20 
MORTALITY. 
This book of Graunt’s, although the firft, is alfo one 
of the beft that have been published on the fubjed. It 
contains many judicious obfervations on the imperfec¬ 
tions of the bills, on the proportions of the deaths from 
different difeafes and cafualties, and on their increafe and 
decreafe, with the probable caules of fuch fluduations. 
He alfo obferved, that “ the more fickly the years are, 
the lefs fecund or fruitful of children alfo they be.” Be- 
fides the London bills, he gave one for a country-parifti 
in Hampfhire, in the firft edition of his book; and, in an 
appendix to the latter editions, two others, one for Tiver¬ 
ton, the other for Cranbrook in Kent, with a few 
obfervations on foreign bills. The book was favourably 
received by the public, and went through five editions 
in fifteen years; the two firft in 4to, the three others in 
8vo; the laft of them, publiftied in 1676, two years after 
the author’s death, was edited by his friend fir William 
Petty, who, in confequence of having fometimes fpoken 
of this edition as his own, has by fome writers been erro- 
neoufly confidered as the author. 
Graunt’s obfervations, like all others of a fimilar kind, 
by fhowing the ufefulnefs of parifh-regifters and bills of 
mortality, contributed to form a tafte for thefe inquiries 
among thinking men; and, confequently, to improve 
both the regifters and the bills derived from them; fo 
that, from this time, the fubjed has been continually cul¬ 
tivated more and more. Parilh-regilters, in moft parts 
of Europe, have been kept with more care ; and a l'uc- 
ceflion of works of confiderable merit has been publiftied 
on the fubjed, containing an important part of the natu¬ 
ral and political hiftory of our fpecies, and affording 
valuable materials for the fcience of political economy. 
As the ages at which the deaths took place were not 
inferted in the London bills till 1728, Graunt could not 
avail liimfelf of that important information, but made a 
fruitlefs attempt to determine the law of mortality with¬ 
out it. The B reflaw bills appear to have been the firft 
wherein the ages at which the deaths took place were 
inferted ; and the moft important information which bills 
of mortality can afford, was firft drawn from them by 
Dr. Halley; who, in 1692, conftruded a table of mor¬ 
tality for B reflaw from thefe bills for the five preceding 
years, and inferted a paper on the fubjed in the Philofo- 
phical Tranfadions, No. 196. In 1699, Dr. Davenant, 
in An Eflay upon the probable Methods of making a 
People Gainers in the Ballance of Trade, publiftied fome 
extrads from “ Natural and Political Obfervations and 
Conclufions upon the State and Condition of England,” 
by permiflion of their author, Gregory King, efq. Lan- 
cafter herald, who had completed them in 1696, though 
they ftill remained in manufcript; and the whole of this 
very curious produdion was publiftied by Mr. Chambers 
at the end of his EJlimate in 1802. Mr. King derived 
his information from the poll-books; from adual obfer¬ 
vations in particular places; from the afleflments on 
marriages, births, and burials; and from the parifli- 
regifters. Many of liis conclufions agree furprilingly 
well, confidering the time he wrote, with tliofe which 
are the refults of a hundred years of further obfervations 
and inquiries. 
From the publication of Davenant’s eflay, above men¬ 
tioned, nearly forty years had elapfed without any thing 
further being done in this way, when M. Kerfeboom 
publiftied an Eflay, in the Dutch language, on the pro¬ 
bable number of people in Holland and Weft Friefland, 
which he deduced from the Bills of Mortality, (Hague, 
1738, 4to.) and two others in 1740 and 1742. An account 
of the firft of thefe three eflays may be l'een in the Philo- 
fophical Tranfadions, No. 450. and of the two others in 
No. 468. 
In 1742 was publiftied the firft edition of the celebrated 
work, entitled “ Die Gottliche Ordnung in den Veran- 
derungen des Menfchlichen Gefchlechts aus der Geburt, 
dem Tode und der Fortpflanzung deflelben erwiefen von 
Johann Peter Siiflmilch.” The fecond edition appeared 
in 176 1, enriched with the materials which had been laid 
before the public through various channels in the interim; 
the third in 1765 ; and in 1775 a fourth edition of the two 
volumes of Sufimilch was publiftied by Chriftian Jacob 
Baumann, to which this editor liimfelf added, in 1776, 
a third volume, confiding of additions to the other two, 
and remarks upon them, with many new tables, and a 
copious index. The laft edition of this work was pub- 
liflied in 1798, but it does not appear to have been aug¬ 
mented or improved fince 1776. It contains long difler- 
tations on every thing (not mathematical) conneded 
with the fubjed; and, befides original information, in¬ 
cludes the fubftance of all the other publications on it 
previous to 1776 ; with an immenfe colledion of materials, 
which, when borrowed, are often better arranged, and 
rendered more convenient for reference, than they will 
be found to be in the works they were extraded from j 
befides, the original fources of information are always 
referred to; and thefe advantages, with that of a full 
index, render it a valuable work for occafional reference. 
The three thick 8vo. volumes contain upwards of 2300 
pages, clofely printed with a fmall type; and the tables 
alone occupy 330 pages. 
In 1746 was publiftied the Efl'ai of M. Deparcieux. 
Information much wanted on this fubjed, was there given 
in a very clear and popular manner; and the work no doubt 
contributed greatly to the advancement of the fcience. 
In 1750 appeared, in 8vo. “ New Obfervations, natural, 
moral, civil, political, and medical, on City, Town, and 
Country, Bills of Mortality; to which are added, large 
and clear Abftrads of the beft Authors who have written 
on that fubject; with an Appendix of the Weather and 
Meteors, by Thomas Short, M.D.” which he had “ had 
on the anvil” for eighteen years, as he informs us in the 
Preface to his Hiftory of Air, Weather, See. This author, 
with incredible labour, coileded extrads from the mor- $ 
tuary and baptifmal regifters in a great many market- 
towns and country-parifnes in England, chiefly in the 
northern counties, in almoft every variety of loil and 
fituation ; and reduced them into tables in various ways, 
fo as to enable him to draw ufeful inferences from them. 
He informs us, that lord Cromwell’s injunction in 1538 
was but little regarded in many places till the year 1559, 
when another was iil'ued for the fame purpofe by queen 
Elizabeth; neverthelefs, he had procured feveral exad 
country-regifters, commencing with 1538, and continued, 
without one chafm, for more than two hundred years; 
and the regifters before 1644 he confidered to be much 
more valuable than afterwards, on account of the increafe 
of diflenters from that time. He likewife procured both 
the numbers of families and of fouls in l'even of the 
market-towns, and fifty-four of the country parifhes, for 
which he had regifters; and thus arrived at fatisfadory 
information on feveral points, which, till then, had been 
very imperfedly underftood. But the lexes were not 
diltinguilhed in his enumerations; neither were the ages, 
in any of the enumerations or regifters he has given 
accounts of, except in the London bills of mortality, and 
what he has taken from Dr. Halley refpeding thofe for 
Breflaw. 
In 1751 was firft printed a trad by Corbyn Morris, 
entitled, “ Obfervations on the paft Growth and prefent 
State of the City of London,” with the moft convenient 
and inftrudive tables of the London bills that have been 
printed : they contained the annual baptifms and burials 
from the year 1603, the number of annual deaths by each 
difeafe from 1675, and of each age from 1728 ; all brought 
down to the year 1750. This trad was reprinted in 1758, 
with a continuation of the tables to the end of 1757; 
thefe alfo contain ufeful annual averages and proportions. 
Mr. Morris’s obfervations are generally very judicious ; 
but he was one of thofe authors who appear to have la¬ 
boured under much mifconception with regard to the 
evils to be apprehended from the mortality of London, 
and what they confidered to be its baneful eft'eds in draw¬ 
ing recruits from the country. Thefe writers did not 
perceive, or did not fufficiently confider, that the natural 
procreative 
