Ch. v. in Switzerland: 349 



tion of the adults made room for all the rest to 

 marry, and to rear a numerous offspring. 



A habit of emigration in a particular parish, will 

 not only depend on situation, but probably often 

 on accident. I have little doubt that three or four 

 very successful emigrations have frequently given 

 a spirit of enterprise to a whole village ; and three 

 or four unsuccessful ones a contrary spirit. If a 

 habit of emigration were introduced into the vil- 

 lage of Leyzin, it is not to be doubted that the pro- 

 portion of births would be immediately changed ; 

 and at the end of twenty years an examination of 

 its registers might give results as different from 

 those at the time of M. Muret's calculations, as 

 they were then from the contrasted parish of St. 

 Cergue. It will hence appear that other causes 

 besides a greater mortality will concur, to make 

 an estimate of population, at different periods, 

 from the proportion of births, liable to great un- 

 certainty. 



The facts which M. Muret has collected are all 

 valuable, though his inferences cannot always be 

 considered in the same light. He made some 

 calculations at Vevay, of a nature really to ascer- 

 tain the question respecting the fecundity of mar- 

 riages, and to shew the incorrectness of the usual 

 mode of estimating it, though without this parti- 

 cular object in view at the time. He found that 

 375 mothers had yielded 2,093 children, all born 

 alive ; from which it followed, that each mother 

 had produced 5|-9-, or nearly six children.* These, 



* Mi-moires, &c. par la Societe Econ. de Berne. Annee 1766, 

 p. 29, et seq. 



