‘ 
ayo7) 
member to have been told, by thofe who 
had ocular knowledge of the circum- 
ftance. 
When the Nottingham Infirmary was 
building, about 15 years fince, to the 
beft of my recollection, my mother and 
brother went up to view the progrefs of 
the ftruéture. They obferved on the 
ground, where the ftone-mafon was at. 
work, a very large toad, apparently ex- 
piring: this, the mafon faid, he had juf 
found in the ftone before them, which 
had been cafually broken: and pointed 
out the cavity in the ftone, which it had. 
accupied. This faét is unqueftionable. 
Hackney, Sep. 4) 1797+ G. W;, 
na — 
To the Editor of tae Monthly Magazine. 
MR. EDITOR, 
HAT the number of the inhabitants 
of the earth has increafed, is an un- 
doubted faét, but the rate of increafe, 
and the prefent number of the human 
race, are more difficult to be afcertained. 
Sir William Petty amufed himfelf in 
forming a table, ‘ fhowing how the peo- 
ple might have doubled in the feveral ages 
of the world ;? but it is evident that all 
fuch attempts muft be merely hypotheti- 
cal; there are no fuffictent grounds on 
which we can form a fatisfaétory eftimate 
of the progrefs of population, till within 
a very late period, and that only in {mall 
diftriéts. ‘The population of the world, 
which Sir W. P. in 1682, ftated at only 
320 millions, has been eftimated by fome 
writers at about 730 millions, by others, 
at upwards of 900 millions; Mr. Wal- 
lace, of Edinburgh, conjeétured it might 
amount to 1000 millions, and this num- 
ber has fihce been: generally adopted by 
thofe who have noticed the fubjeét ; it 1s 
affumed, in the calculations in your fup- 
plement, p. 501 ; and though it isa point 
on which accuracy cannot be expected, 
a nearer approximation to the truth 
might perhaps be formed, which, I have 
no doubt, would be much greater than 
the above. The principal circumftance 
from which we may prefume that the in- 
habitants of the earth at prefent confi- 
derably exceed 1000 millions, is, that in 
almoft every country where the people 
have been numbered, or fufficient dara 
furnifhed for computing their number, it 
has been found confiderably greater than 
it had been previoufly fuppofed. France, 
the population of which was eftimated 
by Mr. Sufmilch at 16 millions, by M. 
Calculation of the Inhabitants of the Globe. 169 
Deflandes and by Mr. Gibbon at 20 mil- 
lions, and which M. Meffance endca- 
youred to prove amounted to nearly 24 
millions, appeared, from the returns of 
births and burials, to contain at the com- 
mencement of the Revolution, about 30 
millions of inhabitants. Spain, which, 
with Portugal, had been eftimated by M. 
Deflandes to contain only 6 millions of 
inhabitants, and by Mr. Gibbon 8 mil- 
lions, was found, by the enumeration ijn 
1787, to contain alone 10,409,879. Ruf- 
fia, according to the calculation given by 
Mr. Coxe, grounded upon an authentic 
hit of the perfons paying poll-tax, con- 
tains 26,766,360 inhabitants ; and though 
the greater part of this empire, with re- 
{peét to extent, is in Afia, there appears . 
from thefe, and fimilar accounts, fuffi- 
cient reafon to conclude, that the popula- 
tion of Kurope, which has ufyally been 
fuppefed to be about 100, or at moft 110 
millions, is, at prefent, ar leaft 125 mil- 
lions ; it has indeed been lately eliimated 
much higher. 
Afia, which is fuppofed to have given 
inhabitants to all other parts of the world, 
is well known to exceed them in point of 
numbers ; it muft naturally be expedted 
that countries which have’ been the 
longeft fettled, will have the fulleft po. 
pulation. The Britifh poffeffions in the 
Haft Indies are ftated by Col. FuLtar- 
TON tocontain 30,000,000 of inhabitants ; 
yet the population of thefe provinces 
bears but a fmall proportion to that of 
the empire of China, The Abbé Ray- 
nal ftates, that by the laft enameration, 
China contained 59,798.364 men capable 
of carrying arms, exclufive of the Man- 
darins and Bronzes: this would make 
the total number of inhabitants almoft 
incredible, yet €ven this accoant is much 
exceeded by the ftatement given in Sir 
GEORGE STAUNTON’s account of the 
late Embaffy. Chow-ta-Zhin, who is 
faid to be a man of bufinefs and preci- 
fion, and cautioys of advancing faéts, 
at the requeft of Kal Macartney, 
delivered to him a ftarement taken from 
one of the public offices in. the capital, 
of the inhabitants of the fifteen ancient 
provinces of China, or China proper, 
within the great wall; according ta 
which the number of inhabitants, taken 
by a regular enumeration, amounts to 
333,000,000! Ef this account js au- 
thentic, can it be admitted, rhat China 
alone. contains ove-third of the inhabi- _ 
tants of the whole world ? 
September 7, 797. fed al 10 
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