Thomas 



MORTALITY IN MANCHESTER. 



About the middle of last century a desponding feeling 

 rose in the minds of many persons, as it has often done, that 

 all things were going to decay and the inhabitants themselves 

 were decreasing. Evidently Manchester and Salford 

 thought that they made a great community, and in 1773 

 a number of men who afterwards became members of this 

 Society subscribed for the purpose of obtaining accurate 

 statistics of the place. They found that it was actually 

 increasing. In a paper 'On the Bills of Mortality for 

 Manchester and Salford,' read by Mr. Thomas Henry in 

 1786 (see vol. iii. p. 159), we read, ' By casting our eyes on 

 the bills of mortality for those years (intervening between 

 1773 and 1 786) we find the population of the towns greatly 

 advancing, and what is a pleasing circumstance, especially 

 considering the number of men of which they were 

 drained for the supply of his Majesty's fleets and armies, 

 we see a striking superiority of the births over the burials.' 



Observations on the Bills of Mortality for the towns of 

 Manchester and Salford. By Thomas Henry, F.R.S., 

 A cad. P kilos. Amer., PJdladel. ; Med. Lond. and Physic. 

 Edinb. Soc. Read Jan. 18, I786. 1 



'In the year 1773 several persons, many of whom are 

 now members of this society, subscribed for the purpose of 

 obtaining an accurate account of the state of the popula- 

 tion of the towns of Manchester and Salford, 2 which should 



1 Vol. iii., pp. 159-173. 



2 ' Manchester and Salford, though distinct townships, are only separated 

 by the river Irwel, and communicate by means of several bridges. In the year 

 1757 the number of inhabitants was no more than 19,839 ' 



I 2 



