Select dissertations on several subjects of medical science / by Sir Gilbert Blane ; now first collected, with alterations and additions; together with several new and original articles.

  • Gilbert Blane
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Select dissertations on several subjects of medical science / by Sir Gilbert Blane ; now first collected, with alterations and additions; together with several new and original articles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Kings College London. The original may be consulted at Kings College London.

    34/420 (page 22)
    not liave been procurable by any bounties however exorbi- tant; for it has been stated, that if the mortality of 1813 had been equal to that of 1779? there would have died an- nually six thousand, six hundred and seventy-four men more than have actually died : which in twenty years would have amounted to 135,480, a number very nearly equal to the whole * number of seamen and marines employed in the last years of the late war. It must not be concealed, however, that the present rate of mortality of the navy, low as it is compared to what it was formerly, is very high when compared to that of sub- jects of the same age, in other situations of life. It will be found by calculations founded on the statement at page 2, that the average rate of mortality for the three last years of the late war has been one in 30.25. This is a high rate for men of an age from twenty to forty years, of whom the great majority of seamen and marines consists. The North- ampton Tables give a mortality of one in fifty-seven in this class of subjects, and these were constructed at a time when the general rate of mortality in England was greater than at present. From a computation founded on the experi- ence of the last forty years, in the Equitable Assurance Office,*!■ it appears that the mortality of persons at this age does not exceed one in one hundred and thirty. This calcu- lation, however, is made on select cases, none but good lives being insured. From the best computation that can be made, the mortality in this class, in the gene^al population of En- gland, is about one half the mortality of all ages, and this being one in forty-nine, according to the population returns of 181], the mortality of subjects from twenty to forty ought to’ be one in ninety-eight; but as the decrease of mortality seems to be chiefly in infants (^certainly so in the metropolis), and as consumptions have been observed to be more frequent of * See page 2 et seq. t Mr. JMorgan, the very diligent and scientific actuary of this office, was so kind as to furnish the author with this information.