The following is a sample of the postal card used for the weekly reports. A supply of these is forwarded to each registrar, clerk or health officer who reports to the State Board.

REPORT OF DEATHS in Week ending Saturday NOON,

for the

1886.

[Please note any mortality from UNUSUAL causes not specified in this Blank, and the PREVALENCE, TO A GREAT EXTENT, OF ANY DISEASE.]

[Under the head of CASES OF SMALL-POX, please put the number before the word CASES, and not after it.

The average population of the cities and towns represented in the following report was about 1,135,000 by the State census of 1885. This number is smaller than that of the previous year, a result which cannot be due to a diminution of the population of the cities and towns contributing to the

DEATHS.

report, but to a decrease of the number of such municipalities reporting to the Board.

The past four years, including 1886, have been quite free from fatal epidemics, and the general death-rate of the population in consequence has not been high.

The data embraced in this report are as follows: