VOL. XL.] FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. '257 



any annuity for life, for instance, of 90 guilders a year, which was granted in 

 the year 1703, on a life then of 3 years old. 



Answer. The life now, in 1738, is between 37 and 38 years old ; hence the 

 number between 40 and 36 gives 1 334, for the present value of an annuity of 



100 guilders; hence — — - — = 1200 guilders, is the present value of the 

 annuity for that life. 



An Answer to that Part of Mr. W. Kerssebooms Essay, which treats of the 

 Number of the Inhabitants of London. By William Maitland, F. R. S. 

 N" 450, p. 407. 



M. Kersseboom asserts, that the city of Paris, in the year l684, and at the 

 close of the last century, contained more inhabitants than the city of London. 

 And to prove that Paris contains a greater number of inhabitants than London, 

 he has had recourse to the accounts of christenings annually published in both 

 cities, without inquiring into the nature of his authorities ; which if he had, 

 he would soon have discovered, that the former is a perfect account, while the 

 latter is perhaps the most defective of any extant ; for the christenings there 

 mentioned, are only those where the parish clerks are present: which he thinks 

 cannot amount to near two thirds of the whole. 



The burials in the annexed table, by some typographical errors in the politi- 

 cal account of the author's History of London, from which it is taken, being 

 increased 491 above the real number, in Graunt's account, the sum total of 

 which amounting to 90350, must be reduced to 89859; and as in the annexed 

 term of years, there appears to have died of the plague 1741, three and a half 

 of which, he computes, would have died of common distempers, out of each 

 hundred, which amounting to about 61, this being deducted from 89859, the 

 real number of the burials, the sum will be reduced to 89798, which taken 

 from 90883, the whole number of the christenings, the remaining sum will be 

 1085, which being divided by 10, the medium will be 108-1^ yearly in favour of 

 the christenings. 



VOL. VIII. Ll 



