By Table CIII, the number in infancy, youth, maturity, old age, and extreme old age, will be seen. Those over 100 years of age being only one in about ten thousand of the total population.

Whilst the slaves have much more than their ratio of the dependent class of 15 and under, and more than their proportion of the whole supported class, including those below 15 and above 60, their ratio of the effective class is less than that either of the whites or free colored. The presumption here is that those in the several conditions under 15 who are industrially engaged, are about equal. The proportion is no doubt much larger among the slaves. The proportion of free colored above 60 is greater than that of the whites or slaves or total.

The average age of the different classes of population in 1850, and the age which divides the whole number of each about equally are given below. The results are sufficiently curious. In 1790 and 1800 the age of 16 nearly divided the whites. The average age of the slaves shows most favorably and that of the free colored least.

TABLE CVI-Average Age of Whites, Free Colored and Slaves, 1850.

* Under 10, 1830, 4,224,870; 32.84 per cent.; 1840, 5,440,470, 31.87 per cent.; 1850, 6,739,041, 29.06 per cent.; 100 and over, 1830, 2,618, .02 per cent.; 1840, 2,773, .02 per cent.; 1850, 2.555, .01 per cent.

The number of persons living in the United States who were here when the Declaration of Independence was signed, cannot much exceed 20,000. It must consist of those now over 75 years of age, less the number of persons who have come into the country since 1775 and have now reached that age. By the tables of survivorship a nearer approximation may be obtained.

TABLE CVII-Specific Ages of the People of the United States.

5. Births, Marriages and Deaths.-The ratio of Births, in the table on another page, shows 2.75 in the Union to every 100 free persons, or one birth to every thirty-six persons, or very nearly the same number that is given in the Massachusetts Registry reports for that State on the average of the years 1849-51, yet the Census shows for Massachusetts but one birth to every 42 persons in 1850. In Great Britain for the five years 1839-43, the average was one birth to 31 persons, in France one in 35, in Russia one in 36, in Prussia and Austria one in 26, in Boston one in 27.

Correcting the number of births by reference as explained before to the mortality tables, &c., the average for the United States would be about one birth to every 33 persons, a number intermediate between that of France and Great Britain, whilst without doubt it should be greater than either.

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, or one to 192 as in Massachusetts, a sufficient proof of the incompleteness of the returns. The Massachusetts Registry for 1849-51 gives one in 102 for the State, and in Boston one in 64. In England there is one marriage to every 130 inhabitants, in France and Austria one in 123, in Prussia one in 110. The actual proportion in the United States cannot differ much from that of Massachusetts, and is no doubt larger. The number returned as married is twice the number of marriages, less those who have married and died, or removed in the year, not taken into account.

It will be seen by the table which follows, that there is but one death reported for every seventy-two persons in the Union, and that for the States the ratio varies from one in 283, as in Oregon, to one in 102, as in California, or one in 44, as in Louisiana. The Massachusetts reports show for 1849-50-51 one in fifty-three against one in fifty-one in the censusa near approximation.

*The ages which were returned in the census "unknown," are disposed of in something like the following manner. One-tenth to the class under 10 years; one-tenth to those between 10 and 20; one-tenth to those between 20 and 35; five and a half-tenths to those between 35 and 50, as in this class they are far more apt to occur; one-tenth between 50 and 80; one-twentieth to those between 80 and 100. In the 30,131 ascertained cases, there were 283 mulattoes, of whom only five exceeded 61 years of age, or 1 in 56. Out of 974 blacks, 34 exceeded that age, or 1 in 28. Or 28,874 whites, 1,475 or 1 in 19 exceeded the same age. No white exceeded 100, and only 23 exceeded 90. No mulatto exceeded 77, though two blacks were 78; four 80; two 85; one 88; one 91; one 120. The proportion of mulattoes and blacks under 10 was very nearly if not quite equal, being about 30 per cent., and the whites about 27 per cent. of the whole.

The preponderance of those at the ages 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, &c. is notable; evidencing that approximations assume round numbers, and that a disposition exists with persons also to assume them in returning their ages. The same will be found in the French Census of 1851, which gave a total of 35,783,170, of whom 29,634 were unknown. Under 1 year, 655,271; of 4 years, 642,381; 5 years, 653,830; 6 years, 673,748; 10 years, 661,354; 19 years, 578,956; 20 years, 618,230'; 21, 555,893; 29, 495,711; 30, 690,638; 31, 467,219; 39, 420,327; 40, 665,984; 41, 401,550; 49, 356,354; 50, 591,861; 51, 357,216; 59, 237,137; 60, 403,655; 61, 219,118; 70, 219,954; 80, 62,794; 90, 5,257; 95, 1,228; 100, 180; over 100, 102."

TABLE CVIII.—Total Deaths in each State and Ratio to Population.

The true number of Deaths in the Union for 1850, considering it a sickly year, could not have fallen short of one in every fifty persons for all classes, which would swell the total deaths of the census from 323,272 to 463,839.

The Registration Reports of Massachusetts have been published annually for twelve years, and now assume this form:

Other tables show the months of Births, Marriages and Deaths, distinguishing plural births and still-born, the native and the foreign, and whether the marriage was the first for both parties, the first for one, the male,-the second or subsequent for the female, the second for the male, and the first for the female, the subsequent for both parties, &c. The deaths are shown by counties, male and female, and by months and also by ages and by sex.

In 1851 the still-born, not included in the detail, numbered 527. The deaths are published by counties in twelve classes, and the results for twelve years compared. The average ages of the different professions dying, are also classified; as for example, agriculturists, laborers, mechanics, merchants, paupers, professional men, public men, seamen, females, &c.

The English system of registration was established in 1836, and annual reports have been regularly published. They are considered to be so accurate that it is said "the marriage returns point out periods of prosperity little less distinctly than the funds measure the hopes and fears of the money market." In Massachusetts the system was organized in 1842, fa New York in 1847, the first report being published in 1848; in New Jersey, 1848-51; in Connecticut in 1848, and three reports are published; in New Hampshire in 1849-51; in Pennsylvania and Kentucky in 1852. The reports of most of these States have been compared, and they resemble generally those of Massachusetts, which are especially admirable. It

would be well if the tables for the several States followed one uniform standard. Those which are named are the only States, it is believed, that have registry systems in operation, although others are preparing to follow. In Louisiana an unsuccessful experiment was made. The matter is now before the legislature of South Carolina. The National Medical Convention has frequently and earnestly recommended registration systems to all of the States. In many of the large cities there are annual reports of diseases and deaths made up by the Boards of Health, which embody a vast amount of valuable statistical matter. Those for Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, Mobile, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, have been collected in the office.*

Dr. E. H. Barton, of New Orleans, in a report to the American Medical Association in 1852, has analyzed with great care the mortality returns of the Census for the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, illustrating them with many most interesting sanitary charts and maps. He has subsequently been pursuing the subject, associated with Dr. Axson and others, with characteristic zeal, at the instance of the municipal authorities of the city. Dr. Barton admits the imperfections of the returns, but thinks them valuable, notwithstanding, for reference, and that they are much nearer correct in the country than in the cities. His totals of deaths differ slightly from those in the Census which were afterwards corrected.

Population...

81,347 180,000 188, 198 3,208 517,739 209,651 592,853 187,403 583,034

Mortality per cent. to population..41.19

28.11 64.21

B. Sporadic..

20.25

21.10

7.12 11.53 20.20 38.95

21.49 14.34
10.17 6.01

14.62 15.72

16.85

e. External...

* Mr. Shattuck who prepared the Report in 1850 of the Commissioners appointed by the legislature of Massachusetts, under a resolution relating to a sanitary survey of that State, introduces twelve considerations upon the subject of vital statistics, too valuable and instructive to be omitied in this place.

"The following principles may be considered as settled; though we have not space in this connection to illustrate them fully. They should govern all those who make sanitary surveys of different places or populations. "1st. That a uniform law of mortality exists, which destroys more persons at one age than at another, in all other circumstances exactly similar, and that this is modified in its operation in a healthy and in an un healthy locality, only by its being less stringently regarded in the one than in the other.

"2nd. That the generative power and ability to produce a healthy child at marriage, and the number of mar ried persons living in the procreative ages, combined with other personal circumstances; and hence arises the sanitary importance of ascertaining in a census, as a characteristic of the population, the number of the inarried at different ages, and of recording each marriage and the age at marriage.

"3d. That when the number of births is great, the number of deaths is proportionally great, and the average age at death proportionally low; and that an excessive production of life is one of the causes, not conse quences of great imortality; and hence the number of births is a necessary element in estimating the sanitary condition of a population.

It can

"4th. That the average age at death, as well as the aggregate number of a population out of the whole of which one dies annually, though interesting as a characteristic of the population, is a fallacious test of its sanitary condition; and cannot be employed alone, for that purpose, without leading to serious errors. be applied as an accurate test only when the ages of the living inhabitants compared, are alike. "5th. That selecting a class of the population, such as the professional men, the tradesmen, the laborers, the rich or the poor, and giving their average age, or the average number of years of life that either live, less than the others, or that either lose more than the others, as a test of the sanitary condition of the class, may mislead the inquirer, and cannot be relied upon as an accurate test.

6th. That the information concerning the rate of mortality supposed to have prevailed in past ages, when the calculations have been made upon the erroneous basis mentioned in the last two conclusions, cannot be taken as an exact test for comparison with the present age, without some ailowance of error. tions concerning the living or the dead were made with accuracy in the olden times.

Few observa

7th. That the only accurate tests of measurement for one place, are those founded on a joint comparison of the number of persons living at each age, with the number of deaths at the same age; or for different places,