TABLE LIII.-CONSUMPTION.-Number and Percentage.

1866. 1867. 1868. 1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880.

15.18 15.56 14.88 15.44 13.66 10.75 11.06 12.02 11.77 14.80 16.07 13.58 11.69 13.64 10.49

TABLE LIII.-CONSUMPTION.-Number and Percentage.-Continued.

The statistics of consumption presented in Table LIII., in regard to the number and percentage of decedents, in connection with locality, will enable the reader to make ready and conclusive comparisons.

It was remarked in a previous report that by arranging in parallel columns the items of single years, and combining together a long series of years, the results of single years can be readily compared, and the averages of a long period conclusively ascertained.

The variations of one year with another in the same locality, and of different localities in the same year, and the averages for a considerable number of years, are shown in such manner as to allow very definite conclusions.

In Bristol county, the annual percentages of mortality from consumption, to total deaths in the same county, have varied from 9.09 per cent. in 1880, to 19.13 per cent. in 1876.

The percentage of 1880, 9.09, is less than in any previous year. The average of twenty years is 13.45 per cent., and is the smallest of any county.

Kent county shows a variation of from 12.69 per cent. in 1874, to 26.17 per cent. in 1867. In 1879 the percentage was 13.72, scarcely above half that of 1867. The mean average percentage of the long period is 18.28, the largest, with one exception, of any county in the State.

Following close upon the low average percentage of the twenty year period in Bristol county, we find Newport county with a mean of 14.24 per cent., or about four-fifths of one per cent. larger.

The variations in the annual percentages of Newport county, as seen in the foregoing Table, are from 10.75 per cent. in 1871, to 16.07 per cent. in 1876. The percentage of 1880 is 10.49, the smallest on record.

Providence county towns show variations from 11.42 per cent. in 1874, to 23.28 per cent. in 1867, as may be seen in the Table. In 1862, there was in the towns of Providence county the high rate of 24.78 per cent., the largest on record for that county. In the same year the percentage of the whole State was 21.22, also the largest on record.

The percentage of consumption to total given causes of mortality in Providence county towns, in 1880, was 15.35; for twenty years, 1860 to 1879 inclusive, the average was 17.95 per cent.; or about two and two-thirds per cent. higher than the rate of 1880.

In Providence city, the proportion of deaths from consumption to total specified deaths, was 15.60 per cent.

Washington county has almost invariably shown a large percentage of mortality from consumption. The average percentage for the term

The

of twenty years, is larger than any other section of the State. smallest percentage during the last sixteen years was recorded in 1880, that is, 12.22; the largest in 1870, which was 24.04 per cent.

The average mortality of twenty years is 19.08 per cent.; and of 1879, 21.82 per cent., or more than 9.5 per cent. larger than in 1880. The smaller proportional number of deaths from other diseases, makes the percentage of deaths from consumption larger. For instance, in 1879, the proportion of deaths from all diseases to population, in Washington county, was 11.1 in each one thousand; in Providence county, 17.2 in each thousand.

The variation of the extremes of proportion in the whole State, during the last fifteen years, is from 20.74 per cent. in 1867, to 12.96 per cent. in 1874.

The percentage of 1880 is, as before stated, 14.02, and the annual average of twenty years 16.84 per cent.

PROPORTION OF DEATHS TO POPULATION.

For the purpose of ascertaining and presenting the percentage of deaths from consumption, in proportion to the population, in the different divisions of the State, the following summary was prepared. It will show the yearly average number of deaths from this cause, and the proportion to population in each division, for a period of nineteen years; namely, from 1860 to 1879. If the population of all sections increased with equal ratio, such comparison would show the relative liability of the inhabitants of each section to the disease, with quite full accuracy. But as it is, an average of the semi-decennial enumerations will afford such an approximation to exactness, as to make the comparisons sufficiently correct.

For the purpose of comparison with the long period of nineteen years, as well as each with the other, the following summary for the two years 1879 and 1880 is presented:

The proportions of 1879 and 1880 are based on the Census of 1880. It would appear by a comparison of the last two years, with the long period of nineteen years, that the proportion of deaths from consumption to population, was diminishing in all parts of the State outside of Providence city. The results of one or two years, however, are very inconclusive in regard to proportion, as very considerable changes in numbers not infrequently occur, from one year to another.

CROUP AND DIPHTHERIA.

These two diseases, similar in many respects, have been considered together in these reports since 1858. The contrast is made for the purpose of showing their various relations, the same as with other diseases, and not from any suspicion of identity, croup being primarily, by general belief, a local disease, and diphtheria a constitutional disease.