Report on the vital statistics of the United States : made to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York / by James Wynne.

  • Wynne, James, 1814-1871.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the vital statistics of the United States : made to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York / by James Wynne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    continued by the Greeks and the Romans, but the records which contained the enumerations like those of the nations that preceded them, have unfor- tunately been destroyed; and their previous existence is only revealed by collateral testimony. The earliest continuous register of births, deaths, and marriages now extant, is that kept by the city of Geneva, in Switzerland, which dates back to 1549, and has been continued from that time to the present, with great care and accuracy. This city, which has attained to a high degree of refinement, furnishes in the improvement in the progression of its popula- tion and increased duration of life, a striking evidence in favor of the benefits of the adoption of this system. I have before me (remarks Mr. Shattuck) the results of an examination made by Edward Mallet, a very able work, published in the Annates D'Hygiene. From this work it appears that human life has wonderfully improved since these registers were kept. The number of years which it was probable that every individual born would live, appears in the different periods as follows :— Period. Years. Months. Days. Rate of Increase. 1550 to 1600 8 7 26 100 1600 to 1700 ,13 3 16 153 1701 to 1750 27 9 13 321 ' 1751 to 1800 31 3 5 361 1801 to 1813 40 8 10 470 1814 to 183 3 45 0 29 521 Showing that the mean duration of life has increased more than five times during these periods! The progression of the population and increased duration of life has been attended by a progression in happiness. As prosperity advanced, marriages became fewer and later. The proportion of births was reduced, but a greater number of the infants born were preserved, and the proportion of the population in manhood became greater. In the early ages, the excessive mortality was accom- panied by an excessive fecundity. In the last ten years of the 17th century, a