nearly a century ago, for I find from the late Mr. George 

 Walker's Journal, kindly presented to the Society by Mr. 

 B. H. Green, that 



" Dr. Percival took from the Register at Manchester and 

 Salford for six years, from 1768 to 1774, and found there had 

 died under two years (compared with the whole) as 1 to 2*9, 

 or nearly 1 to 3. Died under 2 years of baptised children 

 (as above) as 1 to 3*6, say 1 to SJ. From January 1, 1780, 

 to January 1, 1791, 12 years. Buried 17,597, of which num- 

 ber have died under 2 years, 5,529 ; from 2 to 5, 1,823, all 

 of whom were baptised." In addition, the still-born and 

 those who died before baptism have to be added. Mr. Walker 

 also states that 



" The probability of the duration of life from observations 

 on the Bills of Mortality of London, on an average of ten 

 years, by Thomas Simpson, Mathematician, 1790, Infants 

 just born, 1,000 ; living at the end of one year, 680 ; at the 

 age of 2 years, 547; at the age of 3 years, 496. Therefore 

 more than one half the children died under 3 years." 



From these extracts it appears that the rate of mortality 

 amongst infants is not confined to a manufacturing popula- 

 tion, for it was high in Manchester before the Cotton 

 Manufacture had made much progress, and higher still in 

 former times in London, where no such employment of 

 females prevailed, to take the mothers from their children. 



Dr. Percival, F.R.S., a former President of this Society, 

 and Mr. Simpson, the eminent mathematician, are both first- 

 rate authorities on the subject, and their results fully accord 

 with those of our Secretary, Mr. Baxendell, as given to tlie 

 Society and printed in the Proceedings for April 19th, 1870. 

 The mortality of our city no doubt is bad enough, but it 

 does not arise altogether from infantile mortality as has been 

 asserted, but from adult mortality as well. 



