78 P7-og7-css of Population and Wealth 



This census, like the preceding, shows a greater proportion of 

 whites among the deaf and dumb, and of the coloured race among 

 the blind ; but in both descriptions, their relative proportions were 

 changed in favour of the whites. Thus, in the deaf and dumb, the 

 ratio of the whites had diminished from T? V i to arV s> whilst that of 

 the coloured population had increased from 3^34 to 29V3 5 arj d i n 

 the blind, the ratio of the whites had decreased from aeVr to jtVt* 

 but that of the coloured classes had slightly increased, that is, from 

 Tis* t0 TsV 9- These opposite changes in the two races are probably 

 not greater than can be accounted for by the extraordinary loss which 

 the coloured population has sustained from emigration in the last ten 

 years, (as is shown by the census,) and also by the unusual influx 

 of Europeans in the same time, since persons falling under either 

 class of disability would be rarely found among emigrants. 



It deserves to be remarked, as favouring some of the conjectural 

 views that have been hazarded in comparing the two races, that of 

 the three privations here considered, the only one that is always 

 congenital is far less frequent with the coloured than the white popu- 

 lation ; whereas, the greater proportionate number of blind in the 

 former class may be reasonably referred to the severer labour and 

 greater exposure to which they are occasionally subject, to their 

 greater improvidence, and greater want of medical assistance. 



Of the insane and idiotic, the proportions in the two races would 

 seem to be identical ; somewhat more than one in a thousand in 

 both being visited by this greatest of all human maladies. The 

 census distinguishes between those patients of this description who 

 were at public and at private charge, as follows : 



At public charge, whites . . . 4,333 

 " " coloured . . . 833 



5,166 



At private charge, whites . . . 10,188 

 " " coloured . . . 2,102 



12,290 



Showing, that in both classes of the population, the proportion at 

 public charge is the same, and that it is about forty per cent of the 

 number at private charge. 



The diversities among the several States, as to the proportion of 

 insane of their white population, is not greater than may be referred 

 to emigration ; for, as insane persons are seldom or never seen 

 among emigrants, we ought to find the proportion of this class 

 greater in those States that lose by emigration, as the New England 



