' C ”5 ] 
But in country pariaies and villages the births almoft 
always exceed the burials ; and I believe it feldom 
happens that fo many as a 3'^th, or much more than a 
40th part oF the inhabitants die annually^. In the 
four provinces of New England there is a very rapid 
increafe of the inhabitarjts i but, notwithftanding 
this, at Bofton, the capital, the inhabitants would 
decreafe were there no fupply from the country : for, 
if the account I have leen is juft, from 1731 to 
1762, the burials have all along exceeded the births f. 
So remarkably do towns, in confequence of their un- 
favourablenefs to health, and the luxury which ge- 
nerally prevails in them, check the increafe of 
.countries. 
* In 173^ there was an account taken of the number of fa* 
milies and inhabitants in the Pruflian dominions. The number 
of inhabitants was 2,1385465’ The medium of annual births, 
weddings, and burials was nearly 84,000 ; 21,000, and 55,481. 
Near a 40th part, therefore, died every year. Vid. Dr. iJnort’s 
^mparative Hijlory, p. 69, and Abridgment of the Philofophical 
TranfaSiions^ ibid. The proportion of weddings and burials 
to the births Ihews that, in thefe countries, there was a quick in- 
creafe, notwithftanding the wafte in the cities. In the year 
1733 a furvey was taken of the inhabitants of the parifh of Lake 
JDamerel in Devonjhire^ and the number of men, women, and 
children, was found to be 336 !• The chrijienings for the year 
were I22 the weddings 2 8~" hurtals(^i, — No more, there- 
fore, than the 54.th part of the inhabitants died in the year.— — 
In part of this year an epidemical fever prevailed in the parifh. 
See Martyn’s Abridgment of the Philo f Tranfadiions^ vol. IX. 
p. 325. -According to Graunt’s account of a parifh in 
Hampjhire^ not reckoned, he fays, remarkably healthful, a 50th 
part of the inhabitants had died annually for 90 years. Natural 
and Political Obfervations^ lAc, Chap. xii. 
t See a particular account of the births and burials in this 
town Irom 173* * 75 ^ 'u the Gentleman s Magazine for 1753, 
P* 4 * 3 * 
CL2 
Health- 
