POPULATION.

The State Census of 1865 is not yet published, and its information is only partially available. All the tables in this Report in which age and sex are in question, have necessarily been based upon the United States Census for 1860. We have not, however, felt at liberty to ignore, the State Census of 1865, whenever it could be properly used, although the inconvenience of having two standards of comparison in the same Report is obvious.

In all cases where the whole population of the State, or of separate counties are given, the numbers referred to are as seen below, unless otherwise stated. It will be observed that a more careful revision makes a slight change in every county, except Dukes, from the figures given last year, and that the aggregate is 1,267,059, instead of 1,267,329.

A comparative view of the population by counties for the three preceding semi-decades was given in the Report for 1864.

BIRTHS.

The number of registered births during the past fourteen yea in Massachusetts, has been as follows:

YEAR.

Born alive. Stillborn.

YEAR.

Born alive. Stillb

1865,

1864,

1863,

1862,

1861,

1860,

1859,

.

35,422

733

1852, .

29,802

It is thus our duty to record a smaller number of births in 1 than in any previous year since 1852. From 1860 to the pre year there has been a steady decrease, only broken by a very s increase in 1864. A very obvious explanation is found in absence from the State of so large a number of men servin the army and navy. These men, it must be remembered, we the prime of life. Their numbers increased as the war contin and not only this, but from the whole number of those who w otherwise have become fathers of children, must also be dedu a large proportion of those who were killed or died from di in the earlier years of the struggle.

It has already been stated that on the first of April, thirtythousand were absent in the army. Add to this number a erate estimate of ten thousand in the navy, and to this ad number who had died in the public service, in constantly in ing numbers during the previous four years, and the small ber of births becomes intelligible. The returns of the next will show if other causes are in operation to diminish the na increase of the population.

The population being 1,267,059, we have one living birth to every 41.89 persons; or, including stillborn, one birth to every 40.73 persons.

LIVING BIRTHS, and numbers living to one Birth in the different Counties.

It is apparent from this table that the births are most numerous in the counties containing crowded towns and a large foreign population; and least numerous in the agricultural counties, and those less densely inhabited.

Suffolk, Norfolk, Worcester, Middlesex, and Hampden Counties, are most prolific. Dukes and Nantucket and Franklin Counties are least prolific. Why are more children born to the population in large towns than in small ones? The answer to this question is to be found partly in the great emigration from our farms.

Young people leave them in great numbers, and seek

their fortune in large cities, in factory towns, in the West, in the mining regions, on the sea, and in every part of the world. We shall also presently see in the table of parentage in connection with births, that a marked difference exists in the fecundity of the Celtic (including the Irish of our large towns,) and the AngloAmerican races. It should not be inferred from these remarks that the ratio of excess of births among the foreigners settled in our large towns, over the natives of Massachusetts, is likely to lead finally to an extinction of the Amercan element, since it is extremely probable, as we shall have occasion to observe when commenting upon the foreign deaths, that they also are in similar ratio.

The marked decrease in the whole number of births since 1860, in the different counties, is shown in the following table.

DECREASE of BIRTHS, including stillborn, in 1865, compared with 1860, by COUNTIES.

Only two counties form exceptions to the very marked diminution in the number of births since the commencement of the war, and these, (Barnstable and Hampden,) in a degree so trifling that they may be regarded merely as having not retrograded. In Berkshire, Suffolk, Hampshire, and Norfolk, the decrease has been less than the average. In Nantucket and Dukes, Bristol, Franklin, Plymouth, Essex, Middlesex, and Worcester, the decrease has been more than the average. In the State at large it amounts to 16.18 per cent.

It is a singular but well ascertained fact, that the number of births occurring in the various seasons is in a nearly constant ratio in the same country. This seems to depend not upon physiological causes as in the lower animals, but rather upon custom, religious observances and occupation. The great number of marriages which take place in Massachusetts about "Thanksgiving," and in the early winter, doubtless influence it. The return home from the summer fishing season brings together husbands and wives who have been separated, often for many months. The following table shows the whole number of living births in each quarter, and the birth-rate of each quarter, supposing the same had been maintained through the year.

It will be seen from the above table that there were nearly two thousand more births in the half year ending in December than in the half year ending in June; that the third quarter was slightly in excess of the fourth, and the two extreme quarters in excess

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