confined to an area of about half a square mile. About 50 cases, including varioloid, occurred, of which 8 terminated fatally; the first on the 22d of February, and the last on the 22d of April; 5 were males, and 3 were females; 1 was a native of England, 1 of Nova Scotia, 1 of Vermont, and the other 5 of Lynn. None of them had been vaccinated. These deaths were consequently a kind of suicides, resulting from neglect of preventive remedies.

4. General considerations, conclusions, and recommendations. We have thus passed in review several of the most important matters that have come under notice during the past year. Others, hardly less important, might have been mentioned; and those here presented might profitably have been more fully illustrated and discussed; but our report has already extended to so great a length, that we hasten to its conclusion, and leave many things for consideration and notice in the annual reports of future Boards of Health.

Among the conclusions to which we have been led, are these:

1. That the year 1850 is an important era in the history of the people of Lynn. In it they threw off their old town government, under which they had lived for more than two hundred years, and adopted a city charter. And they are now about to commence upon the last half of the nineteenth century, under circumstances highly favorable to future progress and social elevation.

2. That it is well for us to be informed of our exact social and sanitary condition; and to provide the means of knowing it, from year to year, by annual statements, in order that the changes that take place in our progress may be marked, and that motives and means of improvement may be suggested and supplied.

3. That our experience, during the past year, has demonstrated the utility of a Board of Health, separate from, but acting in concert with, the other departments of the municipal administration. Important services may be rendered by such a board, which might be omitted by the selectmen of a town, or the mayor and aldermen of a city, burdened, as those officers generally are, by various other duties. The intellectual health of the city requires a school committee, as a distinct department of the government; the physical health is not less important, and equally requires a separate department for its preservation.

4. That the records of the births, marriages, and deaths, in Lynn, have not been kept with sufficient exactness, nor for a sufficient length of time, to determine the true sanitary character of the town, nor the rate or law of mortality which prevails. And any attempt to exhibit such a character, or to ascertain the existence of such a law, without full and accurate records, must be unsatisfactory and unreliable.

5. That, though Lynn has been considered a healthy town, it is, like most other towns in the State, liable to be visited by epidemic diseases; -that it has suffered very greatly by these epidemics during the last two years; and that it may hereafter again suffer, unless correct principles of sanitary reform are introduced, and the causes of disease are more generally understood, and efficient means are adopted for their removal or avoidance.

We have been under the necessity, in this report, of sometimes using the word about. We, however, dislike it; and its use is never justifiable when exactness can be attained.

6. That the people of Lynn have many characteristics of peculiar excellence. Their mechanical pursuits tend to an equalization of pecuniary condition, and are unfavorable to aristocratic feelings. Their support of institutions for public intellectual education-their remarkable exemption from litigation and crime-their liberal support of moral and religious institutions-and various other peculiarities, distinguish them from the people of many other towns and cities. And among such a people, the true principles of sanitary reform may be introduced with a stronger hope of success, than among those of a different char

acter.

7. That the peculiar occupations of the people are such as require to be guarded and controlled by good sanitary regulations. By neglect of such regulations, many lives every year have been lost, which might have been saved; and this needless sacrifice of human life will con tinue, until prevented by sanitary reform.

And we recommend, for the consideration of our fellow-citizens:1. That a copy of the Register of the Population, made by the Assistant Marshal of the United States, in the Census of 1850, be obtained; and, if necessary, corrected in its industrial and social statistics, divided and classified according to the wards, with an alphabetical index for reference to each family, and deposited, in a bound form, in the office of the city clerk.

2. That the laws for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, be strictly carried into effect; that none of these events be omitted in the records; and that, in the entry of every death, the ward or district in which it occurred, and the occupation of the deceased, should always be specified; that, should it be deemed expedient, comparisons of their sanitary character may hereafter be made.

3. That a Board of Health, appointed and organized as recom mended in the Report of the Sanitary Commission, be established.

4. That a voluntary sanitary association be formed, composed of professional men, mechanics, and others, to aid the public authorities, and to collect and diffuse, by lectures, printed tracts, and otherwise, information regarding the sanitary condition of the city, its people, and their occupations; and the means by which human life may be saved, sickness and suffering diminished, and the general welfare promoted.

5. That measures be taken to provide for workmen, dwelling-houses and workshops of an improved construction; and to prevent the sani tary evils that arise from those that are over-crowded, imperfectly ven tilated, and badly managed.

6. That exact observations be made of every case of consumption, of dysentery, and of other prevalent diseases, to ascertain their causes, and how far those causes are controllable and removable.

7. That the measures recommended in the Report of the Sanitary Commission, modified and adapted to local circumstances, be adopted, so far as they are applicable, by the inhabitants of this city.

By these and other measures, which wise councils may recommend, and experience and current events may suggest, we may confidently hope to banish from our midst much sanitary suffering, and supply much sanitary enjoyment; and, in doing so, the period of our existence will be extended, the productive power and value of our labor will be increased, our social and personal interests will be promoted, our en

joyments heightened, and we shall be better prepared to terminate our present life, whenever this life must be terminated-and to enter upon the future, the spiritual, the immortal life, which is to follow.

Respectfully submitted, in behalf of the Board,

X. Y. Z., Secretary.
Lynn, Nov. 1, 1850.

A. B. C., Chairman.

XXVIII. EXTRACT FROM THE QUARTERLY RETURN OF THE MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS, REGISTERED IN THE DIVISIONS, COUNTIES, AND DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL.

[Received after the preceding pages were printed.]

This return comprises the births and deaths registered by 2,189 registrars, in all the districts of England, during the summer quarter, ending September 30, 1850; and the marriages in more than 12,000 churches or chapels, 2,869 registered places of worship unconnected with the Established Church, and 623 Superintendent Registrars' offices, in the quarter that ended June 30, 1850.

The return of marriages is not complete; but the defects are inconsiderable, and have been supplied from previous years.

The general result of the return is favorable in a high degree; the marriages in the spring quarter are more numerous than in any corresponding quarter of the last 12 years; so also are the births in the summer quarter; and the deaths are 86,044 instead of 135,358, which they were in the quarter ending September, 1849, when cholera ravaged the chief towns of the kingdom.

The decrease of deaths implies necessarily the decrease of sickness and suffering; the increase of marriages and births indicates improve. ment in the condition and prospects of the great body of the people.

Marriages, Births, and Deaths, returned in the years 1846-50, and in the quarters of those years.

March,
June,
September,
December,

DEATHS.

89,484 119,672 120,034 106,073 92607 90,231 106,718 99,727 102,249 93,005 101,663 93,435 87,602 135,358 86,044 108,937 103,479 92,437 97,778

MARRIAGES. The marriages in all England, in the quarter ending June 30, 1850, were 39,018. The numbers in the spring quarter de clined rapidly from 1846 to 1848, and rose still more rapidly up to 1850; thus following and pourtraying the state of the country. Lon don, Cheshire, Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and South Wales, presented the greatest fluctuations, and the greatest increase of marriages in the June quarter, 1850. The marriages increased in Middlesex, Hertford, and Buckingham; in Essex and Suffolk the marri ages declined, as they did also in Devon and Cornwall; in Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire-the coal and iron regions-the marriages increased; they increased also in Leicester shire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire-the seats of the thread, lace, and other manufactures. In the great agricultural county of Lincoln the fluctuation was in an opposite direction; the marriages rose from June, 1846, to June, 1848, and then declined. In the East and North Ridings, in Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmore land, in Monmouthshire, and North Wales, the marriages increased in 1850. The marriages in Portsmouth and Plymouth declined; in Bristol and Cheltenham they increased; in Stoke-upon-Trent, (the Potteries,) in Coventry, and in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, the increase was considerable. It was still greater in Leeds; Halifax and Sheffield shared in the general advance. Hull, Wolverhampton, and Salisbury-where cholera was exceedingly fatal in 1819—have little more than the average marriages.

BIRTHS.-146,970 births were registered in the quarter which ended in September. The births are invariably more numerous in the first and second than in the third and fourth quarters of the year; and they are in the last fewer by 8,757 than in the previous (June) quarter; the number and the proportion to the population are, how ever, greater in this than in any of the corresponding quarters since 1839. The increase of births is greatest in London, in the West-Midland counties, and in the Northwestern counties-Cheshire and Lancashire.

INCREASE OF POPULATION.-The excess of births registered, over deaths, in the quarter was 60,926; which, if all the births were registered, would be the natural increase of the population. In the same time 53,703 emigrants sailed from three ports of England-1,394 from Plymouth, 7,684 from London, and 44,625 from Liverpool. This leaves a narrow margin for the increase of population; but many of the emigrants entered at the English ports, are from Ireland, which has been for many years diffusing a stream of natives over England as well as America. The progress of the whole fixed and moving population of the country, can only be determined accurately from a comparison of the returns of births and deaths, of emigrants and im migrants, with periodical enumerations.

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.-The mortality is much below the

average, and the public health has never been so good since 1845, as in the present quarter. The rate of mortality is 1.901 per cent. per annum. At this rate 1 in 211 persons living died in three months. The chances of living through this quarter were 210 to 1; the average chances of living through three summer months (1839-50) for persons of all ages, being 192 to 1.

The rate of mortality in 506 districts, comprising chiefly small towns and country parishes, was 1.693 per cent. per annum in the quarter; the average summer rate (1840-50) being 1.832 per cent.

The rate of mortality in 117 districts, comprising the large towns, was 2.206 per cent. per annum; the average rate (1840-50) being 2.517 per cent.

The juxtaposition of the figures in the table suggests the melancholy reflection that more than seven millions of people, inhabiting the metropolis and all the cities and great centres of industry, are still exposed to a mortality which is not inherent in their nature, but is due to the artificial circumstances in which they are placed. The waters, the sewers, the soils, the churchyards, the houses emit poisons. To every 10 natural deaths, 4 violent deaths-deaths from these poisonous exhalations-are superadded.

Still, after the scarcity-after the great epidemics of influenza-and after the catastrophe of last year, the return even to the wonted degree of health is a relief to the nation; and health above the average, not only in places scourged by cholera, but in nearly all the towns of the country, is cheering, as it seems to show at once that the imperfect sanitary measures in progress are already beneficial, that the country is recovering from its loss, and that the wants of the people are now more abundantly supplied than they have been of late years.

The deaths in London during the 13 weeks ending September, 1846-7-8-9-50, were 12,409, 13,187, 13,503, 27,109, and 11,578. The zymotic diseases were fatal to 3,011 persons in the last quarter, and it is chiefly, if not exclusively, to the diminished intensity of these maladies that the improvement in the health of the inhabitants of London is ascribable. Small-pox destroyed 109 lives, measles 178, scarlatina 316, hooping-cough 300, croup 57, thrush 59, diarrhoea 1,161, dysentery, 73, and cholera 87. The deaths from diarrhoea in the same time, last year, were 2,457; the deaths from cholera in the five summer quarters of 1846-50, were 197, 98, 153, 12,847, and 87; so that fewer persons died of the disease in summer, 1850, than in the summer quarters of 1846-7-8. Nine deaths from purpura and scurvy were returned; or less than half the number returned in the summer quarter of 1847. The decrease of scurvy is a favorable symptom; it always demands attention, as nothing is more threatening to the health