Board of Health, 1796. 47 



column to the name, profession, and descent of the father, 

 and the fourth to the name and descent of the mother, the 

 particulars of which may easily be collected when the 

 infant is baptised. Thus shall we hope, on trials of titles 

 to estates, and genealogical inquiries, to raise a fund of 

 intelligence to the industrious antiquary, as well as the 

 gentlemen of the law ; and perhaps they may allow this 

 scheme to bid the fairest for supplying the place of visit- 

 ations or inquisitions post mortem, 



* The fifth column shows the birth, and the sixth the 

 baptism of the infant ; the entry of each being essentially 

 necessary. When the age bears date from the baptism 

 only, the child may become subject to great inconvenience. 

 I have only to add, that the uniformity of the page has 

 been consulted, and that the two last columns, in the 

 register of burials, are intended to distinguish places re- 

 markable for longevity, or the reverse, and to acquaint us 

 what disorders mankind is subject to under particular 

 seasons and climates ; the use of which information is 

 sufficiently evinced by Dr. Percival, of Manchester. 



' Should this form meet with the approbation of the 

 public, I can claim no other merit than having improved 

 upon a hint, given to the community in the year 17 15 by 

 Mr.Thoresby, the ingenious author of " Ducatus Leodiensis," 

 or the topography of Leeds, as proposed to him by an 

 eminent antiquary, Thomas Kirk, Esq., of Cookbridge, 

 near to that town.' 



THE BOARD OF HEALTH. 



We come to an important step taken by Dr. Percival 

 and his friends, viz., the establishment of a committee for 



