250 Dr. Clarke’s Obfervations on the 
fhort, feems to be, that any debility in either parent mu ft affeft 
moft the production of that fex which requires the largeft and 
ftrongeft Jlamina ; and that fuch debilities prevailing moft in 
great towns and polifhed Societies, the excefs of the mortality 
of males muft alfo be greateft in fuch fituations. And this I 
reckon the principal reafon of a circumftance in human mor- 
tality which, before I received thefe communications from Dr, 
Clarke, I did not fo well underftand. 
With much refpeCt I am, &c. 
RICH. PRICE. 
Dr. Clarke’sj^? Letter to the Rev. Dr. Price. 
,-s I R, 
Dublin. 
IN your very ufeful Treatife on Life Annuities, &c. you 
remark^, that 66 it has been Gbferved, that the Author of 
nature has provided, that more males fhould be born than 
females, on account of the particular wafte of males, occa- 
56 fioned by wars and other caufes. That perhaps it might 
have been obferved, w T ith more reafon, that this provifion 
had in vietv that particular weakness or delicacy in the con- 
66 ftitution of males which makes them more fubjeCt to mor- 
* c tality; and which, confequently, renders it neceflary that 
u more of them fhould be produced, in order to preferve 
66 
in 
* Vol. I. p. 373. 
