

MOKTALITY, LAW UK. 



MOltTAK. 



that unproved medical science and greater accessibility of comforts 

 lengthen the Ufe of female* more than that of males. At any rate the 

 other extreme is tolerably well proved by foreign tables, Belgian and 

 Swedish (we have none in this country to settle the point), namely, 

 that when the lives of women are employed in laborious occupations 

 in the open air, they are materially shortened in duration. In lielgiuia 

 the lives of women living in the country are, on the whole population 

 in the country (mostly labourers, of course), shorter than those of men ; 

 while in thu town* they are longer, the proportion above-mentioned 



that of 1000 to 1071. 



< 'n the mortality of the infant periods of life there is but little 

 iniormation. All tables, except tlic Government Annuitants, unit.- in 

 tig that tho value of life improves uj> to a period whieh d, 

 nt tables ; being six years of age in tho Northampton Table, and 

 five in the Carlisle. With respect to the Government Table it imint 

 be observed, that the numbers in the first years of life are small, and 

 also that all the lives are selected. If then it be more easy to select 

 the best live* from among infants than from among grown pcopl.-, the 

 anomaly of these table* is explained; and tin- explanation is not 

 ilillicult to admit, if we remember that the selection is made in most 

 cases by the relation* of thu party selected, who are perfectly aware 

 both of the state of health of tho infant (generally more marked than 

 that of a grown person) and tin- longevity of its ancestors. 



Uf arc of opinion that tho Carlisle Table is more likely to represent 

 truly the very old periods of life, not from any gnat, r .|uautity of 

 materials, but from a better tli ..... y having !. n applied in tin 

 lir.n. It has been very common to end tables with tho oldest lives 

 observed in them : thus the Equitable Table end* at 87, because the 

 latest of the death* from which it wan f^nu d i .M H in number) took 

 place at that age. This is not correct in principle, and is the same 

 'o having been thrown a largo number of tun. - 



(ay ln.miii), it should be inferred tli.it no runs ! doublet* should , vn 

 be calculated on of longer duration than those observed during the 

 course nf the throws. In the COM of tho dice we can calculate 

 hand what was the chance of longer runs ; and in tlie table of mortality 

 we have no A jiriori calculation, but only M!. rv.iti..n of instances : 

 thin throws a difficulty in the way, but that diHicnlty is not 

 nwrt by "irluMon of all that has not liap|>ened an iinpo -,'ol, . For the 

 calculation* connected with .imuutiuc. Ac. it is of hill- 



because 



rarely occur in which ti,.- purchasing parties are ab 



This table is the necessary consequence of that very large amount of 

 dubious testimony which exists, in various places, upon instance* of 

 particular longevity. Looked at separately, there are no means of 

 refuting any one instance ; but their united effect is beyond all 

 credibility. The ages of many of these persons must have been ascer- 

 tained by their own statements of the earliest public events within 

 their memory, and it U not unlikely that very old p, icntly 



confuse what they have heard talked aUmt in their infancy win what 

 they have seen themselves. There is also a natural tendency to 

 exaggerate great age. Enough how. >ver remains, when every p 

 allowance has been made for error, to show that the remaining life of 

 a person aged 100 years is not so very small as it is generally I 

 to be; and we strongly suspect that the last 25 years of the Carlisle 

 Table are no exaggeration, but really considerably short of the actual 

 law which prevails among tho middle classes of society. 



M OUT All. The cementing or binding materials used in building 

 operations, which have a lime base, in one or othci MIS, are 



known technically by the name of MoRTilis ; and they are eitbc; 

 posed of the ordinary varieties of limes and sand ; or .if plaster, or of 

 cement, mixed with the some material ; or again, in certain cases, of 

 limes mixed with peculiar volcanic productions, such as Pi 

 and TUASS. Tho term mortar is therefore a gencii. on*, though its 

 urn is almost confined in practice to the mixtures of lime and sand 

 employed for the purpose of building. 



In the article i.r.ii:, reference has been made to the theoretical con- 

 ditions atleeting the proportions of sand it may be 

 with tho respective varieties of that material; but it jn.u 1>. li.iv 

 stated that precisely in the ratio of the expansion of the lint* during 

 it* absorption of water is it able to support a larger volume of sand for 

 tli. puipi'.-c of mortar making. It thence follows that, as the hydraulic 

 limes, or those which set under water, do not ex|nd urn- -h under 

 those circumstances, they support a smaller quantity of hand than 



h, or pure, limes can do. In fact, the best hydraulic lim 

 not carry, to use a workman's phrase, more than about 1 ' 

 proportion... of sand to 1 of the lime; both being measured it. 

 and after the slaking of the lime ; whilst tho rich limeu will carry 

 as much as 3 proportions of sand to 1 of lime, when made into nioiur. 

 Thus the better a lime U fitted for the purposes of external masonry, 

 the smaller will bo the proportion of Hand it will bear ; and to illus- 

 trate thi* principle by the practice nf our Lou.; : in. bitildei-i. 



