ON BILLS or MORTALITY. May 11, 



Cifeii'atiGns on Bilb of Mortality. 



The following tnay ferve as a text for another leffon 

 in the^t t of reafonina;. It 15 ei:tra£ied from the Gi- 



'' orraJi' Encyclopcdica d' Italia. ■ 



" Wich regard to the augmentation or diminution 

 of population in cities and towns, the relult of a great 

 nir^tiv obfervations prove how much the firit are un- 

 favourable to the human fpecies. Man, who, by an 

 inftinil of nature, is a fociable being, finds deftrnclion 

 in f'jciety itfelf, or, to fpeak. more truly, in the abufe 

 of fociety. In Paris, Vienna, Amfterdara, Copenha- 

 gen, Berlin, the lifts of births is always inferior to 

 that of deaths. From thence it happens that in this 

 laft city, in a determined .time, there were only 3855 

 births, while the deaths amounted to 5054. On the 

 contrary, in the country, where the air is more pure, 

 where agriculture flourishes, where the manners of the 

 people are more finiple, the propagation augments in 

 a manner ftill more rapidly." 



Thus far the text ; and the conclufions fcem to be 

 very fairly deducible from the facts ; yet it will be no 

 difficult matter to fliew that thefe conclufions are ex- 

 Iremely unjuft. Not to mention here the difficulty of 

 getting at a fair ftate of fads, rcfpc£ling births or bu- 

 lials in any one place, which has been often remarked, 

 and whicli greatly invalidates the force of any conclu- 

 fions, I mea-i here to (hew, that fuppofing thefe regif- 

 ters Irad been kept with the greateft pofiible accuracy, 

 nothing like the conchifions above fpecified could be 

 inferred from the f^ifts here ftated, unlefs many other 

 particulars had been carefully marked, that have never 

 b«en adverted to in any of thefe calculations. 



It is, for example, inferred, that lince the deaths in 

 Eeilin Lave regularly exceeded the births in that city 



