NOTES ON THE POPULATION OF NEW ENGLAND. 245 



NOTES ON THE POPULATION OE NEW ENGLAND. 



BY THE EET. A. CONSTABLE GEIKIE. 



Head before the Canadian Institute, February 23?*J, 1856. 



On a recent visit to New England, I was led to pay some atten- 

 tion to a matter which has long interested me, viz, the supposed 

 deterioration of the population of that country. My observations 

 and the remarks of others, years ago, called my thoughts in this 

 direction, and finally led me to elamine such reliable statistical 

 tables as were within my reach. The results of this investigation I 

 shall now lay before the Institute. I state them with the belief that 

 the people of New England are degenerating, and shall endeavour to 

 prove the accuracy of this opinion. 



The last Census of the United States was taken in 1850, and a 

 compendium of this was published in 1854 by Mr. J. D. B. DeBow, 

 Superintendent of the United States Census. Erom this I shall 

 quote, and presume that its general reliability will not be questioned. 



The first point I would notice is the proportion of births among 

 the married inhabitants of Massachusetts, native and foreign. In 

 page 122 of the Compendium are the following statements, contain- 

 ed in extracts from the letters of Dr. Jarvis to the Census Office. I 

 need only add, that I believe the writer to be one of three persons 

 appointed by the Legislature of Massachusetts to draw up the report 

 on the lunacy and idiocy of that State, and which was published in 

 1855, Dr. Jarvis having been really the compiler of it. His state- 

 ments above referred to are as follows : — " In Massachusetts and in 

 Boston, where we have the means of making the comparison, there 

 is a much larger proportion both of marriages and births to the 

 population of each kind, among the foreigners than among the 



natives, within three or four years The marriages 



were in Massachusetts during the years 1849, 1850, and 1851, 

 Americans 18,286, or 220 in 10,000 of their own race ; foreigners, 

 7,414, or 450 in 10,000. This is 104, 5 per cent, excess of foreign 



over native ratio The marriages in Boston in the 



three and a half years from July, 1849, to December 31st, 1852, were, 

 Americans, 4,078, or 541 in 10,000 of their own race ; foreign, 5,073 

 or 799 in 10,000. This is 81, 8 per cent, excess of foreign over 

 native ratio. " So much for the superior uxoriousness of the old 

 world people ; now for the results of the two sets of marriages. 

 "The births," continues the Doctor, " were in Massachusetts in the 

 three years 1849, 1850, and 1851, of American parents, 47,982, or 



