have less consumption than others, twelve (12-19) are dry, only one (1-19) is moist. The others have influences, either insular, or medium, or tending to dryness. In other words, where consumption is less prevalent, there less moisture is found in townships or localities. Columns sixth and seventh illustrate in one town the results produced in columns five and two; two thirds of the townships where consumption is rare, being dry, while localities in the same townships, known to have an undue amount of consumption, are more than half of them moist, or "near moist," "low," or " exposed" places. I am permitted therefore, I think, to assert, that: Statistics gathered incidentally from my Correspondents sustain, as far as they sustain any opinion, on the question before us, the views we have drawn from Medical Opinion. But I shall now present statistical evidence, which not only sustains the results of medical opinion and incidental statistics, but seems to present strong presumptive evidence that there is a certain, almost fixed ratio in the prevalence of consumption, according to the amount of dampness in the particular location. In order to present this part of my subject more clearly, I have prepared the following table from data obtained at my special request. In it are found, I think, accurate mortuary statistics. Though few in number, a careful survey of their bearings upon the question seems to sustain all preceding statements, and suggests further and more exact ideas of the influence of the law. The following inferences are fairly deducible from the table (IV.): 1st. Six (Acton, Cohasset, Townsend, Granby, Northboro', West Newbury) out of eight towns, carefully districted with reference to locality, afford mortuary statistics each sustaining, more or less fully, all my previous assertions and inferences. One (Boston) affords doubtful results, the statistics of the native population being in accordance with previous results, while the Irish seem to have had a greater proportion of deaths on the hill than in the lower, and apparently, more damp locality. Both of these localities, however, are equal in filth and in all the concomitants of an over-crowded Irish population. Finally, one (Royalston) is reported to have had over five per cent. more of deaths from consumption in the dry than in the wet localities. I do not pretend to account for this, but would simply draw attention to the fact of the enormous per centages of consumption, compared to total deaths in both parts of the town (32.51 and 38.22), indicating certainly a very peculiar township. I know nothing of its peculiarities, and I cannot suggest any explanation of the apparent anomaly. With these exceptions, we may say that from four to fifty per cent. more of consumption deaths are found in the wet than in the dry localities of the townships. 2d. Some of the towns present, in their data, a more or less regular gradation in the prevalence of consumption, according to the amount of moisture in or near the various localities, * These statistics were procured from the City Registrar. They are from four districts in the City, viz.: two elevated, Beacon and Fort Hills, and two lower and In "dry locality," Royalston, population 350; in "low, damp" locality, 1100. The returns from West Newbury become more distinct and peculiarly instructive as to the (apparent, at least) influence of moisture, as productive of Consump- In districts No. 1, 2, 3 (Map), northern or river districts, one dies by consumption in every 36.31. These statistics of Townsend show the relative proportion of deaths in the different districts, according to the population in each, as deduced from the absolute TABLE IV. (Continued). GRANBY, May 1, 1843, to Dec. 1, 1855. * The discrepancy between the returns of Physician and Town Clerk, is owing to the Clerk having probably recorded some cases as consumption, which merely appeared to be such. In one of them (Townsend), this fact is most extraordinarily well marked. Before receiving these data, I had become convinced that dampness of the soil did have an important influence on the prevalence of consumption, over large tracts of country. But these returns from Townsend indicated that there was, perhaps, a law of consumptive development, that would show itself within much narrower limits. It definitely foreshadowed differences in the deaths by consumption, in spots of the same townships, very near-almost contiguous to each other, but which presented very different geological characteristics. Such being the fact, and these data having had such an important influence over my own mind, in its views of this whole subject, I may perhaps be pardoned for alluding still more particularly to them. My correspondent entered, most heartily, into my desire for getting statistics from the different townships and parts of townships. He accordingly obtained lists of all the deaths by consumption, and calculat |