The Insurance Cyclopeadia

BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT FIRE INS. Co., founded in Birmingham in 1834; and in 1851 it took the name of the District Fire, under which title we shall speak of it more at large. [DISTRICT FIRE INS. Co.]

BIRMINGHAM FIRE INS. CO., LIM.-See BIRMINGHAM ALLIANCE FIRE INS. Co. BIRMINGHAM FIRE OFFICE CO., founded at Birmingham in 1805, with a cap. of £300,000, in 1200 shares of £250 each. In 1810 it obtained a special Act of Parl., 50 Geo. III. c. xc., An Act to enable the Birmingham Fire Office Co. to sue in the name of their Sec. The Act was not to incorp. the Co. In 1824 the Co. collected in fire duty £5161; in 1834, £7042; 1844, £10,196; 1854, £14,233; 1864, £14,992.

The Co. was one of great respectability. In 1867 its bus. was trans. to the Lancashire. BIRMINGHAM AND GENERAL.-This Co. was projected in Birmingham in 1854, and went through all the stages up to complete regis., after which we lose sight of it. BIRMINGHAM LIFE ASSU. AND ANNU. OFFICE, founded at Birmingham in 1810, and worked, we believe, in connexion with the Birmingham Fire Office, founded in 1805. In 1810 the Co. obtained a special Act, 50 Geo. III. c. lxxxix., An Act to Enable the Birmingham Life Assu. and Annu. Office to Sue in the Name of their Sec., and to inrol Annu. The Act was not to extend to incorp. the Co.

The bus. of the Co. was sinall; and in 1826 the Co. ceased to carry on the same. Its pol. were trans. to Provident Life, before any material loss had occurred. The Co. paid the Provident a cash consideration for taking over the risks.

BIRMINGHAM AND LOND. Assu. Asso.-This Co. was promoted in 1853 by Mr. William Sweeney, Con. Act. We believe the title was afterwards changed to London and Birmingham. The project did not go forward.

BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES INS. Co.-An Ins. Co. under this title was projected in 1850 by Mr. E. Oliver, of 6, Temple Row, Birmingham, solicitor, and 6 others, and was completely regis. ; but we hear no more of it.

BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND LIFE INS. Co., founded in Birmingham in 1862, with an authorized cap. of £100,000 in 20,000 shares of £5 each, £I paid. In 1865 the Co. merged into the Birmingham Alliance Life. Mr. J. B. Bannerman was Act. and Sec. of the Co.

BIRT, S., pub. in 1737 Essay to Ascertain the Value of Leases, etc.

BIRTH. The act of coming into life.

BIRTHS. Many problems regarding births come before actuaries; many more will arise when the next phase of life ins.—that of making a complete provision for prospective families at the time of marriage-shall develope itself. The exact knowledge required by the office before embarking on such an enterprise is accumulating. These increasing facts in the mean time are useful in that not unfrequent branch of business-Ins. against Issue.

It was in 1661 that Graunt, in his Natural and Political Observations, etc., made his famous observation, "that the more sickly the years are, the less fecund or fruitful of children they also be," which (he continued) "will appear if the number of children born in the said sickly years be less than that of the years both next preceding and next following; all which upon view of the tables will be found true, except in a very few cases, where sometimes the precedent and sometimes the subsequent years vary a little, but never both together. Moreover, for the confirmation of this truth, we present you the year 1660, when the burials were fewer than in either of the two next precedent years by 2000, and fewer than in the subsequent by above 4000. And withal, the number of christenings in the said year 1660 was far greater than in any of the three years next aforegoing."

He (Graunt) made many most interesting and sagacious obs. For instance, he was the first to discover that there were more males than females born; but he does not appear to have surmised that female life was of longer duration than male life, and that from this cause there were always more females than males living; indeed, he was led to an entirely opposite conclusion. But his remarks are full of originality, and always suggestive. He says:

The next obs. is that there be more males than females. 1. There have been buried from the year 1628 to the year 1662 exclusive, 209,436 males, and but 190,474 females. But it will be objected that in Lond. it may be indeed so, though otherwise elsewhere, because Lond. is the great stage and shop of business, wherein the masculine sex bears the greatest part. But we answer that there have been also christened within the same time 139,782 males, and but 130,866 females, and that the country accounts are consonant enough to those of Lond. upon this matter. 2. What the causes hereof are we shall not trouble ourselves to conjecture, as in other cases, only we shall desire that travellers would inquire whether it be the same in other countries.

He follows up the subject:

We have hitherto said that there are more males than females; we say next, that the one exceeds the other by about a thirteenth part. So that although more men die violent deaths than women, that is, more are slain in wars, killed by mischance, drowned at sea, and die by the hand of justice; moreover, more men go to colonies, and travel into foreign parts than women; and lastly, more remain unmarried than of women, as Fellows of Colleges, apprentices above 18, etc., yet the said thirteenth part difference bringeth the business but to such a pass that every woman may have a husband, without the allowance of polygamy. Moreover, although a man may be prolific 40 years, and a woman but 25, which makes the males to be as 560 to 325 females, yet the causes above named, and the later marriage of men, reduce all to an equality.

Again :

It appearing that there were 14 men to 13 women, and that they die in the same proportion also; yet I have heard physicians say that they have two women patients to one man, which assertion seems very likely. Now from this it should follow that more women should die than men, if the number of burials answered in proportion to that of sicknesses; but this must be solved, either by the alledging that the physicians cure those sicknesses, so as few more die than if none were sick; or else that men being more intemperate than women die as much by reason of their vices as women do by the infirmity of their sex; and consequently more males being born than females, more also die.

He found out-or imagined that he found out-that the proportions of males to females born varied in different districts; for at Cranbrook (he says) there be 20 males for 19 females; in Hantshire [Hampshire] 16 for 15; in Lond. 14 for 13; and at Tiverton 12 for II.

Graunt, reviewing the proportion of births in Lond. compared with the country, arrived at the conclusion that "the breeders in Lond. were proportionably fewer than those in the country," and that the difference arose from reasons of which the following is the substance:

1. All that have business to the Court of the King, or to the Courts of Justice, and all country-men coming up to bring provisions to the City, or to buy foreign commodities, manufactures, and rarities, do for the most part leave their wives in the country.

2. Persons coming to live in Lond. out of curiosity and pleasure, as also such as would retire and live privately, do the same, if they have any.

3. Such as come up to be cured of diseases, ditto.

4. That many apprentices of Lond. who are bound seven or nine years from marriage, do often stay longer voluntarily.

5. That many sea-men of Lond. leave their wives behind them, who are more subject to die in the absence of their husbands.

6. Causes of general unhealthiness.

7. As to the causes of barrenness in Lond., I say, that although there should be none extraordinary in the native air of the place, yet the intemperance in feeding, and especially the adulteries and fornications, supposed more frequent in Lond. than elsewhere, do certainly hinder breeding.

8. Add to this, that the minds of men in Lond. are more thoughtful, and full of business, than in the country, where their work is corporal labour and exercises; all which promote breeding, whereas anxieties of the mind hinder it.

In 1682 Sir William Petty pub., An Essay Concerning the Multiplication of Mankind, wherein he proposed to consider “How many men and women are prolific, and how many of each are married or unmarried." We shall have occasion to speak of this essay more at large under POPULATION.

In 1683 he pub. Another Essay in Political Arithmetic, Concerning the Growth of the City of Lond.; with the Measures, Periods, Causes, and Consequences thereof; wherein he starts the proposition, “That it is possible to increase mankind by generation four times more than at present." Then he proceeds to measure the period in which the "people double," by estimating the excess of births over the burials. Here is a specimen of his method :

I might here insert, that although the births in this last computation be 25 of 600, or a twenty-fourth part of the people, yet that in the natural possibility they may be near thrice as many, and near 75. For that by some late obs., the teeming females between 15 and 44 are about 180 of the 600, and the males of between 18 and 59 are about 180 also, and that every teeming woman can bear a child once in two years; from all which it is plain that the births may be 90 (and abating 15 for sickness, young abortions, and natural barrenness), there may remain 75 births, which is an eighth of the people; which by some obs. we have found to be but a two-and-thirtieth part, or but a quarter of what is thus shown to be naturally possible. Now according to this reckoning, if the births may be 75 of 600, and the burials but 15, then the ann. increase of the people will be 60, and so the 600 people may double in 10 years, which differs yet more from 1200 above-mentioned. Now to get out of this difficulty, and to temper those vast disagreements, I took the medium of 50 and 30 dying p.a., and pitch'd upon 40; and I also took the medium between 24 births and 23 burials, and 5 births and 4 burials, viz., allowing about 10 births for 9 burials; upon which supposition there must die 15 p.a. out of the above-mentioned 600, and the births must be 16 and two-thirds, or five-thirds of a man; which number compared with 1800 thirds, or 600 men, gives 360 years for the time of doubling-including some allowance for wars, plagues, and famine, the effects whereof, though they be terrible at the times and places where they happen, yet in a period of 360 years is no great matter in the whole nation.

In 1686 (perhaps the first ed. a year or two earlier) he pub., Observations upon the Dublin B. of Mort., 1681, and the State of that City, wherein he asserts, as another proposition, "That the Births are the best way (till the accompts of the people shall be purposely taken) whereby to judge of the Increase and Decrease of People; that of burials being subject to more contingencies and variety of causes." Upon this he proceeds:

If the births be as yet the measure of the people, and that the births (as has been shown), are as 5 to 8, then eight-fifths of the births is the number of the burials, where the year was not considerable for extraordinary sickness or salubrity; and is the rule wherby to measure the same, as for example: The medium of the births in Dublin was 1026, the eight-fifths whereof is 1641, but the real burials were 1644; so as in the said years they differed little from the 1641, which was the standard of health; and consequently the years 1680, 1674, and 1668, were sickly years, more or less, as they exceeded the said number 1641; and the rest were healthful years, more or less, as they fell short of the same number. But the city was more or less populous, as the births differed from the number 1026, viz., populous in the years 1680, 1679, 1678, and 1668; for other causes of this difference in births are very occult and uncertain. What hath been said of Dublin serves also for Lond.

Regarding the excess of males over females, he says, "It hath already been observ'd by the Lond. Bills, that there are more males than females. It is to be further noted, that in these 6 Lond. Bills also, there is not one instance, either in the births or burials, to the contrary." Then again, confirming the view of Graunt [it has been said, without

foundation, that Petty and Graunt were one and the same], "It hath been formerly observ'd, that in the years wherein most dye, fewest are born, and vice versa. The same may be further observed in males and females, viz., when fewest males are born, then most dye."

On the question of the proportions of male and female births, there was a good deal of speculation by the older writers. Goodman, early in the 17th century, supposed that more females than males were born. Turgot (French) speculated the other way, and was correct; but he does not appear to have founded his statement upon any data, and it must be regarded only as a guess. Herder (German), writing as recently as 1785, takes for granted that the proportions were about equal. Dr. John Arbuthnot, in his book of the Laws of Chance, etc., pub. 1692, was one of the first writers who treated of the subject in a really philosophical manner [Phil. Trans., No. 328]. He had made himself fully acquainted with the fact that the male births predominated.

M. Nicolas Bernouilli collected from T. of Obs. [B. of Mort. ?] continued for 82 years -1629 to 1711-that the number of births in Lond. was at a medium about 14,000 yearly; and further, that the number of males, in relation to the number of females, was nearly 18 to 17. Still he seemed to think that chance, rather then Divine decree, played a part in this incident of production. We confess we think his own argument points the other way. He says: "Let 14,000 dice, each having 35 faces-18 white and 17 black-be thrown up, and it is great odds that the number of white and black faces shall come as near, or nearer to each other, as the number of boys and girls do to the tables." His reasoning on this subject is contained in his two letters to M. de Montmort, dated Lond. 11 Oct., 1712; the other, Paris, 23 Jan., 1713, pub. in the Appendix to the Analyse des Jeux de Hazard, 2nd ed. His cousin Daniel Bernouilli returned to the same subject. We have noted his views in our biographical notice of him.

In 1695 the 6 & 7 of Wm. & Mary, c. 6, was passed; and this was the first legislative measure which provided for the regis. of Births. Its provisions were strict. They were not, however, conceived for the good of the people, but to serve the fiscal necessities of the State. Births were subjected to a tax, and the records were to be kept exact, in order that the full measure of the tax might be exacted. [MORTALITY TAX.]

In Natural and Political Obs. and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England, written by Gregory King, Lancaster Herald, in 1696 [but only pub. as an appendix to an ed. of Chalmers' Estimate in 1802], we find many curious statements regarding the births of the people, and the following we regard as worthy of special note, as exhibiting the notions of the best-informed men of that period. He says, "the yearly births of the kingdom being 190,000 souls, those under 1 year old are in all 170,000 :-males 90,000; females 80,000." In regard to the proportions of the sexes at birth he was nearly right. He makes up his total as follows:

I in 28.85

He next found "that in 1000 co-existing persons":

There are 71 or 72 Marriages in the Country, producing 34°3 Children.

78
94

Marriages in Towns

Marriages in London

Whereby it follows:

35 2 Children.
37'6 Children.

20,000 30,600 139,400

190,000

1. That though each marriage in Lond. produceth fewer people than in the country, yet Lond. in general, having a greater proportion of breeders, is more prolific than the other great towns; and the great towns are more prolific than the country. 2. That if the people of Lond., of all ages, were as long-lived as those in the country, Lond. would increase in people much faster pro rata than the country. 3. That the reason why each marriage in Lond. produces fewer children than the country marriages seems to be: (1). From the more frequent fornications and adulteries. (2). From a greater luxury and intemperance. (3). From a greater intenseness to business. (4). From the unhealthiness of coal smoke. (5). From a greater inequality of age between the husbands and wives. And that it may appear what the effect is, of the inequality of ages in married couples, I have collected the following obs. from a certain great town Lichfield] in the middle of the kingdom, consisting of near 3000 souls. 1. That there is no child of any parents now living in the said town where the wife is 17 years older than the husband, or the husband 19 years older than the wife. 2. That the whole number of children being 1060, the number of those whose mother was older than the father is 228, and where the husband was older than the wife, 832. 3. That one moiety of the whole number of children in the said town is the product of such parents where the husband is 4 or more years older than his wife. 4. That the greater number of children, with respect to any one number of years of difference in age between the husband and wife, is where the husband is 2 years older than the wife, the product whereof is 147, or a seventh part of the whole. 5. That an equality of age in the husband and wife is not so prolific as an inequality, provided that inequality exceed not a superiority of 4 years in the wife, or 10 years in the husband; for the equality of years produced but 23 children; whereas 1 year's inequality in the age of the parents, either way, produced above 60. 6. That of the said 1060 children in the whole town, nearly three-quarters of them are the product of coalitions from 2 years' superiority of age in the wife inclusive, to 6 years' superiority of age in the husband inclusive. 7. That the highest powers in men and women for procreation is, in that town, at 31 years of age in the husband, and 28 in the wife; the produce of the former being 86 children, and of the latter, 83. 8. That one moiety of the said 1060 children are the product of fathers from 28 to 35 years of age inclusive, and of mothers, from 25 to 32. Whence it follows that a just equality, or too great an inequality of age in marriages, are prejudicial to the increase of mankind; and that the early or late marriages in men and women do tend little to the propagation of the human race. Lastly. From a

consideration of the male and female children in the said town, and the ages of their parents at the time when such children were respectively conceived, a scheme may be estab. of the powers of generation, and the inclination of the several coalitions towards the producing the one or the other sex, according to the superiority of power in either sex, at the time of such respective coalitions.

In 1710 was pub. New Proposals by the Prolifical So. for Promoting a Contribution towards raising a Monthly Dividend on the Birth of Infants to be born in Wedlock, and living on the second day after their Birth. We shall speak of this So. more at large under POPULATION.

In 1742 Herr Sussmilch pub. in Berlin a treatise On the Divine Decree in the Variations of the Human Race, with regard to Births, Deaths, etc. The work is frequently quoted by Malthus, Price, Milne, and other writers. We do not think it necessary to dwell upon it here. It is often quoted in these pages.

In 1747 a project was set on foot for a General Registry of Births kept at the Herald's Office, on St. Bennett's Hill, near St. Paul's, Lond. The prosp. of the scheme says:

As a General Registry of Births will be of the greatest use in preventing many controversies, and clearing up various difficulties with respect to inheritances and claims of different natures, The King's Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms have thought proper to open a Gen. Regis, of the Births of all Persons, whether natives or foreigners, whom the extensive commerce of this nation may invite to live among us, who shall think fit to apply to them at the Office of Arms.

The Supreme Courts of Judicature being held near this metropolis, a Gen. Regis. of Births from all parts of H.M. dominions collected into one, and ready at hand to be consulted, as in the case of wills, must save great trouble and expence which people are put to when it is necessary to consult such regis. as are now kept dispersed in the several parishes, and which do not comprehend the numerous births of children not baptized in the Estab. Church, or not baptized at all. Proper books will be provided for making the necessary entries, viz., for Lond. and places within the B. of mort.; for the country; and for the colonies abroad. Likewise one for entering the births of persons of any age, born before Christmas-Day, 1747.

There will be daily attendance given, holidays excepted, at the Office of Arms or Herald's Office aforesaid, at the usual office hours, viz., from nine in the morning till one, and from three till five in the afternoon, by a herald and a pursuivant, who are sworn officers; one of whom will make due and exact entries of what is brought before them.

For such who live in Lond., and can conveniently come to the office, one or both the parents are desired to attend there in person; or, in case that can't be done, two persons who were present at the birth, the midwife for one, if convenient, may attend and sign the entry, which shall be witnessed by two officers of arms, in the regis.-book, on paying the fee of half-a-crown; and at the same time an attested certificate of the entry made shall be given upon parchment, and sealed with the seal of the office.

For persons at a distance, they are desired to draw up a certificate, to be signed either by one or both the parents, or by two persons present at the birth, and if convenient the midwife for one, and to go to some neighbouring Justice of the Peace, before whom they are desired to make affidavit of the truth; which certificate and affidavit being transmitted to the office, with the fee of half-a-crown, shall be duly entered by one of the officers in waiting, and the originals shall be filed, or otherwise carefully kept. But if one person present at the birth can attend the office, and bring a certificate signed by one or both the parents, or two persons present at the birth, done in his presence, such certificate shall be enter'd, the person so attending signing the entry in the regis.-book in the presence of one of the officers in waiting. If the time and place of the parents' marriage be also given in, it may be a means of proving those marriages with more ease. But the mother's father's name should always be inserted.

In the 3rd ed. of De Moivre's Doctrine of Chances, pub. 1756, he takes up the reasoning of Nicolas Bernouilli, to which we have referred in this present art., and shows how he had misrepresented the argument of Dr. John Arbuthnot and others. Thus :

Dr. Arbuthnot never said, "that supposing the facility of the production of a male to that of the production of a female to be already fixt in nearly the ratio of equality, or to that of 18 to 17; he was amazed that the ratio of the numbers of males and females born should for many years keep within such narrow bounds "-the only proposition against which Mr. Bernouilli's reasoning has any force. But he might have said, and we do still insist, that "as from the obs., we can, with Mr. Bernouilli, infer the facilities of the production of the two sexes to be nearly in a ratio of equality; so from this ratio once discovered, and manifestly serving to a wise purpose, we conclude the ratio itself, or if you will, the form of the die, to be an effect of intelligence and design." As if we were shown a number of dice, each with 18 white and 17 black faces, which is Mr. Bernouilli's supposition, we should not doubt but that those dice had been made by some artist, and that their form was not owing to chance, but was adapted to the particular purpose he had in view.

It is clear that De Moivre viewed the whole question in the light of this general proposition, which he had laid down, and which is the very converse of the reasoning of many writers, both ancient and modern, "that although chance produces irregularities, still the odds will be infinitely great, that in process of time, those irregularities will bear no proportion to the recurrence of that order which naturally results from orig. design.' This argument certainly seems to apply in a remarkable manner to the proportion of births. In the Phil. Trans. for 1767 (vol. 57), there is a paper by Dr. Thomas Heberden, Of the Increase and Mort. of the Inhabitants of the Island of Madeira. In this island it appeared that for the 8 years 1759-66, the weddings had been to the births as 10 to 468; and to the burials as 10 to 275, or 9 to 24'75.

That the numerical progress of a community may be approximately ascertained by means of carefully compiled regis. of its birth, read in the light of its death registers, complied with equal care, has long been known. But in order to be exact, it is necessary that there be no fluctuations in the pop. by means of emigration, or immigration. instance is recorded by Dr. Derham, in his Physico-Theology [first pub. 1713, but afterwards passing through many eds.], in the parish of Aynho in Northamptonshire-a purely agricultural district-where for a period of 118 years, the births had been to the marriages

as 6 to 1; yet the burials had been to the marriages only as 3 to 1. various instances of this character. [See also Porter, 1833, in this art.]

Dr. Price gives Dr. Price found that in the town of Northampton, for the 40 years 1741-80, the number of christened was in the whole 6326—of which 3218 were males, and 3108 females.

In 1798 the Rev. T. R. Malthus pub. his famous Essay on the Principle of Population, etc., wherein he laid down views regarding the influence of the birth-rate upon the welfare of a community, differing almost entirely from the views of any other writer, either before or since. His work has given rise to a large amount of controversy upon which we do not propose to enter here. [POPULATION.]

In our art. on BILLS OF MORT. various items of information are given regarding Births; and under date 1823 some very remarkable figures are given regarding the births, and proportion of sexes, in the City of Palermo.

In 1827 Herr Hofacker pub. at Tubingen his work: De qualitatibus Parentium in Sobolem prodeuntibus præsertim rei Equariæ, etc., of which, however, but little was known in Europe generally, and that little was obtained by means of an extract from it contained in the Annales d' Hygiène, 1829. The researches of Hofacker were based upon 2000 births in the city of Tubingen, in Wurtemburg. But as his Tables have since been communicated to the Assu. Mag. in extenso [vol. iii. p. 259], it seems unnecessary to repeat them here. They go to show that the sex is determined by the superior age of the male or female parent. He made some researches into a rural pop. of more limited extent than his city obs. Thus in a village there were born in 43 marriages where the wife was older than the husband, 83 boys and 103 girls; 17 marriages, where the husband was older by 9 to 12 years than the wife, 46 boys and 33 girls; II marriages, where the husband was 50 to 60 years old, 10 boys and 4 girls.

In other villages he found similar proportions; and on the whole his researches led to the conclusion that in cases where the wife is older than the husband, the proportion between the girls and boys is 1031 to 1000.

In 1830, Mr. M. T. Sadler, M. P., pub. his Law of Population: a Treatise in six books, in Disproof of the superfecundity of human beings, and developing the real principle of their increase. His theory, as will be judged from the title of his work, was altogether opposed to that of Malthus.

In 1833 Mr. G. R. Porter pub. his Progress of the Nation; and therein he laid it down that the proportionate number of children born in any country could not be taken as any test of the number of its inhabitants:

For it is well known that in climates where the waste of human life is excessive, from the combined causes of disease and poverty affecting the mass of the inhabitants, the number of births is proportionably greater than is experienced in countries more favourably circumstanced. Frequently, and indeed almost always, in old settled countries, the proportionate number of births decreases with the advance of civilization and the more general diffusion of the conveniences and luxuries of life. In fact, the pop. does not so much increase because many are born, as because few die.

The subject is treated in a somewhat different light by Sang in his Essays on Life Assu., 1852. [POPULATION.]

In a paper by M. Edouard Mallet, entitled Historical and Statistical Inquiries respecting the Pop. of Geneva from 1549 to 1833, which appeared in the 17th vol. of the Annales d' Hygiène Publique, were contained various facts of interest concerning births, etc. For instance, the proportions between the marriages and the births from 1814 to 1833 were found to be 1 in 271, or nearly 2 children to each marriage. If 517 stillborn legitimate children were added, the proportions came to be 2.7193 born alive; stillborn, o'1429 together, 2·8622 conceptions to each marriage. The writer says hereon :—

This mode of calculating the proportion by the total number of marriages and the total number of births may be questioned, as the regis. do not distinguish the marriages which have proved barren; and the births in a town do not exactly correspond with the marriages in the same town. In Geneva children are born of parents who were married elsewhere, and persons who are married there settle in other parts. Besides, the births which are regis. in one year do not correspond with the marriages celebrated in the same year; therefore the births which took place in 1814 were the offspring of the marriages of the previous year, and the births consequent on the marriages in 1833 will not appear before the following year.

These objections could not be overlooked in considering the fecundity of a pop. for 1 or 2 years only; but in doing so for a period of 20 years their force disappears. As the fruitfulness of the marriages of 1814-15-16 has prob. ceased before 1833; and if the children who spring from the marriages of 1833 are excluded, their number will be nearly balanced by that of the children included from the marriages of 1813.

He next reviews the births of males and females during the years 1695 to 1791, both inclusive. The totals were 68,764, of which 35,022 were males, and 33,742 were females. In one decennial only, 1761-70, did the female births slightly exceed the male births:

The male births were 50'93 p.c. of the total number, and in proportion to the female births were as 1038 to 100. The female births were 49'07 p.c. of the total number, and in proportion to the male births were as 96'3 to 100. As in the same years there were 65,030 deaths, the births exceeded the deaths by 3734, or 1. On comparing the births and deaths of each sex, the following results appear: Male Births