There appears at present no necessity to return weekly bills from the different parishes. This was originally intended to warn the London inhabitants of the numbers destroyed by the plague, and the infected parishes. Quarterly returns to the general hall would be sufficient; and one general annual bill, in which the quarterly mortality should be distinguished; in order to point out the seasons most noxious, and the reigning diseases; or to mark the hurricanes and monsoons of mortality. In infancy, and the early part of life, when the tide of devastation is strong and rapid, the mortality should be measured in shorter intervals. The first year from birth should be divided into interstices, from birth to six months, when teething commences; from six months to one year; from one to two; two to three; three to four; four to five; five to ten; ten to twenty; and so on to one hundred and upwards. Exclusive of abortions and stillborn, those who die in the first month before baptism, and of course cannot be included in the christenings, should be distinguished, in order to determine more accurately the amount of the births. Separate columns should be assigned for the name of the disease or casualty; for the cause, if known; and the duration of the affliction. Annexed to each disease should be the numbers dying at different ages of that malady. Males grown up to maturity who die, should be distinguished either as married, widowers, or bachelors; and females also of this description, either as married, widows, or virgins. Those carried out of London, or into it, for interment; the parochial children who die at nurse in the vicinity of the metropolis; the rank, profession, or trade; whether native or foreigner; should all appear in the general annual report in separate columns. The annual reports of all the hospitals, dispensaries, and prisons, and of the executed, should also be made to the hall, and included in the general annual register.
There are often objections and scruples to apply effectual remedies, or radical cures, to ancient institutions, however defective and inadequate. There certainly is no necessity for such a cumbrous complex machinery, or multitude of parish searchers and clerks, for conducting the London bills. Indeed they might probably be all dispensed with. The reports of the relations of the deceased, or of the parish officers, to the curate of the different churches, would perhaps answer every purpose; and the perquisites would be a considerable addition to the clerical pittance. I mean, however, only to offer a simple, easy, and unexceptionable palliative; which is, to appoint a physician to superintend the general hall, and the reports of births, burials, and diseases: and the whole to be subjected to the inspection of a committee of the Medical College, or of the Royal or Medical Societies. This would give authenticity, credibility, and respectability to the registers. From such a rich mine, and an authentic magazine, the most important and beneficial information would be derived; the increase or decrease of deaths, marriages, and births; the annual waste of the metropolis; the health, mortality, the diseases most fatal, their growth or declension; the effects of diet, drink, and medical practice. Calculators of annuities, reversions, survivorships, and insurances, would then be supplied with certain, instead of conjectural data: at present this alone is a prodigious article of traffick and commerce in this country: much litigation and expence respecting births and deaths, and the right to inheritance, would also be prevented. In a word, a vast variety of most interesting medical and political propositions, which are entangled in intricacy and obscurity, would, by this means, be evolved, and indisputably demonstrated.
It is also most devoutly to be wished, for the health, comfort, and decency of the metropolis, that all, or at least the majority of the burying grounds, were ordered to be formed in some dry spots of ground at the different extremities of the city; and that the dead were more detached from the living. No one whose curiosity for information has led him to these melancholy wrecks of human vanity, and to behold the yawning mouths of sepulchres, can reflect without pain and astonishment, on the manner in which between twenty and thirty thousand corpses are annually crammed into various holes, corners, public thoroughfares, and churches of this city: a feeling mind must shudder at, and shrink from the description. Nor can these cadaverous exhalations fail to pollute the air, and to engender diseases. Let the clerical revenue arising from graves be transferred to the new cemeteries.
We shall conclude, by pointing out the most celebrated treatises on human propagation, existence, mortality, and morbid devastation, by several philosophers. This is the epoch of a new science in politicks, philosophy, and medicine. Meritorious and successful efforts have been made to calculate the prospects of life and death, as the chances on dice, or the blanks and prizes in a lottery wheel. Graunt, somewhat later than the middle of the last century, first wrote a treatise on the London bills of births and mortality, and was followed soon after by Petty, King, and Davenant. The present century has produced several treatises on this subject; of which the most celebrated are Dr. Halley’s; De Moivre’s Treatises on Annuities and Chances; Susmilch’s Calculations; Simpson’s Select Exercises; some essays in the Philosophical Transactions; Dr. Jurin on the Small Pox only; Dr. Short’s Observations on various Bills of Mortality; M. Messance; Dr. Price’s Essays, the Archimedes in annuitant and reversionary calculation; Birch’s Collection of the London Bills of Mortality to 1759; Dr. Percival’s Essays; Dr. Millar’s Calculations respecting the Diseases of Great Britain, and Military Diseases; and Dr. Robinson’s, respecting Maritime Diseases.
Our curtain being now ready to fall, we shall address a few words to the Reader.—The present Publication had its origin in so short a time from the following circumstance. About six months ago, the President of the Medical Society of London called upon the author, at the desire of the Society, to request that he would deliver the annual oration, which was then fixed at four months distance only from that period: to which, with some reluctance, he consented. Indeed, he considered the solicitation both as a compliment, and a literary challenge: because, by the rules of the Society, one year’s previous notice to the orator had been the invariable practice. In the execution of this arduous and unprecedented attempt, the author is not ashamed to boast of industry and zeal. Were he to enumerate, in narrative and detail, the difficulties and fatigue which he had to encounter in collecting merely the materials of new information, he is persuaded that most gentlemen would have considered that alone sufficient exercise for their industry, patience, and perseverance during many months. Had he chosen to have followed the rhetorical path of the London College, his talk would have been far less onerous. But notwithstanding the eminent talents scattered throughout that learned body, from Linacre down to Hulse, Wintringham, Baker, Warren, Turton, &c. their united catalogue of public declarations, however classical, have not much contributed to medical edification, or public utility.
FINIS.
[ERRATA.]
Page 9, line 15, personl, read personal; p. 37, l. 21, science, read sciences; p. 42, l. 26, coctaneous, read cœtaneous; p. 48, l. 17, Rocherches, read recherches; p. 71, l. 3, and extravasated, read by extravasated; p. 114, l. 8, the face is overspread, read overspreading the face; p. 124, l. 20, pressing, read depressing; p. 198, l. 16, lactation, read ablactation; p. 224, l. 8, read sounds are scarcely audible; and there is confused noise in the ears; p. 220, l. 25 and 6, eyes, pharynx, tongue, read the eyes, the pharynx, the tongue; p. 229, l. 17, lucubrious, read lugubrious; p. 233, l. 20, remnant amongst, read remnant sunk amongst; p. 258, l. 5, its deficiency and excess, read deficiency and excess of its; p. 260, l. 7, Epididymis, read Epididymidis; p. 262, l. 9, scirrhous, read scirrhus; p. 279, l. 24, manbile, read morbile; p. 283, l. 12, consistence and size, read consistence, size, and number; p. 286, l. 13, lactation, read ablactation; p. 326, l. 13, muliri, read mulieri; p. 329, l. 9, debility with, read with debility.
[Transcriber’s Note. As well as correcting the errata above, the following changes have been made to the text: