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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but the virtues ascribed to gold have apparently no other foun- 

 dation than credulity and superstition, and most of the golden 

 medicines have no gold in them. Even when gold has been em- 

 ployed in the preparation there is seldom any of it retained in the 

 product. 



" We may say with Ludovici, ' It is better to make gold out of 

 medicines than medicines out of gold.' " (Lewis's translation, Lon- 

 don, 1759, page 38.) 



FAMILIES AND DWELLINGS. 



VII. LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 

 By CAEROLL D. WEIGHT, A. M., 



UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. 



THE statistics of families and dwellings, as shown by a census, 

 offer opportunities for the study of social conditions in some 

 very important directions. The ratio of dwellings to families, the 

 number of persons to a dwelling, and the average size of families 

 are all facts of the highest importance in considering the con- 

 dition of the people. Such statistics also answer the question 

 whether families are holding their own as to size, and allied with 

 modern facts relative to the number of children born and living 

 they enable one to determine the composition of the population 

 and whether its various elements are being preserved with reason- 

 able integrity. 



The following short table shows the total number of families 

 and persons to a family, by geographical divisions, in the United 

 States, June 1, 1890 : 



. Total Families and Persons to a Family, by Geographical Divisions. 



The number of families increased, from 1880 to 1890, 27*59 per 

 cent ; from 1870 to 1880, 21*22 per cent ; from 1860 to 1870, 45*45 

 per cent ; and from 1850 to 1860, 44*82 per cent. 



The question is often asked, when the total number of families 

 and the size of families under censuses are considered, what the 

 word " family " really means. For census purposes the word 

 " family " comprehends not only the real, normal family, as it is 



