773 



MORTALITY, LAW OF. 



MORTALITY, LAW OF. 



771 



persons attaining the age of 40, 43 and 44 die in the two succeeding 

 years, leaving 3835 surviving at their 42nd birthday. 



Of the three species of tables, this is the most useful for mathe- 

 matical deduction, and the least adapted for a comparative view. The 

 best way of using them for the examination of their relative bearings 

 is to compare the probable life, as it is called, of tke two, that is, the 

 time in which the numbers living are reduced one-half. Thus taking 

 the age of 31, we see that the numbers living in the Northampton 

 table are halved at the age of 59, while ia the Carlisle table this does 

 not happen till the age of 67. 



Thus of 10,000 persons attaining the age of 40, 130 die in the 

 following year according to the Carlisle tables; while of 10,000 who 

 attain the age of 41, 138 die in the next year. This species of table is 

 the only one of the three which is immediately applicable to the 

 comparison of two sets of data at and near a given age ; while the one 

 to which we now come serves to compare the total character of two 

 seta of data from and after a given age. It also unites the fluctuations 

 of different years, by compensation : thus looking at tables II. we 

 should hardly suspect that closeness of resemblance between the 

 Carlisle and Equitable tables, in the value of life, which is obvious in 

 those marked III. 



To avoid decimal points, 100 persons are supposed at each age : 

 thus, 100 persons aged thirty enjoy among them 3086 years, according 

 to the Friendly Societies' tables, or each of them, on the average, 30'86 

 years. This sort of table is much the best for a running comparison 

 of two laws of mortality. 



It must be observed that the two first of the preceding sets of tables 

 attempt a degree of minuteness which cannot be supposed to be 

 attainable with existing data. To distinguish between the decrements 

 of two successive years, and the percentages of the two sets of deaths, 

 would require much greater numbers of living at the two ages than 

 ever have been found in the materials of a table. Nor is the regularity 

 observable iu these tables also observable in the observations which 

 produced them; this result being obtained by hypothetical adjust- 

 ments, so as to attain the nearest representation, in the main, of the 



materials under investigation. This applies particularly to the old lives, 

 which are but few in number, and present various diversities of 

 fluctuation. Almost all the tables which have been constructed 

 present some general results of utility ; and we cannot but think that 

 writers on this subject, by attending too much to minute comparison, 

 and not enough to general indications, have not made all the legitimate 

 deductious which the materials before them would have afforded. We 

 proceed to some general account of the state of mortality, restricting 

 ourselves to the last and present centuries, to life in England only, and 

 to the general variations of mortality and the relative mortality of the 

 sexes. 



The circumstance which must strike every one as most remarkable, 

 is the great increase which has taken place in longevity. To put this 

 in a clearer light, we shall collect various tables of the mean duration 

 of life, specifying the epochs of their collection. The tables formed 

 from male lives only, have a capital letter ; from female lives only, a 

 small letter ; from both, a capital and a small letter. At the bottom 

 of each table is given the period in which all or most of the lives 

 became extinct. The number in the table is the number of years 

 enjoyed by ten individuals : thus in table T, at the age of 20, the 

 mean duration of a single life is the tenth part of 293 years, or 29'3 

 years. 



T t, King William's Tontine . 



L 1, London Table 



o, Norwich Table . 



R r, Chester Tables* . 



H h, Holy Cross Table 



N n, Northampton table 



A, Amicable Society's Table t 



C c, Carlisle Table 



E, Equitable Table 



O g, Government Annuitants 

 P, Chelsea Pensioners 



F, Friendly Societies' Table 



(Finlaison). 



(Simpson). 



(Price). 



(Price). 



(Price). 



(Price). 



(Milne). 



(A. Morgan). 



(Finlaison). 



(Finlaison). 



(Finlaison). 



Comparing tables made from the same sex, or from the mixture of 

 that is, looking at T, R, A, K,and o together for the males (p and F 

 are made from the labouring classes exclusively), at t, r, and g for 

 females, and at L 1, H h, N n, and c c for both together, the general 

 increase of longevity is sufficiently apparent. The older tables, made 

 from burial-registers, will not prove more than the general fact, 

 uncorrected as they are both for increase of population and migration. 

 The great excess of the Carlisle Table, it must be remembered, is 

 partly owing to the deaths from small-pox having been allowed for, 

 which, though necessary in a table intended for subsequent use among 

 a vaccinated population, prevents the comparison between the Carlisle 

 and preceding tables from being altogether fair. The tables A and F 

 y similar, and show that the life of the more provident class of 

 labourers (who resort to Friendly Societies) is now as good as those of 

 the Amicable Insurance Office in the last century. That Society is 

 supposed not to have been, in former times, so careful in the selection 

 of lives as the modern institutions of the same kind. This was 

 probably the case, though another circumstance may have operated 

 till ID. .re on the table. Up to the year 1808, or thereabouts, no lives 

 than 45 wure taken ; so that, while the registers of the Equitable 



Society have been constantly recruited with selected lives from 45 to 

 60, as well as at the lower ages, those of the Amicable Society have 

 not had the same advantage above the age of 45. We think however 

 that much of the difference between the two arises from the earlier 

 period which the tables of the latter Society represent. 



That the life of a Chelsea pensioner, who is presumed to be a worn- 

 out soldier, should be better than that- of the most provident class of 

 labourers, may seem startling at first ; but it must be observed that 

 this is only after the age of 40; and the explanation of this circum- 

 stance hangs upon another which it is essential to notice. 



Let us compare the relative lives of the young and old in the 

 different tables ; that [is, for instance, dividing the life of a person 

 aged 20 into 1000 parts, we ask how many such parts there are 

 found in the life of 60. Ranging the results in order of magnitude, 



Mr. Lubbock's corrected table ('Library of Useful Knowledge,' PHODA. 

 BILITY) would have been preferable, but the mean duration is not computed. 



f- Formed some years ago, from the experience of the Society, which has 

 existed since 1706. Their records however can only bo said to begin from 

 1740. 



