[ 333 ] 
About 5 or 6 paces farther from the place where 
the fheep were lying, towards the north- weft the 
ground was much torn up as if plough’d, and an 
oblique hole made of about three feet deep. 
The breadths of the different holes were from fix 
to three inches. 
LIU. A Letter from Mr. James Dodfon to 
Mr . John Robertfon, F. R. S. concerning 
an Improvement of the Bills of Mortality. 
Read Tan. 1 6, 
1752. 
I January 13, 1752. 
S there has lately been a fcheme 
A propofed for amending the form of 
the bills of mortality of London, in a pamphlet 
called Obfervatiojis on the paji growth and prefent 
fiate of London, by Mr. Corbyn Morris, the ingeni- 
ous author of which has enumerated many ex- 
cellent purpofes, to which it may be applied, but 
has omitted to mention that of giving a greater 
degree of certainty to the calculations of the values 
of annuities on lives ; a benefit too confiderable to 
be pafl’ed by filently *, And as your knowlege of that 
fubjedt will enable you to judge of what is fit to be 
done, in order to obtain fo definable an advantage ; I 
beg leave to- trouble you with my thoughts concern 
ing a farther regulation of thofe bills, which, I pre- 
fume, may be conducive thereto. 
The prefent poffcflors of intailed eftates are, in 
common law, juftly called tenants for life. Mar- 
riage- 
