DURATION of HUMAN LIFE. 3 
kingdom of Naples, taken in the year 1769,---that by 
multiplying, by twenty-five and an half, the births of a 
common year, in that kingdom, the product pave the real 
number of the inhabitants: and, further, that, on comparing 
the number of births and that of the inhabitants, in the 
city of Turin, in the years 1767 and 1768,---the propor- 
tion of the former was to the latter, as one to twenty-fe- . 
ven.---Confidering thefe feveral circumftances, I would 
infer-—-that the proportion of about twenty-fix and an 
half exifting perfons to each birth, is nearly right wit 
reference to France. In this eftimate for France, the Ifl- 
and of Corfica, fubje&t to that crown, is not comprehend- 
ed.---If there be one birth to every twenty-fix and an 
half inhabitants, in that Iland,---the latter muft amount 
to 136,077; and, if this number be divided by the me- 
-dium of annual deaths,---thefe will be to the whole num- 
ber of the living, as one to 32,7,",. But, taking the me- 
dium of marriages and births, refpectively, for Corfica, 
there were five births for one marriage. For this reafon, a 
greater number ought not to be aflumed, for afcertaining 
the aGtual population of that Ifland, than twenty-five per- 
fons to each birth. This reduces the total number of in- 
habitants to 128,375; and makes the number of thofe 
who die annually, compared with the whole number liv- 
ing, asone to 30,°°,: a degree of mortality, which in- 
dicates the unhealthinefs ofthe climate; notwithftanding 
the high proportion of births to marriages, in that coun- 
try, makes the number of deaths appear low, in compa-~ 
zifon with the births. 
With refpe&t to England—although Sir William Pet- 
ty and other Englith writers agree in faying, that, in the 
country in that kingdom, there dies one in thirty-two,--- 
M. Buffon eftimates the proportion to beonein thirty-three. 
And Petty fuppofes that five are born, to four that die, in 
that country.--~This ratio gives one birth to nearly twen~ 
VOL, III. EF ty= 
