Year: 1876

Although individual instances OF health or
sickness, births, deaths, or marriages, are apC
10 absorb much of the thoughts OF ntetlme,
the interest in these matters becomes strangely
less when they are compiled and presented III
mass. Few people are deeply absorbed IN
sncb statistics; and of those that are, fewer
still agree as TO what should be the deductions
from them. Yet there are very striking and
curious facts contained in what are usually
called "health statistics" and many ardent
investigators believe that the path TO the I'M
movement of their country and the race is to
be found by exploring such labyrinths OF hg-
ures. The fashion nowadays Is to summarize
returns of the sort and present them in the
form of diagrams; and when this is well done,
as il il. for instance, in the annual report OF
the. Board of Health of Philadelphia, it makes
n volume that is at least as interesting as an
average novel.


Take the subject of marriages. Ordinarily
nine or ten pairs out of every thousand Phlla-
delphians are mated in year. But III 1870
the proportion fell off nearly a fifth, and was
less than in any year since 1861. The cause
is no doubt to be found in the general de-
presslon of business; cause that applied
almost equally in 1861, when there was
prospect of war. Comparing these and other
wears, it appears evident that people marry
most when general business is most lively.
For all who are becoming anxious on the sub
iect of matrimOny there is much valuable in
formation in these statistics as to the chances.
The tendency to marriage is greater in Phila-
delphia than in England but less than in
Massachusetts. The great opportu ty OF
marrying for either occurs between the
ages of 20 and 25; the chances are not
seriously diminished for men in the ensuing
five wears, but for women as they approach 30
there is nowhere near half as much proba-
bllity. The fact that if people mean to marry
at all they should set about it in
the earlier years of maturity Is very
plainly enforced by these figures. At about
the age of % unmarried women have lost
two-thirds of their chances at 80, six-sevenths;
at 40, twenty-nine thirtieths. When bache-
lor has reached 80 years, he has lost seven
tenths of his opportunities; at 40, more than
nine-tenths. Marriages in which there is
great disparity of ages seem to be compara-
lively rare in Philadelphia; the old gentlemen
of that city do not take kindly to very young
wives in 1875 only one girl under 20 mar
ried u man of over so years, and only one
woman under 80 married man of over 20.
October is the favored month with people de-
string wedlock, but they are almost equally
well satisfied with any of the Winter or Fall
months. On the other hand, March, whether
In its quality of lamb or lion, is considered a
wretched month for bridals and August and
July are almost equally out of favor.


Equally curious and mole important is the
information about diseases chart shows for
each week in the year the mortality from diph-
liberia and scarlet fever. In general, the mini
mum period for either one of these diseases
appears to be the maximum period for the
other; both were unusually fatal in 1875, and
with an increased number of deaths from
Group and bronchitis carried the mortality of
Philadelphia to higher point than, that of
several previous years. Diagrams of the hight
of the Thermometer and barometer. and of the
percentage of moisture in the air, are given
along with the mortality from the diseases named
and others; and it is easy to trace more or less
connection between the deaths and the weather.
An extremely high temperature in the latter part
of June with an unusually heavy rainfall sent
up the curve of mortality by scarlet fever to
its highest point Ia the year. Similar, but not
always equally close relations can be traced
between the changes of the weather and the
number of deaths By consumption, typhoid