REPORT OF THE HEALTH OFFICER. HEALTH DEPARTMENT, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, June 30, 1899. GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the requirements of the act of June 11, 1878, under which the health department is at present organized, I have the honor to submit the following statement of its operations and of the condition of public health in the District of Columbia during the year ended June 30, 1899. VITAL STATISTICS. POPULATION. In the absence of a census during the period covered by this report, it has been necessary to compute such ratios as are based upon the number of inhabitants upon the estimated population. This estimate has been made by determining the average annual rate of increase between the two most recent police censuses, applying the ratio thus obtained to the enumeration made in April, 1897, and averaging the result with the population as estimated on the basis of the school enrollment. The figures thus obtained show that the population of the District of Columbia in December, 1898, the middle of the fiscal year, was as follows: Whites, 198,432; colored, 89,030; total, 287,462. Assuming the distribution by sex to correspond with the average of the police censuses of 1892, 1894, and 1897-viz, males, 47.31 per cent, and females, 52.69 per cent-the male population was 135,998 and the female 151,464. In order to estimate the number of children under 1 year and under 5 years of age, it is necessary to refer to the United States census of 1890, for the enumerations by the police department do not include such data. The proportion of white children less than 1 year old to the entire white population, as shown by the United States census, was 1.87 per cent; the proportion of those less than 5 years old was 8.60 per cent. Of the colored population, 2.08 per cent was less than 1 year old, and 9.25 per cent less than 5 years. The estimated juvenile population is, therefore, as follows: |