16 Mr. T. R. Edmonds on the Law of Human Mortality 



The theoretical Table of "City Mortality " above mentioned is 

 represented nearly by the mortality, according to age, observed 

 in the male population of English towns or cities of the first 

 magnitude, with the exception, however, of Liverpool and Man- 

 chester, which towns form a special class distinguished for ex- 

 cessively great mortality. The same theoretical Table is also re- 

 presented at ages exceeding 40 years by the mortality, according 

 to age, observed by M. Duparcieux among monks in the con- 

 vents of Paris and its environs. According to M. Duparcieux's 

 Tables, the mortality of monks resident in Paris exceeded the 

 mortality at the same ages of Tontine nominees, also resident in 

 Paris, in the proportion of 3 to 2 nearly, being the proportion in 

 which the rates of the "City M Table exceed those of the " Village" 

 Table. 



The general population of a nation consists chiefly of persons 

 earning their subsistence by bodily labour, and by different 

 degrees of bodily labour, according as they reside in villages, 

 towns, or cities. The law of mortality, according to age, of the 

 general population has not necessarily any close connexion with 

 the law of mortality of that portion of the community which is 

 abundantly supplied with the necessaries of life and is removed 

 from the necessity of earning its subsistence by bodily labour. 

 Moreover it would appear, from M. Deparcieux's observations, 

 that in the portion of the community mentioned the general 

 rate of mortality may probably be reduced 30 per cent, by 

 selecting individuals of superior vital force to form a class of 

 government annuitants. 



The competition of the English with the Swedish observations 

 for the credit of supplying the best measure of the general mor- 

 tality, according to age, of the population of European nations 

 did not commence until the year 1835. In that year were first 

 published government returns of the population of England, in 

 which the numbers living and the numbers who had died were 

 distributed in decennial intervals of age when the age exceeded 

 20 years, and in quinquennial intervals of age when the age was 

 less than 20 years. There was no statement at the same time 

 published of the ratios of the dying to the living at the different 

 ages. The comparison of the numbers dying and living at each 

 age, and the determination of the law of mortality prevailing in 

 England and the counties of England during the 18 years end- 

 ing with 1830, were left to the investigation of private indivi- 

 duals who might choose to undertake the task. In the same 

 year (1835)* the present writer was the first to communicate to 

 the public the law of mortality, according to age, of the popula- 

 tion of England. 



* Lancet, December 1835, pp. 364, 408. 



