O F I N F A N C Y. 393 



that of an adult, or of a large man. The pulfe of 

 an ox is flower than that of a man ; a dog's pulfc 

 is quicker than a man's; and the motion of the 

 heart in very fmall animals, as that of a fparrovv, 

 is fo rapid that the ftrokes can hardly be numbered. 

 The life of a child, till it be three years of 

 age, is extremely precarious. In the two or 

 three fucceeding years, however, its life becomes 

 more certain; and, in the fixth or feventh year, 

 a child has a better chance of living than at any 

 other period. By coiiiulting Simpfon's tables 

 of the degrees of mortality at different ages *, 

 it appears, that, of a certain number of children 

 born at the fame time, more than a fourth of 

 them died in the firft year, more than a third 

 in two years, and at leaft one half in the lirft 

 three years. If this calculation be juft, when a 

 child is born, we might lay a bet, that it would 

 not live above three years. This exhibits a 

 melancholy view of the human fpecies ; for, 

 though a man who dies at the age of 21 is ge- 

 nerally lamented, as being prematurely deprived 

 of life ; yet, according to thefe tables, one half 

 of mankind muft die before the termination of 

 three years ; and, confequently, every man who 

 lives more than three years, inflead of complain- 

 ing of his fate, ought to confider himfelf as pe- 

 culiarly favoured by his Creator. But this mor- 

 tality of children is not nearly fo great in every 



place 



* See Slmpfon's tables, publiflicd at London in 1742. 



