nearly a century ago, for I find from the late Mr. George 
Walker’s Journal, kindly presented to the Society by Mr. 
B. H. Green, that 
“ Dr. Percival took from the Register at Manchester and 
Salford for six years, from 1768 to 1774, and found there had 
died under two years (compared with the whole) as 1 to 2 - 9, 
or nearly 1 to 3. Died under 2 years of baptised children 
(as above) as 1 to 3 - 6, say 1 to 3|. From January 1, 1780, 
to January 1, 1791, 12 years, Buried 17,597, of which num- 
ber have died under 2 years, 5,529 ; from 2 to 5, 1,823, all 
of whom were baptised.” In addition, the still-born and 
those who died before baptism have to be added. Mr. Walker 
also states that 
“ The probability of the duration of life from observations 
on the Bills of Mortality of London, on an average of ten 
years, by Thomas Simpson, Mathematician, 1790, Infants 
just born, 1,000 ; living at the end of one year, 680 ; at the 
age of 2 years, 547 ; at the age of 3 years, 496. Therefore 
more than one half the children died under 3 years.” 
From these extracts it appears that the rate of mortality 
amongst infants is not confined to a manufacturing popula- 
tion, for it was high in Manchester before the Cotton 
Manufacture had made much progress, and higher still in 
former times in London, where no such employment of 
females prevailed, to take the mothers from their children. 
Dr. Percival, F.R.S., a former President of this Society, 
and Mr. Simpson, the eminent mathematician, are both first- 
rate authorities on the subject, and their results fully accord 
with those of our Secretary, Mr. Baxendell, as given to the 
Society and printed in the Proceedings for April 19th, 1870. 
The mortality of our city no doubt is bad enough, but it 
does not arise altogether from infantile mortality as has been 
asserted, but from adult mortality as well. 
