Ch. xii. Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 505 



deaths, in the different periods of 64 years in- 

 cluded in the table, deserve particular attention. 

 If we were to take an average of the four years 

 immediately succeeding the plague, the births 

 would be to the deaths in the proportion of above 

 22 to 10, which, supposing the mortality to be 

 1 in 36, would double the population in twenty- 

 one years. If we take the twenty years from 

 1711 to 1731, the average proportion of the births 

 to deaths will appear to be about 17 to 10, a 

 proportion which (according to Table I. page 496) 

 would double the population in about thirty-five 

 years. But if, instead of 20 years, we were to 

 take the whole period of 64 years, the average 

 proportion of births to deaths turns out to be but 

 a little more than 12 to 10; a proportion which 

 would not double the population in less than 125 

 years. If we were to include the mortality of 

 the plague, or even of the epidemic years 1736 

 and 1737, in too short a period, the deaths might 

 exceed the births, and the population would ap- 

 pear to be decreasing. 



Sussmilch thinks that, instead of 1 in 36, the 

 mortality in Prussia, after the plague, might be 

 1 in 38 ; and it may appear perhaps to some of 

 my readers, that the plenty occasioned by such 

 an event ought to make a still greater difference. 

 Dr. Short has particularly remarked that an ex- 

 traordinary healthiness generally succeeds any 

 very great mortality ;* and I have no doubt that 



* History of Air, Seasons, &c. vol. ii. p. 344. 



