C 120 ] 
Dr, Heberden obferves that, In Madeira, the In- 
habitants double their own number in 84 years. But 
and increafing country parifbes, each marriage produces more 
than four children ; but this is a conclufion which, in the pre- 
fent cafe, cannot be depended on* It fliould be confidered that, 
probably, fome who leave the country to fettle at Paris, come to 
it already married j and that no fmall proportion of the births 
may be illegitimate. Thefe caufes, however, may only balance 
the allowance to be made for the fecond and third marriages 
among the annual weddings; and, if it is indeed fa£I, that the 
people at Paris are fo prolific as they appear to be in the bills, it will 
only prove more ftrongly that, like other great towns, it is very 
unfavourable to health ; for the more prolific a people are, the 
greater muft be the mortality among them if they do not increafe. 
Let us fuppofe the true number of deaths at Paris, in- 
cluding emigrants and fuch as die in the Foundling Hofpital, to 
be2i,coo; the number married annually 2x4,300 or8,6ooo; 
and the births, as before, 19,200. 1,900 then will be the num- 
ber of annual recruits from the country. Of thefe let only 
1,200 be fuppofed to marry : and 8,6oo leflened by 1,200, 
or 7,400, will be the number of thofe born at Paris who n arry 
annually; and 11,800, or above three-fifths will be the number 
dying in childhood and celibacy. This, though it gives an un- 
favourable reprefentation of Paris when compared with the 
country, makes it appear to advantage when compared with fome 
other great towns. I am not fufficientlv informed of the ftatc of 
Paris to know how near this calculation comes to the truth. 
Every fuch doubt would be removed, were the ages of the dead 
given in the Paris bills. It is much to be wifhed this was done. 
The births and burials here come fo near to one another, that 
there can fcarcely be a properer place for fuch bills; and a Table 
of Obfervations might be formed from them that would give the 
values of lives much more exadtly than the London Tables. 
I cannot help adding that, excepting the omiflion 1 have 
mentioned in the burials, the Paris bills are complete ; but 
it is well known that the London bills are extremely oiherwife. 
London, therefore, muft be much larger in comparilbn of Paris 
than it appears to be in the bills. 
this 
