[ 35 I 
III. Obfervatlons cn the Bills of Mortality at York. By Wil- 
liam White, M. D. F. A. S. ; communicated by Nathaniel 
Pigott, Efq . F . S* 
Read December 6, 1781. 
F FAITHFUL and accurate regiAers of the number of 
births and deaths kept in different places are of great im- 
portance to the community. The Aatefman, the philofopher, 
and the phyfician, are equally intereAed in inquiries which in- 
fallibly fhew us the real Rate of the nation, as to population, 
healthfulnefs, and, as connected with the latter, virtue and 
temperance. 
It muff give great pleafure to a reflecting mind, to find, from 
undeniable proofs, that this nation appears to be, in the above 
refpeCts, in a general and progreflive Rate of improvement. 
The births have become more numerous, the deaths fewer, in 
proportion in almofl every place where the regiAers have been 
confulted : for proof of this I refer to the TranfaCtions of the 
Royal Society, vol. LVII. LIX. LXI. LXIV. LXV. &c. and 
to a publication of Mr. wales, f. r. s. intituled, An Inquiry 
into the prefent State of Population in England and Wales, 
lately publifhed. 
It would not perhaps be difficult, and as a phyfician I could 
with pleafure attempt the inveAigation, to difcover the various 
F 2 caufes 
