every 30.6-10 died per annum. During these ten years, the number who died under the care of physicians was about 1 in 47 per annum, and the number of unreported deaths during the same period was 1 in 89 per annum. But during the last four years and nine months, including the late epidemic, and including all the cases from the Natchez hospital, the physicians lost 1 in 41 per annum, whereas the unreported deaths of the same period were 1 in 45.7-10 per annum; nearly double the unreported cases of the former period, and exceeding the whole mortality occurring in the practice of the physicians during ten years. But it may be supposed, that the increased mortality of the last four years and nine months, may be owing in part to the greater number of persons who have settled in Natchez, and who have had to undergo that peculiar change called acclimation. It may also be supposed, that the comparatively small mortality of the ten preceding years might be owing to a greater proportional number of citizens leaving town, during the sickly months in the first period of ten years, than in the second period of four years and nine months. Plausible as these suppositions may be to account for the great difference of mortality during the two periods, a voice from the cemetery proclaims, that such is not the true reason. It is well known, that the fever of acclimation, or the stranger's fever, as it is sometimes called, never occurs in the winter or spring. It is likewise known, that no persons fly from town in order to avoid sickness in January, February and March. But what does the voice from the burial ground say? It says, that the total number of dead bodies conveyed there, during a period of ten years, from 1823 to 1834, in the months of January, February and March, was only 159; and that the number carried thither, the last five years in the same months, January, February and March, is no less

than 239. Half the time and twice the population ought to give the same results, as twice the time and half the population. If, therefore, the introduction of empiricism, and patent medicines into Natchez had added nothing to the mortality of the place, the aggregate number of deaths which occurred during the first quarter of each of the last six years, should not have exceeded the aggregate number of deaths which occurred during the first quarter of each of the ten preceding years. But they do exceed them, as far as 239 exceed 159. The difference, between these two numbers, gives the precise increase of mortality, during the months of January, February and March, since half a dozen or more deluded empirics made this city their place of residence and commenced, what they called, a reformation in medicine. The average annual mortality, taking these months as the standard, during ten years, was only 1 in 47. But no sooner did illiterate mountebanks make a lodgement in Natchez, than the mortality of January, February and March increased to 1 in 31.4-10 per annum. In the month of April, during the ten years between 1833 and 1834, the physicians lost 39 patients, and during the same time 11 deaths were unreported. The whole mortality for ten Aprils in succession was only 50. But since quackery has been let loose upon the people of Natchez, 85 persons have died during the last five Aprils-being 35 more than the proportional number of deaths that occurred before the empirics proffered their services to the good people of this city.

In other words, making April the standard, the average mortality would be only 1 in 50 per annum of the total population, including strangers, during a period of ten years. But since Natchez has been overrun by empirics, the mortality of the last five Aprils has increased to 1 in 29. 4-10 per annum.

The mortality which occurred in the practice of the physicians in each month of April for ten years, between 1823 and 1834, has been at the rate of 1 in 64. 2-10. The mortality which has occurred in the practice of the physicians of the last five Aprils has been at the rate of 1 in 65. 7-10-nearly equal as far as the physicians are concerned in both periods. Yet in the first period of ten years only 1 in 50 died, but as soon as quackery was introduced, 1 in 29. 4-10 died. It is worthy of particular remark, that the number of deaths reported by the physicians in month of April, but every tively very nearly the same. by physicians in the ten Aprils of the first perod, and 38 in the five Aprils of the second period. But while the unreported deaths of the first period were only 11, the unreported deaths of the second period amount to 47. Again, during the first ten of the last fifteen Mays, Natchez lost in all 73 individuals; 40 reported by physicians and 33 unreported cases. But during the last five Mays, she has lost 99 individuals, 33 reported by physicians and 66 unreported cases, or cases reported by persons who are not regular physicians. During the last period the unreported deaths, or those which have been reported by persons not belonging to the medical profession, double the number of deaths reported by physicians; whereas before the introduction of quackery, a large majority of all the deaths were reported by the physicians. To sum up the matter, therefore--in January, February, March, April and May of the ten years preceding 1834, 293 persons died in Natchez; while in the same months for the last five years, 421 have died. In half the time, and twice the population, the number should have been the same. No less, therefore, than 128 individuals have unnecessarily perished,

both periods, not only in the other month of the year, is rela. Thus, 39 deaths were reported:

or have been wantonly sacrified, since the first of January, 1834, during the five most healthy months in the year. Taking these five healthy months, as being the months best calculated to test the success of the empirical practice, as the months when empiricism is most popular, (diseases being the mildest, and the principle of life the strongest,) 128 individuals have died, over and above the number which did die in twice the time and half the population, before the empirical practice was introduced, and before public confidence was shaken in the medical profession. If these healthy months were made the standard of comparison, Natchez would lose 331 individuals in five years over and above the number she lost, in ten years and half the population, under the regular exercise of the medical profession, unmixed with quackery. The empirics will no doubt try to evade the issue by disowning the unreported cases, or may even lay them to the charge of the physicians. But the main and essential fact, that the mortality of Natchez has greatly increased since they came to town and commenced a pretended reformation in medicine, will still stand in bold relief against them. If they could prove that the physicians neglected to report all the deaths which occurred in their practice, the physicians, on their part, could prove that many of the cases they did report, had previously been subjected to steam, or that the sick had eked out the first period of their disease in the use of nostrums and quack medicines. The medical statistics of Natchez prove in the clearest and most undeniable manner, that previously to the introduction of quackery the annual average mortality for ten years in succession, embracing a very sickly period, rife with epidemic diseases, was much less, or at least very little, if any greater, than the average mortality of most other towns and cities in the world which are reputed healthy. But since the intro

duction of quackery, the annual average mortality has greatly increased. To charge the increased mortality to the present regular physicians would avail empiricism nothing, unless it could blot out from the records of the city the diminished mortality under the regular physicians, before it was permitted to obtrude itself among them. The present physicians, and those of a former day drank at the same well of science. When the empirics came to Natchez the annual average mortality, including strangers, still-born children, and the deaths occurring among the negroes brought here for sale, was only 1 in 30. 6-and had been at this rate for the ten preceding years, while the mortality among the citizens proper did not exceed 1 in 61; but the very month in which the empirics commenced, in good earnest, to reform a science they had never studied, the mortality suddenly increased to one death in every 21 inhabitants per annum, notwithstanding that Natchez had, in the mean time, ceased to be a market for the sale of negroes, which formerly added very considerably to the bills of mortality, not only from the deaths which occurred among them, but likewise from the contagious diseases, as measles and whooping cough, which they almost annually introduced into the city.

The important fact, that the mortality of Natchez has greatly increased since the introduction of quackery, cannot be evaded by saying, that I have rated the population too high at one period and too low at another. The population in 1830 was known to be 2789. The number of deaths which occurred in that year is likewise known to be 80-which would make the average for that year only 1 in 34. 8-10. The population in 1837 amounted to 6160. The number of deaths which occurred in nine months of that year, omitting entirely the deaths which occurred during the period of