Mr Babbage 07i the number of Births, <^c. 85 



Art. XIII.— ^ Letter to the Right Hon. T. P. Courtenay, 

 on the proportionate number of Births of the two Sexes un- 

 der different circumstances. By Charles Babbage, Esq. 

 M. A. F. R. S. Lond. and Edin. Lucasian Professor of 

 Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, &c. &c. 

 Communicated by the Author. 

 Dear Sir, 

 Ihe great interest you have taken in promoting all inquiries 

 which might contribute to the security and improvement of the 

 numerous Friendly Societies established in thiscountry, induces 

 me to address to you a ie\Y observations on some facts I col- 

 lected in a recent tour. They do not pretend to that promi- 

 nent importance which may justly be claimed for those inquir- 

 ies of which you have had the direction, because they do not 

 so immediately apply themselves to the comfort and happiness 

 of a large portion of our population. They are, however, from 

 the singular conclusion to which they appear to lead, highly 

 calculated to promote inquiry, and consequently to elicit ad- 

 ditional information ; and some of them may perhaps be valu- 

 able, as connected with a kindred subject which occupies a 

 considerable portion of public attention in this country, and 

 whose benefits are now spreading on the continent. The sys- 

 tem of life assurance, so widely extended in England, and so 

 strongly indicative of the prudence and foresight of the people, 

 is not yet in my opinion carried to those limits which it might 

 reach, if those who deal in that species of security were per- 

 fectly satisfied with the accuracy of the tables they employ, 

 and if the public were informed in a plain and popular treatise 

 of the many ways yet unnoticed, in which it might be desirable 

 to have recourse to it. 



Facts and accurate enumerations are the great and only 

 bases on which such transactions can securely rest, and, in 

 this point of view, I cannot but congratulate the public on a 

 most invaluable collection recently prepared by the command 

 of the Lords of His Majesty ""s Treasury under the superinten- 

 dence of Mr Finlaison. The circumstances under which the 

 lives enumerated were placed, and the number of individuals 

 whose period of existence has been precisely traced, give to 

 this collection a great importance ; and I am confident you 



