VOL. LXXI.] 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



121 



Tables of the number of children born by 1389* women, with the number that were living at the time of 



their applying to the Dispensary . 



I have placed (says Dr. B.) these 2 tables together, thac we might have an oppor- 

 tunity of observing how exceedingly fertile the women of the poorer classes in this 

 country are; and at the same time how unable to rear any considerable number 

 of children; for, though 321 of the women had borne 6 children and upwards 

 each, and were all again pregnant, 1 9 only of them had been able to rear 6 or 

 more children; and though 102 of the women had borne 9 children and upwards 

 each, only 1 of them had been able to preserve that number living. I am in- 

 clined to believe, that this great mortality among the children does not arise 

 from any natural imbecility or a constitution vitiated from the birth, many of 

 those victims being born with all the appearances of health and vigour; but that 

 we ought rather to search for the cause of it in the poverty of the parents, 



* In order to account for the difference between the number of the women in these and the pre- 

 ceding tables, it is proper to mention, that this account was not begun until some months after the 

 former one. In these also care has been taken that no woman is reckoned more than once, though 

 many of them had been assisted by the midwives to the Dispensary 2, 3, or 4 times; 370, as noted in 

 the table, were in their first pregnancy. — Orig. 



+ Of these 5419 children, 2747 were boys, and 26'72 girls, or nearly as 36 boys to 35 girls. This 

 proportion of the boys to the girls will be found a little different from what is given in a former table . 

 -Orig. 



VOL. XV. R 



