Bills of mortality / by William A. Brend.

  • Brend, William Alfred, 1873-
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bills of mortality / by William A. Brend. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    impunity by our Bills, which we intend fhall not be only as Deaths- heads to put men in mind of their Mortality, but alfo as Mercurial Statues to point out the most dangerous waies that lead us into it and mifery.” He is at pains therefore to show that the number is understated, that some of such deaths are recorded under “ Ulcers ” and “Sores,” and many others under “ Consumption ” for “ the old- women Searchers after the mift of a Cup of Ale, and the bribe of a Two-groat fee, instead of one given them, cannot tell whether this emaciation or leanness were from a Phthijis or from a Hectick Fever, Atrophy etc., or from an Infection of the Spermatick parts.” The next writer on Bills of Mortality was Edmund Halley, the astronomer. Using the Bills of Breslau, in Silesia, in which the ages at death were recorded, he constructed, in 1693, the first life- tables which have any pretensions to scientific accuracy. A later account of Bills of Mortality is given in Strype’s “Stow.” The christenings in 1729 were—of males, 8,736, and of females, 8,324 ; 28,000 die annually, of whom 10,000 are children under two years of age, and about 2,500 more under five years of age. The population of the city, including the out-parishes of Middlesex and Surrey and the City of Westminster, is estimated to be 1,045,075, and a description of the method of arriving at the figures from the annual mortality is given. Mention is also made of other attempts to estimate the population from the number of houses in the city. The number of oxen killed annually, 60,000 or 70,000 ; the quantity of coals burned, 400,000 chaldron; and the amount of strong beer and ale brewed, 1,200,000 barrels. Corbyn Morris, in 1751, made an analysis of the burials and christenings in his “ Observations on the Past Growth and Present State of the City of London.” His tone is pessimistic. He con- siders that the population is decreasing, and, among other reasons for this unhappy state, he gives the following : “ The difeouragement to matrimony in London is a grand operat- ing cause of the diminution of the christenings and confequently of the excels of the burials. The unmarried ladies and gentlemen in this city of moderate fortunes, which are the great bulk, are unable to fupport the expense of a family with any magnificence, and there-
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