the whole parental reproducers of the nation. So that, although Russia is frequently prolific in offspring, and has been an increasing population, yet the laws of death in her territory so actively circumscribe its successive amount, that she is never able to overflood herself nor to overwhelm her neighbours with it.* A guardian care keeps each nation, as to its numbers, in due harmony with every other. Russia is a strong instance of this political fact; for by those laws not more than one third of her population is, at any time, the largest part which is in an effective state, or which can be at all annoying to other nations, extensive as her dominions and superior as her mere numbers are.† accuracy. He has found, that out of every 1000 men who were dead in Russia in the fifteen years he examined, 311 died between the ages of fifteen and sixty; and that the proportion of the intervals was 89 between fifteen and thirty, 102 between thirty and forty-five, and 120 between forty-five and sixty.-Herrmann's Données Statiques, Mem. Acad. Petersb. * It may be useful to notice some of Mr. Herrmann's facts, as they are little known. Of 808,962 who died in Russia from 1798 to 1804 between the ages of fifteen and sixty, and of 1,055,977 between 1805 and 1814, there died at FIRST PERIOD, SECOND PERIOD, 808,962 1,055,977 Herrmann's Données Statiques, Mem. Acad. Petersb. Mr. Herrmann thus classes the dead from fifteen to sixty for the year 1825: Young persons: From 15 to 20 13,356 At Hamburgh, nearly one third died under two years of age; but almost one half had lived till thirty.* In Saxony, the mortality operates most largely on the youngest. Three eighths of the born in 1832 were dead under one year of age;† above half were dead by six years of age; and almost four sevenths by fourteen; a proportion which was completed at twenty. Life then became more prolonged; but these operations reduced the parental possibility to one third alone of the new generation. In Frankfort, on the average of twelve years, three sevenths of the males and two fifths of the females died under twenty years of age. Herrmann's Données Statiques, Mem. Acad. Petersb. *Of 1000 who died at Hamburgh, 316 were under two years and 519 were under thirty.-Bull. Univ., 1830, p. 237. I quote from Mr. Preston's statement to the Statistical Society in April, 1836. The deaths in 1832 were 47,298. Of these, the stillborn and those under one year amounted to 17,668. One third would have been 15,766; three eighths, 17,736. In the next year the deaths were 50,103. Above three eighths of these died under one year, 19,509; three eighths would have been 18,793. In 1834 the effects were more fatal. Of 50,241 deaths, nearly three sevenths were dead under one year, being 21,206. Three sevenths would have been 21,533. In 1832 the dead under six years were 24,068; one half would have been 23,649. In 1833 the deaths under the same period were 26,199; one half would have been 25,051. In 1834 the dead under six were 27,676; half would have been 25,120. The amount was in this year nearly five ninths, which would have been 27,913. In 1832, under fourteen, 26,266; under twenty, 26,961. Four sevenths would have been 27,030. In 1833, under fourteen, 27,747; and under twenty, 28,552. Four sevenths would have been 28,632. So in 1834 the dead under fourteen were 28,177, and under twenty, 29,096. Four sevenths would have been 28,710. The dead from 1817 to 1828, at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, were 6813 males and 6625 females. Of these, 2915 males were dead by twenty, and 2697 females. The three sevenths males would have been 2921, and the two fifths females, 2650.-Bull. Univ., 1831, p. 49, These instances will suffice to lead us to an adoption of the principle that the laws of death, in their general operation in all countries, according to the established agencies and course of nature, confine everywhere the renewal of the population, and all increase of it, to a portion alone of the newborn, and that this portion is not more than from one third to one half of each living generation. It is most frequently nearer the one third; but from these must be deducted those who become too old to be parents; and for this deduction from one fourth to one fifth may reasonably be allowed. Death is thus used as an instrument of limitation to adjust each population to the other, and to keep every nation in its intended condition for the time being, and to adapt and prepare it for its further destinies. Its graduated varieties within these circumscribing limits afford all the scope and means for these modifications that the purpose and emerging circumstances require. But these laws and their governed applications preclude the possibility of the geometrical increase of mankind, and have never suffered it to take place. They have hitherto kept the numbers of all coexisting generations in that state which has been successively most expedient for them; and until these laws and these ratios and agencies are changed, we need never fear a superabundant population in the world. But none can alter them except their Author, and when he changes them his wisdom and benevolence will make the mutation no disadvantage to his human race. LETTER XV. Other Laws of Death.-Mortality increases as Births increase.—Apparent Connexion between the Times of their Occurrence.-Relation between Deaths and the Price of Food.-Effect of Climate and Soil.Results of Childbirth.-Reflections on Infant Deaths. MY DEAR SON, There are a few other laws of death, to which I can but cursorily allude, as I am only taking those general views of this-as of my other great subjects-which will indicate the system and explain the principles of the sacred history of the world without that full investigation of any which their complete elucidation would demand. I am rather seeking to open the paths and direct the observations of my young contemporaries to the themes which deserve their attention, than to furnish them with that plenitude of knowledge on each object of our inquiry which their love of truth and rational views will desire; but which would not suit the purpose of these letters, if I were able to provide it. One of the most remarkable of these laws, though at present a very mysterious one, is the connexion which there seems to be between the number of births and deaths with respect to each other. There are some grounds for thinking, that as the one increases the other also multiplies. More deaths are accompanied with more births in any given period, and more births with more deaths. The French economists and Mr. Sadler have pointed out this interesting fact. None can explain what it is that links them together; and I can only notice the few facts that I know which seem to imply it. But it deserves your attention, if it be found to prevail to any extent, as another testimony, how very determinately and carefully the production of life and death has been regulated and adjusted to each other. If they be thus promotive, and, when occasion requires, corrective of each other, the plan of both has been very deliberately and sagaciously arranged, and is well worth the attentive study of those who have sufficient leisure and inclination to pursue this curious train of inquiry by an extended investigation. The fact has appeared at Maurienne, in Savoy.* In Normandy, births and deaths increased as either were more numerous.† In the Netherlands there were the greatest number born where the greatest number died.‡ * In the lower districts, the movement of the population is more rapid and life shorter than in the more elevated regions. At Maurienne, the births and deaths for twenty years were as to 1000 in these proportions: ALPIN PART. MIDDLE. 638 524 LOWER. 684 660 Bull. Univ., 1831, p. 256. Here the deaths increased as the births increased, but in a larger de Thus, in Zealand, the ratio of births was one in twenty; in 1822. 69,631 62,276 59,653 58,325 1826-1830. The same months in the year are also alleged to have the greater or lesser amount of births and deaths.* At Frankfort, more births and more deaths occurred together, and more marriages also.† In Russia, deaths and births alike multiply,+ as before noticed. Our factory counties likewise seem to multiply both their births and their deaths by the concurrence of their extraordinary proportions; but I have not time to go through the proper calculations now, so as to ascertain the degrees or certainty in which this takes place. The more deaths, in North and South Holland, one in twenty-three; and the deaths one in thirty-one, thirty-four, and thirty-five; while in other provinces, as in Hamburgh, Antwerp, and Groningen, the ratios of births were twentynine, thirty, twenty-eight, and of deaths forty-seven, forty-eight, fortynine. Hence the inference that "the births are in a direct ratio to the mortality."-Bull. Univ., 1827, p. 92. As compared with France In the Pays Bas Ib., 1830, p. 232. * "M. Quetelet has verified the fact, even in the different months of the year, as he showed in his memoir on the mortality of Brussels; and M. Lobatto observed it in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Ghent, Rotterdam, and the Hague."-Ib. "The maximum and minimum of deaths and births were in the same months." These were found to be at Brussels in eighteen years, and by Lobatto in the five cities, thus: All the other months were less than 1000 of each. In July the least of either occurred, being births, 912; deaths, 857.-Ib., p. 92. The series of births and deaths in this city for twelve years were The Parliamentary Report on the Factory System has, in its Appendix, a table of the comparative duration of human life in different places in England; the result is, that in every 10,000 persons who were buried there died |