BILLS OF MORTALITY are accounts of the births and deaths within a certain dis trict; and they were an expedient, with the view of communicating to.theinhabitants of London, to the court, and to the constituted authorities of the city, accurate information respecting the increase or decrease in the number of deaths. These bills were com menced in 1592, during a time when the plague was busy with its ravages; but they were not continued until, the occurrence of another plague in 1603, from which period, up to the present time, they have been continued from week to week, excepting during the great fire, when the deaths of two or three weeks were given in one bill. In 1605, the parishes comprised within. the B. of 31. included the 97 parishes within the walls, 16 parishes without the walls, and 6 contiguous out-parishes in 3lid dlesex and Surrey. In 1662, the city of Westminster was included in the bills; in 1636, the parishes of Islington; Lambeth, Stepney, Newington, Hackney, and Redriff. Other
additions were made from time to time. At present, the weekly B. of 31. include the 07 parishes within the walls. 17 parishes without the walls, 24 out-parishes in Middle sex and Surrey, including the district churches, and 10 parishes in the city and liberties of Westminster. The parishes of Marylebone and St. Pancras, with some others, which, at the beginning of last century, had only 9150 inhabitants, but now contain a rapidly increasing population, were never included in the bills.
But these bills are now, from want of proper machinery, of little or no value, and the only true bill is now that prepared at the register-general's office, under the new reg istration act. The first of these weekly bills was commenetd Jan. 11, 1840, and the series has been continued from that time without interruption. See Wharton's Lam, Dictionary, 2d edition, 1860, and Knight's London.