[ 279 ] 
peopled. From^which it feetps^probable, that the 
origin of mankind is not more alitient than is com- 
monly believed. ,[ 
But now, to return to our purpofe, let us in the 
next place fee what may be the annual increafe of 
the people in England, that we mav be able to judge 
of the future improvement of the Country. Dr. Der- 
ham, in bis Phyficc-Tbeology^ has (hewn, from fome 
obfervations cornmunicated to him, that the number 
of births are annually to the burials through Eng- 
land in generabas 1,12 to i., though I fhpuld ima- 
gine the births, if there was an exabt account taken, 
would be in a little greater proportion. From which, 
if we could know the number of the burials, the 
increafe would be ealily found. And in my Letter 
lafl year I have there made it appear, that within the 
bills of mortality there die about one in thirty, and 
in fome very healthy places in the country about one 
in fifty, which feem to me to be the two extreme 
degrees of health in England i fo that in many Towns, 
and in fenny or marfhy lands, the degrees of health 
mufi; be between thefe two. Let us now take the 
mean between them, which is one in forty, and this 
will be nearly, at an average, the degree of health 
through England, or perhaps Britain in general, as 
Sir William Petty has obfervedl and which will very 
well ferve to make a ^Iculation of the increafe of 
the people. For then, it we fuppofe the whole 
number to be doooooo, the fortieth part of it, viz. 
150000 will be the number of the dead yearly. And 
the births, from the proportion of 1 to 1,12,, will 
be 16 8000 j from which, if we take the number of 
dead, the remainder 18000 mufi: be the annual in- 
creafe j 
