VOL. LXVIII.] 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



313 



ried persons in Chester is 488J, of unmarried 9832, that is, nearly ^ is married, 

 which is a common proportion. Upwards of x of the inhabitants above 15 years 

 old are or have been married, the proportion being as 4 to 7- Though Chester 

 is so uncommonly healthy, yet this, like most other great towns, is unfavourable 

 to population. Thus it appears, from the general bill for 10 years, that, on an 

 average, one marriage produces less than 3 children. One cause of this small 

 proportion is probably the want of manufactures, which might enable the lowest 

 class of people to marry in earlier youth : taking the whole town, the number of 

 persons in each family is 4^-. The inhabitants under 15 years old are 4486, that 

 is, more than a 3d. The proportion of deaths this year to the number of in- 

 habitants, is nearly as 1 to 27 : this difference from the common degree of 

 health is occasioned by the unusual fatality of the small-pox. The 3 tables show 

 that the greater mortality of the summer than the winter quarter of 1/74, was 

 occasioned by the epidemic small-pox, which began in July : yet still that winter 

 and autumn taken together, were rriore fatal than the spring and summer in the 

 proportion of 326 to 220, that is, near a 6th more died in the former than in 

 the latter portion of time. 



There is a general prejudice in Chester, that it is unhealthy to inhabit the 

 Rows; a prejudice most clearly refuted by many of the preceding observations. 

 The Rows run along the central streets, which include incomparably the most 

 healthy part of the town. That the centre is the most healthy part of the city ; 

 that a less proportion die annually here than in most country villages ; and, as 

 far as observations have hitherto been made, that it is probably as healthy as anv 

 spot upon earth, are surprizing facts : yet these facts are clearly evinced by the 

 united evidence of 6 separate districts taken on a medium of 10 years. 



By the tables it appears, that from birth to about 20 years of age, more 

 males die than females ; but that after that age, more females die than males. 



TABLE. I. 



State of Population, Small-pox, and Fevers, in 1774. 



VOL. XIV. 



