LIFE. 



other important facts, is, in a comprehen- 

 sive view of this subject, infinitely more 

 useful and proper than more positive 

 knowledge would be. 



At whatever period the world was first 

 inhabited, there is undoubted evidence 

 that for at least 3000 years past the ge- 

 neral duration of human life has been 

 much the same as it now is ; nor has any 

 great difference been observed between 

 the inhabitant? of different climates, the 

 negro of Africa (in some instances at 

 least) attaining to as great age as the Eu- 

 ropean. The human frame appears to 

 adapt itself with little difficulty to the at- 

 mosphere and local peculiarities of the 

 country in which it is born, or even into 

 which "it is afterwards removed. Tims 

 not only the children of persons who have 

 removed from Great Britain to different 

 parts of the continent of North America, 

 but also the emigrants themselves, have 

 been found to live as long as in the for- 

 mer country. Men can live equally well 

 under very different circumstances ; it is 

 sudden changes that are injurious to the 

 human frame ; and temperate climates 

 being less liable to such changes are 

 found to be most favourable to the dura- 

 tion of life. There are however, in almost 



every country, particular districts in 

 which the inhabitants are found to live 

 longer than in other situations, which 

 proceeds chiefly from a free circulation of 

 air, uncontaminated by the noxious va- 

 pours and exhalations which destroy its 

 purity in other parts ; thus hilly districts 

 are almost universally found to furnish 

 more instances of long life, than low and 

 marshy situations. 



The knowledge of the duration of hu- 

 man life in general, and of its probable 

 continuance at all ages, has been ascer- 

 tained with sufficient correctness for al ! 

 practical purposes, from the observations 

 which have been made on the bills of 

 mortality of different places. Dr. Hulley 

 formed a table of the probabilities of life 

 frcrfli the registers of the births and bu- 

 rials of the inhabitants of the city of Bres- 

 law, the capital of the duchy of Silesia in 

 Germany, from the year 1687 to 1691. A 

 similar table was formed by Mr. Thomas 

 Simpson from the London bills of morta- 

 lity, from 1728 to 1737; and other tables 

 of the same kind have been since pub- 

 lished by M. Dupre de St. Maur, M. 

 Kerseboom, M. de Parcieux, Dr. Price, 

 and others, from which the following are 

 selected. 



TABLE I. Shewing the Probabilities of the Duration of Human Life at all Ages, 

 formed from the Register of Mortality at Northampton, for 46 Years from 

 1735 to 1780. 



