OFFICE OF THE BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS, STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD, Nov. 30, 1888. To his Excellency, the Governor of the State of Connecticut: SIR-In accordance with the laws of this State, I have the honor to submit to you the detailed abstracts of the Births, Marriages, Divorces and Deaths, that were registered in Connecticut in the year 1887, together with a few suggestions and inferences on the main features of the Vital Statistics of that C. A. LINDSLEY, M.D., Superintendent of Registration of Vital Statistics. REGISTRATION REPORT. 1887. To his Excellency the Governor of Connecticut : THE tenth annual report, under the supervision of the State Board of Health, upon the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Connecticut, is herewith respectfully presented. The statistics given are for the year ending December 31st, 1887. The tabular results contained herein have been prepared exclusively from the annual "Abstracts" of the registration in each town, as required by law to be made by each Registrar and returned to this department. Much might be urged in criticism of the imperfections unavoidable in a method of compiling statistics from summarized copies of registration, instead of preparing them from the original certificates of births, marriages and deaths. And the method is the more objectionable because the Registration itself and the Annual Abstracts are often made by persons not qualified by any previous pursuits or training for such duties, the law imposing this work as an ex-officio obligation upon town clerks. The same order of arrangement as to tables has been followed as in previous reports. The most important change is in the adoption of the classification recommended by a committee appointed by the Royal College of Physicians of London, Eng., and used since 1881 by the Registrar General of Great Britain, and now adopted by the army and navy of the United States, as well as by supervisors of registration in several of the States of the Union. The chief difference is in the division of the class formerly called Zymotic into three classes. The Parasitic diseases and the Dietetic, which were called orders of the first class in the former arrangement, are in the new, enumerated as distinct classes. The order of arrangement is also changed. The Developmental class precedes the Local class in the new classification, whereas it followed the Local in the old. The usual tables given in the reports of previous years are presented, with some additional items and some new tables. There are also a few diagrams and summaries added, as occasion required, for the more lucid presentation of the statements made, or the better illustration of the facts presented. ESTIMATED POPULATION. Whatever deductions are derived from a study of vital statistics, their correctness must rest upon the foundation of an accurate enumeration of the population. Unfortunately the census of this State is taken only once in a decade; and the interval since the last one was taken, in 1880, is so long, that it has become necessary, owing to the rapid changes by emigration and immigration in many parts of the State, to arrive at the approximate truth, by estimates based upon other sources of information. Believing that the Registrars of Vital Statistics in each town, who are also the town clerks, have the best facilities and are best qualified to make such estimates, the Secretary of the Board requested each registrar to report the estimated population of his own town for the year 1887. Every registrar has responded to the request, and the estimates as thus given are adopted in the tables of statistics. The aggregate of the estimates so given makes the population of the State for 1887 amount to 727,276. This number approximates quite closely to the annual rate of increase of population during the decade from 1870 to 1880. It will be taken as the basis of computing the birth rates, death rates, etc., in the ensuing tables. NOTE. If either parent is of foreign birth, the child is counted as of foreign parentage. There was one birth to every 43.7 of the population. There was one marriage in every 125.6 of the population. There was one person married to every 62.8 of the population. Increase of Population.-The total number of births registered in Connecticut during the year 1887 was 16,583; of deaths, 12,385; so that the natural increment or excess of births over deaths was 4,198, being 120 less than in the previous year. These figures, however, must be taken with consideration for the fact that under the new legislation which went into effect on the first of June, the registration of death has been more complete than ever before, because of the requirement that a certificate of death must be rendered the registrar and a permit obtained before burial in every case. The obvious consequence has been full returns of deaths for the last half of the year, while the returns of births, although better than before, have not been complete. Hence the natural increment of population is not fully shown by the above figures. While the natural increment is shown by the registration to be only 4,198, the estimated increment is 11,947; showing an increase of 7,749 to be accounted for by the excess of immigration over emigration. The more accurate and full returns of deaths are again made probable from the fact that a few more towns than in the previous year registered a larger number of deaths than births; there being 50 such against 47 of the year before. |