I read some statistics the other day, and I have ever
since had a greater respect for the land of "east-winds, and salt-fish
and school-houses," as scandalous people have termed Massachusetts. What
do these statistics say? That, while in England the deaths reach
annually 2.21 per cent of the whole population, and in France 2.36 per
cent, and in Italy 2.94 per cent, and in Austria 3.34 per cent, in
Massachusetts, the deaths are only 1.82 per cent annually. Even in
Boston, with its large proportion of foreign elements, the percentage of
deaths is only 2.35. It may be said, in criticism of these statements,
that in our country statistics are not kept with sufficient accuracy to
furnish correct data. However this may be in our rural districts, it
certainly is not true of the metropolis. The figures are not at hand,
but they exist, and they prove conclusively that those wards in Boston
which have a population most purely native reach a salubrity unexcelled.
So that, with all the real drawbacks of climate, and the pretended
drawbacks of unnatural or excessive mental stimulus, the health here is
absolutely unequalled by that of any country in Europe.
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