The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-03-11
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

Additional statistics from the annual
 report of the Connecticut board of
 health are as follows:
 The number of births for the year
 was 2O,345; of deaths 1S,699; so that the
 natural increase of population by ex- cess of births over deaths was 6,646.
 The fecundity of the foreign as com pared with the native races is indicated by the fact that out of the whole 20,345
 births, 11,576 were from parents one or
 both of whom are foreign. The statis- tics of marriages show that, out of B. S30, both parties were American in the
 cases of 3,119. One of the curious facts
 brought out by the report is that the
 town of Milford, with a population of about 4,000, shows more deaths than
 births for the third consecutive year, without any severe epidemic, the report stating as it's conclusions: "The people of Milford are simply less prolific than the same number of people in other places"
 The reports since the year 1S4S show that during that period of only two years less than half century the death rate has increased from 12.4 to 16,S per h ,000 of population and the birth rate in- creased from 20 per 1000 to 24.9 per l. 900, the changes, however, being prob ably due somewhat to increased thor oughness in gathering statistics. In a general way the statistics show
 the efficacy of more stringent laws and
 severer rulings of the courts in divorce
 cases, for laxity in both of which the state used to have an undesirable rep utation. In 1874 there were 492 divorceS
 in the state The figures sunk to S60 in 1884 and to S67 in 1884, notwithstanding
 the great increase of population in the intervals, amounting to probably not less than 20 per cent. during the last named decade, and notwithstanding also more care In compiling the statis- tics.
 During the year there were 264 ,..vorc- ed persons who were married again and | in that number there were A more women than men. In 1,270 remarriageS of widows and widowers there were 255 | more men than women. Of the deaths | 7167 were males, 6,526 females, and six were not recorded. Of births 10,627 were
 males, .9,570 females, and 14S not record | ed.
 The marriages of bachelors and spin sters constituted S67 per cent. of the total Of the males married IS per cent. were under twenty years old, of the females 14.S per cent, and of those two were already widows Out of 2O,345 births 426 were plurality births. | Certain prominent diseases showsome suggestive variations. Consumption, the old scourge of New England, shows
 decrease during the last ten years from 1,422 deaths to 1,311 deaths, the figures going to confirm the common opinion that the disease is diminishing.
 It has diminished absolutely about s
 per cent. during period that popula- tion has increased somewhat more than | 20 per cent. On the other hand, during the same period Consumption being classed in the report as a constitution al' disease), diseases of the respiratory system, with pneumonia foremost, have increased from 1865 to 1,744, and dis eases of the heart from 727 to l,109; Bright's disease rises during the ten- year period from 191 to 317
 The report fixes the population of the state at the opening of the year 1895 as S15, ,257, an increase during four years of 6S, ,999, and indicating present popula- ton of about S42000.