DURATION or HUMAN LIFE. 29 
Davenant, from the obfervations of Mr. King, sived 45h 
as the number of perfons to a family, Sor the whole king- 
dom.- By the ftate of births, marriages and deaths, in 
the city and Fauxbourgs of Paris, from 1771 to 1784 
(both inclufive,) each marriage produced the proportion 
of 3.23, births. The marriages and births at Paris, for 
22 years (viz. from 1745 to 1766, both inclufive) as ftat- 
ed by the Count de Buffon, give the proportion of 43°, 
births toa marriage. But M. Buffon fuppofes, that about 
one half the foundlings (les enfans trouvés) ought to be 
included in the lift of births for that city; inftead of their 
whole number, which averaged, during thofe twenty-two 
years, 4,509 per annum: deducting, therefore, one half 
of the foundlings from: the total sagen of births, and 
each marriage gives the proportion of 3° births. The 
Abbé D’Expilly has given a f{tatement of the births, deaths 
and marriages for the whole kingdom of France, includ- 
ing Lorraine and Bar, from 1754 to 1763, comprehend- 
ing aterm of nine years; and likewife one for France, 
exclufive of thofe provinces, during the fame term. By 
both thefe ftatements it appears, that each marriave gives 
the proportion of 4% births, for that kingdom. In the 
Pais de Vaud, in Switzerland, on a medium of ten years, 
the proportion of marriages to births, was—as I to 3.2. 
According to Dr. Price, the proportions of marriages to 
births are, at Berlin, § to 3°3,—at Copenhagen, 1 to 
3-5.—and at Amfterdam, r io 1,°2..—In the Ifland of 
Corfica, indeed, during the years 1781 and. 1782, there 
were five births to a marriage, according to the tables of 
births, deaths and marriages, within the French Domini- 
ons in Europe (publifhed: by M. de la Place, in the 
memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1783.) 
But this is a folitary inftlance of fo large a proportion of 
births to marriages: and, being fora imall ifland, fcarcely 
containing 129,009 inhabitants, it is not proper to take-it 
into an eflimate, on this occalion. From 
