Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![in 30; in 1823, 1 in 40. In the Pays de Vaud, the mortality is ] to 49; in Sweden and Holland, 1 to 48; in Russia, 1 to 41; in Austria, 1 to 38. Wherever records have been kept, we find that mortality has decreased with civilization. Perhaps a few more persons reach extreme old age among nations in a state of little cultiva- tion ; but it is certain that more children die, and the chance of life, in general, is much less. Jn Geneva, records of mortal- ity have been kept since 1590, which show that, a child born there has, at present, five times greater expectation of life than one born three centuries ago. A like improve- ment has taken place in the salubrity of large towns. The annual mortality of London, in 1700, was 1 in 35; in 1751, 1 in 21 ; in 1801, and the 4 years preceding, 1 in 35; in 1811, 1 in 38; and in 1821, 1 in 40 ; the value of life having thus doubled, in London, within the last 80 years. In Paris, about the middle of the last century, the mortality was 1 in 25; at present, it is about 1 in 32; and it has been calculated that, in the fourteenth century, it was one in 16 or 17. The annual mortality in Berlin has decreased during the last 50 or 60 years, from 1 m 28 to 1 in 34. The mortality in Manches- ter was, about the middle of the last cen- tury, 1 in 25; in 1770, 1 in 28 : 40 years afterwards, in 1811, the annual deaths were diminished to 1 in 44; and, in 1821, they seem to have been still fewer. Iu the middle of the last century, the mortal- ity of Vienna was 1 in 20; it has not, however, improved in the same propor- tion as some of the other European cities. According to recent calculation, it is, even now, 1 in 22£, or about twice the propor- tion of Philadelphia, Manchester or Glas- gow. Many years ago, Mr. Finlayson drew up the following table, to exhibit the difference in the value of life, at two periods of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries. Had it been calculated for 1830, the results would have been still more remarkable. Mean Duration of Life, reckoning from So that the Increase of Vi- Ages. tality is iu the inverse 1693. 1789. Ratio of 100 to Years. Years. 5 41.05 51.20 125 10 38.93 48.28 124 20 31.91 41.33 130 30 27.57 36.09 131 40 22.67 29.70 131 50 17.31 22.57 130 60 12.29 15.52 126 70 7.44 10.39 140 The following is the annual mortality of some of the chief cities of Europe and this country: Philadelphia, 1 in 45.68 Glasgow, 1 in 44 Manchester, 1 in 44 Geneva, 1 in 43 Boston, 1 in 41.26 London, 1 in 40 New York, 1 in 37.83 St. Petersburg, 1 in 37 Charleston, 1 in 36.50 Baltimore, 1 in 35.44 Leghorn, 1 in 35 Berlin, 1 in 34 Paris, Lyons, Barcelona and Strasburg, 1 in 32 Nice and Palermo, 1 in 31 Madrid, 1 in 29 Naples, 1 in 28 Brussels, 1 in 26 Rome, 1 in 25 Amsterdam, 1 in 24 Vienna, 1 in 22£ From Dec. 12, 1828, to Dec. 15, 1829, in London, the whole number of deaths was 23,525. The proportion of deaths, in dif- ferent ages, was as follows: Under two years of age, 6710 Between two and five, 2347 Five and ten, 1019 Ten and twenty, 949 Twenty and thirty, 1563 Thirty and forty, 1902 Forty and fifty, 2093 Fifty and sixty, . 2094 Sixty and seventy, 2153 Seventy and eighty, 1843 Eighty and ninety, 749 Ninety and one hundred, 95 One hundred and one, \ One hundred and eight, 2 On the average of eight years, from 1807](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136774_0076.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
