82d 



Table of Mortality. 



[Sept?. 



of the previous ages. I fancy the circumstance must be attributed in 

 part to the greater exposure the boys suffer, and the harder living they 

 are inured to, and in a great measure perhaps to the mortality known 

 to have prevailed amongst the boys, when they were at the other 

 school-house over the river, which was given up in consequence of 

 its insalubrity. 



For practical purposes, therefore, the ratio of mortality calculated 

 from the deaths amongst the boys of the Orphan School institution, 

 must be set aside as too unfavourable for an average. The girls' 

 deaths for the same reason afford a better average than the general 

 table, which includes both sexes ; and, being more favourable, the results 

 on the girls' lives correspond better with the results of the European 

 tables, which I have collected for comparison. 



I have not been able to lay hand upon any explanation in detail of 

 the precise manner in which the Northampton and Carlisle tables were 

 framed. I have great doubt, however, if, for the early ages especially, 

 the results have been deduced from data, which can lay equal claim to 

 accuracy, with those used for the table I now present to the public. 

 The means may readily be forthcoming of ascertaining the number of 

 deaths, which occur in a town or in any community, and the ages of 

 the persons dying are of course entered on the burial registers, but 

 it is by no means so easy to number a fluctuating population, and to 

 register the ages of each individual, so as to get at the number of 

 risks at each age, upon which the casualties by death have occurred. 

 The great difference observable in the rates of decrement in the 

 different tables of Europe seems to confirm the doubt, as to the cor- 

 rectness of this material of the calculations upon which they are 

 based : and the results of the London bills of mortality, as given in 

 Dr. Young's article in the Philosophical Transactions, compared with 

 Dr. Price's Table framed from the same bills, afford a further confir- 

 mation of the doubts entertained, in respect to the accuracy of any we 

 yet possess. The only tables known to be constructed from perfect 

 data, are those of the Equitable Life Insurance Office, but these are 

 confined to lives of ages exceeding twenty years*. 'It will be seen that 

 the London table of the Philosophical Transactions comes nearest to 

 those framed upon the Orphan School registers as far as the age of 

 six years, and after that age Dr. Price's table framed from the same 



* The total number of Equitable lives between 10 and 20 is less than 1500 

 ■which is quite insufficient for an average upon those ages. 



