324 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. ii. 



very small number in the healthy employments 

 of agriculture. 



A very curious and striking contrast to these 

 Dutch villages, tending to illustrate the present 

 subject, will be recollected in what was said re- 

 specting the state of Norway. In Norway the 

 mortality is 1 in 48, and the marriages are 1 in 

 130. In the Dutch villages the mortality 1 in 23, 

 and the marriages 1 in 64. The difference both 

 in the marriages and deaths is above double. 

 They maintain their relative proportions in a very 

 exact manner, and shew how much the deaths 

 and marriages mutually depend upon each other ; 

 and that, except where some sudden start in the 

 agriculture of a country enlarges the means of 

 subsistence, an increase of marriages must be 

 accompanied by an increase of mortality, and 

 vice versci. 



- In Russia this sudden start in agriculture has 

 in a great measure taken place; and consequently, 

 though the mortality is very small, yet the pro- 

 portion of marriages is not so. But in the progress 

 of the population of Russia, if the proportion of 

 marriages remain the same as at present, the 

 mortality will inevitably increase; or if the mor- 

 tality remain nearly the same, the proportion of 

 marriages will diminish. 



Sussmilch has produced some striking instances 

 of this gradual decrease in the proportional num- 

 ber of marriages, in the progress of a country to 

 a greater degree of cleanliness, healthiness and 

 population, and a more complete occupation of all 

 the means of gaining a livelihood. 



