Ch. viii. in England. 407 



annually in towns is seldom so low as 1 in 28, 

 except in consequence of a rapid increase pro- 

 duced by an influx of people at those periods of 

 life when the fewest die, which is the case with 

 Manchester and Liverpool,* and other very flou- 

 rishing manufacturing towns. In general he thinks 

 that the mortality in great towns may be stated at 

 from 1 in 19| to 1 in 22 and 23; in moderate 

 towns, from 1 in 24 to 1 in 28 ; and in the country 

 villages, from 1 in 40 to 1 in 50. J 



The tendency of Dr. Price to exaggerate the 

 unhealthiness of towns may perhaps be objected 

 to these statements; but the objection seems to 

 be only of weight with regard to London. The 

 accounts from the other towns, which are given, 

 are from documents which his particular opinions 

 could not influence. § It should be remarked, 

 however, that there is good reason to believe, that 

 not only London, but the other towns in England, 

 and probably also country villages, were at the 



* Price's Observ. on Revers. Paym. vol. ii. First additional 

 Essay, note, p. 4. 



•f The mortality at Stockholm was, according to Wargentin, 1 

 in 19- 



% Observ. on Revers. Paym. vol. ii. First additional Essay, p. 4. 



§ An estimate of the population or mortality of London, before 

 the late enumeration, always depended much on conjecture and 

 opinion, on account of the great acknowledged deficiencies in the 

 registers ; but this was not the case in the same degree with the 

 other towns here named. Dr. Price, in allusion to a diminishing 

 population, on which subject it appears that he has so widely erred, 

 says very candidly, that perhaps he may have been insensibly in- 

 fluenced to maintain an opinion once advanced. 



