[ ] 
* Plealthfulnefs and Prolificknefs are, probably, 
caufes of increafe feldom leparated. In conformity 
to this obfervation, it appears from comparing the 
births and weddings, in countries and towns where 
regifters of them have been kept, that in the former, 
marriages, one with another, feldom produce lefs than 
four children each ; generally between four and five, 
and fometimes above five. But in towns feldom 
above four j generally between three and four j- and 
fometimes under three*. 
I have fometimes heard the great number of old 
people in London mentioned to prove its favourable- 
nefs to health and long life. But no obfervation can 
be much more erroneous. There ought, in reality, 
to be more old people in London, in proportion to 
the number of inhabitants, than in any fmaller towns,, 
becaui'e at lead: one quarter of its inhabitants arc 
perfons who come into it, from the country, in the 
mod: robud: part of life, and with a much greater 
probability of attaining old age, than if they had come 
into it in the weaknefs of infancy. But, notwith- 
ftanding this advantage, there are much fewer per- 
fons who attain to great ages in London than in any 
other place where obfervations have been made, 
At Vienna, of 22,704 who died in the four years 
^ Any one may fee what evidence tliere is for this, by con- 
fiiliing the accounts in Dr. Short’s two books already quoted ; 
and in the Abridgment of the Philofophical TranJaSiions, vol. 
part iv. p. 46. — In conlidering thefe accounts, it fli luld not be 
forgotten that allowances mull: be made for the difterent circiim- 
ftonces of increafe or decreafe in a place, agreeably to the obfer- 
v.uion at the end of the note in pag. 1 13. 
^7i7> 
