A historical account of bills of mortality, and the probability of human life, in Glasgow and other large towns / by James Cleland.

  • Cleland, James, 1770-1840.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A historical account of bills of mortality, and the probability of human life, in Glasgow and other large towns / by James Cleland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    made in n similar manner, and un a large scale, under dilTerent circumstances. Except . in tlie single instance of Stockholm, seventy years ago, an extreme case, ill adapted to the purpose, I am not aware that any such documents have been publi.shed, though great advances have been made, in preparing them at Philadelphia, in North America, and your laudable example is well calculated to produce them by exciting others to undertake the task.” MON8. JEAN BAPTISTE SAY, THE ADAM SMITH OF FRANCE, In reviewing my folio work (in which the Glasgow Pill of Mortality for 18.31 is engrossed) in vol. 2Ist of the second series of the Revue Encyclopedique, Paris, says, “Thu Germans, so famous for their statistics, are now surpassed by the Scotch, for the extent and scrupulous exactness of their details. We have before us a Statistical Account of the City of Glasgow, the facts of which have been drawn together and aiTanged by Mr. Cleland, Superintendent of Public Works : it is a c/tef d’oeuvre. “ Of all the notices that can be collected about a countiy, the most important are those which have relation to its population, because it is from these that the greatest number of conclusions can be drawn relative to the condition of men, and it is this th.at interests us above all. For example—Is the number of persons inci’easing?—We may be certain that the general productions of the country have increased iilso. Is the mean duration of life I prolonged ?—It is evident that the art of living has been improved, that the population are better fed, that they conduct themselves with gi'eatcr propriety, that they inhabit more wholesome lodgings, or that they are better taken care of in infancy, in old age, and when they are sick; in a word, that they are happier. “ We think Mr. Cleland’s Last enumeration the best made; not being able to analyze the numerous tables, we will confine ourselves to those which can be compared with some of the results of the Statistical Tables, lately published by Mons. the Prefect of the Seine. From Mr. Clcland’s statements, results may be drawn very interesting to the political economist, in as much as reliance can be placed on their accuracy, and as they are frequently renewed. In France we reason from old data.” THE celebrated GERMAN PROFESSOR FRIEDLAENDER OF THE SYNDICUS UNIVERSITY, V.D. BORG. In reviewing the work, in the Dorpater Annuals, he remarks, “If every one who engages in collecting Statistical information, would take the same views of it as our author does, that Statistics ought only to be the estimate of the present state of a country, in reference to its future improvement, and that it should be the writer’s principal business, by the most careful examination of all the moral and physical resources of the country, to collect matter of facts, in the consideration of which, the philosopher and statesman may dis- cover laws for the welfare of the people ; statistical works must then bo more frequent, which should rise above local details and local views, up to a general standard, to which the science is indebted for its dignity and high interest, and that justified the London Statistical Society, in giving the motto to their Instructive Tables, ‘every line a moral, every page a history.’ Hut although the greater part of the work before us has reference to a snoall part of Scotland only, and in proportion communicates but little information in regard to Great Britain, still it contains such invaluable materials of political econo- my, and endeavours with so much solidity and spirit, to illustrate many of the economi- cal circumstances of the most industrious commercial county in Scotland, which had been greatly neglected, as too difficult to explain; that it therefore becomes a duty to pay