the Population Returns of Plymouth for 1821. 278 
W = 1 8m — 8-9275757 
w/(H-Z)-= ion. 0106 = 0-0457930 
/A = 9405 = 3-9733687 
Now, the enumerations of the same parishes in 1821, gave, 
for St Andrew, a population of 12,206, and for Charles 9,385; 
the logarithmic computation approximating to the actual popu- 
lation of the latter parish within twenty persons, but differing 
from the enumeration of the former by no less a number than 
1474 persons. 
It was now resolved to submit the subject to another test; and 
for which purpose, a principle formerly employed by Dr Price, 
for ascertaining the amount of a population, was adopted, viz. 
s ' 6 Multiply the expectation of an infant just horn , by the niim* 
her of yearly births , and the result will he the number of inha- 
bitants” This hypothesis, it was well understood at the time, 
was not strictly applicable to Plymouth, because it is founded 
on the supposition that the yearly births and deaths are equal, 
— a principle, perhaps, not to be applied without some qualifi- 
cation to any town in England, on account of the many power- 
ful causes which are now in active operation to diminish the rate 
of mortality, and thereby to augment the entire population of 
the country. Still, as a test applied to both parishes on the 
same common basis, no reasonable objection can perhaps be 
urged against it ; and if we therefore adopt 373 as the average 
number of births or deaths for St Andrew, and 256 for the pa- 
rish of Charles, and also consider the expectation of an infant 
at birth as 36.5 years, we shall obtain the following results for 
the population of the two parishes, viz. 
For St Andrew, - - 13614 
For Charles, - - 9344 
the latter of which approximates to within 41 persons of its 
actual population ; but the former again differs from the result 
of its enumeration, by no less a number than 1408 persons. 
In the following Table, the different conclusions are brought 
into one point of view, and by which we may perceive how near- 
ly the two hypotheses which have been adopted for the parish 
VOI.. VIII. NO. 16. APRIL 1823. S 
