^^^ ^.^^^^^ ,^.s. ^.^^>^/^ ^^^ ^02^,-4_ REPORT VITAL STATISTICS UNITED STATES, MADE TO THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK. BY JAMES WYNNE, M. J)., MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ; OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE ; CORRESPONDINa MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY ; OP THE NEW YORK LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, to., &c, &q. 4 NEW YORK: H. Baillieee, 290 Broadway. LONDON: 219 Regent Street. PARIS: J. B. Baillieee et Fils, Rue Hantefeiiille. MADRID : 0. Bailly Baillieee, 11 Calle del Principe. 1857. i^ PREFACE e/3 The accompanying Keport was originally made to the Presi- dent and Trustees of tlie Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York, wlio, in the prosecution of an extended business, had long felt the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 drawn 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 comj)rehensive 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It is highly gratifying to be able to state in this connection, that in addition to the Company to whom the Report was originally made, all the Life Insurance Companies in the United States, with the exception of six or eight, have, with great unanimity and much kind feeling, united in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. The Companies above alluded to are — The New York Life Insurance Company, of New York. United States Life Insurance Company, of New York. The Manhattan Life Insurance Company, of New l^ork. 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 England MuTu^ii Life Insurance Company, of Boston. Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Boston. The State Mutual Life Assurance Company, of Worcester, Mass. American Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New Haven. 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 L 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 10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. seven is likewise one ih 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 " Annales 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 n 26 100 1600 to irOO ..... 13 3 16 153 lYOlto n50 27 9 13 ~ 321 1Y51 to 1800 31 3 5 361 1801 to 1813 40 8 10 4Y0 1814 to 183 3 45 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 cliildren ; the probable duration of life 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 population 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 fi-om 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 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 sulferings, 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 Eeport Kegister-General of England, p. 19. INTEODUCTORY REMARKS, 15 system, to collect and arrange mortuary registers, wliicli 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 work 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 baiSing 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 take 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, conducted by 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 persons 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 he 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 furnislies the first instance of an attempt to obtain the mortality during one year in all the States of the tJnion, 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 eflfort 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 m 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 sj)ecijic 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." l8 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 efi"ects 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 Eocky 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. Pacific slope Atlantic slope propef '.'.*.'.'.'. .'.'.'.'.VlV il'c Northern Lake region . " 11'>'649 Gulf region '....'. ..'.'.'.''.W .'.\'.'.'.'.['.'.['.'.['.\]'.'.'.325,oS1 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 Mississippi valley and Gulf or Middle region l,543'o99 Total Area in sq. miles. 766,002 952,602 1,217,562 2,936,166 Ratio of area of eacli slope to to- tal area of U. S. 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 60,722 52,198 165,980 60 4,674 2,120 69,268 68,000 85,405 33,809 '71,12'? 60,914 114,798 37,680 41,265 31,766 11,124 7,800 66,243 166,026 47,166 1.73 1.78 5.32 0.16 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 20 18 1 40 S7 38 13 14 16 29 10 19 9 28 26 30 32 36 15 6 22 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 Vermont Washington Territory Wisconsin s a 6'?,880 335,882 9,280 207,007 47,000 8,320 60,704 39,964 185,030 46,000 1,306 29,386 45,600 237,504 269,170 61,362 10,212 123,022 53,924 Total 2,936,166 2.29 11.44 0.32 7.05 1.60 0.28 1.73 1.36 6.30 1.57 0.04 1.01 1.55 8.09 9.17 2.10 0.35 4.19 1.84 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 fi-om 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, 23,873,717 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 AND TEREITORIES. Alabama Arkansas Califoraia Columbia, District of... Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts , Michigan , Mississippi Missoui'i New Hampshu'e New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylrania Rhode Island South Carohna Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia Wisconsin ^ r Minnesota, "C S' J -'^^'"^ *Iexieo g'C I Oregon E-i TTt.nh . _ Under 1 year. tUtah. 20,375 6,642 273 1,319 7,646 2,554 2,236 24,868 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 76,837 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 31,614 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. 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 59,676 94,365 105,176 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 30 and un- 20 and un- der 20. der 60. Total 629,446 2,868,327 3,241,268 5,420,421 8,949,797 1,976,700 193,820 53,875 7,610 11,725 77,486 21,842 19,846 230,552 206,790 246,200 45,476 243,745 106,098 138,768 134,124 203,765 92,449 147,564 167,881 70,096 110,473 676,980 214,097 475,981 524,540 30,402 161,624 260,517 50,667 70,494 344,407 62,801 1,030 14,048 2,652 2,707 50 and un- 80 and un der SO. der 100. 273,717 74,256 77,587 21,435 159,097 34,690 33,041 312,440 316,670 845,431 70,303 346,618 238,019 223,081 229,349 451,194 155,196 221,976 252,760 129,446 194,149 ,326,860 300,568 734,741 908,085 65,725 238,846 339,180 81,172 123,612 509,714 128,097 3,136 24,246 6,014 4,448 51,328 10,328 2,796 4, 51,083 8,076 6,247 62,955 63,809 69,006 10,884 72,377 84,068 66,471 52,995 115,027 29,633 36,244 38,776 47,571 50,147 298,462 76,179 161,689 210,814 17,148 57,837 71,224 10,903 41,606 130,825 20,322 264 6,138 597 676 2,063 248 31 216 3,212 333 243 3,142 1,076 1,988 190 3,482 1,196 3,787 2,604 6,433 627 1,232 973 3,473 2,441 18,256 4,337 5,722 8,474 943 3,020 3,548 270 2,659 7,210 826 7 406 6 4 89,077 100 and up- wards. 163 24 7 10 9 36 221 18 32 1 157 176 13 131 19 9 140 45 12 26 88 249 58 76 3 206 148 39 10 389 2 40 Unk'n. 100 31 673 18 260 68 45 243 795 334 54 205 323 820 18 1,234 123 964 155 52 175 1,713 160 626 1,175 17 2,673 224 214 38 385 192 143 66 2,665 I 14,285 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. Under 1 year old 629,446 2,868,327 8,661,689 8,949,797 1,976,700 2.71 12.37 37.35 38.59 8.62 80 and under 100 89,077 2,666 14,285 1 and under 5 .39 .01 .06 6 " 20 20 " 50 Aggregate population 60 " 80 23,191,876 100.00 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 oifspring, 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 th§ 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 Virginia, 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 fiiture 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 1860 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." \_Coinpend. U. S. Census, 1850,^. 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 dif&cult to determine with any degree of precision, either the numbers or the ages of those who enter or depart, so it is proportionably difficult 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. ANNDAL DEATHS. ANNUAL MOKTAUTT, Tear. Number. Per Cent. Living to 1 Deatli. England 1841 1841 1840 1840 1842 15,92'7,86'7 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 France 42 Prussia 38 83 Russia 28 — [6iA Registrar- Getieral's Heport, 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. 2T 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 : — * Whole No. of immigrants. No. of children under ten, when they arrived. No. of years to June, 1850. No. of «hild. ren under ten, June 1, 1850. No. of deaths, to June 1, 1S60. No. over ten, June 1, 1850. 1840-1 83,504 101,107 75,159 74,607 102,416 147,051 220,882 296,387 296,988 223,984 12,825 15,166 11,274 11,190 15,362 22,057 33,027 44,450 44,640 33,597 94 84 64 54 44 34 24 14. 4 642 2,276 2,817 3,916 6,912 12,131 20,867 24,760 37,783 22,270 10,110 11,105 7,299 6,182 7,068 8.167 9,384 9,135 5,215 2,357 72,762 1841-2 87,727 1842-3 64,043 1843-4 65,509 1844-6 88,435 1845-6 126,753 1846-7 190,631 1847-8 262,492 1848-9 253,940 1849-50 199,357 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« abore table, I have, with some hesitation, allowed a Bom«what 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. 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 11th 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 fi'om 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 : — IlDited States of America. England and Wales. IJnder 5 y«ar3 lUi 1324 5 and under 10 1417 1197 10 " 15 1210 1089 15 " 20 1091 997 20 " 30 1816 1780 32 YOUTHFUL CHARACTER OF POPULATION. 30 and under 40 40 " 50 50 " 60 60 70 70 " 80 80 " 90 90 and upwards Average age of all the living Statea of America. 1160 England and Wales. 1289 732 959 436 645 245 440 113 216 32 59 4 5 10,000 ars 2 months. 10,000 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 3Y 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 vrhole 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 shovr 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. Slaves. Aggregate. Number. Ratio per ct. Number. Ratio per ct. Number. Ratio per ct. Number. Ratio per ct. 15 years and under 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 3.68 .12 9,629,670 12,.589,129 958,792 14,285 41.52 Over 15 and under 60 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 tlie 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 diiferent 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 60,994 In State prisons and penitentiaries, by the same 5,646 In jails and houses of correction Y,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 CHAEACTER 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 tlie 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. Total Foreign. Per ct. of foreign to white and free col'd population. States and Ten-itories. Total Foreign. Per ct. of foreign to white and free col'd population. 7,638 1,628 22,358 4,967 37,473 6,211 2,757 5,907 110,593 54,426 21,232 29,189 66,413 31,456 53,288 160,909 64,852 4,958 72,474 1.78 1.00 24.15 10.36 10.11 6.84 5.73 1.13 12.99 5.51 11.05 3.78 24.33 5.39 10.82 16.18 13.79 1.67 12.19 New Hampshire New Jersey New York 13,571 68,364 651,801 2,524 218,512 294,871 23,111 8,662 5,740 16,774 32,831 22,394 106,695 2,048 2,063 1,159 1,990 4.27 Arkansas , 11.93 21.04 Columbia, District of . . . , North Carolina Ohio .43 11.03 Pennsylvania 12.75 Florida Rhode Island South Carolina 16.66 Georgia 3.06 .75 Indiana. , Texas 10.86 Iowa . . . Vermont 10.45 Ken tuck V "Virginia 2.36 34.94 [■Minnesota.... Terri- J New Mexico . lories. | Oregon [Utah Total 33.70 Maryland 3.f5 Massachusetts 8.72 17.53 Missouri 2,210,839 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 : 1850. In United States. In large cities. Ratio per ct. to wliole. Irisb 961,719 683,774 382,402 212,559 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 : — Great Britain and the islands in the British seas. . France Denmark Sardinia Holland Belgium Census. 1851 1851 1851 1848 1849 1846 Whole Pcpulation. 20,959,477 35,78?,170 1,407,747 4,918,855 3,056,879 4,337,196 Foreign Population. Per ct. of Foreign Population. 56,665 378,563 13,042 26,465 70,865 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, 5 42 CONDITION OF IMMIGRANTS, and far exceeds that whicti 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 crovd 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 T5 Americans. The mortality was one m 17.6 of the 2^o]pulation, 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 fuljy 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, "f * North Am. Rev., No. OLII., July, 1851, pp. 121-2. t Chiokering'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 New Hampshire 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 New York 2.46 Columbia, District of . . . . Connecticut • North Caroliaa Ohio 2.87 2.87 Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee 2.78 Florida 2.45 Georgia. 2.33 Illinois 3.02 Texas 3.09 2.10 Kentucky Virginia , , , . . 2.65 XiOuisiana Wisconsin 3.41 • ") Minnesota . . . Terri- (New Mexico., tories. f Oregon J Utah Total 2.77 Maryland 2.00 Massachusetts. .■ 2.33 3.80 MiBSOuri 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. 20 and un- der 30. 80 and un- der 40. 40 and un- der 50. States and Territories. 20 and un- der 80. 30 and un- der 40. 40 and un- der 50. ^labamflF 98.2 87.1 3.5 112.1 99.4 99.7 78.0 97.0 88.8 92.6 93.6 • 92.5 79.9 93.8 95.0 106.4 89.7 86.9 84.6 73.8 4.5 97.0 96.7 97.3 66.9 90.9 79.1 86.7 76.7 85.2 54.8 93.5 90.5 96.5 81.9 74.5 85.8 74.3 6.0 99.1 101.6 94.9 67.9 92.4 80.6 90.9 76.6 88.7 64.4 94.9 92.0 99.8 76.2 77.1 Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey 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 S3. 7 70.4 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 84.8 80.8 40.6 78.6 77.1 103.8 California 93.9 Columbia, District of. . . New York 88.9 North Carolina Ohio 107.9 87.4 'Klm*if]fl Pennsylvania 91.6 Rhode Island 105.5 lUiDois ". . South Carolina Tennessee 100.2 101.2 Texas 62.9 Vermont 95.9 Virginia 96.2 Wisconsin 72.6 1 Minnesota. . . . Terri- [New Mexico. . tories. ' Oregon J Utah 45.1 Massachusetts 82.3 Michigan 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 diiference 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 74,997 256,781 270,536 £3 14 2 2 13 r Differences . . 6,158 13,754 £1 1 1 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. 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 OP 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 56 633,753 235,689 63,358 29,176 25,864 55,407 310,492 324,187 234,110 217,811 669 6,335 13,914 22,549 68,161 689,829 652,416 401,459 285,835 311,836 17 and ujiwards 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 1641. Number who bore children in 1S42. Proportion of child- ren registered to 100 women. Women to one birth nearly Married 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 eiFect 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 fe"w, 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 184] 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. Thom, 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 441,23T 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 — Mne-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,Y9Y Making a total of 257,373 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 dp 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. From the returns of the City Regis- trar, for 1855, the following table was compiled : — Birthplaces of Parents. Fathers. Mothers. Birthplaces of Parents. Fathers. Mothers. Boston 369 467 288 251 89 26 13 134 221 430 408 330 190 62 23 28 122 165 Scotland . , 78 3,019 34 4 346 221 64 152 59 Massachusetts (out of Boston) 8,231 23 New Hampshire , , , . .- Spain and Portu^^al 4 Germany and Northern Europe . . British American Provinces Other Foreign Countries Unknown 273 Connecticut 252 Rhode Island 29 Other American States 137 Enffland ... • Totals 5,766 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 I6i as 1 to 25.21 II. 16,963 715 " 1 " 22.32 in 13^175 469 " 1 " 28.09 lY 7,912 123 " 1 " 64.32 V 10,428 340 " 1 " 30.67 YI. .' 11,597 266 " 1 " 43.60 YII 18,430 750 " 1 " 24.57 Vin 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. 58 KECOED OF BIRTHS CHAPTER VI. EECORD OF BIETHS 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. Per cent . No. Per cent. No. Per cent. No. No. Per cent. Bristol County Kent County Newport County Towns of Prov. Co.. . ProTidence City Washington County . . 238 168 477 328 1266 132 75.08 70.29 77.56 62.71 42.83 80.00 57 60 113 181 1512 29 17. S8 25.11 18.37 34.61 51.16 17.58 22 11 25 14 178 4 6.94 4.60 4.07 2.68 6.02 2.42 65 50 24 60 6 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 40.64 254 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. American 54.71 40.59 4.70 53.82 40.50 5.68 54.53 40.63 4.84 Mixed Total 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 ra;tio 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. 62 RELATIVE PROPORTION OF BIRTHS " As stated in our former report, the births of foreign parentage are in much higher joroportion 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 asfoUows : — American population. . 58.94 per cent. American children born. . 42.81 per cent. Foreign population 41.06 per cent. Foreign children born 67.19 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 jiearly 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 1864 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, 26,767. 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 : — AssnAi. BiKTHS TO 100 Pebsons Lmsa. Pebsons Litino m Legitimate. niegitimate. Both. Birth. France 2,632 2,992 S,501 8,452 .205 .216 .260 .422 2,837 3,208 3,V6'7 3,8Y4 4:,2S4 35 England 81 Prussia 27 Austria 26 Russia 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. Pkopoetioh. Females in each 10,000 Males. Months. Males. Females. Unknown. Males. Females. January , , , 7478 7533 8352 7920 6804 6934 7804 8267 8251 7974 7446 7509 3833 3817 4283 4030 3552 3665 3918 4225 , 4136 4115 3899 3855 3572 3640 3977 3771 3194 3306 3833 3992 4053 3791 3499 3686 73 76 92 119 58 63 63 50 62 68 48 68 51.76 61.18 51.85 51.66 52.66 51.81 50.22 61.44 52.18 52.06 52.70 61.81 48.24 48.82 48.15 48.34 47.34 48.19 49.78 48.66 47.82 47.94 47.30 48.19 931^ February 9658 March 9''86 April 9357 May June 9301 July 991(> 9440 August September 9164 October goQS November 8975 December 9301 Total 92,272 47,228 44,214 830 51.66 48.35 9362 In the foiu'teenth registration report of Massachusetts, Dr. Shurtleflf 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. Males 14,137 13,392 135 14,949 13,613 119 15,246 14,432 124 15,798 14,966 167 16,352 16,469 176 16,785 16,888 172 93,267 87,759 833 61-33 48 16 51 Females Unknown 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 ansv/er 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 : — Males Females . . ., . Unknown 5,344 . . 7,985 5,106 . . 7,167 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 aii', 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 BIETH. 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 bu'th 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 Ehode 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, abeady 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. 1853. Males to 100 Females. Males, 13,625 13,027 112 Females, 12,109 11,805 110 Unknown, 172 173 Total, . 25,906 25,005 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 ignobler 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 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 ; — Warda. WHITES. SLAVES. FREE COLOHED. Males. Females. Totals. Males. Females. Totals. Males. Females. Totals. 1 2 3 4 40 45 70 74 30 49 76 81 70 94 146 165 44 78 50 86 44 61 45 76 88 139 95 162 4 10 4 13 2 7 7 9 6 17 11 22 Total.... 229 236 465 258 226 484 31 26 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, Male, Female, Births. Proportion. 229 49.24—97.00 : or 100. 236 50.T6 100. to 103.00 465 100.00 SLAVES. Births. Proportion. 258 63.31=100.00 : or 112.03 226 46.69 87.58 to 100. 484 1000.00 Male, Female, FKEE COLOKED. 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 birthe 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 JSTorth-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- * Census of Charleston, page 181. 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 49,829 36.73 76 HOrACKEB AND SADLER V ■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 cmious, 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. Sadler. Father younger than mother, . . 90.6 Father younger than mother, . 86.5 Father and mother of equal age, . 90.0 Father and mother of equal age, . 94.8 Father older by 1 to 6 years, . 103.4 Father older by 1 to 6 years, . 103.7 " " " 6 to 9 « . . 124.7 " " " 6 to 11 " . . 126.7 " " " 9 to 18 " . 143.7 " " " 11 to 16 " . 147.7 " " " 18 and more, . 200.0 " " " 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 bii'ths 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 : — x, AT Still-born. Proportion of Still-born ^°™ ^li^«- to eacb 10,000. 142,830 2,618 180 " It has been a subject of complaint in nearly every report, that sufii- * Carpenter's Physiology, p. 1014. 78 NUMBER OF STILL-BORN cient pains have not been taken in ascertaining the ses 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 will show that more regard is beginning to be felt on this subject of statistical inquiry."* The returns from Virginia show the following results : — -n ,,. ofii 1, Proportion of Still-born Born Alive. 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: — BornAlire. Still-born. Proportion of Still-born to each 10,000. Whites, . . . 19,796 467 228 Colored, . . 5,209 166 313 Total . . . 25,005 633 252 * 14th Registration Report for Massachusetts, p. 192. f Registrar Report for Kentucky for 1862, page 105. TO THE LIVING BIRTHS. 79 White, Colored, Total, SEX OF STILL-BOEN. Males. Females. Unknown. Total 2Y0 191 6 467 90 12 4 166 360 263 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. ABSTEAOT OF THE BIETHS IK PKTJSSIA, FEANCE,' SAXONY AND BELGIUM. Prussia (1820-34)— Males, . . . Females, . . Total, ■ , . * France (1842.)— Males, Females, . Total, • ■ t Austria (1834-7-9.)— Males, Females, Total, X Saxony (1832-41.)— Males, Females, Total, . § Belgium (1842.)— Males, Females, Total, . Births. still-born. 3,906,644 147,705 3,686,473 109,363 7,593,017 257,063 506,809 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. Mor6au 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 Belgium 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 diJfferent 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 childi-en 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. Born alive. still-born. Proportion of still- born to each 10,000. U,95i 1269 282 43,078 963 217 88,032 2205 250 IN EUROPEAN STATES. 81 Among the earliest records of tlie 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 — Males, Females, 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 aa'e 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 tlie 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 Eegis- 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, fi-om 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. March, .... February, January, . . . . Male. Female. 1,431 M 1,303 1,162 1,038 1,111 1,035 Male. Female. 1,128 984 1,133 966 • 1,106 897 1,024 906 9m 9Y2 960 896 98Y 863 919 886 m 909 m842* 84 EFFECT OF THE SEASONS Date of Conception. November, .... December, .... June, . . . ■ . July, .... August, .... May, .... October, .... September, April, .... 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 in^enced 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. Meander, 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. 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 SHOWIN& THE INTENSITY OP FECUNDIir IN EACH MONTH. In SwmEN AMD FlNLASD. Month. In Montpkluer, France. Marriages. Conceptions. Conceptions. Marriages. Male. Female. . Female. Male. 1519 1385 1369 1792 1393 1957 1071 m 732 1539 M4267 3251 3798 4276 4210 4287 4452 4377 4525 4342 3889 3696 m3632 3927 M4708 4106 4020 4066 4277 4213 4376 4163 3763 3547 m3508 3726 M 4485 January, Febry. March, April, May, June, July, August, Sept. October, Nov. Dec. 1044 M1185 1067 1145 . 1090 989 916 m 863 866 940 1007 1033 1156 M1221 1173 1210 1183 1056 918 934 m 909 993 1086 1080 596 M1155 159 403 526 472 447 434 523 444 625 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, Females, Total, ) as 10,000 \ 310 238 276 Still-born males to stillborn 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, wlien 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 sufiiciently 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 suf&cient 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 conceptiop. 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. 603, 88 RELATIVE PROPOETION 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 bii-ths 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 i.c-ze 8,829 736 1,118 9,645 804 900 8,152 679 896 7,160 596 824 6,906 576 Months. September October . . November December Unknown Totals. 1,038 1,229 Ml 516 893 46 12,329 12 Years. 9,037 10,824 M13,984 8,313 605 105,700 Average. 754 903 Ml,166 693 50 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 35T 365 398 435 326 304 272 316 300 294 283 276 390 435 521 499 581 604 558 515 755 65'6 16 116 5,105 5,161 11 90 SEASON OP MARRIAGE INFLUENCED The preference for particular montlis 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, when 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, are 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 Carnaval, and next to that the month of November, before the epoch ciUed les Avents.^j- 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 tajvcn and abstracted upon a comprehensive and well considered plan." These observations, which had exclusive reference to the English * Memoirea abi'eges de TAcademie de Stockholm, p. 32. I Milue on Annuities, p. 501. 92 AGES OF PERSONS MARRIED system of registration and mode of taking tlie census, at the time tliey 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 obtained 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 yeai's and eight months, beginning May 1st, 1844, and terminating January 1st, 1851 :— • AGES OP WOMEN. Ages of Men. o" ■a CI S i 2 CO 3 i S s s S 4 s g s s 2 CO a a s ■ Under 20 20 to 25, 25 to 30, 30 to 35...... 35 to 40, 40 to 45, 45 to 60, 60 to 65 55 to 60, 60 to 65...... 65 to 70, 70 to 75 78 to 80, Over 80, Unknown, . . .. 47 566' 208 42 9 3 183 8710 6186 1637 448 137 34 17 3 3 2 15 22 1159 3131 1533 589 281 92 40 13 2 2 i '7 1 112 397 734 457 321 162 64 23 14 2 1 i 5 19 71 120 296 206 182 103 60 19 12 4 '3 13 42 66 146 107 104 68 44 6 10 2 1 '3 7 19 24 65 74 65 51 17 4 1 i 3 9 24 39 43 60 36 9 3 2 2 2 10 26 24 29 6 3 1 '2 2 6 16 23 16 7 1 1 * ' 3 5 1 6 4 4 •• 1 1 6 79 67 56 13 15 6 5 2 5 1 836 688 15,746 11,950 4655 1978 1172 686 460 286 229 135 57 23 5 870 Totiils, 8788 17,375 6872 2294 1081 591 320 217 106 73 22 8 2 1 1091 38,840 A similar table, including similar results, for Kentucky, for the years 1852 and 1853, are likewise subjoined : — IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STATES. 93 AGES or WOMEN. Agis OP Men. Whole No. Under 20. 20 to 25. 25 to 30. 30 to 35. 35 to 40. 40 to 45. 45 to 50. SO to 55. 55 to 60. 60 to 65. C5 to 70. Over 70. Dnk'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 98S 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 SO 90 52 61 36 21 3 1 , , 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 4897 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 MARRIAGES IN BELaiUM. Men. Women. Under 21, 774 2,831 21 to 25, . 4,677 7,421 25 " 30, . 10,067 9,082 30 " 35, . 6,627 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 ill 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 ea,ch 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 Jifth 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 8 1 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 of&ce, 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 : — 'o d Males, 401 10,115 7941 2430 1203 748 4S6 322 218 172 96 67 29 5 24,232 Females, 58-71 11,313 3761 1329 723 450 260 174 99 47 38 14 4 1 24,078 o CO CO o CO o" o 00 o Ages, . . . . 13 O o o o o o o o s _o O o (U "3 t3 O CM o CO o o o CO CO C O o Males, 1.06 4=1.14: 32.77 10.04 4.97 3.08 2.01 1.33 .90 .69 .39 .28 .12 .02 100. 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 aboiit 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 tliree 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 imder 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. 1 is to be considered a type of tlie former, and Kentucky of the latter, whicli 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 akeady given, shows the average age in the two places to be — Belgium, .... Massachusetts, .... 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 Males. Females. 29.47 27.43 25.84 22.fi9 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 fi-om these premises is, that as women marry earlier, the number of children will be greater, and the sum of those 12 98 PHTSIOLOGICAL LAAVS IN wlio 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. 99 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 fiigid zone he invests himself with the skins of animals, covered with thick 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 ryamber 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, are 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 Prance, 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."* The clerks of the respective counties in the State of Kentucky, as of * 1st Registration Report of Keutucky, 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 ujDon 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 DIFFEKENT STATES. 103 direction. The returns, as given below, altliougli acknowledgedly incom- plete, are introduced as the best standard of comparison with those gathered in the several States at hand. states, &c. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Columbia, District of Connecticut, . Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois^ Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, 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, Married. States, &c. Married. 3,940 2,112 New Hampshire, NewJei-sey, . New York, 2,613 . 3,719 31,465 373 North Carolina, . 5,275 3,213 Ohio, 22,328 564 431 Pennsylvania, Ehode Island, . . 19,858 1,327 4,977 South Carolina, . 2,005 9,183 Tennessee, 7,872 12,423 Texas, . ... . 2,232 1,824 Yermont, 2,653 8,091 2,890 Virginia, Wisconsin, . 8,163 3,015 4,886 m 'Minnesota, . 39 3,703 I- New Mexico, . 916 10,347 4,257 Oregon, Utah, . . 168 404 2,774 6,989 Total, . 197,029 104 RATIO IN DIFFERENT COUNTIES. as fair representatives of distinct portions, wliicli would give a ratio of one marriage to eacli 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 70.4G. 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 Eussia, " " " « « ... 90 * 2d Registration Report of Rliode 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 ■egisters 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 * . I 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 thii'ty-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 iucidents counected 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 aflected 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 : — States. Alabama Arkansas. California Columbia, District of. . . . Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Maine Mar3'land Massachusetts Micbigan Mississippi 812 654 794 427 ,924 644 607 ,176 ,336 ,882 ,140 ,983 ,351 ,882 ,127 ,978 ,423 ,629 Females. 4,279 1,367 111 419 2,867 565 424 4,749 6,293 6,826 904 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 16,033 11,956 7,584 9,621 19,404 4,515 8,721 States. Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Riiode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas , . Vermont Virginia Wisconsin ^ Minnesota . . Terri- I New Mexico, lories. (Oregon J Utah Males. 6,864 2,088 2,513 24,446 5,227 15,818 15,532 1,163 4,207 6,179 1,641 1,534 9,735 1,676 19 ■ 680 32 131 Females. 5,438 2,193 2,952 21,154 4,938 13,139 13,019 1,078 3,839 6,696 1,368 1,595 9,324 1,328 10 577 15 108 Aggregate Deaths. 12,292 4,231 6,465 46,600 10,165 28,957 28,551 2,241 8,047 11,875 3,067 3,129 19,069 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 H"o. Males. Females. Males. Females. 323,023 172,878 150,145 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 : — LoOiLITIES, .BmTHs. Deaths under Five Teaes. Whole Ndjibeb op Deaths. Number. Proportion. Number. Proportion. Number. Proportion. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. 13,329 5344 7985 12,273 5106 7167 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 46.97 45.34 10,019 4710 5309 10,208 4617 5591 49.53 50.50 48.70 50.47 49.50 51.30 City, Country, " 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. Cohntkt. Number. Proportion. Number. Proportion. Number. Proportion. Deaths under one ) Male, year of age, ) Females, .... 1994 1558 66.13 43.87 996 810 55.14 44.86 998 748 57.16 42.84 Excess of Males, 436 12.26 186 10.28 250 14.32 * Sth Registration Report for Massachusetts, p. 109. 110 . MALE AND FEMALE MORTALITY " The excess of males was, in every 10,000 — T,- ,1 Deaths under Deaths undei' Total of one year. live years. Deaths. In the whole State, 412 1226 Y64 — 94* In the Cities, 228 1028 606 100 In the Country, , 640 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, exce|)t 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 fi'om 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 100 Males. Under 1, • • ■ ■ ■ • • 60 to 60, . 110.4 1 to 6, 98.2 60 to 70, . 118.8 5 to 10, . 99.1 70 to 80, . 128.5 10 to 15, . 97.7 80 to 90, . 146.4 15 to 20, . 114.6 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. f Ibid. p. 110. IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. , 111 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 : — WUETEMBEEG.* Population. Deaths. Year. Males. Females. Total. Males. Females. 1833, 773,561 813,887 . 1,587,448 26,428 26,066 183i, 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, fi-om that * Count Beroldigen. 112 MALK AND FEMALE MORTALITY ■whicli is presented by the returns of the District of Coiumbia 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 EVERT 10,000 Males there were Females. Showing a diffeke>-ce OF 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 other 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. Of these, the whole number of persons born in Massa- chusetts is, . . 894,818 Residing in " 695,236 " in other States, . 199,582 Of which there are in Connecticut, . 11,366 " " " " Maine, 16,535 " " New Hampshire, . 18,495 " " Rhode Island, 11,888 " " " " Vermont, 15,059 73,343 In other States and Territories, . . 126,239 * Letter of Mr. Shuttuck to the Secretary of State of Maesaohuaetts, p, 81. 14 I 114 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. Among 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, a,s 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 Southwestern ; and North Fading, in Yorkshire, are among those whose female deaths are more numerous than males. The Austrian Provinces of lUyria Corinthia, and lUyria 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, shovf, 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 au 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 6, 5 " " 10, 10 " " 20, 20 " " 50, 60 " " 80, 80 " " 100, 100 and over, Males. Females 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 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 AT DIFFERENT AGES. 117 and with those of other coimtries, as to lead to the belief, that they Avere returnecl, 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. 1 to 2 years, .... 14 to 18 " 21 to 26 " 26 to 30 " 30 to 40 " 40 to 50 !' . . . , 50 to 60 " 60 to YO " 70 to 80 " SO to 100, .... 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. * Quetelet, Siir L'Homme, vol. 1, p. 167. City. County. 1.06 0.97 0.82 0.75 1.24 1.11 1.00 0.86 0.88 0.63 1.02 0.83 1.07 1.18 0.96 1.05 0.77 1.00 0.68 0.92 118 MALE AND FEMALE MORTALITY L'inflneuce des sexes est extremement prononcee dans tout ce qui con- cerne les dcces ; deja meme elle se fait ressentir avant que I'enfant ait pu voir lejour. Pendant les quatre annees de 1827 a 1830, on a compt6 dans Flandre occidentale 2597 morts-ues, dont 1517 de sexe masculin et 1080 du sexe feminin ; ce qui doune 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 attribuee a une cause speciale. Du reste, cette mortalite n'affecte pas seulement les enfants males avant leur naissance, mais encore a pen pres pendant les dix ou douze premiers mois qui la suivent, c'est-a-dire a pen pres pendant le temps de I'allaitement.* 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 progressione 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 frequent! 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, ne * QuETELET, Sur L'Homme, vol. 1, p. 1C3. IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 110 costante in tutte le divisioni ; esso ha luogo con diversa proporzione nolle quattro Divisioni che seguono, nelle qnali si trovano : Moit. Divisioni. Masclii per 100 Femmine. Torino, 101 12 Alessandria, 102 89 Aosta, . 101 97 Eizza, 100 85 Nelle altro quattro divisioni succede il contrai'io, 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 nn senso, ora nell'altro, par che debbano attribuirsi a cagioni accidental!, anziche a niuna legge costante come quella che si osserva nelle nascite. Ne si pud dire che la mortalita di ciascun sesso segua la ragione della rispettiva popolazione ; poiche se cosi 6 infatti per le Divisioni di Savoja, Torino, Cuneo ed Alessandria, il contra- rio succede in quelle di Novara 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 dall'eta cui queste sogliono aver luogo. "Havvi tra le citta e le campagne una sensibile diiferenza nella ragion de' sessi nelle morti, essendo maggiore nelle prime la mortalita degli uomi- 120 MALE AND FEMALE MORTALITY _ m, nelle ultime la mortalita delle cloniie. Fanno tuttavia eccezione le citta di Torino e di Geneva, nelle quali le morti femminili di gran lunga supera- no le maschili, tuttoclie in entrambe queste citta la popolazione maschile (comprendendo in essa la truppa di guarnigioue, e per Genova la popola- zione del porto) grandemente superi la popolazione femminile ; infatti in Torino la prima sta alia seconda come 128 al 100. Ecco le tavole su cui le precedenti osservazioni sono fondate : Moi-ti. Masclii per 100 Femmine. !N"e' Commimi Eurali, . . - . . . 99 74 ISTelle citta in coniplesso, 104 87 A Torino, . . 94 13 A GenoYa, . . 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 some 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. Coram. Sup., Torino, 184S ; 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. Sex. Total. Under 1. Under 5. 20 to 30. AH others. 1852, Males, 8,978 2,026 3,719 808 4,451 « Females, 9,396 1,641 3,101 1,385 5,010 <( Unknown, 108 83 94 .... 14 Totals, 18,482 3,750 6,914 2,093 9,475 1853, Males, 9,942 2,248 4,192 976 4,774 cc Females, 10,210 1,807 3,595 1,307 5,308 u Unknown, 149 120 125 • « e o 24 Totals, 20,301 4,175 7,912 2,283 10,106 1854, Males, 10,710 2,321 4,337 1,109 5,264 a Females, 10,558 1,786 3,637 1,493 5,428