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‘¢“ OBSERVATIONS ON THE BILLS OF MORTALITY AND IN- 
CREASE OF PEOPLE IN DUBLIN; THE DISTEMPERS, AIR, 
AND CLIMATE OF THIS KINGDOM; ALSO OF MEDICINES, 
PHYSIC, AND SURGEONS AND APOTHECARY S—BY DR. WIL- 
LOUGHBY, AN EMINENT PHYSICIAN, IN 1690. 
‘¢¢' The Bills of Mortality have not been kept in Dublin 
much above 10 years.* I have been constantly served w™ 
y™ for those 8 years last past, and thought I had a sufficient 
stock to make some observations upon, but when I came to 
review my collection I found it very imperfect, partly by the 
neglect of servants whom I entrusted to put y™ on y® file, and 
‘partly by my own frequent absence from home; soe y‘ I was 
not able to make up all the yearly bills, and was fain to be 
content w'" those I have here entred; not knowing where to 
supply my want of y° rest in all Dublin. 
<¢¢ Upon the bills of Mortality and increase of people. 
«<¢ J cannot pursue a better method y" what was begun 
by y° learned author of this new way of observing, 5S: W™ 
Petty ;{ therefore, comparing y* mortality of those 7 years, I 
have collected, I find y* at a middle rate y* yearly mortality of 
Dublin to be 2236,t which exceeds his middle rate, & bears 
proportion to it almost as 11 to 8, from whence we may rea- 
sonably conclude y* people of Dublin to have increast since 
y’ time, almost a 3"; this was otherwise sufficiently visible 
in y° great increase of buildings, for a 3° part of ye whole 
having been erected since y* year 60 [1660] are now fill’d w™ 
inhabitants as soon as finished, wtout any decrease of rent. 
I find in y* year 1688 y° bills of mortality sink near a 5™ of 
* Bills of mortality for the city of Dublin were first attempted in 1661. Sir W. 
Petty has published the Bill for 1666.—See the “Irish Census Report” for 1851, 
part v. vol. i. 
+ See Petty’s ‘Political Anatomy,” and ‘Observations on the Dublin Bills of 
Mortality.” / 
{ See the Report on Tables of Death in Census of Ireland for 1851, part v. 
vol. i. 
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