310 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



for eight hours in the day. The children had all 

 rather a pale and sickly countenance, and if a 

 judgment had been formed of the national beauty 

 from the girls and boys in this establishment, it 

 would have been most unfavourable. 



It is evident, that, if the deaths belonging to 

 this institution be omitted, the bills of mortality 

 for Petersburg cannot give a representation in 

 any degree near the truth of the real state of the 

 city with respect to healthiness. At the same 

 time it should be recollected, that some of the 

 observations which attest its healthiness, such as 

 the number dying in a thousand, &c, are not in- 

 fluenced by this circumstance ; unless indeed we 

 say, what is perhaps true, that nearly all those 

 who would find any difficulty in rearing their 

 children send them to the foundling hospital ; and 

 the mortality among the children of those who 

 are in easy circumstances, and live in comfort- 

 able houses and airy situations, will of course be 

 much less than a general average taken from all 

 that are born. 



The Maison des Enfans trouves at Moscow is 

 conducted exactly upon the same principle as 

 that at Petersburg ; and Mr. Tooke gives an ac- 

 count of the surprising loss of children, which it 

 had sustained in twenty years, from the time of 

 its first establishment to the year 1786. On this 

 occasion he observes that if we knew precisely 

 the number of those who died immediately after 

 reception, or who brought in with them the germ 

 of dissolution, a small part only of the mortality 



