[ no ] 
ftate, and according to the moH; moderate computa- 
tion, half the number born die under th?’ee years of 
age i and I have obierved that at Breilavv half live to 
1 6. At Edinburgh, if I may judge from fuch 
of its bills as I have feen, almoil: as great a propor- 
tion of children die as even in London. But it 
appears from Graunt's^ accurate account of the births, 
weddings, and burials in three country parities for 90 
years ; and alfo, with abundant evidence, from 
Dr. Short’s colledion of obfervations in his Gom- 
parative HiJiory\ and his treatife entitled, New Ob-- 
fervatiom on Town and Country Bills of Mortality t i 
that in country villages and pariflies, the major 
part live to mature age, and even to marry. So 
great is the difference, efpecially to children, between 
living in great towns and in the country. But no- 
thing can place this obfervation in a more ftriking 
light than the curious account given by Dr. Thomas 
Heberden, and publiflied in the Philofophical Tranf- 
* See Natural and Political Obfervations on the Bills of Morta- 
lity^ by Captain John Graant, F. R. S. 
f The public is much obliged to this author for the pains he 
has taken in collecting obfervations on the mortality and increafe 
mankind, in different countries and fituations. In his New 
Obfervations, p. 309, he mentions an ingenious parifh clerk, in 
the country, who, by a particular account which he took, found 
that of 314, who had been baptized in his .parifh in one year, 
80, or nearly a quarter part, died under four years of age. 
Forty-fix died the firfl: year ; thirteen the fecond j fixteen 
the third ; and five the fourth. After four, life grows more 
ftable, and at ten acquires its greateft {lability ; and in this cafe 
it cannot be reckoned that above a lOth, or, at moft, an 8th 
more than the quarter that died under four, would die under 
age ; and therefore, probably, near two-thirds arrived at ma- 
turity. 
adions 
