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Mortality of Children.
349

10. To conclude, In many of these Cases the Searchers are able to report the Opinion of the Physician, who was with the Patient, as they receive the same from the Friends of the Defunct: and in very many Cases, such as Drowning, Scalding, Bleeding, Vomiting, making away themselves, Lunaticks, Sores, Small-pox, &c. their own senses are sufficient, and the generality of the World are able pretty well to distinguish the Gout, Stone, Dropsie, Falling sickness, Palsie, Agues, Pleuresie, Rickets, one from another.

11. But now as for those Casualties, which are aptest to be confounded and mistaken, I shall in the ensuing Discourse presume to touch upon them so far, as the Learning of these Bills hath enabled me.

12. Having premised these general Advertisements, our first Observation upon the Casualties shall be, That in Twenty Years[1] |22| there dying of all Diseases and Casualties 229250, that 71124[2] died of the Thrush, Convulsion, Rickets, Teeth and Worms; and as Abortives, Chrysomes, Infants, Liver grown, and Overlaid; that is to say, that about 13 of the whole died of those Diseases, which we guess did all light upon Children under four or five years old.

13. There died also of the Small Pox, Swine Pox, and Measles, and of Worms without Convulsions, 12210[3], of which number we suppose likewise, that about 12 might be Children under six years old. Now, if we consider that sixteen[4] of the said 229250 died of that extraordinary and grand Casualty, the Plague, we shall find that about thirty six per Centum of all quick conceptions died before six years old.

14. The second Observation is, That of the said 229250 dying of all Diseases, there died of acute Diseases, (the Plague excepted) but about 50000, or 29 parts. The which proportion

  1. The years are 1629-1636, and 1647-1658, see the Table of Casualties, p.406.
  2. These figures do not correspond to Graunt's table (p. 406) which gives thrush 211, convulsion 9,073, rickets 3,681, teeth and worms 14,236, abortive and stillborn 8,559, chrisoms and infants 32,106, liver-grown, spleen, and rickets 1,421, overlaid and starved at nurse 529, or in all but 69,816.
  3. According to the table (p. 406) there died of swine-pox 57, of flox and small-pox 10,576, of measles 757, of worms (without convulsions) 830, or in all 12,220.
  4. That is, sixteen thousand; according to the table (p. 406), 16,384.