county clerk's office of the county of their residence, and to pay one shilling for the registry. The law has now been made the same for them as it is for physicians and undertakers. But one complaint has reached us the last year-from a physicianwho, while intelligent in other matters, plainly shows that he has not given the same deliberate study to political economy or to the reciprocal relations of the State and the citizen, that he has to the more technical and business study of his profession. We have greatly to thank the medical profession of the State for the earnestness with which, as a body, it has responded to the efforts in behalf of public health, and believe that the State documents on the subject, which are mailed to all physicians, have aided in developing this interest. It is one of the satisfactions of this service that we are so often able to answer the inquiries of physicians or to direct them to sources of exact information on topics concerning the physical welfare of the people. On the part of ministers, justices of the peace and others who perform marriage ceremonies, the returns are mostly satisfactory. It is very important that no marriage should escape record. Small books are now provided, similar to those for death and birth record, which can be carried in the pocket when needed, while the stub serves to keep that record which needs to be retained by the person officiating. These prepared books can be had by ministers and physicians instead of the blanks in stub, by applying to the city registrar or assessor, or by a postal directed to this office. REMARKS ON SOME OF THE SEMI-DECENNIAL WITH A RECORD OF THE NATIONALITY OF THOSE MARRIED IN The seventh annual report of the State Board of Health contains the fifth report of the medical superintendent of vital statistics, under the re-organized method of securing returns. In connection with it is given a condensed statement of certain facts as to marriages, births and deaths for the five years ending June 30th, 1843. Also the climatology of New Jersey for the same period, as registered at seven representative localities in the State. A table as to marriages which could not be completed in time for the former report, is also contained in this report. The design has been so to group figures for the last five years as to give a larger aggregate of vital facts as to our population. It is not possible to state all the vital facts as to every marriage, birth or death that occurs, since, in some cases, they are not known or given, and in others supplemental reports were too late to be analyzed with the others. But this does not affect the series of facts collected as to the large numbers, about which statistics in full have been furnished since. If a sufficiently large number of data, reaching over a sufficiently large number of years, are secured, it is safe to infer that what has been found true of many tens of thousands through a series of years, would also be equally true of any small fraction thereof, whose record has not been reported or secured. While the yearly returns of marriages, births and deaths are of much value as considered yearly, yet it is always to be remembered that the general health of any locality is never to be inferred from the record of a single year; generally the population is not large enough to make full deductions. This is especially true of all precincts having less population than ten thousand. Also, there may be temporary and incidental causes at work, or the outbreak of some sudden pestilence has caused the unusual mortality. Even as to marriages and births, accidental circumstances may give a variation from a usual standard for a single year. It is because the laws of nature are uniform, that when studied in their entirety and with large aggregations of facts and figures, errors balance each other or become such very minute decimals in the general calculation that the result of vital statistics have been found to afford safe guides as to sanitary conditions. We do not mean by this that tables for single years are not valuable. Where there is a variation from the usual semi-decennial or decimal death-rate, there is always need of inquiry to see if the variation can be accounted for. It is very desirable, too, that cities should not merely consider the bulk of their vital statistics, but that, as to marriages and births, they should consider these as occurring in native or in foreign populations, or amid different classes and occupations. As to deaths, that is an imperfectly governed city that cannot tell each house where a death has occurred for the last decade or more; what was the sickness; what the age and nationality of the person deceased, as also the ascertained or probable cause of sicknesses or deaths in that house, if the disease was a local or communicable one. Thus, even so soon as a single year, and sometimes in a single week, where there has been a sudden increase in the number of deaths, immediate attention has been so attracted thereto as that causes have been discovered and abated. The quinquennial table, page 379 of the seventh report, gives a very near comparative estimate of vital conditions in the several counties and cities traversed. While returns are a little more dilatory in some sections than in others and there may be a few more supplements in one than in the other, the proportion is so very small as not even by partial fractions to disturb the comparison. As to births it can not be claimed that they furnish so approximate a return of the real facts as do marriages and deaths. While the proportion for the State for five years is 21.47 as against 19.63 of deaths, the real number is claimed to be much greater. We may take the cities of Paterson and Orange as a fair estimate of what the more complete returns are for cities. We find that the returns of these for the last five years are: Orange, 2,103 to a population of 13,207; Paterson, 7,145 to a population of 51,031. This gives a birth rate for Orange of 27.66, and for Paterson of 28, per 1,000. The birth-rate in twenty-eight large English towns (of an estimated population of eight and onequarter millions of persons), for December, January and February of 1883-4, was 31.7, 34.9 and 35.3 per 1,000 respectively. The brith-rate of the whole kingdom for the year 1882 is given as 33.7. There are some reasons for believing that the birth-rate of this country is lower than that of England. Thus the birth-rate for Massachusetts for 1883 is 23.82 to 1,000 of estimated population. Rhode Island, whose system of registration is quite complete, gives for 1882 a birth-rate of 24.7 per 1,000, which is a little ahead of its general average. Providence, with a population of 119,405, had for 1883 a birth-rate of 24.42 per 1,000. While our record for the last five years gave an average of 21.47 per 1,000, as the returns have shown, a yearly increase, and as a delay in returns makes the percentage less than it really is, 22 may be stated as the average return for the State. As is usual, the returns for cities exceed those for the country, although in the operation of our State law, by reason of the fact that assessors can collect births in townships in addition to physicians, the returns from townships are more complete. A comparison of the returns as to sex shows the prevalence of the same law found elsewhere, viz.: that, as if to make up for the greater exposures of men in their occupations, the number of males born exceed the number of females. Thus of those as to whom the vital facts are given, on page 384 of the last report, 59,998 were males and 56,736 were females. In our returns effort has been made also to secure a record of the number of previous children, and of the number actually living at the time the birth return was made. In an aggregate of 337,163 children it is thus found that 257,343 only were living, thus showing that 77,820 had died while the parents were still in the child-bearing period. Adding to these the number of 7,195 dying just at the period of birth, we have a loss of 87,000 children. With all the sentimentality about the survival of the fittest, it is nevertheless true that the material resources of a country are best when the vigor of stock or the conditions of living and of surroundings are such as to greatly diminish this loss. If the average deaths among horses or cattle equalled this, we should, as a mere economic |