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But for all this, we must not close our eyes to the fact that our population
has been increasing and to a large extent, all these years. Still there is another
point of view in which we may disregard it, while showing how low our mortality
last year was. Let me refer to the mortality as it occurred quarter by quarter
[Table IV]. In the first and second quarters of the year the deaths were absolutely
less numerous than in the corresponding quarters of 1860 and 1861; in the
third quarter they were less numerous than in the corresponding quarters of 1859
and 1861; and, had it not been for the unusual cold of the latter part of November
and beginning of December, it is not improbable that our deaths in the entire year
would not have exceeded those of 1861, and might have been actually less. As it
is, the deaths exceeded those of 1861 only by 67, just about the number of deaths
that occurred in the last week of the year.