822 Table of Mortality* [Sept. 



away from the institution without formal order, when the removal not 

 being settled and recorded at the time, the date and particulars have 

 slipped from notice. Out of the 830, however, there will assuredly 

 f have been some errors from carelessness, occasioning omissions of at 

 least fractional risks of life : on the other hand every death being a for- 

 mal thing, attended with ceremonies and expenses, it is not likely that 

 such a casualty should have escaped entry. The omissions therefore 

 will have operated to reduce the proportion of risks to the deaths, and 

 so to balance the effect of the want of the three years' books. I might 

 have been less inclined to adopt the conclusion that these omissions had 

 operated to diminish the risks, if I had not found that the rates of 

 mortality produced by the computation, as made excluding them, were 

 extremely high for all the ages comprehended in the table, so high in 

 comparison with the most approved tables of Europe, as to prevent 

 suspicion that there is error from understating the deaths. I am obliged 

 however to confess, that in consequence of the want of the means of 

 tracing these 830 names, my table framed from the results of the Orphan 

 School of Calcutta, is only an approximation, instead of being based on 

 perfect data. 



Seventhly. When preparing the first general abstract of the results 

 of these registers, it occurred to me rather as an object of curiosity 

 than with any hope of finding matter of separate interest, to direct the 

 boys and girls to be stated separately for every fifth year. But on 

 obtaining the first rough abstract so drawn out, I found so great a 

 difference in the ratio of mortality amongst the boys for the years 

 beyond the sixth, that I determined to sift the matter through the 

 results of each year. The consequence is, that my present general 

 abstract is on a roll six feet long, much too large to be printed in the 

 Journal. It must therefore lie for inspection, with the books in detail 

 upon the table of the Asiatic Society's library. The table computed 

 from it will be exhibited in a much more compendious form. 



Eighthly. It is necessary to observe that for the purpose of show- 

 ing the mortality separately amongst the boys and girls, and the num- 

 ber of each upon which the casualties occurred, the number living on 

 the 3 1 st December of the year for each age is stated in the column, 

 and the deaths are those that occurred in the year ending on that date, 

 that is, not in any given 12 months, but amongst the children who 

 gave the year of life then brought to a close. To compute from these 

 data the ratio of mortality on the boys and girls respectively, the fol- 

 lowing calculation has been adopted. For age 0, the boys that reached 

 the 31st December, following the date of their admission, were 2713, 

 and 243 died before that date. As all these were births or admissions, 



