The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-17
PURITAN STOCK DYING OUT.
PrepOnderance of Females in New
England Causing the Decline.
New York Times.

New York Times.
Elaborate tables of vital statistics of Mas
sachusetts from the twenty-eighth annual
report of the State Beard of Health give a
number of interesting facts bearing on the
intermittent discussion regarding the posi-
bic extinction of the New England stock
because of the preponderance of females
and the failure of births to compensate for
deaths.
years from 1856 to 1896 the population of the
State was more than doubled, the increase
expressed in figures being 1857 S14. OF this
number however, 90439 or nearly two
thirds, We're immigrants The natural in
crease-the excess of births over Deaths
during this period was only 63,419, an aver
The female excess in Massachusetts is not
new thing. The. first census. taken in
the settlement being then 145 years old.
During the revolutionary war the females
gained fast, the census of 1890 showing DAB
OF them to each 1000 males. Until 1910 the
males gained, the excess of females being
reduced to twenty-five in the thousand. The
census returns of 1920 and 1890. however,
showed 04S females to 900 males. The
greatest excess of females over males in the
history of the State was in 1865, at the close
OF the civil war. when the ratio was l. 105
to 1000. The proportion of the sexes has
| fluctuated, but the census of 1898 shows 1000
males to 1,50S females, which puts the sexes
nearer to an equality than they have been
! since 1850.
The effects of the civil war seem to have
| been marked in the birth rate longer than in
| the male population began to overtake the
| female Immediately after 1865. and while the
marriage rate shows no great diminution
| during the war years, the excess of births
| over deaths fell rapidly. From 1851 to 1860 it
| ranged from 955 to 11.99 per cent In 1861 it
was 917 in 1862 it was 7.47. 1t was 300 in
| deaths and births approa ched nearer an
| equality than in any other year in the 277
| years of the existence of Massachusetts.
| Since then the excess of births over deaths
| has exceeded per cent in only one year,
| 1874, until 1894. With the exception of that
| one year. the excess ranged from 4S2 per
In 1895 it again declined, being only sol. The
marriage rate per 1000 of population ranged
| from 1876 to 2.14 in the ten years between
| 1856 and 1866. From 1866 to 1895 it ranged
| from 1491 to 1892.
From 1890 to 1895 the proportion of males to
| females remained the same, being a gain for
| the males of "A TO the LOCO over 1855. In the
same years the average annual percentage
| of marriages was slightly less than in the
| preceding five years, the excess of births
| over deaths was slightly greater, and the
| percentage of children under five years old
1 showed q corresponding increase. In 1885
| there were in Massachusetts 277,1S0 mar
| riageabe males and $40, 973 marriageable fe-
males In that State males are legally re-
! garded as marriageable at sixteen and fe-
| males at fifteen years, regardless of individ-
/ ual circumstances and conditions. OF the
males els per 1000 and Of the females 46
per 1000 were married that year, leaving
| 93S12 bachelors and widowers. and 954 maids
and widows, divorced persons being includ-
| ed unprOVided for. The average ages of
the men who married from 1880 to 1855
ranged from 2S.S5 to 29.1o years. and of the
women from 25.35 to 1858 These figures
| show little change from earlier times and
| show that men and women marry now in
! Massachusetts at the same ages that they
| did from 1856 TO 1876.
The birth rates of foreign and native pop
| ulation show steady excess of foreign over
| native fecundity. The excess of females
| over males is obviously caused by the emf
| grafton or death Of the males. Every year
| from 1856 to 1895 more boy than girl babies
have been born in the State. In fact, Mas
| sachusetts mothers gave birth to a larger
proportion of boys than any country in the
world where statistics are gathered, except
ing Austria and Italy.
The proportion of ilIegitimate births to
the total number of births has increased
gradually in forty years. 1t was rs to the
900 in 1856 and III in 1891. 'She death rates
IF native and foreign-l n Inhabitants sho "
that the foreigners not only have more chill
lren than the natives, but outlive them.
The average death rate of the natives in
eight years has been 20.4, and of the for
eigners ia 20 the LOCI. Comparisons of the
tables show that by process of emigration
md Geath the native populat on has BEEN d.
minished slowly for years, and that the
process continues-very gradually, but GER
tainly.