MORTALITY. 
24 
anfwers and returns to this aft were printed by order of 
the houfe of commons in 1800, and occupy more than 
1000 pages folio. In 1811, another aft (51 Geo. III. c.6.) 
was palled, “ for taking an account of the population of 
Great Britain, and the increafe or diminution thereof 
in confequence of which, returns were that year made to 
parliament, of the number of perlons in every part of 
Great Britain ; alfo of the numbers of baptil'ms, bu¬ 
rials, and marriages, in England and Wales, during each 
of the preceding ten years ; very fatisfaftory abltrafts 
of thefe were alfo printed by order of parliament in 1812, 
with fome preliminary obfervations, in which correc¬ 
tions of the preceding returns are given. The fexes 
were diftinguiffied both in thefe enumerations and ex- 
trafts from the regifters, but the ages in none of them ; 
and the proportions of males to females among the living 
are not to be depended upon, a number of males in the 
army and navy, which it is difficult to eftimate, not being 
natives of Great Britain, nor ufually refident there. The 
returns of baptifms and burials were alfo defeftive, but 
few regifters of diflenters having been included in them. 
Thefe abftrafts are, however, with refpeft to the objefts 
they extend to, more minute and fatisfaftory than any 
other accounts of the fame kind that have been publiflied 
in this kingdom ; and it is very defirable that fuch re¬ 
turns Ihould continue to be made, and abftrafts of them 
printed, at regular intervals; for nothing is lo well calcu¬ 
lated to lliow the influence of different caufes on the pro- 
fperity of a nation, as the comparifon of the different ftates 
of the population, and the rate of its progrefs or declen- 
flon, under different circumftances : befldes, the value of 
the abftrafts we already have, will be much enhanced by 
the publication of others of a fimilar kind hereafter; for 
the increafe of more than a million of perfons, in Eng¬ 
land alone, between 1801 and 1811, may be accounted for 
perhaps, not fo much from a real decreafe of mortality to 
that amount, as from the imperfeftions and omiffions of a 
firft return under a new aft. 
Mortality, however, we may fafely affirm, has decreafed 
within the laft fifty years, not only in Great Britain, but 
in moft civilized countries. The benefits of cleanlinefs, 
both in ftreets and in houfes, is better underftood; ino¬ 
culation has occafioned the fmall-pox to be no longer a 
plague ; and the medical treatment of fevers and moft 
other diforders has alfo wonderfully improved. In the 
remarks with w'hich we ffiall conclude this article, we fliall 
confine ourfeives chiefly to the city of London. 
Hiftory affords us abundant evidence of the filthinefs 
of the metropolis, and of the exiftence of thofe fources of 
miafmata wdiich prevail in camps, and which, by the pu- 
trefaftion and evaporation occafioned by the autumnal 
heats and rains, were the conftant fource of difeafes, not 
only before, but even fubfequent to, the great fire in 1666. 
In the fourteenth and following centuries, the ftreets 
were filled with common lay-ftalls of all manner of filth 
and garbage, which the people were in vain ordered to re¬ 
move from their own doors; the fewers were in a very 
neglefted ftate; the drains all ran above ground; in many 
ftreets there was no pavement at all, and the accefs of 
pure air was prevented by the projefting houfes almoft 
meeting at top, the intervening lpace being filled with 
enormous figns. Nor was the internal ftrufture and eco¬ 
nomy of the houfes more favourable to health. Erafmus, 
in a letter to the phyfician of cardinal Wolfey, afcribes 
the fweating-ficknels, and the plague, from which the 
Englifii were hardly ever free, in a great meafure to the 
incommodious form and bad expofition of their houfes, to 
the filthinefs of the ftreets, and to the fluttiflinefs within 
doors : “ The floors,” he fays,' “ are commonly of clay, 
ftrewed with rufhes, which are occafionally renewed, but 
underneath lies unmolefted an ancient colleftion of beer, 
greafe, fragments of fiffi, fpittle, the excrements of dogs 
and cats, and every thing that is nafty.” Even the floor 
of the prefence-chamber of queen Elizabeth in Green- 
wich-palace, was, according to Hentzner, “ ftrewed with 
hay, after the Englifii fafliion." See Heberden's Obf. on 
the Increafe of Difeafes, 1801. 
We are enabled to form fome judgment of the effcft of 
this ftate of the metropolis upon the health of the inhabi¬ 
tants, by confidering the nature of the difeafes which 
were then prevalent, as well as the comparative mortality 
of thofe, and of our own times. In the early part of our 
hiftory, a great number of years are fpecified as plague- 
years. See the article London, vol. xiii. p. 65, 6, 71-8, 
81-4,90. In the 14th, 15th, and 16th, centuries, there 
fcarcely palled ten years without a confiderable plague ; 
and, although only four great plagues are commonly men¬ 
tioned in the 17th century, viz. in the years 1603, 1625, 
1636, and 1665; yet Maitland, in his Hiftory of London, 
declares that, for five-and-twenty years before the great 
fire of 1666, the city had never been clear from the plague; 
and from the year 1603, when the regifter begins, till 1670, 
the bills of mortality exhibit only three years entirely 
free. The other difeafes, wdiich were frequently epide¬ 
mic in London, were fuch as commonly originate in 
fwampy countries and in camps; namely, intermittent, 
remittent, and fpotted, or malignant, fevers, and dyfen tery. 
Of the great prevalence of thefe difeafes, down to the time 
of the great fire in 1666, we have already given ample evf- 
dence in the article quoted above. 
On the other hand, the progreffive improvement in the 
public health, will be found to be not lefs manifeftl-y fyn- 
chronous with the refinements in the arts of life, and the 
improvements in the economy of the metropolis, if we 
compare the varying progrefs of the annual mortality as ex¬ 
hibited in the bills. Soon after the great fire of 1666, the 
plague altogetherceafed, and has never fince recurred; but 
the other epidemics above mentioned, although fomewhat 
diminifhedin numbers, ftill occurred to a great and fatal 
extent; fo that, in proportion to the aftual population, the 
annual mortality was exceedingly great. This will appear 
in ftrong colours, when it is ftated that the aftual mortality 
was greater at the beginning of the 18th century than at 
the end of it, notwithlfanding the increafe both in the 
number and extent of the out-parifhes, included in the 
bills of mortality. The annual average of deaths in the 
.firft ten years of the century was twenty-one thoufand 
and upwards; in the laft decade of years, only nineteen 
thoufand and upwards. The mortality and quantity of 
difeafe, in proportion to the population, therefore, was 
incalculably greater than at prefent. The principal ame¬ 
lioration in the health of the metropolis, however, feems 
to have been more particularly brought about within the 
laft fixty years. Until nearly the middle of the laft cen¬ 
tury, the mortality kept pace, in fome meafure, with the 
increafing population ; for, in the third and fourth de¬ 
cades, that is, from 1720 to 1740, the annual average of 
burials was from twenty-fix to twenty-eight thoufand; 
and the deaths in 1741, were 32,414, while the chriften- 
ings were only 14,957. From this time the diminution of 
the mortality has been progreffive; and, in the paft year, 
1816, (notwithftanding the vaft increafe of buildings in 
the courfe of feventy-five years,) the burials were only 
20,316, while the chriftenings amounted to 23,581. 
But it is to be obl'erved, that, although very confider¬ 
able improvements w'ere made in the city when it was re¬ 
built after the conflagration of 1666, yet it continued 
highly incommodious, and retained many of its unfalu- 
tary peculiarities, for a century afterwards. For it was 
not until the year 1766, that the example of reform, 
which had been let by the inhabitants of Weftminfter, 
was adopted by parliamentary fanftion in the city. Fleet- 
ditch was then firft covered in; the ftreets were paved 
with large fquared ftones; the figns, gates, and bars, were 
taken down, and a free ventilation admitted; openings 
were made in the incommodious parts of the ftreets ; and 
the accumulation of filth and other fources of miafmata 
farther prevented by the more aftive employment of ica- 
vengers, the increaled lupply of water, Sec. which fyftem 
has been purified,and is ftill continued, to the great orna¬ 
ment 
