1838.] Table of Mortality, 821 



was made up for those who entered at an age between one and two, 

 and so for each year in succession. The pages of all were then sepa- 

 rately summed up, and the aggregate of the books for age being 

 placed at the top of the page of a general abstract, the aggregates of 

 the books of other ages were arranged in order so that the columns for 

 age should correspond, and the whole be added up for the general 

 result. This general abstract is amongst the papers deposited in the 

 library of the Asiatic Society. 



Sixthly. It will be evident that tables framed on this principle 

 must be quite perfect, if only the registers on which they are framed 

 be complete ; but I am compelled to acknowledge that this is not 

 the case with those with which I have had to deal. In the first place 

 the registers of three years 1802, 1804 and 1805, are altogether 

 wanting. The deaths of these years are therefore not all counted. 

 I have traced in the casualty book, thirteen deaths for 1802, nine for 

 1 804, and four for 1 805, which have been duly entered, but this cannot 

 be all. On the other hand if the children's names were found in the 

 register of 1801, and again in 1803, and afterwards in 1806, they have 

 been entered as giving the risk of their life for the whole consecu- 

 tive period. The effect therefore is to increase the number of risks 

 and diminish the ratio of mortality. This error has no influence on 

 the ratio for year 0, and less of course on that for age one year, than 

 for the advanced ages, because the risks of column 0, are all fresh ad- 

 missions, which are likewise lost for these three years, and a large 

 proportion of the risks of age one are of and the same description. 

 The number of names lost to the tables, in the years of these missing 

 registers, that is, which appear in the book of 1801 but not in 1803, 

 or in 1803 but not again in 1806 is 238, of which a large proportion 

 will probably have been deaths, and the rest removals from the institu- 

 tion during the period. I might have provided for the error occasioned 

 by the want of these registers by excluding all the risks of the three 

 missing years, but have preferred to leave them ; partly because of the 

 deaths found in the casualty register which have been entered, and 

 partly because of another source of error, which as it operated the 

 other way required something to counterbalance it. 



In re-casting the registers, which as I have mentioned were framed 

 originally by the year, I have not found that all the names of each 

 register can be accurately traced. On the contrary in the 35 years' 

 books, there are no less than 830 names lost, without notice of the 

 cause of their being omitted in subsequent registers. This certainly is a 

 large number. A considerable proportion of them may be ascribable to 

 the children changing their names, and many to their being taken 



