M3,733	53	M 7,502
September,	3,548	3,524	59	7,131
October,	2,618	2,733	44	5,395
November,	. m 2,092	2,116	24	4,232
December,	2,303	2,378	37	4,718
Not stated,	37	40	8 422	85
Aggregate, .	30,937	31,154		62,513
State  of Kentucky  for  the  year

   Months.              Deaths.
   August,    .    .  M 1,053
   September,   .     .    906
   October,   .    .      802
   November,   ;     .    631
   December,     .      723
   Unknown,    .     .    441
    A similar table is  given for the
1853:—
Months.	Deaths
January,	. m544
February,	626
March, .	696
April,	685
May, .	615
June,	705
Julv,	984
 
ON MORTALITY.
159
    And  likewise one  tabulated in a  somewhat different  manner,  but
embracing the same information, for Rhode Island:—
	No.	Percentage.		No.	Percentage.
January,	32?	6.83	August,	. M717	14.93
February,	336	7.00	September,	542	11.28
March,	384	7.99	October,	403	8.39
April,	335	6.97	November,	327	6.81
May,	349	7.27	December,	314	6.54
June,	m310	6.45	Unknown,	[6]	....
July,	458	9.54	Totals, .	4809	100.00
     " The mortality of Providence for fifteen years, as shown in Dr. Collins'
tables,  corresponded  very closely with  the above.  The  proportions  of
deaths in the several months were as follows:—
	Per cent.		Per cent
January,	6.81	July, .	9.55
February,	6.82	August,	. M14.96
March,	7.67	September, .	. 10.66
April,	6.76	October,	8.46
May, .	6.99	November, ,	7.20
June,	m6.45	December,	7.67
     In connection with  the  mortality  of the  different seasons, as  here
presented, that which occurs upon the Pacific coast becomes  important, as
presenting a new arrangement of climactic influences, and a somewhat novel
condition of society.  The circumstances connected  with the  settlement of
California are so  peculiar as to render the  facts derived from its  vital
statistics a matter of considerable interest, and it fortunately occurs that
these facts, although embracing the results of but a single year, enables this
comparison to be instituted. 
160
INFLUENCE OF THE  SEASONS
    The annexed table shows the monthly mortality of San Francisco from
1st June, 1855, to 1st June, 1856 :—
	Males.	Females.	Still-born.	Totals.
June,	52	19	3	74
July, . August, . September, October,	82 80 S4 80	32 25 29 26	7 5 5 7	121 110 118 113
November, .	75	36	5	116
December,	74	15	5	94
January, February, March,	82 68 63	24 20 15	9 3 10	115 91 88
April, May, .	61 60	30 20	8 7	99 87
Totals,	861	291	74	1,226
     Dr. Sanger, from whose very excellent report to the Mutual Life Insur-
ance Company, on the mortality of California, this table has been taken, adds:
—"From this table, it will be observed that the greatest mortality occurs
in autumn, and the least in the spring months—the former season having
an excess of 73 deaths over the latter.  The maximum of mortality is found
in the month of  July, when there were 121 deaths,  and  the minimum is 74
deaths in June.  If we examine  the  table comparatively with reference to
the causes of fatality for these two months, we shall  find  that the excess
of deaths in July is partly  due to  accidental causes, and partly to an
intensity of endemic, epidemic  or  malarious influences prevailing during
this month.
     " With respect to the seasons, Sacramento is  similarly placed with San
Francisco, in its  mortality.   We  find, however,  that the maximum of mor- 
ON MORTALITY IN  CALIFORNIA.
161
tality took place in  the  month  of November, when there were  30 deaths
against the minimum of 15 deaths in  February.
     "From January to  August, the  mortality averages  17,  and for the
remaining five months over 25 monthly.   From what has been stated, it is
apparent that the greatest mortality, at Sacramento, occurs during the mala-
rious season.  This result is not surprising, because its location is such as to
make it a favorite habitant for miasmatic disease.  We regret that we have
not before us the causes of the mortality for each month in the year, from
an inspection of which we could arrive at more positive conclusions.
     " There are important reasons why we should regard  the  exhibit of
mortality in  San Francisco as an excess, when  compared in  proportionate
terms with  the general  fatality of the State.   We shall have occasion to
refer to the mortality of Sacramento, in confirmation of our opinion.   Sacra-
mento City is the principal resting-place  on the great thoroughfare to the
northern mines, and in reference  to  its  position geographically, ought to
afford just comparative views of the rate of mortality from malarious causes
in this immense valley.
      " In the first  place, San Francisco is the gateway by which the large
emigration  constantly arriving here,  as the commercial emporium of the
Pacific, becomes gradually dispersed over the whole interior.   The principal
influx is from  the  Atlantic  States,  and  of late years  the routes via the
Panama or Nicaragua Isthmus have been  preferred  to the  more  tedious
journey across the  plains.  The almost malignant type  of miasmatic fever,
 endemic, in the land crossings from ocean to ocean, is well known.   To cut
short premises,  already familiar enough to  the  public, from the severity of
 past experience, we are  having a population thrown upon us semi-monthly,
 to  a greater or less extent, an  invalid  population,  although  with  the
 improved facilities for transit not likely to suffer so much in the future.
      " Then, again, we  have had  the usual history of scurvy and  typhus
         20 
162
DR.  SANGER ON  THE
attached to our emigrant ships in the long sea voyages around Cape Horn,
from Australia, the Pacific Islands and the East Indies, under circumstances
where a large number of human beings are crowded together in bulk,  with
limited accommodation for their wants,  breathing  a  close  and impure
atmosphere, and  provided,  perhaps, with a scanty supply of nourishment,
or one unsuited to the requirements of life at sea.  The fatality from these
causes has sometimes been frightful among  the  Chinese  emigrants.  For
example, in the months of August  and September, 1854, out of 4700 Chinese
who arrived here, there was a mortality of 300 in port.
     " In two of  the vessels that arrived here during these months, there is
a reported fatality of one out of five of the passengers during the voyage.
From an inspection  of the  books of entry,  at the Custom-Housc, there is
reason to doubt whether the captains  of  ships have in all instances during
this  period made  faithful returns of the extent of the mortality occurring on
shipboard.
     " Lastly,  our city, in a sanitory sense, may be considered the hospital of
the State.   The invalid, from all portions  of the interior, naturally enough
finds his way to  San  Francisco, perhaps  to seek  a change in climate, or
responsible  medical  advice, or to extend the facilities for successful treat-
ment, and to secure  for himself the full enjoyment of those comforts and
personal attentions which his enfeebled condition  demands, and which are
most amply afforded in the metropolis of a new country.
     " The mortality in our public  institutions, the County Hospital and the
U. S. Marine Hospital, illustrates  the force of our observations.   The for-
mer  averages  in the neighborhood of 170 patients constantly under treat-
ment,  the latter about 200,  exclusively seamen.   The  combined  mortality
from these hospitals has been 16 per cent, of the entire  mortality of the
city.   It should  be  remarked, that more than one-third  of the   patients
received into the  County Hospital  are properly residents in other  counties, 
MORTALITY OF  CALIFORNIA.
163
who may come here voluntarily, or, as there  is reason to believe, in many
instances by the direct connivance of the local authorities to free themselves
from the burden of their support.'"'
     The  registration  returns of  many  of  the States, among their other
numerous defects, fail to indicate the months in which the deaths included
in their reports took place.   There is a sufficient  uniformity among those
which have  not failed in this ■ particular  to show that  the maximum of
mortality in the United States is reached about the close of  summer or the
beginning of autumn, and its minimum about  the  termination of winter or
beginning of spring.
     This is precisely the reverse  from what occurs in England and Sweden ;
the maximum in the latter country being attained  in  April, and the mini-
mum in October, nor is the month upon  which the maximum and minimum
of  mortality falls the same  in  every part of the United States.  It has
already been seen that a difference in this  regard  was indicated by the
census returns; and were the  registration  reports  of the various States
sufficiently numerous, and  accurate in detail,  it would  be  possible to show
an  important  difference  in  this  respect between the great geographical
divisions of the country.
     As a general rule, however, the law of mortality which prevails in the
United States  is tolerably constant  and uniform  in  attaining its  highest
altitude  in  that season of the year when  summer  merges into  autumn,
and when the heat is most intense.  Nor does the law appear to be affected
by a town or country residence,  the  prevalence or absence of an epidemic,
ahealthy or unhealthy season, but pursues its course  with great  uniformity
year after year, and invariably demands  of this particular season  the largest
number of its victims.
-  Report on the Mortality of California, by A. F. Sanger, M. D. 
J 64
EFFECT OF  LOCALITY
     In order to illustrate the effect of locality upon  the rate of mortality,
the annexed table, showing the mortality of various cities in different parts
of the  United States, is introduced :—
-Boston,      39 years,  1811 to 1849,
 Lowell,      13   "    1836 to 1848,
-New York,   45   "    1S05 to 1849,
-Philadelphia, 34   "    1807 to 1840,
 Baltimore,   14   "    1836 to 1849,
                                    ( Whites,
 Charleston,   27   "    1822 to 184SX Blacks,
                                    ( Both,
 Savannah,    8   "    1840 to 1847,  Whites,
 New Orleans, 4|   "    1846 to 1850,
Per cent.
 2.45
 2.11
 2.96
 2.55
 2.49
£.48'
2.57
4.16
8.10
     This table, which  was  prepared with  great care by Dr. Simonds, of
New Orleans,  exhibits the startling difference  of 6 per cent,  in the annual
mortality between the healthiest and most unhealthy localities, and further
shows that in each particular place  a rate of  mortality different from  that
of all the others prevails.  Had the opportunity presented itself of ascer-
taining the difference between town and country in each of these localities,
it would doubtless have exhibited a condition of things highly in favor of
a country life.
     But the most remarkable difference is, that  which is exhibited between
the  cities of the north and south,  as represented on the one side by New
York and Philadelphia, and  on the  other by Savannah and  New Orleans.
In neither of these instances does there exist a means of comparing  them
with the rural population by which they are surrounded, other than such
as is afforded by the census returns.  Were there in existence State Regis-
ters, as accurate and carefully compiled as those of Massachusetts, by which
this  comparison could be made, they would doubtless  furnish information,
both curious and instructive. 
UPON  MORTALITY.
165
    Dr. Simonds,  in  his remarks on  the high rate of mortality of New
Orleans, says,  that it has been in a great degree attributed to the reckless-
ness of its floating population—to  which  opinion  he is  not disposed to
assent.
     " The only idea," he adds,  "to be attached to the term floating popu-
lation is that of persons who, though in  the  city, have  not by length of
residence acquired citizenship, or identified themselves with the city.   This
population must therefore consist of  three  classes—those who visit the city
chiefly for pleasure and amusement;  those who have visited us for the trans-
action of business,  to dispose of their crops, purchase their supplies, &c, &c. ;
and those who have come here for the purpose of earning a livelihood, or
of making a fortune, whose intention  is to settle here and make it their
place of residence, if they can do so consistently with their  future welfare.
The first two classes are here  but for a few days, or  at most a few weeks ;
they have left behind their  ties of family or business that prevent a pro-
longed  sojournment in the city; they  are ready  to  flee  at a moment's
warning on an alarm of general sickness or a little personal indisposition ;
they reside at hotels and boarding-houses,  in which,  so far as my observa-
tion and inquiries  go, there are but few deaths; and these classes, therefore,
cannot contribute  essentially to the mortality of the  city.
     " But is the floating population of  New Orleans so  much larger than
that of  other cities, as to account for a mortality double that of any other
city ?   Has New Orleans a greater number of -visitors in  the pursuit cither
of pleasure  or of business than New  York ?  Certainly  not.  During  a few
months,  say for half  the year, New Orleans  contains a  large  number of
strangers, and also a large number of persons who claim citizenship and do
business here, but  who fly during the hot  and  sickly season  to  more con-
genial and salubrious climes.  But New York is constantly thronged with
visitors—its business season may be said to continue during the whole year— 
166
DR.  SIMONDS ON  THE
and there is no season during which there is not collected together a large
number  of seekers after  pleasure.   Places  of amusement, which  are sup-
ported by strangers, are with us closed during a considerable portion of the
year,—but not so in New York.  Our hotels  are deserted during the sum-
mer—theirs are always  filled.  But with  us  even a large  portion  of the
private residences are closed for two, three, or four months of the year.
     " The third class of the  floating population  consists  chiefly of  immi-
grants and adventurers, of perhaps but small or no means, who have cut off
the ties that bound them elsewhere,  and who, though but a short time resi-
dent here, are, to all intents and purposes, our own population.   This class
is enumerated in  our census,  pay taxes,  contribute by their  labor  to the
prosperity of  the city, and will (if they escape the hand of death) become
as truly citizens as seven-tenths of our present population, of whom indeed
they constitute a large proportion.   That  this  class contributes largely to
swell  our bills of mortality, is indisputable; but  that  the  deaths from this
class  should  be included in our  calculations  on the health of  the city, is
equally certain.
     " If New Orleans really has proportionally a larger floating  population
than  other cities,  the reason  is very obvious.   Of the number attracted
hither by the advantages of the city, a greater proportion die speedily, and
consequently a smaller proportion live sufficiently long to become identified
with the  city.   What length of time is requisite to change the character of
those  who come to reside in the city, from a floating to a permanent popu-
lation ?  When this is settled, the record  of deaths can  be examined with
reference to this question.  Life Insurance offices recognise no fixed period
of time,  but require that the applicant shall have  experienced  the yellow
fever, which on an average will be epidemic every three years.   Our  State
laws require two years residence to entitle a citizen  of other  States  to  be
considered a citizen of this State.   The United  States  requires the foreign 
MORTALITY OF  NEW  ORLEANS.
167
immigrant to  have resided  five years in the United States.  The annual
reports of the Charity Hospital have generally stated  the period of resi-
dence as under or over three years.   Let us say, then, that three  years is a
fair average  to constitute the stranger a citizen in this respect.  Of one
hundred persons settling in  New York in three years,  nine  will  have died
and ninety-one will  become  permanently resident;  while  of one hundred
settling in New  Orleans, twenty-four will have  died in the  three years,
leaving but  seventy-six  permanent residents, the  law of mortality of the
general population being applied to the class of unacclimated.   This state-
ment  is  not  strictly accurate—in fact, the difference would be very much
greater, as those who maintain the position that our mortality is  caused  by
foreigners, and that for natives and the acclimated our city is very healthy,
must admit a much greater difference in the mortality of the  newly arrived
population.  Again, suppose that on the 1st  July, 1847,  one  thousand per-
sons settled  in  each city, there would remain to  be enumerated in the
census on the 1st July, 1850, less than  seven hundred and sixty persons  in
New Orleans,  and more than nine hundred and ten  persons  in every other
large  city.   Our  neglect of sanitary  measures,  our indifference to the
deaths of strangers, and our criminal  disregard of the lives and welfare  of
those who settle among us, has  done more to  retard the advance of  New
Orleans than  all the assertions of its salubrity can possibly remove.
    "  It may be said, however,  that the floating population are foreign im-
migrants, who are merely passing through  our city.   Let us,  then, examine
the statistics of immigration,  to see what light they throw upon this point.
According to a statement published in  connection with  the  reports of the
New Orleans  Charity Hospital, the total arrivals at New Orleans from foreign
ports, coastwise, and by steamboats, during seven years, from 1842 to 1848,
was 222,122—-while  the  arrivals  at  New York  from foreign ports alone
during the same period, was  738,462.  (Hunt's Magazine, XXL, 657.)  But 
168
DR. BARTON ON  THE
how do the arrivals at  the two  cities from  foreign ports alone compare ?
During the year 1847 the total arrivals in the United States was 250,000,
of whom 166,110 landed in New York—leaving but 90,000 for the rest  of
the United States.  (Ibid.)  Thus about two-thirds (66.44 per cent.) of all
foreign immigrants landed in New York.   Again, from 1845 to 1848 inclu-
sive, four years, 101,293 persons arrived from foreign ports in New Orleans
—number considerably less  than  the population of New Orleans and La-
fayette by the late census—while 556,209 arrived in New York, being more
than the population of that city at  the last  enumeration.  The attempt  to
excuse the gretit mortality  of New  Orleans by referring it to the  vast
number of immigrants landed in our city, is not sustained by the facts." *
     Arc  these ill-fated  cities,  in which  mortality rages to such a fearful
extent, dark spots in the midst of an otherwise sunny landscape, or do they
bear  in their  high rate of mortality but  a  just  comparison with the sur-
rounding country ?  Dr. Barton,  of New  Orleans, whose exertions,  in all
matters pertaining  to  public health and philanthropic objects, have  been
unwearied,  has  prepared a series of tables, from the information furnished
to him by the  marshal, which divides  the  mortality of the State, as col-
lected by the United States  authorities  among  the respective  districts  in
which it occurred, and gives for the State of Louisiana a detailed statement,
which should have been extended to the whole Union :—
       STATEMENT OF POPULATION AND DEATHS IN WESTERN LOUISIANA, 1850.
     Inhabitants.                Deaths from Cholera.         Deatus per Cent.
     Free.   Slaves.      Total.     Free.    Slaves.     Without Cholera.  With Cholera.
     'jU,ol'2  121,158     211,470     103     501           5.09         5.22
            EASTERN DISTRICT OF  LOUISIANA,  INCLUDING NEW  ORLEANS.
     Inhabitants.                Deaths from Cholera.         Deaths per Cent.
     Free.   Slaves.      Total.     Free.    Slaves.     Without Cholera.   With Cholera.
    181,306   122,7U0     304,069    965    1040           3.23         4.34
* Simonds on the Sanitary Condition of New Orleans, p. 42. 
MORTALITY  OF LOUISANA.
169
     These tables exhibit a mortality without a parallel in the United States,
and  show that there are causes in operation  throughout the State tending
to render it eminently unhealthy.   Dr. Barton alleges that—

     " The  period adopted  for taking the mortality of the State, with  its
census, has been an unfortunate one for  Louisiana, for during the whole
period embraced under the  order  to the  marshals and their deputies for
this  enumeration, viz., the  year ending in  June,  1850,  has been  precisely
one of those periodical cycles alluded to in the former part  of this report as
about the septem-decennial period for the return of epidemic cholera.  Such
has been the  fact, and large mortality has resulted in the whole  zymotic
class  (to which cholera belongs) ;  for although  I have been  enabled  to
separate the cholera from the other  mortality in most of the parishes, yet
the  mortality has  been much larger  in the  congenerous  diseases of this
class, than usual; and  many parishes  of the western district of the State,
where we know that the mortality is not in ordinary years more  than one
to one-and-a-half per cent., has been made, by this return, to show four, five,
six, eight per  cent., and upwards !   This is to be  deeply regretted, and the
only remedy to be  found is  in the  enactment of a registration  law by the
State Legislature, through which the actual sanitary condition can  be made
known annually." *

     With the  fact that the mortality of  New  Orleans has  rarely  fallen
below four per cent, and has  for the  last  four and a-half years  averaged
8.10 per cent.,  according  to Dr. Simonds'  estimate, and according to  Dr.  \
Barton,  for the  entire period of its existence, 4.87  per cent., it cannot  be
considered otherwise than an extremely unhealthy city.   Nor can a rural
               * Barton's Vital Statistics of Louisiana, p. 21.
21 
170
DR.  NOTT ON
population, whose mortality reaches  5.22  per cent,  as  in  the  case of the
western  parishes of Louisiana, be  called a healthy one.  The  remarkably
low rate of mortality which was  found to obtain in some of the eastern
parishes of the State, and which appear more striking in contrast with the
great mortality of the other portions of the State, would lead to the belief
that an amelioration of its  condition might be effected;  but when, and in
what mode, is left for those who are familiarized  to each locality to deter-
mine.
     To  what  extent the baneful influences which are seen to  have  foothold
in Louisiana extend  to  the neighboring States, cannot,  in  the absence of
more exact information, be accurately judged.   It unfortunately happens,
that in the contiguous State of Mississippi,  which it is feared  is more
unhealthy than the returns have made it, the number of deaths were more
carelessly noted than in any other State.  That  these  influences do extend
for some distance along the Gulf of Mexico, including the lowlands, which
lie contiguous to its borders in the Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and  Florida,
and gradually lose themselves in the more elevated regions  of these States,
appears to be  quite evident.   It is quite certain that the section of country
embraced within the limits just defined, is possessed of features peculiar to
itself, and cannot be considered as a standard  by which to characterize any
other section.
     Dr.  Nott, of Mobile, in  alluding to these characteristics says, that in
the Southern  States  are high and healthy sand hills,  placed in immediate
contiguity with the  rich  alluvial  lands  of  the  rivers.  The  former are
healthy,  while on the low lands  the most  deadly malarial fevers prevail in
summer  and autumn.   " Let us suppose," he remarks,   " that  a thousand
inhabitants of Great Britain or Germany,  should be landed at Mobile about
the month of May, and one-third placed on the hills, one-third in town, and
the remainder in  the  fenny lands  around the latter.   At  the  end of six 
SOUTH-WESTERN  MORTALITY.
171
months the  result would be, that the first third would complain much of
heat, would perspire enormously, become enervated, but no one would  be
seriously sick, and probably none would die from the effects of the climate.
The second  third, or  those  in the city, if it happened to be a year of
epidemic yellow  fever, would, to  say the  least,  be  decimated, or  even
one-half might die, while the resident  acclimated population were enjoying
perfect health.  The remaining portion,  or those in   the  fenny districts,
would escape yellow  fever, but  most of  them would be attacked  with
intermittent and remittent  fevers, bowel affections, and all forms of malarial
or marsh diseases, fewer would die,  but  a larger  proportion would come
out with broken constitutions.*"
     Independent of the northern and southern climates, which  have fre-
quently been alluded to, and which find their types in Massachusetts and
New York on the one side, and Kentucky and the  Carolinas on the other,
is this southwestern climate,  stamped by characteristics bestowed upon it
by its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, and the peculiar character of the
shore  which borders it, and which are observed  in  their more complete
development upon the borders of the Gulf, within the territory of Mexico.
     It has been  seen  that each of these divisions possesses  marked and
characteristic features, distinguishing the one from the other, and rendering
them amenable to different laws of mortality.  The laws by which the two
former are apparently regulated, correspond pretty nearly to those of simi-
larly situated countries in Europe, but in no European  country have features
of mortality been discovered which  would assimilate in character to  the
southwestern part of the United States.
* Nott and Gliddon's Indigenous Races, p. 364. 
172
CLASSIFICATION OV
                           CHAPTER  XIV.

                               DISEASES.

    In forming an estimate of the comparative healthfulness of a county as
a whole,  or of individual portions of it isolated from the others, it is neces-
sary to ascertain the chief diseases which furnish the outlets for human life,
and their relative prevalence in the one or the other sections.
    Without positive information concerning the ages at death, the infor-
mation afforded by a simple record of the diseases which terminated life
would be valueless, but with this information they become of the  highest
value; hence observations made  in small places where the diseases can be
accurately  registered,  are usually considered of  more value  in furnishing
data for  calculation, than in larger ones where the  record is carelessly or
inefficiently collated.
     It has heretofore been found exceedingly difficult  to arrange such a
registration for  diseases  in large  places where no possible information
concerning them could be obtained, except  such as the register afforded,
as would clearly identify them, and admit of deductions being  drawn from
them ; thus, Boston, New York, Charleston,  Baltimore and  New Orleans
have  each  had their peculiar classification, frequently so diverse in arrange-
ment as  not to admit of comparison, without great caution. 
DIFFERENT DISEASES,
173
    This  difficulty has been remedied within a few years  by the  very
general adoption of Farr's classification of diseases, which all the States,
and most of the cities,  at present employ.
     This  classification divides diseases into two general classes of zymotic
and sporadic diseases—the former term being used to designate epidemic,
endemic and contagious diseases, and the latter those whose cause is  found
in the individual attacked by the disease.   An example of a zymotic disease
is given in Asiatic cholera, and  of sporadic in dropsy.  Zymotic diseases
usually prevail in groups, attacking  at the same time a large number of
individuals, and are prevalent at one time, and absent at another.  Sporadic
diseases, on the contrary, occur singly and scattered, and under like circum-
stances are generally prevalent.
     An additional  division is made into twelve classes,  which  refer  to the
part of the body attacked by disease, one  of these being placed under the
head of zymotic, which is a class by itself, and  eleven  under the head of
sporadic, thus:

                           CLASSES  OF DISEASE.
            1. Zymotic diseases.
                           SPORADIC DISEASES.
2.  Of uncertain or general seat.
3.  Of the nervous system.
4.  Of the organs of respiration.
5.  Of the organs of circulation.
G.  Of the digestive organs.
7.  Of the urinary organs.
 8.  Of the organs of generation.
 9.  Of the organs of locomotion.
10.  Of the integumentary system.
11.  Of old age.
12.  Of external causes.
     Since the adoption of this  arrangement,  which is very methodical,
and at the same time quite simple, the returns of diseases have been much 
174
GENERAL  MORTALITY
more reliable and easily classified.   In collecting  the  number of deaths
which took place  in the United States, in the year 1849-50, this classifica-
tion  was  given  to the United States marshals  and their assistants;  and
although  they were not acquainted with the names of diseases and  their
mode of  arrangement, yet,  with the aid of this nomenclature, they  were
generally enabled  to  make a tolerably  accurate return  of the  diseases
returned or described to them.
     This information has been collated, and classified in such a manner as
to embrace within a few tables the  names  of the  diseases, the season in
which deaths took  place, the age, sex, nativity, occupation and color of the
deceased, from which it will be seen that  the deaths from Zymotic diseases,
were 131,813:—

     Of which died of Cholera,.....31,506
       "     "     "   Diarrhoea,.....       10,706
       "     "     "   Dysentery,    .....     20,556
       "     "      "  Fever, general,   ....       18,108
                   "  Fever, scarlet,      ....      9,584
             "     "   Fever, typhoid. ....       13,099

     The deaths from Sporadic diseases and unknown, were,  192 210
     Of which died of Dropsy,  ......     11,217
       "     "     "   Cephalitis,       ....        6,424
       "    "      "  Convulsions,.....6,072
       "    "      "  Consumption,   ....       33,516
       "    "      "  Pneumonia,.....12,130

     It will be seen by  an examination of the chief causes of death, that a
larger proportion of deaths are embraced in the slow and noiseless  army
of consumption, than in the  more terrific and apparently fatal one of Asiatic 
OF THE  UNION.
175
cholera.   It is quite certain,  that the deaths  from both of  these diseases
have been under-estimated, and probably in nearly a like proportion.   The
deaths from  consumption,  in Massachusetts,  and  the northern  parts  of
Europe, usually exceed 2,000, out of every 10,000 deaths, and their relative
proportion to  the  number of deaths in every  country and under every
variety of climate  is very large.  For  the purpose of instituting a com-
parison between different parts of the Union, in  order to ascertain the rela-
tive prevalence of this and other prominent diseases in each,  the following
table has been introduced, showing the  number  of deaths from the several
causes  named, which took place in each state named :—
Ohio.               New York.            Maryland.
	Deaths.	Per ct.	Deaths.	■ Per ct.	Deaths.	Per ct.
Apoplexy,	123	0.42	356	0.77	60	0.62
Cholera,	5,808	20.05	5,822	10.57	xGG	1.72
Consumption,	2,558	8.83	6,691	14.67	1,101	11.44
Dysentery,	2,563	8.83	3,691	8.11	607	6.30
Fever (general)	1,479	5.10	799	1.53	139	1.44
" Bilious,	201	0.68	330	0.72	264	2.74
" Congestive,	112	0.38	73	0.16	44	0.45
" Typhus,	750	2.59	1,037	2.27	360	3.74
" Scarlet,	1,301	4.49	1,028	2.26	561	5.83
" Yellow,	5	0.02	16	0.03	6	0.06
Disease of Heart,	137	0.47	545	1.19	129	1.34
Old Age,	506	1.74	1,393	3.05	278	2.88
Paralysis,	197	0.67	431	0.94	105	1.08
Pneumonia,	895	3.08	1,661	3.20	149	1.54
Scrofula,	101	0.34	177	0.38	35	0.36
Dropsy,	624	2.15	1,496	3.28	312	3.24
This statement would		appear	to indicate	a greater	prevalence	of con-
sumption and dysentery in northern, and of fevers and  dropsical affections
in southern latitudes.  Were  this  bsolutely true, it is easy to see Avhat 
176                     INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS.

important results would flow from an exact knowledge of the circumstances
connected with the mortality of the different latitudes.  The returns are not
sufficiently accurate  to  warrant the assumption of such an important con-
clusion from them alone, but the fact that neighboring States in one latitude
and  contiguous States  in another,  should exhibit results  which  naturally
lead to such an  inference,  is a sufficient reason  for  making  a very careful
examination of such facts as would sustain or overturn the conclusion.
     The  present mortuary returns  of the general  government and the
States, do not supply sufficient numbers of these facts to warrant the estab-
lishment of a deduction from them.   Did consumption prevail  so much
more extensively at  the north than at  the south,  as these returns would
appear  to show,  it might naturally be supposed that its  cases would be
increased, and their progress accelerated by the rigid season of winter, but
an examination of the returns show that the effect of  the seasons upon con-
sumption is  comparatively slight, and that if  winter  produces any effect at
all, it is rather an  ameliorating than an injurious one.  The distribution of
the deaths from consumption among the seasons, is as  follows:—
            Spring.         Summer.         Autumn.          Winter.
            9679          8,742          7,982            6,800
     Below  will be found a table,  embracing  the deaths  from consumption
in Massachusetts for five years, terminating with 1855 :—
 Months.
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
Totals.	Percentage.
1,744	7.90
1,691	7.66
1,966	8.90
1,948	8.82
1,942	8.78
1,698	7.60
1,790	8.10
  Months.      Totals.
August,      1,884
September,   1,947
October,     1,850
November,   1,739
December,   1,869
Unknown,     23
  Totals,    22,091
 Percentage.
  S.53
  8.81
  8.38
  7.87
  8.46
   .10
100.00 
UPON  MORTALITY.                         177
     The deaths in Kentucky from consumption, in 1852, were 956, or 9.20
per cent, of the deaths from all  known causes.  In 1853, the deaths  from
this disease  were 846, or 11.45 per cent, of all the deaths.   The months
in which the deaths took place are as follows:—
Months.	Totals.	Months.	Totals.
January,	. 57	July, .	75
February,	67	August,	69
March,	72	September, .	67
April,	104	October, .	62
May, .	78	November,	62
June;	79	December,	64
     From these various tables, it  appears  that the two maximum periods
of death from consumption are in the spring and autumn, and the two mini-
mum periods in winter and summer.  In this respect the observations made
in Kentucky corresponded very nearly with those made  in  Massachusetts.
They likewise  agree as to the age  upon which  consumption  falls most
heavily, which is between  twenty and thirty years of age.  One-fourth of
all the deaths which occur  from this disease are singled from those who are
at this interesting period of life.  The next  most fatal period is that between
thirty and forty, after which the proportion of deaths, as compared with
other diseases, or with itself at these periods, rapidly declines.
     The  proportion of  female to male deaths is greater than in most other
diseases;  in Massachusetts  they bear the relation  of 59.06 females to 40.80
males, and in Kentucky a proportion nearly corresponding to this.
     But,  although the characteristics of the disease  are  identical in both
places, and  exhibit a remarkable  similarity in  the season of the  year, the
period of  life, and the sex upon which it falls, yet the relation Avhich it bears
to other  diseases, as developed by these  returns,  is widely different,  and
appears to corroborate the  census mortality returns.
        22 
178
EFFECT OF LOCALITY
     Dr. Bowditch,  of Boston,  under the  auspices of  the  Massachusetts
Medical Society, is making a series of careful examinations throughout  the
State as to its origin and possible means of prevention, from which it is
hoped many valuable facts may be derived, even should he fail to obtain
any  information  by which  its  progress  can   be  materially arrested.
Were it possible  to  extend a  series of  similar observations, minute  and
accurate enough  to  determine its relative  fatality  to the number living
or  the  aggregate dead over  the whole  Union,   their importance would
be  greatly  above the expenditure required for  their prosecution, or  the
labor necessary for their  accomplishment.   The facts already elicited lead
to the belief that results might be obtained,  which would not only  be gra-
tifying but in the highest degree beneficial to humanity.
     Next to consumption, dysentery is the most fatal disease of the northern
States,  and a very  serious  one  at  the  south.  Unlike consumption,  its
heaviest demand is made upon the earlier years of life—full one-half of all
the deaths  from  this disease taking place in the  first five years of existence.
It also differs  from consumption in the fact that  it  is amenable to the in-
fluence of the seasons.  It prevails to the greatest  extent in  the months of
August and September, and almost entirely  ceases in the depth of winter
and early spring.
     In Kentucky, dysentery is so fatal a disease,  that it is  styled by  the
Registrar "the  great scourge of the State."   In 1852, there were 1,923
cases, which constituted 18.47 per cent, of the entire  mortality of the State.
During this year epidemic  cholera prevailed to a  considerable extent, and
caused  722 deaths.   In the following year, 1853, its intensity was con-
siderably diminished; but it yet furnished a large item for the annual list of
deaths—the number was 901.   In some portions  of the  State it was par-
ticularly fatal; as  an  example, out of 113 deaths  returned from Simpson
county, 84  were ascribed to dysentery. 
UPON  MORTALITY.
179
     These two diseases select most  of their victims from comparatively
early life ;  and although no age is exempt from them, yet the period inter-
vening  between  twenty and  thirty years of  age  is that upon which  the
former falls most severely, and that from birth  to  five years, the one most
susceptible to the latter.  Nor are they confined  exclusively or mostly to
city life, but  are found to prevail in the balmy atmosphere of rural districts,
as well as the confined and vitiated air of town.
     The returns  of Kentucky, as made  manifest in the registration reports
just cited, and by  the mortality tables of the census of  1850,  exhibit a
larger proportion of deaths from  dysentery than the other States whose
latitude is equally low.  This corresponds very well with the prevalent opin-
ion heretofore  entertained  by the  medical men of Kentucky,  unsustained
by statistical evidence, and gleaned exclusively from observation.
     How far the peculiar geological formation, upon which the soil of the
greater part  of the State reposes,  which consists  of a disentegrated grey
and blue  limestone, contributes to bestow this unfortunate precedence on
Kentucky, or whether it in  truth exists to the  extent hitherto supposed or
revealed by the returns of  deaths, are questions that can  only be solved by
a more  careful notation of  the deaths occurring within the State, and  the
rendition  of  similar returns from other southern States.
     Fever, in  all its varieties, except scarlet  fever, which is  essentially a
disease  of childhood, and dropsy,  fall with greatest  intensity upon  middle
and advanced age.  An examination  of the  census  table,  giving  the ages
at which death took place  from particular diseases, as well as  the  returns
made by the separate States, fully sustain this opinion, and  at the same time
show that a  greater relative proportion  of these diseases occur in southern
than in northern climates.
     The  annexed statement shows the percentage of deaths which occurred 
180
EFFECT OF LOCALITY
in Massachusetts for  a period of twelve years and in Kentucky  for one
year,  from each of the causes above named :—

                          Consumption.    Dysentery.      Fever.    Dropsy.
        Massachusetts,   .  .   22.44        7.54       7.08     2.34
        Kentucky,   .   .  .     9.20        18.47      15.18     2.21

     This statement covers a period sufficiently long, in the State of Massa-
chusetts, to correct the errors of a single year, and without doubt gives a
faithful representation of the average  per cent, of mortality from each of
the diseases included in the list.   The period covered by Kentucky, how-
ever,  is too short to be equally reliable; besides, in the year indicated, 1852,
dysentery prevailed in an epidemic form throughout the State, and was un-
usually fatal.  The comparison is the best at hand, and  gives  some concep-
tion of the relative prevalence of consumption, fever and dropsy, in each of
the respective States.
     The purpose, however, is not so much to  show the relative prevalence
of the one or the other disease, in  these two States alone, as to" indicate by
their  ratios of mortality, taken as  types of a large extent of country, the
particular  classes of disease to which  each  are most exposed,  and which
prove the most destructive to human life.
     It is to be regretted that no series of statistics of mortality,  equally re-
liable with those of Massachusetts,  are  to  be  found  in any southern State,
with which a comparison might be made with more satisfactory results than
the one just instituted.  It is of the first importance to ascertain the rela-
tive prevalence of particular diseases in particular latitudes, because as each
falls with greatest violence upon some particular period of life, it is possible
to arrive at tolerably correct conclusions in regard to the most fatal age in
different climates, by a knowledge of the diseases most common to them.
     Thus  it would be fair to infer, that  if the diseases which  have been 
UPON  MORTALITY.
181
mentioned as having most prevalence  at the north or the south, as the case
may be, really do prevail in  either latitude to the extent which has been
indicated, then the ratio of the population in either section, at particular
ages, will indicate their presence or absence.
     With the view to develope this  proposition,  a table  giving  the per
cent, of the several ages of the white population of each of the States to the
total population  of these States,  as deduced from the  census  of 1850,  is
introduced:—
States and Territories.	■3	o	o	o	© id	CO o ©	© O	©	© © io	o	© ©	d o	d O	> o	a a a P
	2.86 3.37 0.29 2.63 2.07 2.74 2.75 2.91 3.14 3.27 3.18 3 10	13.88 15.03 1.77 10.66 8.84 11.68 13.78 14.10 13.57 13.70 14.67 13.47 11.86 10.60 11.57 9.13 12.35 14.45 13.61 8.48 11.20 10.58 12.62 12.80 12.19 9.58 12.77 13.69 14.13 9.89 12.56 13.42 12.44 12.30 13.27 15.30	15.87 16.27 2.28 12.96 10.56 13.94 15.80 16.06 15.35 15.96 16.13 15.36 12.97 12.77 13.06 10.34 14.99 16.20 15.37 10.78 13.04 12.21 14.50 14.72 13.80 10.5G 14.78 15.71 15.34 12.15 14.55 13.85 11.91 14.18 14.07 12.04	13.88 14.25 2.13 11.57 10.44 12.54 12.48 13.95 13.34 13.58 13.19 13.27 10.94 12.31 11.94 9.86 12.54 13.93 13.39 10.79 11.84 11.07 13.25 12.88 12.04 10.25 13.46 15.04 12.86 11.52 13.12 11.14 9.29 11.42 10.77 12.07	11.67 11.13 5.94 10.67 10.47 10.92 10.06 11.24 10.96 11.33 10.47 11.15 9.05 11.50 10.34 10.65 10.75 10.82 10.90 11.26 10.76 10.78 11.20 11.16 10.68 10.43 11.02 11.75 10.33 10.93 10.91 9.43 7.55 11.41 9.18 11.70	16.90 17.53 50.60 19.70 19.36 17.83 18.02 16.95 17.74 17.11 16.86 17.62 21.£5 17.14 18.74 21.23 17.38 17.18 18.28 18.00 18.33 20.25 17.30 17.76 18.43 20.74 17.23 17.00 18.67 16.95 17.33 19.13 28.44 20.47 24.28 19.02	10.77 10.77 24.50 13.91 13.59 12.77 12.51 10.28 12.11 10.98 12.54 11.03 16.64 11.95 13.44 14.46 12.95 11.25 12.12 12.53 12.68 13.58 11.05 11.64 12.27 14.27 11.22 10.21 12.64 12.45 11.33 14.67 16.08 11.77 14.43 12.00	6.96 6.51 8.72 8.65 9.94 8.51 7.39 6.93 7.34 6.88 7.17 7.09 8.36 9.15 8.65 9.67 8.66 6.82 7.05 10.17 8.71 8.96 7.64 7.69 8.28 9.48 7.71 6.79 7.34 9.92 7.92 8.13 7.00 7.13 6.55 8.09	4.15 3.22 2.41 5.41 6.96 4.94 4.40 4.03 4.00 4.30 3.72 4.22 3.64 6.03 5.13 6.05 4.57 3.86 3.73 7.46 5.55 5.39 4.96 4.55 5.07 6.06 4.98 4.12 3.62 6.72 5.02 4.33 3/01 4.67 3.26 3.75	1.96 1.36 .50 2.64 4.51 2.65 1.95 2.25 1.70 1.97 1.51 2.30 1.46 3.56 2.76 3.71 2.17 1.72 1.59 4.83 3.21 2.95 2.82 2.69 2.84 3.76 2.72 2222 1.36 4.26 2.84 1.82 1.03 2.76 1.13 1.71	.80 .43 .09 .90 2.33 1.14 .66 .92 .54 .69 .43 1.00 .47 1.80 1.15 1.81 .71 .62 .50 2.67 1.41 1.29 1.31 1.02 1.20 1.78 1.23 1.03 .39 2.26 1.28 .50 .33 .93 .16 .47	.23 .09 .03 .23 .78 .26 .16 .30 .11 .17 .09 .31 .11 .59 .30 .58 .14 .15 .12 .96 -44 .38 .40 .26 .33 .56 .41 .32 .09 .76 .39 .10 .08 .52 .02 .04	.04 .01 .01 .03 .08 .03 .03 .05 .01 .03 .01 .05 .02 .06 .04 .06 .02 .02 .01 .13 .04 .04 .06 .03 .03 .06 .08 .05 .01 .08 .06 .01 .03 .14 .01	.01 .01 .01 !oi .01 .01 .01 .01 .01 .01 '.'67	0?,
															02
															73
Columbia, District of...															.04 07
															,05
															01
															09,
															09
															03
															03
															.02
—Louisiana............	2.70 2.40 2.88 2.33 2.74 2.93 3.31 1.92 2.76 2.47 2.87 2.87 2.79 2.46 2.35 3.03 3.09 2.10 2.65 3.41 2.78 2.00 2.37 3.81 2.75														.12 14
															
															.12 .03
															.05
															.02
															.02 .03 .05
North Carolina........ Ohio.................															.02 .03
															.05
Rhode Island......... South Carolina........															.01 .03 .03
															.12
															.01
															03
															.06
f Minnesota..... Terri- J New Mexico .. [Utah........															.23 .50
															
Total..............		12.00	13.83	12.28	10.89	18.55	12.36	8.13	4.90	2.67	1.15	.34	.04		.05
															
 
182
EFFECT OF LOCALITY  UPON MORTALITY.
     From this table it would appear that, as a general rule,  the per cent.
in the earlier years of life, to the whole population,  is greater in the south-
ern than in the northern  States; that this difference disappears in middle
life,  from 20  to  50, when,  unless affected by migration,  the  proportions
become about the same in both latitudes, and that from this period the per
cent is steadily in favor of a northern climate until the last, when it returns
again to the south.  New Hampshire, which exhibits a smaller percentage
of population in the earlier years, shows a largely increased  one in the
declining period of life.
     This is, doubtless, in  part due  to the emigration which  has for years
been at work in draining  the State of its more youthful  population, while
it has left a large proportion of the aged at home; but the universality of the
law  requires  some  more  general and effective means than emigration to
account for its action, and this is doubtless to be found in the relative preva-
lence in different  latitudes  or states of one or  the other of the diseases
through which the flood of humanity  flows to its destined goal. 
AGE AT DEATH.
183
                            CHAPTER XV.

                          AGE  AT  DEATH.

     One of the most valuable elements connected with  mortality returns,
is a correct enumeration of the ages at which death takes place, for, as it is
possible by a knowledge of  the  diseases  which usually prevail in a parti-
cular locality to determine with considerable certainty the ages upon which
these diseases fall, so it is likewise possible, with the age at death, conjoined
to those of the living, to estimate the comparative healthfulness of different
places, and the probable diseases which prevail, and  consequent  value of
human life within them.
     It has already been seen, that the  relative proportion of persons of a
given age,  to  the  whole  population, differed very  materially in different
climates, and it has been inferred that the ages at death would correspond-
ingly differ.  This would probably be true if the population was stationary ;
but  as  it is affected  by migration,  the  proportions  cannot  always  be
depended on, as many elements  besides mortality conjoin  to  disturb these
relations.
     The  first prominent feature  that arrests the attention in an examination
of this subject, is the great mortality that prevails among the young. 
181
INFANTILE  MORTALITY.
     In all  countries,  and under  all circumstances, in the same country,
 death makes its heaviest demand upon the infantile portion of the popula-
 tion ; but although the demand is always  greater upon this age than upon
 any other, yet surrounding circumstances have much to do in rendering it
 comparatively moderate or excessive.
     Between the pure air  of the  country and the more confined atmos-
 phere of town, or between the healthy portions of  town,  inhabited  by the
 more opulent, and the confined and filthy courts in which the poor congre-
 gate, the differences are wide and startling.
     In regard to this particular period of life, it must be admitted that the
 mortality  returns of the census are not what they might be  desired,  and
 probably very largely fall short of the mortality.   A reason for their want
 of  accuracy  in  this report  is  easily found in the facility with  which the
 deaths  of young  children  escape recollection,  while those among older
 persons are  remembered.   Hence,  when a record  of them is required, it
 might easily happen that those who  were competent to furnish information
 were negligent without meaning to be so.
     The larger part of the returns would seem to  bear out the inference
 already drawn from the comparative rates  of mortality among the young,
 manifested  by the Massachusetts  returns, and  those  of Charleston  and
 New Orleans.   From some, however, a different conclusion might be drawn;
 and as it has happened in more than one instance that the returns of  two
 neighboring States, influenced  apparently by the  same causes, and subject
 to the same  laws, yielded an entirely different result, it has been deemed
 most prudent to leave their  guidance entirely, while investigating the facts
 connected with the mortality of infants, and the influence of locality upon
it, and  trust to those more  scanty,  but more reliable,  records which the
States in a few  instances, and  the  populous cities  in  many, have placed
within reach. 
IN TOWN AND COUNTY.
185
     It is true,  that these latter  returns  are  confined exclusively  to  that
phase of life which developes itself in aggregate numbers, and as the pro-
portions  between city and country mortality are quite at variance with each
other, the  same reasoning cannot be applied to both.  The State returns
are not numerous, and the mortuary records of the census in  their applica-
tion to infantile life are abandoned with greater regret, because they would,
if reliable, have furnished most important data by which  to  elucidate the
laws which regulate the infantile mortality  of those rural  districts in close
proximity with  the  towns which have  kept for a series  of  years  bills of
mortality.
     In  some portions  of the  country this infantile  mortality  is  rather
increasing  than  diminishing,  and presents  figures which are certainly large.
Mr.  Shattuck  found  that  the infantile  mortality  of  Massachusetts  had
increased in four years,  from 1757 to 1762, or over  6 per cent,  and  that
the deaths of children under one  year, amounted  to 17.62 per cent, of the
whole.*
     Dr.  Curtis shows  that 49.81  per cent,  of all those who died in the
cities of  Massachusetts were  under ten years while, in rural  districts 41.11
per cent, of the deaths were under ten.   " This," he properly remarks, " is
a high rate to be sustained by persons who  have not attained the termina-
tion of the tenth year  of existence, and, so  far as we have statistics, speaks
more unfavorably for the cities than the rest of the State, "f
     In Charleston, the mortality under ten years,  is 36.95  per cent., and in
New Orleans it declines  to 33.38 per cent.   This would confirm the infer-
ence that a rigorous climate  was unfavorable to the tender age of  infancy
and early youth, and that a warm one was that best suited to their condi-
tion.  Dr.  De Sassure  and Dawson, however,  in  presenting  a table of the
               * Shattuck's Letter to Secretary of State  of Massachusetts, p. 83.
               f Eighth Registration Report, p. 116.
        23 
186
FARR  ON THE
deaths which have occurred in Charleston, from 1822 to 1848, complain that
the proportion of deaths under one year  has increased from 15.59 to 17.32
per cent, or about the same as that of Boston.  In the succeeding years, and
especially  the  last few, the diminution,  as  compared  with Massachusetts,
was such as to  render  the whole mortality occurring, under ten  years, 4.16
below that of the whole State of Massachusetts, and 12.86 per cent, below
that of Boston.
     From the  Charleston mortality, which is inserted,  it will  be seen that
the infantile mortality has been subject to great fluctuations, averaging from
1822  to  1836,  15.59 per cent, falling for the  next period, from 1830 to
1840,  to 13.09,  and  again  not  only  rising to its former standard,  but
surpassing it, and assuming an attitude of 17.32 per  cent.
     The proportion of this mortality, between the races, is as follows :
                                  First Period.   Second  Period.    Third Period.
        White,     .    .    .    .    9.11         7.70        10.82
        Black,  ....     21.07        17.24        '21.64

     The average age at death has been considered so good a test for the
comparative  healthfulness of  a country,  that the States of Massachusetts,
Kentucky and Rhode Island have taken good care, in tabulating the returns
made under their respective registration acts, to ascertain and record the
average age at death  with  considerable precision.  The process of ascer-
taining the average age at death is simple, and  consists  in adding up the
sum of the ages of those who die,  and  dividing the aggregate among the
number of deaths.
     This means of determining the relative  health  of a  given  population
has been in use for a long period, and was in fact employed before  any enu-
merations were made of the living.   It  is  liable to very material errors,
when applied to a population  as fluctuating  as  that of the United States,
which have been ably pointed out by Mr. Farr :— 
AVERAGE AGE AT DEATH.
187
     " Take a  street (C) in a town where,  from the erection of new  fac-
tories, or from any new field of labor  being thrown  open,  a considerable
number of young men and women have been attracted within the  last 10
or 15 years;  there is a demand for the labor of children;  marriages take
place ; nearly all the young couples have children, two, three, or four in a
family.  Take  another street (D), inhabited by artisans, whose business  and
numbers have remained  nearly stationary,  and tradespeople who  have  suc-
ceeded to old shops established by their fathers;—suppose the salubrity of
the two streets, and the rate of mortality at the  corresponding  ages,  the
same,—it is evident that  as  the street C contains  no old people, and  the
mortality in the first two or three  years is always relatively high, the deaths
registered will be at early ages—the mean age at death low ;  while in  the
street D, the deaths will many of  them be at old ages, and the mean age at
death relatively high.   If all the inhabitants of the two streets died in  one
year, the mortality  would be the same.   Yet the mean age  at death would
differ in  the same ratio as the mean age of  the  living.   The  same  results
would be produced by the death of one-thirtieth of the  inhabitants in each
street   The cases which have been put will enable us to understand such a
case as is said to have occurred in Leicester, where  the  mean age at death
was 131  years in the undrained streets,  and 231 in the drained streets. That
the real  mortality was higher in the one class of streets than in the other, is
probable;  but this is not proved  by the method, for the undrained streets
may  be  new streets, inhabited by young people—a part of the 8,600 in
46,000 not born  in Leicestershire; while  the  drained streets may be old
streets inhabited by the old inhabitants of the towns.*  On account of the
system of compensation which it involves,  the method of comparing the
total deaths to the population of the streets  gives  results  nearer  the truth;

   * I find, upon turning to the Census Returns, that the population of some of the new and old streets in
Leicester differ in the manner described. 
188
FALLACIES OF THIS METHOD
 but ho one acquainted with inquiries  of the  kind would  place  much con-
 fidence in  any other method,  as  applied to particular streets  or small dis-
 tricts,  than that upon which the Life Table  is founded—the comparison  of
 the numbers living with the numbers born and dying at the several periods
 of  life.  In the Registrar-General's Report, the  mortality is only given for
 statistical districts of an average population of 50,000.
     " The mean age at  death in the districts  of the metropolis  furnishes  a
 series of very striking illustrations of  the errors of the method: according
 to which Greenwich is the healthiest district in the metropolis;  and would
 be placed first in a table of salubrity, as the mean age at death  is 36 years
 in Greenwich, and only 31 in Hackney, 31 in St. George,  Hanover-square.
 This result is produced by the accumulation of old men in  Greenwich Hos-
 pital,* who, of course, die at advanced ages, and make the  mean  age at
 death high.  Supposing the  mortality among the old  veterans to  be the
 same as the mortality of the general population, it is evident that the living
 at 60-70-80, &c, would be increased  as much as  the dying, and  that the
 method of comparing the deaths with the  living would give  true results.
 Rotherhithe,  according to the same  method, is healthier  than Islington,
 Marylebone,  and Pancras: in Whitechapel the  mean age at death  is 26
 years; it is placed therefore higher than St. James's district, comprising the
 lower end  of Regent-street, and higher than the wealthy City of  London,  in
 in which the  mean age at death is only 25 years; an effect to be ascribed
 partly  to the  City of London workhouse for old people  at Peckham, which
 is also  one  of the causes why the mean age  at death is 25 years in  the city,
 and 34 years in  Camberwell.   The ' mean age at death' is 21 years in St.
 Saviour, and 30  in St. Olave.   That these results are absurd  must  be evident
to all who  are acquainted with the subject." f

   * The deaths of 291 pensioners were registered in 1841; the total deaths in the Greenwich District were
2198.
   t 6th Registrar-General's Report, p. 575. 
ILLUSTRATED.
189
    There is probably no country to which these remarks are more appli-
cable than to the United States.  It is asserted by Mr. Farr that the popula-
tion in England is so much affected  by migration  as seriously to  interfere
with the results of the average age  at  death, or  the  mean  age at death,
which is but another form for expressing the same idea.  But  the fluctu-
ations of population in England are trivial, when  compared to  those that
take place in the  United States.   Not only is the amount  of immigration
largely in advance of that of any other country, whose statistics of popula-
tion are known, but the changes of the native  inhabitants from  place  to
place are much greater than those of any other people.
     The restless and indomitable spirit which is characteristic of the Ame-
rican nation, and  induces them  to  court hazard or risk, either  of life  or
property, apparently for the sake of overcoming it, has entirely absorbed all
great attachment  for  place or  love of home.   The  associations  which
gather around this sacred spot, and endear it to the hearts of the people of
most nations, is one of slight tenure  in the breast of an American.  It is
true that among the aged, who have spent a long life upon their quiet acres,
in the deep  bosom of the country, this feeling is still  extant, and occasion-
ally one of  their  more  adventurous offspring, who has gone forth  in the
busy world, and is involved in its cares and perplexities, turns  a lingering
look towards the old homestead, where his quietest and happiest hours have
been passed; but this feeling is but momentary, and is chased away the next
instant by some one of the many schemes that take possession of his restless
mind.
     Occasionally one, in whose breast the recollection of home is more vivid
than is usually the case, returns to his native acres and strives to find happi-
ness in maturer years in the contemplation of the scenes of his youth; but
it usually happens that the glad  spirit which enlivened that  period, and
beautified every running brook or shady glen, with a coloring of its own, has 
190
AVERAGE  AGE AT DEATH
fled, and in place of the blithesome boy, the  care-worn man gazes upon the
scenes which once inspired the  most delightful emotions with  a listless eye
and  languid  look, and wonders how his  youthful  fancy could  have been
taken captive by the scenes upon which he now coldly looks, with but little
pleasure  and much pain.  A visit  like this too frequently dispels  the  gay
illusion which the man of the world amid his  many cares  had  created for
himself, and he returns to the world a wiser but also a sadder man ; and  if
he changes his place of residence, it is to some one  further removed  than
ever from that  of his youth, where  the  associations which he forms are
those of  the moment.
     The great uncertainty of this  rule, when applied to such a population
as that of the United States,  is  still further  illustrated by a comparison of
the average age at death,  in the States of  Massachusetts and Kentucky.   In
the former,  for  a period of five years, ending January 1st,  1854, 92,174
deaths are  recorded, whose  average age  was  26.93  years.  In the latter
State the recorded  deaths, in  1852, amounted to  12,058,  with an average
age  of 20.55 years for  the white population, and  17.59  for  the  colored.
During  the  year 1853,  9,105 occurred,  the average ages of which were
20.76 years for the whites, and  18.34 for the colored deaths.   Thus—
Massachusetts, for five years,	average	age	at death, .	. 26.93 years.
Kentucky, for 1852, white,	u	u	a	. 20.55 "
" " black,	u	u	a	. 17.59 "
" for 1853, white,	u	n	a	. 20.76 "
" " black,	a	n	a	. 18.34 "
     These facts  establish  pretty clearly  the proposition,  that  the  more
youthful a country or population  is,  the less will be  its average age at
death, provided the proportion of females assimilates pretty nearly to that
of the males, as it is  the  presence  and death of  the infantile part of the
population that reduces the average age at death.  In California,  where the 
IN NORTHERN  AND SOUTHERN LATITUDES.
191
female portion of the population is greatly in the minority, a high average
age at death might be expected;  whereas in Indiana, Iowa or Kentucky, it
would probably be low, for it is to be taken for granted that in each of the
new States the proportion of children to  the number of females  of a  mar-
riageable age is greater than in the older ones.
     It will be seen that those populations in the old world  and in the  new,
that remain in the most perfect state of repose, losing perhaps their younger
members  by  emigration,  but  receiving none  of the same age  in return,
exhibit the highest average age at death.  This is evidenced by Geneva, in
Switzerland, and  Concord, in  New Hampshire, both of whose populations
are remarkably stationary.  Plympton, in Massachusetts, is another evidence
of the effect of an aged and stationary population upon the average age at
death.
     " The whole number of deaths in Plymptom, during thirty years,  from
January, 1812, to January, 1842, was 218 males, 226  females; total,  443.
The average age  of all the deceased persons, was 40 years,  10 months, and
25 15-24 days.   The average age of the males was 39 years, 9 months, and
9 20-24 days.   The average age of the females, was 41  years, 11 months,
and 28 8-24 days.  There were probably as many people in Plympton, at
the commencement of the war of the revolution, as there are now, i.e., 861."*
     These illustrations show that the same  causes which produce a low
average  age, either of the living  or the dead, operate  alike in both hemis-
pheres, and are the peculiar incidents of  American life.   That a large per-
centage  of infantile mortality  will  not  only  depress  the  average age at
death, but also that of the living, is readily admitted; but this is not the only
cause competent  to produce this  result, nor is it always  a  manifestation of
the unhealthiness of a place, and  certainly none of its want  of prosperity,
as is made manifest by a comparison of some quiet  town in New England,
and an active town in the New States.
* Report of Town Clerk. 
192
AVERAGE AGE AT DEATH
    The annexed table exhibits the average at death in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia  and  Charleston, four  cities in different  degrees of latitude,
situated upon the Atlantic seaboard, and of an age corresponding tolerably
well with each  other :—
                          All Ages.          Under 20.          Over 20.
Place and	Period.	Number.	Average Age.	Number.	Average Age.	Number.	Average Age.
Charleston, 1822 to 1830,	) Whites, > Blacks, ) Both,	3,447 4,076 7,523	32.63 28.66 30.59	963 1,950 2,913	4.62 3.93 4.16	2,484 2,126 4,610	43.55 51.33 47.28
1831 to 1840,	) Whites, > Biacks, ) Both,	3,366 4,297 7,663	32.65 30,74 31.05	866 1,957 2,823	5.14 4.70 4.88	2,500 2,340 4,840	43.26 48.24 45.11
1841 to 1848,	Whites, v Blacks, ) Both,	1,866 2,847 4,733	33.41 28.35 30.39	614 1,416 2,030	3.68 3.90 3.83	1,272 1,431 2,703	47.74 52.56 50.29
Boston,							
1821 to 1830,	Both,	10,731	25."88	4,913	3.38	5,817	44.88
1831 to 1840,	u	16,314	22.72	8,565	3.33	7,749	44.15
1841 to 1845,	a	10,422	21.43	5,875	3.31	4,547	44.86
New York,							
1821 to 1830,	a	42,817	24.36	20,018	3.15	22,709	43.14
1831 to 1840,	<<	74,819	19.46	40,728	2.95	34,091	39.18
1841 to 1843,	a	29,939	19.69	14,127	2.86	10,812	41.68
Philadelphia, 1821 to 1830,	a	36,614	25.53	17,794	3.22	19,820	45.57
1831 to 1840,	u	49,678	22.64	26,812	2.91	22,866	45.78
1841 to 1844,	n	21,356	22.01	12,088	3.02	9,268	46.79
An examination of this table leaves				no room to doubt that New Yor			
and Philadelphia were depressed to this low standard, by the great mortality
which prevailed in each among the infantile portion of the population.   It
has already been seen that the infantile period of life was more kindly dealt
with in  the warm climate of the southern States, and it might reasonably be
anticipated that in proportion to the number of inhabitants living of that
age, the deaths would be fewer at the south than at the north. 
GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS.
193
                           CHAPTER XVI.

                         GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS.

     An attempt has been made in  the preceding  pages to take a compre-
hensive survey of the vital condition of the population of the whole Union,
and, so far as the facts permitted, to pourtray and  classify  the peculiarities
of each section.   The materials used in the prosecution of this undertaking,
were not all  that might be desired, but such as actually existed, and  could
be  commanded.   In many instances they have been sufficient not only to
lead to suggestions, but also to substantiate them; in others,  they have
only served the purpose of exciting the mind to  the adoption of an infer-
ence, without supplying the materials necessary to prosecute it to a final
conclusion.
     Some of the most apparently important deductions, drawn from scanty
and insufficient data, are in this position, and  await the accumulation of a
sufficient number of facts to prove their correctness, or show their improba-
bility.   In no part of the country has the registration of births, deaths and
marriages been conducted with sufficient care, and arranged with sufficient
precision,  to ensure such  results  as  might be  desired,  with  the single
exception of the  State of Massachusetts, whose labors in  this department
of enquiry are above all praise.
      24 
194
EFFECT OF LOCALITY
     Climate and latitude are seen to exercise an influence in the production
of particular diseases, and in the  relative number of deaths  at  particular
ages, too evident not to be admitted, and  too important to be overlooked.
" The  influence of climate," says Dr. Johnson,  in  his  work on  Italian
climate, "not only on the complexion, but on  the features and the whole
organization of man, as well as of animals and vegetables,  is now unques-
tioned.   The inhabitants of Italy,  notwithstanding the unlimited admixture
of Gothic, Grecian, African and Asiatic blood, are almost as uniformily natu-
ralized in respect to color, features, and even moral character, as the inha-
bitants of Spain, Greece, Egypt, Hindostan,  or China.  It is impossible  to
attribute this natural stamp, or  impress  entirely, or even principally to race
or hereditary descent, in any country, and least of all in Italy, which, from
the circumstance of its  universal  domination  at one time,  and complete
subjugation at another, became  an immense  human menagerie,  where
specimens,  nay, colonies of every people on the face of the earth, were
commixed and  blended together ad infinitum.  Climate, then, assisted by
some other  physical causes, and many of a moral nature,  has effected  as
homogeneous a people, mental and corporeal, in Italy, as in most other
countries."*
     Dr.  Armstrong, Deputy-Inspector of  Hospitals and Fleets, in the Eng-
lish service, says:  "So  powerful are the effects of external circumstances,
that some of the most striking  changes have been produced  in the human
constitution in the course of a few  generations,  and become permanent.   In
the West India Islands the white race, descended from the earlier European
settlers, as well as those brought  from England,  in  early life, are tall and
well proportioned, with great freedom in the joints.   In general, however,
the chest is less capacious, and the muscles less  strongly marked.   Pecu-
Johnson on Change of Air, p. 225. 
UPON MORTALITY.
195
liarities are also  observed in the greater prominence of the  bones of the
cheeks and depth of the orbits; the complexion is paler, and the skin cooler.
In New South Wales, the descendants of the first settlers exhibit the same
peculiarities, although in a less degree.
     " The influence of warm climates is apparent after a few years' residence
within  the tropics.  Europeans lose their sanguineous complexions and ac-
quire the power of resisting heat better than the new comer.   This power
of accommodation  to circumstances  arises from a corresponding  change in
the functions of life, and which is usually attributed to the individual having
undergone the process of seasoning, a process of which the most vague
opinions seem to be entertained.  Even  within the  limited extent  of our
own  country (England) we observe the influence of  local  situation on
comparing  the  natives  of  mountainous districts with  those of the low
country."*
     It is stated by Sir  James  McGregor, Director General of the Army
Medical Board, that so great is the influence of climate and surrounding
circumstances upon the  physical character of the human race, that a corps
levied from the agricultural  districts of Wales, or the  northern  counties of
England, will last much longer and endure more hardship  than one pro-
cured from  the materials  which abound in the  manufacturing towns,  as
Birmingham and Manchester.   The effect upon the physique by residence
in  manufacturing towns is  particularly striking.   Thus, out of 613  men
enlisted in Birmingham  and its neighborhood, but 238  were  approved as
fit for service.  This permanent deterioration  is  still further  illustrated by
the disqualification for those posts requiring a certain standard of  size and
strength, produced by long residence in the more crowded parts of  London.
It is said, that of the men from Spitalfields, and other crowded districts in
* Armstrong on Climate, p. 8. 
196
EFFECT OF LOCALITY
London, who apply for situations in the  police  force, two out of three are
rejected, as physically unfit.   In further illustration of  this point,  " it is
observed,  that in some of the worst conditioned of the town districts, that
the positive number of natives of the aboriginal stock continually diminishes,
and that the vacancy, as well as the increase, is made up by emigration from
healthier districts."*
    In regard  to the influence of climate in our own country, Dr. Prichard
remarks:—"The tall, lank,  gaunt,  and otherwise remarkable figures of the
Virginians, and  men  of Carolina, are  strikingly different from the short,
plump, round-faced farmers  of the midland  counties in  England.  The race
is originally the same, and the deviation in  it must be  attributed to the in-
fluence of the circumstances, whatever they may be, which  are connected
with local situation."f ■
    All of these authorities, which might be greatly multiplied, are empha-
tic in their testimony as to the influence of  climate over the  human organi-
zation in a state of health, predisposing  it  to disease under  certain defined
circumstances, and preserving it from them under  others.  The  facts col-
lected in the preceding pages  demonstrate  the extent of this influence in
the wide range of latitude  and climate embraced within  the  limits of the
United  States,   " which is,"  says Maltebrun, " so inconstant and variable,
that it passes rapidly from the  frosts of Norway to the scorching heats of
Africa, and from the humidity of Holland to the drought  of Castile."
    The effect of climate is greatly modified  by long residence, by which
means the system undergoes a change  fiting it  to withstand the deleterious
influences that surround it.   This process is termed  acclimation, and is espe-
cially marked in its effect upon the constitution of those  who change their
                 * Report of Poor Law Commissioner, 1842.
f Researches into the Physical History of Man, by James Cowles Prichard, vol. 2, p. 56S. 
UPON  MORTALITY.
197
residence from a cold to  a warm  latitude.   " Habit," remarks Dr. La
Roche,  " seems to possess the power of modifying the system  to  so  great
an extent, and so permanent a degree, as to justify those who hold it in the
light of a second nature.  In virtue of the  influence it exercises,  and the
peculiar organic changes resulting from  long exposure to the sensible and
insensible qualities of the atmosphere,  or to the extraneous materials by
which  the atmosphere may be contaminated, man  enjoys  the faculty to
which I have alluded, of living under climatic influences of the most diver-
sified characters.  He  resists  the  inclemencies  of the elements, the insalu-
brity of the seasons, the extremes of temperature, as well as the action of
malarial and other exhalations.  With time, the native of the north acquires
the privilege of supporting  with impunity the scorching rays of a tropical
sun, though the result is not obtained without inconvenience, suffering, and
even danger,  and without, in the greater number of instances, subjecting
the individual to the ordeal of disease.  Not so easy is it to become habitu-
ated to the baneful action of those modifiers—such as malarial exhalations—
which exercise their agency on the principles of vitality.*
     Those who are born in the neighborhood of marshes, are less affected
by the miasm  arising from  them, than new comers, who are almost certain
to be attacked by malarial diseases.   The American  bottom, which is situ-
ated in Illinois, contiguous to the Mississippi river, and extends backs to the
bluffs, some few miles  inland, presents one of the most extensive marshy
districts in the United  States.   The inhabitants of this fertile but miasmatic
district, although possessed  of a yellow and sallow hue, acquire the power
of resisting the miasmatic influence that constantly environs  them to a cer-
tain  extent, while an exposure for a single night to those unaccustomed to
the miasm is almost certain  to be followed by an attack of fever.  It is so
* La Roche on Yellow Fever, vol. 2, p. 20. 
198
ACCLIMATION TO
customary for strangers visiting the more southern parts of the valley of the
Mississippi to be attacked by fever, that Dr. Fenner says,  " the  term accli-
mation is perfectly well known to all the inhabitants of the lower valley, and
indicates that persons coining from a northern climate and settling there,
arc very liable to have attacks of fever during the first two  or three years
of their residence, but afterwards become quite exempt." *
     Drs. Nott, Dickson, and  many other southern medical men Avho are in
the habit of observing  the  effect of long-continued residence in malarial
districts, are of the  opinion  that the system  is rather predisposed to  an
attack of autumnal fever, by having previously  suffered rather than pro-
tected by its occurrence.  In the malarial districts of Maryland, the writer
has had occasion to observe  frequent attacks  in  the same individual, and
has known  one instance in which a gentleman has suffered  from  sixteen
attacks of remittent fever in seventeen consecutive seasons.
     These observations, although applicable with greater force to southern
than northern latitudes, are nevertheless general in their application, and ex-
tend  to  all varieties of climate and many modifications of disease.  The
same  laws which  modify the temperature,  arrange the constituents of the
soil, and bestow  upon  the  inanimate objects of creation their peculiar
and marked  characteristics,  also exercise  their  control over  the  human
system, bestowing upon it  peculiarity of color,  shape, and powers of en-
durance, and so modify it as to fit it  for the particular  situation  in which it
is placed.
     The most fatal disease, however, to those who are unacclimated, is yel-
low fever, which prevails within the tropics and in the southern cities of the
United States.   Dr. Barton, in his excellent report on the yellow fever, as it
occurred in New Orleans, has a table showing  " the life cost of acclimation;
* Fenncr's Southern Medical Reports, p. 32, 
YELLOW FEVER.
199
or liabilities to  yellow fever from nativity, as exhibited  by the epidemic of
1853 :"—

                                          Estimated      Estimated   Ratio per 1000
      Nativities—State and Country.             population      mortality       of the
                                           in 1853.      from Fever.    Population.
New Orleans,       ......„ 0Q,         (140        „ go
State of Louisiana,      ....         '           (25
Arkansas,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia,)   oi^r           42       13 2°
  South Carolina,       ....)'
North  Carolina, Virginia,  Maryland, Ten-1   . Qq ,          -. -o       on qo
  nessee, Kentucky,    ....     J    '
New York, Vermont,  Massachusetts, Maine, )
  Khode Island, Connecticut,  New Jersey, [■ 10,751          353       32.83
  Pennsylvania, Delaware,     .    .     .   )
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri,      .    .    2,030           92       44.23
British America,    .....        381           20       50.24
      Totals,.....

West Indies, South America, Mexico,  .
Great Britain,     .....
Ireland,......
Denmark, Sweden, Russia,
Prussia, Germany,    ....
Holland, Belgium,      ....
Austria, Switzerland,
France,......
Spain, Italy,   .....
      Totals.....62,448         7,011      111.91

     It  is supposed by many that a continued residence in a  city where
yellow  fever is of frequent occurrence, as in  Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,
or  New  Orleans,  furnishes  an entire immunity  against its attack.*  It is
extremely  doubtful, however, whether any permanent immunity  can be
obtained which is not based  upon  an absolute attack of the disease.    Dr.
Stone, of Charity Hospital, New Orleans, whose experience in yellow fever is
66,946	825	12.32
1,790	11	6.14
4,598	240	52.19
26,611	3,569	204.97
588	96	163.26
17,718	2,339	132.01
152	50	328.94
797	176	220.08
9,967	480	48.13
2,217	61	22.06
 
200
DR.  BARTON  ON
large, is clearly of the opinion that the disease must be once taken in order
to afford future protection.  In a large practice,  he has known no one to
escape,  although he  has frequently observed attacks in young children, and
even infants, so slight as scarcely to attract the  notice of their nurses or
parents.  Dr. Barton asserts,  " that perfect acclimation is only to be derived
from once  having  had the  disease.''''    " One of the most extraordinary
features of this epidemic," remarks Dr. Fenner, in speaking of the scourge
of yellow fever, in 1853, "is presented in the fact, that the natives of the
city, both white and colored, have suffered severely, and many  of them have
died."  The same was observed at Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, as well
as those towns on the Mississippi river which  were visited  by the  disease.
Nor is  the  immunity extended to  those rural districts where  it does not
prevail.   Dr. Dowler, in speaking of the disease as it prevails at Charleston,
says:  " Those who  live in the  higher  parts of the State, at a distance of
two or three hundred miles, and who come to Charleston during the four
months in which the yellow fever commonly prevails, are  as liable to be
attacked by it as strangers; and,  therefore, all  intercourse between the
country and city is suspended for one-third of the year, excepting that of a
few white persons, who, from necessity, go to the latter, always taking care,
however, not to sleep there."
     The table already introduced, showing  the  relative  mortality in New
Orleans, in  each 1,000, of the inhabitants of different countries,  and dif-
ferent  sections of this country, exhibits in a very remarkable  manner the
influence exerted by long residence in a"warm climate.  Thus among the
strangers from the northern portions of the United States, a larger number
were attacked than among those from the lower latitudes of  Kentucky, Vir-
ginia, Tennessee,  and North  Carolina;  and of these latter,  a  much larger
number than from the  still  lower latitudes of South Carolina,  Alabama,
Georgia, and Mississippi.   The proportions being  : 
MORTALITY IN YELLOW FEVER.
201
           From Northern latitudes,    .  .   .   32.83 per 1,000
              "  Middle       " .      ...   30.69
              "  Southern     "       ...   13.22

     In regard to European residents, the same preference for subjects from
northern latitudes obtained.   While those from Austria, Russia, and  Great
Britain suffered severely, those from France were less subject to attack,  and
those from Spain and Italy still less.  From this it would appear that a long-
continued residence in warm latitudes, even when freed from the causes that
produce  yellow fever, effects such  a modification  in the constitution,  as to
serve in some degree to ward off an attack, and that an eminent predispo-
sition is found in that condition of body, induced by a long residence in  a
high latitude.  That the chances of escape from an attack of yellow  fever,
when exposed to its influence, by a native of South Carolina or Virginia,
are greater than those of a native of Ohio, New York, or the New England
States, under like  circumstances, appears to be tolerably well established.
Did the opportunity exist for obtaining similar  information in regard  to the
diseases which prevail in northern  latitudes, in the  more inclement season
of the year, it would probably be found that the natives of warm latitudes
suffered much more in the process of acclimation than is generally supposed,
and that modifications  of  habit,  equally  important with those  already
noticed,  are  necessary, in order to enable the southern resident to  with-
stand the depressing effects of cold.
     That these alternations of temperature exert a powerful influence over
the human organization, and that a continued residence  either amid the
snows of the frigid zone, or the burning heat of the equatorial region, pro-
duces such modifications as  to render a sudden  transition from  the one to
the other a matter of extreme hazard,  cannot be questioned.  Not only the
facts  set forth in the preceding  pages, but  the concurrent testimony of
        25 
202
INFLUENCE OF
 nearly all accurate observers, goes to show, that independent of all local
 circumstances, the heat  of low latitudes is sufficient to induce a  train of
 affections peculiar to and dependent on a warm climate,  while  cold,  on the
 contrary, is attended with those peculiar to northern regions.
     " Fever, dysentery,  liver disease in some  shape, with every variety of
 bowel affections, may be regarded as the diseases of hot climates.  Cold,  on
 the other hand, when inordinate or sudden, arrests the subcutaneous circu-
 lation, retards secretion and colorification, and drives the blood from  the
 skin, which becomes rough to the interior, where it circulates sluggishly and
 in large  quantities.  The natural  effect of  this  derangement  of these  im-
 portant functions is to induce inflammatory or sub-inflammatory affections,
 especially of those parts which are most engorged.   Hence, inflammation of
 the mucous membrane of the air-passages—cough and bronchitis—are espe-
 cially induced by  sudden or extreme cold."*  An examination  of the causes
 of death in different latitudes, as developed in  this report, will demonstrate
 how generally affections of one or the other of these classes are amenable to
 the influence of elevated and depressed temperature, and how important a
 feature they constitute in the medical history of the country.   In England
 the winter months are  invariably the  most  fatal, while in  the  United
 States they are usually among the  most healthy.  In regard to the effect
 upon  aged persons,  the winter  of England and that  of the United States
 presents  a  fair parallel.
    A remarkable instance of the effect  of long-continued cold upon the
 human system is found in the case of Dr. Kane and  his companions in their
 recent search in the Polar  regions for  the ill-fated  expedition of Sir  John
 Franklin.   Upon the return of Dr. Kane and his party from their residence
of three  years  in  a high northern latitude, they found that  the effect of
summer heat in a northern climate was so depressing as to produce extreme
* Dunglison's Human Health, p. 27. 
COLD AND WARM CLIMATES.
203
nervous prostration, and unfit them for mental  or corporeal exertion.  In
the case of Dr. Kane, this nervous prostration was so great, as absolutely to
destroy all power of physical endurance, and finally resulted in his death.
     The effect of age is important   In those affections which are depend-
ent upon an increased excitability of the  system, as  in all  the diseases in-
duced by warm climates, the middle period  of life  is that in which they
prove most fatal;  while those diseases  which are induced by a diminution
of this excitability, as in the case of those due exclusively to a cold climate,
old age, or an impaired vitality, are least  favorable to recovery.
     The effect of this  diversity of climate and surrounding circumstances
upon the relative prevalence of the one or the other of the diseases to which
each are subject, and the comparative duration  of life, has been fully recog-
nised by those whose duty  it is to apply the laws of  mortality, either
known or supposed, to the operations of life assurance.   Experience has de-
monstrated to those companies  having  risks in  different  countries or in
different climates in the same country,  that the  percentage of mortality,
under apparently like  circumstances,  is greater in some situations  than in
others,  and  that what might be  a profitable  rate in one would be  a
losing rate in the other.
      The annexed table, showing the combined  results  of the operations of
the order of Odd Fellows in the United States,  for ten  years, commencing
with 1843, and ending with 1852, is highly pertinent  to  this subject,  and
illustrates, in the most marked manner, the influence  of locality upon health
and  disease.   This table  derives  additional value  from the circumstance
that the Odd Fellows were for the most part like those who seek assurance
in  the middle period of life :— 
204
STATISTICS OF MORTALITY
ite Grand Lodges.	Beneficial Members.	Number Sick.	Ratio Sick.	Number Deaths.	One death to each
Maryland,	. 59,131	13,021	4.5	641	92
Massachusetts,	. 78,711	9,892	7.9	659	119
S. New York,	. 161,742	28,818	5.6	1,733	93
N. New York,	. 93,142	14,662	6.3	653	142
Pennsylvania,	. 204,689	37,150	5.5	1,829	111
District Columbia	,, 10,398	2,458	5.2	77	135
Delaware,	. 7,800	1,016	7.3	61	127'
Ohio,	. 59,673	9,973	5.9	639	93
Louisiana,	. 9,924	1,110	8.6	211	47
New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia,	. 42,671 . 17,561 . 31,048	6,989 2,197 4,824	6.1 7.9 6.4	322 243 336	132 72 92
Indiana,	. 17,981	2,582	6.9	203	88
Mississippi, .	. 8,266	816	10.1	89	92
Missouri,	. 10,988	1,446	7.6	187	58
Illinois,	. 14,339	1,613	8.3	162	88
Texas,	. 1,340	139	8.2	34	39
Alabama,	. 7,469	725	10.3	119	63
Connecticut, .	. 37,713	5,843	6.4	273	138
South Carolina,	. 13,812	1,518	9.0	128	107
Tennessee,	. 11,918	860	13.3	93	128
Georgia,	. 11,768	1,403	8.3	134	87
North Carolina,	. 6,710	645	9.8	59	113
Maine,	. 33,138	3,543	9.3	271	122
Rhode Island,	. 9,621	1,537	6.2	78	123
New Hampshire,	. 14,454	1,812	7.9	120	120
Michigan,	. 14,341	2,077	6.9	111	129
Wisconsin, .	. 9,099	625	11.8	58	156
Vermont,	. 4,785	490	8.2	27	177
Iowa,	. 4,380	425	7.9 6.3	36 9,586	121
	1,008,612	160,209			105
     This table would have derived an additional value if it had contained
the ages at death, and the occupations of the deceased.  This latter enquiry, 
AMONG ODD FELLOWS.
205
whose importance is of the highest value in measuring the relative duration
of life, has latterly received much attention at home and abroad.   It unfor-
tunately  happens,   however,  that the European observations  are mainly
confined  to England and  Scotland, and those in this country to the States
of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
     Mr.  Neison, the Actuary of the Medical Invalid and General Life Office,
at London, obtained, after  much labor, the results of a sufficient number of
Friendly Societies,  whose province is to provide for the sick, to enable him
to institute a comparison into the relative health of the various occupations
included in the returns, and the comparative healthfulness of  each in town
and country districts.   This enables a comparison to be made  between  the
returns of the occupations, as found in the  Massachusetts reports, and those
of similar occupations  in  England.  It is much  to be regretted that no
extensive means of comparison with the records of Massachusetts, is to be
found at home, the  only State  which has  noted the occupations of  the
deceased being the  neighboring one  of  Rhode Island,  and  the whole
number  of occupations so noted being confined to less than  two hundred
deaths.
     The results of  Mr.  Neison's investigations  disclosed the fact, that not-
withstanding the circumstances which at the  first  view might  be  supposed
to exercise a very large influence in abridging life, the members of Friendly
Societies were longer lived than the  average residents of the same districts
of similar ages, although  a large number of these latter were  among  the'
affluent  classes  of  society, who  from their  greater comforts and limited
exposure,  were supposed  to  present a higher average age at  death than
their more humble  neighbors.
     The data collected from the Friendly Societies  was carefully arranged
in three  classes, dependent upon the residence of the members, viz., town,
city and country,  in order to test  the  effect of locality  upon the life of 
206                     STATISTICS OF MORTALITY
persons pursuingXhe  same occupation under the different circumstances of
town and country life.  These  were grouped  together, and a table of the
expectation of life, formed from the  results, and contrasted with the expec-
tation of life among the males in England and Wales for the same periods.
This table, which is given below, shows that at each age the expectation of
life is  invariably in favor  of the members  of the  Friendly  Societies, and
speaks in very encouraging language to those whose province it is to toil at
laborious and frequently dangerous occupations :—
	Expectation		IN	Difference in Favor of the Three Districts.		
Age.	Three Districts.	England and Wales.		In Years.		Per Cent.
20	43.77		40.69	3.08		7.57
30	36.60		34.09	2.50		7.34
40	29.33		27.47	1.85		6.75
50	22.19		20.84	1.34		6.45
60	15.69		14.58	1.10		7.60
70	10.20		9.21	0.98		10.72
     These results,  so  far showing that the circumstances in which  the
laborious  classes  are  placed  limit  their  duration  of  life,  absolutely
exhibits a prolongation of it  beyond what  the  most favorable life tables,
selected from the best classes of society, have ventured to go, and excited
much surprise  among  those  who  were by  no means ignorant  on  this
subject.
     But although the average was more favorable to life  than that of the
whole population, yet a large difference was found to obtain in the relative
healthfulness of different occupations,  as will  be  made manifest by  the
following  table:— 
AMONG MEMBERS OF FRIENDLY  SOCIETIES.
207
Clerks. J, No. 2.	Plumbers, Painters, and Glaziers. J, No. 3.	Bakers. J, No. 4.	Miners. J, No. 6.
31.83	36.90	40.02	40.67
27.57	30.50	32.35	33.15
21.85	24.30	24.47	24.92
16.04	17.09	19.09	17.53
12.42	12.16	14.06	11.85
Ages.	Rural, Town, and City Districts. G.
20	43.77
30	36.60
40	29.33
50	22.19
60	15.69
     From this it appears that the  expectation  of life  at twenty years for
all  trades included in the  Friendly Societies, is  43.77 years;  for  miners
alone, 40.67 years; for bakers, 40 years; for painters, plumbers and glaziers,
36.90 years ; and for clerks, the low average of 31.83 years.
     "The  very remarkable difference,"  adds Mr. Neison,  "between the
above employments and the general results,  cannot fail to  occasion some
surprise; and at the  same  time conclusively prove, that any district con-
taining  a majority of the above, or other equally unhealthy employments,
must show a very reduced average value of life for the district, independent
of the local situation itself on health."*
     The Massachusetts  returns not only  embrace those usually included
in Friendly Societies  abroad  or at  home, but also those on the one hand
in the latter classes whose means are abundant and exposure little ;  and on
the other, who derive their sustenance from the hand of charity.

     The following table exhibits the most  common occupations of those
who have died in Massachusetts during eleven  years and eight months,
ending  on the last day of December, 1854, together with the average  age
that has been  attained by  the  deceased, in each of the selected occupa-
tions :—
Journal London Statistical Society, vol. 8, p. 313. 
208
RATIO OF MORTALITY IN
No.	
9698	Agriculturists,
29	Artists,
11	Bank Officers,
688	Blacksmiths,
124	Butchers,
198	Cabinetmakers, .
1498	Carpenters,
234	Clergymen, .
437	Clerks, .
286	Coopers,
263	Gentlemen,
21	Glass Blowers,
111	Hatters,
7	Judges and Justices,
92	Jewelers,
6410	Laborers,
171	Lawyers,
363	Machinists,
313	Manufacturers, \f il ooror\* v
47.16
40.10
61.72
51.41
49.63
47.04
49.33
56.61
33.73
58.84
63.83
39.86
54.90
67.19
42.56
44.57
56.60
37.63
44.30
No.		Age.
359	Masons, .	41.61
408	Mechanics, .	42.88
816	Merchants,	52.06
69	Millers,	61.58
50	Musicians,	40.46
260	Operatives, .	34.19
368	Painters,	42.10
356	Paupers,	65.19
322	Physicians,	55.25
129	Printers,	36.55
80	Ropemakers, .	55.95
2299	Seamen,	45.99
238	Shipwrights, .	56.48
2436	Shoemakers,	43.66
194	Stonecutters, .	43.66
287	Tailors,	42.51
175	Tanners and Curriers,	47.37
648	Traders,	46.53
95	Weavers,	46.83
     " Of these 33,580 individuals the combined ages amounted to 1,724,031
years, or 51.34 years to each man.
     " A portion of the females who died during the same time, admit of the
following classification:—
Domestics,
Dressmakers,
Housekeepers,
Milliners,
Nurses,
Operatives,
43.96	Seamstresses,
32.36	Shoebinders, .
51.15	Straw-braiders
35.53	Tailoresses,
54.61	Teachers, .
27.69	
41.83
45.59
35.09
40.63
28.70
     " The aggregate ages of  the  2,376 females thus given, amounted  to
109,724, and the general  average  of the whole gives 50.39 years to each
individual. 
DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS.
209
    The Registrar of the city  of Boston has furnished the following table
of ages of 706 men, of the principal professions and trades, who died in
1855, and whose ages were reported :—
No.	Profession or Occupation.	Ages Ranging from	Aggregate Ages.	Average Ages.
305	Laborers,	16 to 88	12,292	40.30
69	Mariners,	16 " 79	2,663	38.59
45	Clerks,	16 " 74	1,484	32.98
35	Tailors,	20 " 90	1,368	39.08
32	Merchants, .	26 " 91	1,882	58.81
32	Traders, .	24 " 79	1,590	49.68
33	Carpenters, .	18 " 87	1,510	45.76
22	Painters, .	19 " 76	888	40.36
20	Shoemakers,	21 " 55	687	34.35
15	Teamsters,	22 " 73	516	34.40
12	Gentlemen,	28 " 83	718	59.83
11	Printers, .	20 " 68	434	39.45
10	Masons,	25 " 71	402	40.20
9	Machinists,	23 " 46	304	33.77
8	Bakers,	26 " 60	309	38.62
8	Farmers,	35 " 71	457	57.12
7	Blacksmiths,	20 " 58	245	35.00
6	Ship Carpenters,	30 " 70	307	51.16
5	Physicians,	25 " 72	249	49.80
5	Clergymen,	36 " 73	269	53.80
4	Coopers,	26 " 55	162	40.50
4	Curriers, .	19 " 40	114	28.50
4	Engineers, •	27 " 54	183	45.75
5	Lawyers, Totals, .	27 " 91	301	60.20
706			29,334	41.55
    There is no absolute means of separating those  who resided in town
from those who  lived in the country, but it is presumed that the agricul-
turists were exclusively residents of the country ; while it is probable that 
210
EFFECT OF OCCUPATION
 the larger part of those classed under the heads of mechanics and  laborers
 dwelt in towns of greater or less size.  The effect of locality, upon this pre-
 sumption, is made strikingly manifest in the superior value of life possessed
 by the agriculturist over that of the two classes of laborers who reside in
 town, being eighteen years longer in duration  than that of the mechanic,
 and nearly twenty years beyond that of the laborer.
     These  observations  correspond somewhat with those of Mr. Neison's,
 which value the probabilities of the life of the baker below the average of
 mechanics, the  life of the painter still lower, and that of the  clerk lowest
 of all the occupations.  They cannot be pursued further, because Mr. Neison
 has not given the probabilities of  life incident  to the other trades that came
 under his inspection, but they are sufficient to show that under like circum-
 stances the relative probabilities of life, as compared the one with the other,
 do  not differ materially in England and Massachusetts.
     This classification shows a very marked difference in the average age
 at death of  the different mechanic arts, besides those just alluded to.  Tan-
 ners and curriers, butchers and carpenters, stand high upon the list; while
 machinists,  and  stonecutters,  and printers, take a low stand.  This  table is
 very valuable so far as it goes,  but it fails to  enumerate many occupations
 more unhealthy than those already named, as the white lead manufacturer,
 the friction-matchmaker, and the daguerreotypist.
     There are obvious  reasons, growing out of the circumstances  incident
 to each pursuit, why one should be  more favorable to longevity than another;
 and were the diseases in  each  case carefully noted,  it would lead  to very
 satisfactory and practical  results.
     In 1819, the English Government selected  Mr. Finlaison,  an eminent
mathematician  and vital statistician, to determine the  law of mortality, and
establish the  value  of the government  annuities,  and  tontine schemes.
Assisted by a large number of competent clerks, and aided by access to  the 
IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.
211
records of the names  of those who for  the space of a century had been
upon the registers, as the recipients of annuities, or the nominees in tontines,
and also provided with unlimited means to defray any expenditure required
in the prosecution of his inquiries, he labored assiduously at his task, and at
the expiration of ten years made a final report to the Lords of the Treasury,
which  comprised in a large number of tables the rates of mortality,  and
the value of a great number of  different classes  of annuities averaged for
single and more lives.
    These tables,  thus laboriously wrought out with consummate skill and
great care, are regarded as  the true exponent of the expectation of life in
the class covered by his inquiries, and have  always  commanded the  fullest
confidence.
    From a comparison of  the data furnished by them, as well as that col-
lected by the various assurance companies, it appeared that the value of life
among the government annuitants, and the insurers of lives in the different
assurance  companies, which represented  the affluent and superior classes,
was less, as has already been observed,  than among the humbler classes,
found among the members of Friendly Societies.
    Dr. Guy,  of King's College Hospital,  from the facts afforded him by
the works on  peerage  and baronetage, made a classification  of the deaths
which  had occurred among the members  of noble  families, above twenty
years of age, for a long period of years.
    The number of deaths thus collated amount  to  2291, of which  1989
were derived from  the peerage, and  the remainder from the baronetage.
From these facts Mr. Neison formed a life table, showing the expectation of
life in the males of  the peerage and baronetage.
    The expectation of life, as thus  deduced,  together  with the results
obtained by Mr. Finlaison,  on English annuitants, the experience of several 
212
EXPECTATION OF LIFE
assurance  companies,  Milne's  and Farr's  tables,  and that of  the  French
annuitants, are placed side by side in the accompanying table :—■
Age.	Peerage and Bart.	England (Mr. Farr.)	English Ann. (Finlaison.)	Sweden & Finland, (Milne.)	Carlisle, (Milne.)	Equitable, (Morgan.)	Amicable, (Galloway)	French Ann. (Depar.)
20	38	40	3S	39	41	42		40
25	35	36	36	35	38	38	38	37
30	31	33	33	32	34	34	34	34
35	27	30	30	28	31	31	30	31
40	24	27	27	25	28	27	26	27
45	21	23	24	21	24	24	22	24
50	18	20	20	18	21	20	19	20
55	15	17	17	15	18	17	16	17
60	13	14	14	12	14	14	13	14
65	10	11	12	10	12	11	10	11
70	8	8	9	7	9	9	8	9
75	6	6	7	5	7	7	6	G
80	5	5	5	4	5	5	5	5
85	4	4	3	3	4	3	4	3
90	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	2
95	2	2	.	2	3	.		
100	1	t	.	M	t	.		„
     These columns certainly do not exhibit as  high an expectation of life,
either  among the members of the families of the peerage and baronetage,
or the English  annuitants,  as the  average of  English  life  shown in the
column based upon Mr. Farr's results,  and  all  of these  fall  below that of
Mr. Neison's, based upon the facts developed by the returns of the Friendly
Societies.
     A comparison of the  laboring and more  independent  classes in the
United States,  as developed  by the Massachusetts returns, do not exhibit
the same favorable results for the former, as are made manifest by the English
tables.   On the contrary, the average age  at  death of those engaged in
mechanical pursuits is lower than the average age of the better classes. 
AMONG DIFFERENT CLASSES.
213
     The average age of laborers is 44.80 years, and that of mechanics as a
class 46 years, while with merchants, the  average age is 46.30  years, with
professional men 49.03  years,  and with public men 50.32 years.  Among
individual  pursuits, those of the clergymen,  advocates  and medical  men,
rank higher than either of the trades, with the exception of the cooper and
the shipwright,  and the  retired gentleman  attains  to an age  superior to
them all, averaging 68.29 years.
     There is a very wide difference  between the  relative  chances of life
enjoyed by the different classes in Massachusetts  and England, which  must
arise either from the  higher  expectation of life among the  better class
here, as compared with the same class  in England, or a lower  expectation
among the laboring class here, as compared with the same class there.
     In applying the principles of the laws of mortality to life  assurance, it
must be taken into  consideration,  that while a knowledge of their rates
at the extreme periods of life is  necessary, yet at the  same time those cir-
cumstances which affect its duration after the first period has  passed, and
extreme age  has not  been  attained, are of  more immediate and practical
importance, because it is precisely in this period  of life that  most appli-
cants for assurance present themselves, and over which most of  the policies,
whose duration  is limited  by a fixed  number  of years extend.   It may
thus happen that the  proportionate mortality of one latitude may not
exceed that of another, or may even fall below ;  and  yet the  probabilities
of life at  the  ages  usually covered by life assurance may be much less.
Thus,  if the prevailing disease be  dysentery or scarlatina,   its  heaviest
demand will be  made upon the early periods of life; if consumption and
scrofula, it will fall with greatest force upon the  period between 20 and 30
years ; and if  dropsy, apoplexy, or  paralysis,  it will fall with greatest
force upon advanced life.
     In  order, therefore, to  determine  with any degree of  accuracy  the 
214
CONCLUSION.
effect of locality upon the duration  of life, a knowledge  of the  diseases
that  terminate it is as necessary as an exact  account of the number who
have died, and  the  ages  at which death took  place.  The tables accom-
panying this report will,  it is  hoped, enable these comparisons  to  be insti-
tuted with a reasonable approximation to correct results. 
INDEX.
Acclimation,     ....

     "       Dr. La Roche on
     "       Life, cost of
     "       Dr. Nott on
Age of parents, effect  on sexes at births.
Ages of living in each State, .
  "   at marriage in Massachusetts,  .
  "   "      "     ." Kentucky,   .
  "   "      "     " Belgium,
  "   "      "     " North and South,
Aged class of population,  .
American summer, heat of  .
     "       "    source of disease, .
Army mortality in British service, .
  "      "     " United States,
  "   statistics not applicable to civil life
Atlantic plain, features of
Average  age of English population,  .
  "       "  " American   "
  "       "  " at death,

Balfour,  Dr.,  on table of mortality in
  Eastern British service,
Births, census returns  of
  "    disparity in     ...
  "    wliy greater in some places than
          others,    ....
TAGE
171
190
197
199
198
  76
181
  92
  93
  93
  9G
  33
130
130
131
133
134
137
  32
  32
183
131
 45
 45

 45
Biiths, more abundant in new than old
         countries,    ....    45
  "    affected by the seasons,       .       49
  "    Milne on        ....    48
  "    in Massachusetts,   .     .     .       58
  "    in Rhode Island,     ...    59
  "    in New Jersey,     .     .     .       63
  "    in Connecticut,       .     .     .03
  "    in Kentucky,      ...       64
Born dead, proportion of    .     .     .77
  "    "       "     in Kentucky,          78
  "    "       "     in Massachusetts,     77
  "    "       "     in European coun-
       tries,      .....    79
Boston, births  in    ...     .       55
  "      "    of nrftives and foreigners,     56
  "      "    in different wards,  .     .    56
  "      "    mortality in     .     .     164
Bowditch, Dr., on consumption in Massa.
  chusetts,    .....     178

California, mortality .      .     .     .     160
Carpenter on sexes at birth,  .    .         76
Carnival, effect of on season  of marriage
  in France,     .     .     .     .     .91
Chadwick on population in United States,    31
    "     " average age of living,   .       32
Chickering on  Emigration,  ...    43 
11
INDEX.
                                        PAGE
Census returns of births,   .     .     .     103
  "       "    " marriages,      .     .   103
          "    " deaths,       .     .     107
Climate of the great lake region,  .     .   144
  "     " mountain       "        .     144
  "     " seashore and inland,  .     .194
  "     Dr. Johnson on   .     .     .     494
Clark, Dr., on still-born,     ...    81
Conception in Kentucky,  ...      83
     "     effect of seasons on     .     .    83
     "     Milne on       ...      84
     "     in Sweden and France,      .    85
Connecticut, births in                      03
Consumption, season most fatal,   .     .   176
     "       in  Massachusetts,  .     .     178
     "       in  Kentucky,  .     .     .177
     "       Dr. Bowditch on  .     .     178
     "       per cent, of, in Massachu-
              setts and Kentucky,     .   180
Curtis, Dr., on sexes at birth,   .     .      67

Deaths, census returns of    .     .     .107
  "     in different States,     .     .     107
  "     number of in United States,   .   107
  "     proportion of sexes,     .     .     108
   "     in Massachusetts,  .     .     .108
   "     in New Hampshire,  .     .      108
   "     per cent, at different ages,     .   109
   "     excess of males in early life,      110
  "     proportion to living,      .     .110
   "     male  and  female in  Massachu-
            setts,     ...     .   Ill
  "       "     "     Dist. of Columbia,  111
  "       "     "     Wurtemberg,   .   Ill
  "    ' affected by migration,  .     .     113
  "     in each  season,      .     .     .151
  "     different States,   .     .     .     151
Dependent classes,     .    .     .     .33
Diseases, classification of  .     .     .     172
  "      of warm climates,  .     .     .   202
   "      of cold    "         .     .     202
         per cent, of, in  different States,   175
  "       "     "        "     localities,   179
Drake, Dr., on Mississippi  Valley,    .      19
                                        PAGE
Dwellings, number of in Europe,  .     .   156
     « '      "     "   in United States,   155

Effect of  locality on mortality,   .     .     164
  "   "  geological formation on health,    141
Emigration, per cent, in United States,  .    39
     »     "     "   " different States,     39
     "     '■     "   " European countries, 41
     "     Irish to America,     .     .    52
Emigrants, condition  of        .     .      41
     "    now and heretofore, .     .      43
     "    in town and country,  .     .    40
Emigrant office, English, report of          53
European States, births in        .     .65

Fecundity, laws of          .     .     .48
Females, deaths among   .     .     .     108
    "      "   in Massachusetts,      .   110
    "      "   in Dist. of Columbia,     110
    "      "in Wurtemberg,    .     Ill
    "      "   in excess in country,  .   115
Female mortality in  Massachusetts,   .     125
   "      "      in  Maryland,   .     .125
   "      "      in  England,   .     .     125
Fever, a  disease of middle life,    .     .   179
   "   per cent, of, in Massachusetts and
         Kentucky,       .     .     .     180
Finlaison on English Annuitants,     .     180

Gotha Bank  do  not insure  pregnant
   women,     .     .     .     .     .     122
Geology of the Atlantic plain  and slope,   137
   "     of Valley of Mississippi,  .    .140
Gulf stream, effect of                    141
Guy, Dr., on lives of English peerage,  .  211

Hofacker on sexes at birth,     .    .      76
Hopfs'  statistics of  male and  female
   mortality,      .     .     .     .    .122
Heat of American summer a source  of
   disease,     .     .     .    .     .     135

Ireland,  marriages in  .     .     .     .50
   "     proportion of births,   .     .      50 
INDEX.
Ill
Ireland, Thorn's statistics
Irish condition of in Ireland and America,
Infantile mortality,     ....
  "       "       excess of
  "       "       census returns,
  "       "       want of correctness in,
 53
 52
 57
184
184
184
Kentucky, births in ...           64
     "    still-born in      .     .     .81
     "    conception  in   .     .     .      83
     "    months most prolific in      .    83
     "    and Montpellier correspondence, 80
Kennedy's table of male and female mor-
  tality,    ......125
Kane, Dr., effect of cold climate on,   .     203

Life-table, English  .      .     .     .      13
 "   insurance experience in  male  and
       female mortality,     .     .     .  122
Local influences, effect of  .     .     .    129
Laws of mortality not alike in England
   and America,  .    .     .     .     .153
Louisiana, Dr. Barton on  .     .     .    168
Locality, effect of on mortality,   .     .178
Mississippi  Valley,     ....
Mountain ranges,   ....
Mortality census,       ....
Mortality returns,   ....
    "     of Europe,   ....
    "     per cent, of      .     ,     ■
Milne on Conception,   ....
Massachusetts, reports of births,
Male  and  female, proportions of in the
     United States,   .
Massachusetts and Sweden,  correspond-
  ence between   .....
Marriages,  in different months  .
     "     Massachusetts,
     "     Kentucky,
     "     Shattuck on
     "     in different States,  .
     "     census returns of  .
     "     proportion of, in different States  103
 Moisture, sources of   ...        147
 75

 80
 88
 83
 89
 90
103
103
Moisture in  Europe  and American cli-
            mates,     .
Mortality in  different States,
    "     of the sexes in Massachusetts, .
    "     "     "     at different ages,
    "     correspondence between Sweden
            and Massachusetts,
    "     among British troops,
    "     maximum and minimum periods
            of.....
    "     in Massachusetts,
    "     in Kentucky,
    "     in Rhode Island,
    "     in California,
    "     in Northern and Southern cities,
    "     in Southern States, Dr. Nott on
Moureue on marriages in France, .
147
107
121
121

128
131

158
158
158
159
100
104
170
  91

  63
New Jersey, births in  .
New Orleans, Dr. Simonds on  the  mor-
              tality of    ...    165
     "       Dr. Barton     "      "    .  1G8
Nott, Dr., on mortality of Southern States  170
Neison on effect of occupation,  .     .    205
   "   on select lives   ....  205

Occupation, effect on life  .     .      .    205
     "     in other countries,    .     .  208
           in England,   ...    206
     "     Deaths in each   .    .     .208
Odd Fellows, table of mortality among    203
Population of United States,
     "     ages of  .
     "     distribution of
     "     ratios of each age
     "     origin of
     "     productive capacity of
Probabilities of life,
Productive classes,   .
Prussian Government's providence,
Proportion of sexes at birth,
     "     of males to females in the U. S.
Parallelisms in U. States and Europe,  .
 21
 21
 21
 21
 22
 31
 26
 33
 35
 67
 75
133 
IV
INDEX.
Per cent, of mortality in the chief cities
  of the United States,
1G4
Quetelet on male and female deaths, .     117
   "    the  moi tality  of the sexes at
           different ages,    .     .     .121
Registration among the ancients		10
	' in Geneva, Switzerland,	11
	' in England, •	12
	' in United States,	12
	' in Massachusetts,	12
	' in New Jersey, .	13
	' in Connecticut,	13
	' in Rhode Island,	13
	' in Kentucky, .	13
	' in Virginia,	13
	' in South Carolina, .	13
Rhode Island, births in ...		59
Rate of mortality in different countries,		132
" " in U. S. Army,		133
States, areas of ....		19
" per cent, of area,		19
" ratio of .		19
Sexes, proportion of at birth,		07
" " in Massachusetts,		68
" " in Providence,		71
" " in Europe,		70
" " in Kentucky,		72
" " in Virginia,		72
" " in Charleston, S. C. .		73
Sadler on sexes at birth, .		70
Still-born, properties of . .		77
Seasons, effect on conception in Kentucky,		83
Sutton, Dr., on conception in Kentucky,		83
Sweden, table of conception in .		85
Shattuck on New England marriages,		90
Sardinia, returns of males and females,		118
" returns of male and female deaths		
	in town and country, .	120
                                         PAGE
 Sutton's table  of mortality of sexes  in
   Kentucky,.....125
 Seasons in the  United States,   .    .     135
   "    influence of        .     .     .151
   "    deaths in each   .     .     .      11
 Summer mortality in the United States,    152
 Sanger, Dr., on mortality of California,   .   160
 Simonds on the mortality of New Orleans,   160
 Southwestern  mortality     .     .     .170
 Southern mortality greatest in middle life,   180
     "       "     in infancy and old age,  180
 Summer mortality in United States,    .   202

 Tucker on probabilities of life,     .     .    26
   "   on mortality in the United  States,    26
 Thorn's Irish statistics,   .     .     .       53
 Tripe on still-born,     ....    80
 Table of mortality among British  troops,   131
   "  "     "     in  U.  S. Army,     .    133
 Temperature, range of in the U. States,    192
     "       sea and inland,    .     .    192
 Trade wind, its influence,      .     .       147
 Town and Country mortality in England
   and America,      .     .    .     .154
 Table of per cent, of living of each age
   in the various States,   .     .     .      181

 United States territorial limits,    .     .    18
             great divisions,   .     .       19
     "      growth of     ...    23
     "      natural divisions  of     .      137
     "       proportion  of  town and
               country population  .      155

Virginia, births in      ....    64
   "    still-born in     .      .     .       81
Value of European lives, table of  .    .   206

Wargentin on still-born,     .      .    .81
Winds in United States,  .     .     .      135
Winter, mortality in  Europe       .    .    13 5
          "      in England,  .     .      202 
                                NEW  YOKK:
WM. 0.  BRYANT  & CO., PRINTER?, 41  NASSAU STREET, CORNER  OF  LIBERTY. 
 
 
m
vy if,
,i\
• ■■ii'F'ii



 ■<"'• .X JrVM
yM-'fr'ii'ik'f-W
Mm;'fc,->ffl
■*,&.
1/7.-xi
Hi
<x
' ;/'•'
•:VA

XX'
','■, ■'///':' ■'■■■
if
M
U
"-'.Vi
m
  Xi
./.•/•
-''X«-i'
&#;•-.
ii-lx

 P^X;-vX?;^
 p£&^i^
-■ilh:M

WX'W;
f.-i !xUW
m
m
m
niu
'l¥i\irp.
■■■sj?F/W"

Pt'i
M
w
wmm!'wm

 '%,#X7''  jim'
XX
J»
JW
if'A
1
*W
,7<,X\»

>J>-
m
fill.
j  m
>'/Av:
f 'ni'*ld:Ht
';f"
il
85
$
x '/■yx^

 'X+/'x/$
•    --■■!if

-s •.:.i«
I
«SaI*X
i-W*
*?SMJ
&*.
f/'tf
fK'
!<-#»


#
i/i'/i
>/#$
Itttf'
')'#?
fflS
&*■
ftffl
/;/,
'; x
-V~Sf£Ji
m

ml



l&rHii
I
m


i#$j