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8
period—namely, in the spring of 1851, the general
census happened to occur. The inhabitants of the
City, then enumerated, may fairly be taken to
represent the mean of your somewhat fluctuating
population; and the five years mortality, compared
with the numbers of this mean population, will
express pretty accurately their habitual death-rate.
The period mentioned is indeed short for the
purpose of establishing an average; but ten years at
least must elapse before even similar materials can
again be given for calculation, and a still longer
time before the statistical basis can be enlarged. I
have therefore thought it desirable to make the best
use in my power of such facts as were before me,
for the construction of quinquennial tables; out of
which, with sufficient accuracy for all practical
purposes, you may draw your own inferences as to
the health of that large population which is under
your sanitary government.
The facts are classified, as heretofore, in the
manner which will most easily display their practical
meaning. First, namely, the deaths of the period
are recorded in their local distribution, so that you
may compare one part of the City with another in
respect of healthiness. Next, they are so tabulated
according to ages, as to indicate the prevailing proportion
of untimely death. Thirdly, those of them
are separately enumerated which, in their several
classes, chiefly occur as results of acute disease in
connexion with removable causes.