ANNUAL MORTALITY OF EUROPE. 767 



From scarlatina, measles, croup, small pox, and 

 hooping cough, the difference was about the same, 

 or in the average ratio of 1999 to 4014. 



We also learn from the Third Report, that in 

 England and Wales, the number of deaths in 

 1839-40, was 350,101, of which 141,747 oc- 

 curred under the age of five years, or in the pro- 

 portion of 404 per 1000. From which it follows, 

 that if we estimate the whole population of Europe 

 at 230,000,000,* and the average annual mortality 

 of individuals at all ages as one to forty, the number 

 of deaths must be 5,750,000 ; and 2,323,000 before 

 arriving at the age of five years. This enormous 

 waste of life is owing greatly to the exposure of 

 tender infants to cold and vicissitudes of tempe- 

 rature, at an age when the power of generating 

 heat is so small, that they often become chilled 

 even during summer, if not sufficiently covered, 

 or if suffered to remain in their wet clothes. 



As a proof of what has just been observed, M. 

 Quetelet has shewn, that the mortality of infants is 

 from 20 to 30 per cent, greater during winter than 

 summer in Belgium, that the maximum takes 

 place at the end of winter, and the minimum about 

 the middle of summer. We also learn from the 

 Reports of the Registrar General, that among 



* Of this number, 20,000,000 are paupers, or about 8-70 per 

 cent, of the whole. In wealthy England it is 10 per cent, and 

 in Ireland 33 per cent, of the whole population ; while in France 

 it is about 4 per cent. 



