540 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



years 1871-'75. The epidemic of diphtheria 

 continued, with some increase over 1879 ; diar- 

 rhoeal ilUi-asi-s <>!' infants caiisc-d a much greater 

 mortality than in tlie previous two years; in- 

 fectious diseases were more prevalent ; and 

 pneumonia was excessively fatal. The death- 

 rate of the .sixteen cities was 22'1 ; of the rest 

 of the State, 18-6. The month in which the 

 greatest number of births occurred was Au- 



Bist, which was followed by July, September, 

 evmber, March, etc., in order. Against 

 8,584 births in August there were only 2,497 

 in June. The average age at death varies from 

 46-34 years in Dukes and Nantucket Counties 

 to 23-84 in Suffolk County. Comparing the 

 reported causes of death in 1880 with previous 

 years, the order of fatality of the twelve dis- 

 eases producing the greatest number of deaths 

 places consumption at the head, as usual. 

 1'neunionia is second, as it was the previous 

 two years, and in 1874 and 1875; it was third 

 in 1872, 1873, 1876, and 1877, always a lead- 

 ing source of mortality in the State. Chol- 

 era infantum, from having steadily fallen from 

 the second place in 1872 and 1873, the third in 

 1874 and 1875, the fourth in 1876 and 1877, 

 fifth in 1878, and sixth in 1879, has risen in 1880 

 to the third. Heart-disease, not always an ex- 

 act term, was, as last year, fourth, having been 

 only sixth to eighth in 1878 and the preceding 

 six years. Diphtheria stands fifth, having de- 

 clined from the second place in 1876 and 1877, 

 and third in 1878 and 1879 ; if croup were in- 

 cluded with it, the deaths would be 2,394 in- 

 stead of 1,769, and its place would be third. 

 Old age is sixth, being fourth or fifth previous- 

 ly since 1872. Paralysis is now for the fourth 

 year seventh. Cancer has risen from the tenth, 

 eleventh, and twelfth places to the eighth, as it 

 was also in 1879. " Cephalitis " was ninth in 

 1880; bronchitis, as in 1879, was eleventh. 

 Typhoid fever showed an extraordinary decline 

 from the fourth place in 1872, sixth in 1873, 

 seventh in 1874, eighth in 1875 and 1876, ninth 

 in 1877 and 1878, to thirteenth in 1879, and 

 has now risen again to the tenth. 



The entire Massachusetts insurance for the 

 last five years was $3,760,583,892, the pre- 

 miums amounting to $67,601,667. Of this 

 business, which is about one ninth of that 

 transacted in the other States, the Massachu- 

 setts companies transacted nearly one third, 

 foreign companies receiving over $41,000,000 

 in premiums. 



Under the legislation of 1880, the mutual aid 

 and benefit societies made returns to the Insur- 

 ance Department in 1881 for the first time, 

 but the great diversity in their modes of doing 

 business renders the statistical collation of their 

 reports difficult. Most of the assessment or 

 co-operative insurance companies are stated to 

 be fair and honest organizations ; but others, 

 which can not legally solicit membership in 

 Massachusetts, are notoriously fraudulent in 

 their aims and methods. These companies, 

 against which the commissioners warn the 



public, are mostly from two or three Western 

 States and from Pennsylvania. 



The Commissioners of Inland Fisheries have 

 in connection with the authorities of New 

 Hampshire placed over a million salmon and 

 California salmon young fry or eggs in the 

 Merrimac in the last five years. They have 

 distributed also nearly a million landlocked 

 salmon among 131 localities, and have placed 

 trout in eleven breeding-grounds in large num- 

 bers, and a few carp in forty localities. The 

 building offish-ways on the smaller streams has 

 been encouraged, and improved models have 

 been substituted for old ones. In their thirty- 

 five ponds, one of which is reserved for ex- 

 periments, young fish are cultivated in in- 

 creasing numbers. 100,000 young trout and 

 300,000 landlocked salmon being ready for 

 delivery to applicants free of charge in the 

 spring. A sufficient number of carp have been 

 secured for breeding purposes to produce hun- 

 dreds of thousands for distribution in a few 

 years. A controversy has arisen with the 

 Connecticut authorities with respect to the 

 shad-fisheries of the Connecticut Kiver. The 

 fish-way at Holyoke is defective, and the fisher- 

 men in Massachusetts are not prevented from 

 taking fish on the spawning-grounds. In 

 reference to these grounds of accusation, the 

 Commissioners make the following explana- 

 tion: 



There can bo no question that, had Connecticut 

 shown any disposition to deal fairly in this matter, 

 the Massachusetts Commissioners -would have ex- 

 hausted every means to correct any deficiency in the 

 fish-way, and in that effort would have been fully 

 sustained by the State. As to the sin of taking shatl 

 on their spawning-beds, imputed to the Massachusetts 

 fishermen, it should be observed that, no matter where 

 or at what time of the year a fish is killed, its spawn 

 is equally destroyed. The returns show that Con- 

 necticut, in 1879, took thirty-two times as many shad 

 as did Massachusetts, and destroyed, therefore, thirtv- 

 two times as much spawn, which otherwise would 

 have been deposited in the river. They show con- 

 clusively that, while the breeding-grounds are in this 

 State, the catch of fish is almost wholly in Connecti- 

 cut. 



The products of the Cape Cod fisheries for 

 1881 amounted to $1,412,000. Provincetown 

 realized $70,000 from the whaling interests and 

 $352,000 from codfish ; Wellfleet $171,000 from 

 mackerel, and the Chatham fisheries yielded 

 $165,000. 



The Gloucester fishing fleet in 1881 num- 

 bered 437 vessels, being four less than in the 

 preceding season ; of these, 343 belonged to 

 the port. The Georges fishery was less ac- 

 tively pursued than in the preceding year. The 

 summer mackerel fleet numbered 149 vesels, 

 81 of which confined their operations to this 

 fishery. There were 55,430,070 pounds of cod- 

 fish and halibut together brought into the port 

 in 1881, as against 58,544,450 pounds in 1880, 

 and 53,345,900 pounds in 1879. 



The catch of codfish and halibut on the 

 different fishing-grounds visited by the Glou- 

 cester fleet was as follows for the three vears : 



