During a period of nine years, commencing with 1779, and ending with 1787, Dr Heysham of Carlisle kept accurate registers of the births, and of the deaths at all ages, in the two parishes which compre hend that city and its environs ; also the diseases or casualties which the deaths at each age were oc casioned by ; and the sexes were in all cases dis tinguished. These excellent registers were' kept with great care and skill on the plan of Dr Hay - - - - - - — garth above-mentioned, and included all dissenters within the two parishes. Dr Heysham published them from year to year as they were made, and ac companied them with valuable observations on the state of the weather and diseases in each year. Their value was greatly enhanced by two enumerations of the people within the two parishes, the one made in January 1780, the other in December 1787, in both of' which the ages were distinguished, but not the sexes of each age, though the totals of each sex were. These documents, printed in convenient forms, with further information respecting them, and many useful tables deduced from them, may be found in Mr Milne's Treatise on Annuities.
In the third volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, published in 1798, were inserted Observations on the probabilities of the duration of /suntan and on the progress of in the United States of America, contain letter from Mr Barton, which had been read to the Society in March 1791 ; also a postscript to that letter, read in December following ; the returns of an actual enumeration of the people in the United States having been made in the mean time. The information there given from the parish registers is of little value. In the enumerations, the sexes were distinguished, but not the ages, except the numbers of free white males under and above sixteen ; but even that information with regard to the population of America is very interesting, whether we contrast the early with the more recently settled counties, or the whole of the United States witluthe population of Europe.
In the years 1799, 1800, and 1801,.M. Nicander inserted eight different memoirs among those of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, exhibit ing the state of population and mortality in all Sweden and Finland, from the year 1772 to 1795 inclusive. These contain a great number of tables, which present the most interesting results of the Tabellearket during that period ; the ages and sexes, both of the living and the dead, are distinguished with sufficient minuteness, and the number of deaths of each sex by every disease is givbn. The informa tion in these papers is much more complete and sa tisfactory than any other yet collected respecting the state of the population of a whole kingdom, or even of any particular part of it, if we except the observations of Dr Heysham, which were confined to Carlisle and its neighbourhood. M. Nicander was a
Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, also one of the. Commissioners of the Tabellvarket, and their secretary. We are sorry to announce his death, which took place in the summer of 1815.
An enumeration of the people in Spain was made by royal authority in the years 1768 and 1769, and again in 1787 ; a minute ,account of this last was printed at Madrid, showing for each province sepa rately, the numbers of parishes, cities, towns, vil lages, &c. &c. with the number of people in class according to their ranks, professions, occupa tions, &c. and the monastic orders of both sexes were particularly distinguished : to these was pre fixed asummary of the census of 1768 and 1769. In these two enumerations, the ages of the people were not distinguished with sufficient minuteness ; they only showed how many were under 7, between 7 and 16, 16 and 25, 25 and 40, 40 and 50, and 'above 50. In both enumerations,' together with the ages, the distinction of the sexes was given ; in the first, the married were only distinguished from the single; but that of 1787 showed how many of each sex, and in each interval of age, were in the states of celibacy, marriage, and widowhood.
A third enumeration of the people in Spain and the Spanish possessions in Europe and Africa, in cluding the Canary Islands, was made in 1797; and a full account of it, occupying nearly 50 large tables, was printed at Madrid in 1801. The distinction of the ages in this enumeration was still not sufficiently minute ; under 40 it was the same as in the two preceding, but after that age, the number of the living in each interval of 10 years to 100 was given, and the number above 100.