424 



NATURAL AND CIVIL 



Jnortallty for one of the principal towns, for the 

 years 1789, 90, and 9L It is made for Rut^ 

 land, from the observations of E, Porter, and 

 D. Reed, two able physicians. 



Number of in- Death*. Births. | R^tio of tSie | Period oF doubling 

 babitaats in Rut- 

 land, ia 179I. 



I407 



From this table it appears that the deaths in, 

 Vermont, are to the births, in the proportion of 

 1 to 4, 85 ; of consequence the period of doub- 

 ling in this state, at present, is nineteen years 

 ancf live months.* 



From such views of the increase and popula- 

 tion in America, we can scarcely avoid compar» 

 ing the state of things in the United States, with 

 tJiat of the ancient and populous countries in 

 Europe, In the city of London, if We may 

 judge from the annual bills of mortality, the 

 human race are annually decreasing ; the deaths 

 generally exceed the births, about one tenth ev- 

 ery year. The sa'^ge state was less imfavor- 

 able to the increase of mankind, than such large 

 and populous cities : Instead of preserving, they 

 tend to destroy the human race. 



In most of the ancient and populous nations' 

 of Eiu'ope, their forms of government, their ec- 

 clesiastical establishments, thv: extreme luxury 

 of one part of the people, and the extreme pov- 

 erty of the other, their long and bloody wars, 

 their numerous fleets and armies, the numbers 



* Since writing the above [ have received from Dr. AfapH Fletcher, an 

 accuraie ohfervcr and able pny(ician, an acsount of the birihs aiVd deaths 

 in the town of Cavendifli. In thccoiirfe of fewen years, the number of 

 Jiirths in that town v-as iwo hundred and len ; the n'urriber that died in 

 the fame period, was thirty. The ratio of deaths to tSat of births in that 

 C6wo, during this, period, has been but as one to fcvcn. 



