The sexes were distinguished both in these enu merations and extracts from the registers, 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 estimate, not being natives of Great Britain, nor usually resident there. The returns of baptisms and burials were also defective, but few re gisters of dissenters having been included in them.
These abstracts are, however, with respect to the objects they extend to, more minute and satisfactory, than any other accounts of the same kind that have been published ; and it is very desirable that such returns should continue to be made, and abstracts of them printed at regular intervals ; for nothing is so well calculated to show the influence of different causes on the prosperity of a nation, as the compa rison of the different states of the population, and the rate of its progress or declension, under different circumstances I besides, the value of the abstracts we already have, will be much enhanced by the publi cation of others of a similar kind hereafter.
It is much to be regretted, that no information as to the ages of the living, or those at which the deaths took place, was required by either of the acts above referred to ; nor any encouragement or facility af forded to those who might be disposed to collect such information ; and, consequently, that none was given in the returns.
Without better regulations for the keeping of mor tuary registers than those at present is force, with• Out such as should extend to dissenters of every de ; nomination, it would probably be better not to re quire returns of the ages of the deceased from all parts of the kingdom ; for defective or inaccurate returns would only mislead, and, not to mention the difficulty and expense of procuring returns of the ages of all the living, they would be comparatively of little use, where those of the dead were wanting.
But if government were to print forms for making returns both of the numbers of the living and of the annual deaths in proper intervals of age, throughout the extent of life ; only sending such forms along • with those now in use, to such as should apply for them,—then, persons who take an interest m such inquiries, and have the means of making correct re turns, might do so with advantage. And a summa
ry of all of that kind made from different parts of the kingdom, would convey much important information. Returns also, from such places only as were ly circumstanced, might be collected into as many summaries as there were material varieties in the dr cumstances ; and thus would afford the means of de termining the different modifications of the law of mortality, which different circumstances produce. If the diseases that occasioned the deaths were also in serted, the greater prevalence of particular diseases in some circumstances than in others, would be ap parent, with their effects, and the probable means of preventing them, or lessening their mortality.
But, the population enumerated must always be pre. cisely that winch produces the deaths registered ; the grand desideratum being, to determine the number of annual deaths at each age, which takes Place among a given number of the living at the same age.
Mr Milne's Treatise on Annuities and Assurances was published in 1815, and contains clear ab stracts of the most important statements of this kind that have been published since Dr Price's time; these will, we believe, be found to be much more valuable than any thing of the kind that was extant when that ingenious author wrote, whose work has been generally referred to for the best information on such subjects.
Of all the statements derived from bills of morta lity and enumerations of the people, which we have mentioned, only those for Sweden and Finland, and Dr Heysham's for Carlisle, have been given in the proper form, and with suficient correctness to afford the information, which is the most important object of them all,—that which is necessary for determin ing the law of mortality.
To effect this, it is only necessary to know the mean number of the living and of the annual deaths, in sufficiently small intervals of age, throughout the extent of life, for a period of time sufficient to allow of the accidental fluctuations arising from more or less fruitful years, and other causes, compensating each other : such periods, probably, should not be less than eight or ten years ; but the necessary length wilt depend upon the climate, the number of the people; their general modes of life, and their politi cal circumstances.