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In this quarter four deaths from Small Pox took place,
and four also from Diphtheria. The number of deaths was
less than in the corresponding quarter of the years 1857
and 1858. In the former year 420 died in the first quarter,
in the latter 435. In 1859, 390.
The value of statistical observation is far greater than can
be credited by those who have only contemplated the surface
of so deep a mass of accurate knowledge. In this Hamlet
statistics of disease are yet but young, and it is necessary,
for them to have their full value, that they should extend
over a considerable period of time. In business, when a
man keeps good accounts, he without fail discovers the real
state of his affairs; and if they be good, he begins to save;
and if not, he is enabled to rectify the error discovered by
attention to figures, and to place himself, by degrees, in the
former more prosperous condition.* So it is with a record,
correctly kept, of the loss of human life through disease.
By records we ascertain the existence, character, locality, and
clustering of various maladies; and by the application of
the knowledge so afforded, can select and apply remedial
sanitary measures, which effect a saving in mortality, and a
prolongation of human existence.
* The same idea, clothed in better language, appeared in a leading article
of the "Times," while this Report was in the hands of the printer.