352 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



bably be widows or widowers.* With such an 

 average store of unmarried persons, notwithstand- 

 ing the acknowledged emigrations, there was little 

 ground for the supposition that these emigrations 

 had essentially affected the number of annual 

 marriages, and checked the progress of popula- 

 tion. 



The proportion of annual marriages to inhabi- 

 tants in the Pays de Vaud, according to M. Murefs 

 tables, was only 1 to 140,t which is even less than 

 in Norway. 



All these calculations of M. Muret imply the 

 operation of the preventive check to population in 

 a considerable degree, throughout the whole of 

 the district which he considered ; and there is 

 reason to believe, that the same habits prevail in 

 other parts of Switzerland, though varying con- 

 siderably from place to place, according as the 

 situation or the employments of the people render 

 them more or less healthy, or the resources of the 

 country make room or not for an increase. 



In the town of Berne, from the year 1583 to 

 1654, the sovereign council had admitted into the 

 Bourgeoisie 487 families, of which 379 became 

 extinct in the space of two centuries, and in 1783 

 only 108 of them remained. During the hundred 

 years from 1684 to 1784, 207 Bernoise families 

 became extinct. From 1624 to 1712, the Bour- 



* Memoires, &c. par la Societe de Berne. Annee 1766, pre- 

 miere partie, p. 27. 



f Id. premiere partie, tab. i. 



