rOL. XVIlJ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. - 483 



An Estimate of the Degrees of Mortality of Mankind, drawn from curious Tables 



of the Births and Funerals at the City of Breslaw ; with an Attempt to 



ascertain the Price of Annuities on Lives. By Mr. E. Halley, R. S. S. 



N° 196, p. 596. 



The contemplation of the mortality of mankind has, besides the moral, its 

 physical and political uses, both which have been some years since most judi- 

 ciously considered by the curious Sir William Petty, in his natural and political 

 observations on the Bills of Mortality of London, owned by Capt. John Graunt; 

 and since, in a like Treatise on the Bills of Mortality of Dublin. But the de- 

 ductions from those bills of mortality seemed, even to their authors, to be de- 

 fective : first, as the number of the people was wanting ; secondly, as the ages 

 of the people dying were not mentioned; and lastly, as both London and 

 Dublin, by reason of the great and casual accession of strangers who die there, 

 as appeared by the great excess of the funerals above the births, rendered 

 them unfit to be standards for this purpose ; which requires, if it were possible, 

 that the people we treat of should not at all be changed, but die where 

 they were born, without any adventitious increase from abroad, or decay by 

 migration. 



This defect seems in a great measure to be rectified by the late curious tables 

 of the bills of mortality at the city of Breslaw, where both the ages and sexes 

 of all that die are monthly delivered, and compared with the number of the 

 births, for 5 years last past, viz. 1687, 88, 89, 90, 91, and seeming to be exe- 

 cuted with all exactness and fidelity. 



This city of Breslaw is the capital of the province of Silesia ; or, as the 

 Germans call it, Schlesia, and is situated on the western bank of the river Oder, 

 anciently called Viadrus ; near the confines of Germany and Poland, and nearly 

 in the latitude of London. It is very far from the sea; whence the confluence 

 of strangers is but small ; and the manufacture of linen employs chiefly the 

 poor people of the place, as well as of the country round about ; whence comes 

 that sort of linen we usually call your sclesie linen ; which is the chief, if not 

 the only commodity of the place. For these reasons, the people of this city 

 seem most proper for a standard ; and the rather because the births a little 

 exceed the funerals. The only thing wanting, is the number of the whole 

 people, which in some measure I have endeavoured to supply by comparison of 

 the mortality of the people of all ages, which I shall from the said bills trace out 

 with all the accuracy possible. 



It appears that in the 3 years mentioned, viz. from 8/ to 91 inclusive, there 

 were born 6193 persons, and buried 6869; that is, born per annum 1238, 



3 a2 



