52 ON PROBABILITY. 
a 
mortuary registers of different religious houses. The Northampton Tables, ins 
as they are called, were long the only tables in use in this country ; they were “ 
given by Dr. Price in his ““ Observations on Reversionary Payments,” which thy 
was published in 1771 : the following extract will serve to explain the manner “() 
in which they were formed, vol. 2, p. 94. “In this town (Northampton), Gh 
“ containing four parishes, namely, All Saints’, St. Sepulchre’s, St. Giles’s, and 6 fhe 
“St. Peter’s, an account has been kept ever since the year 1741 of the number “eye 
‘ of males and females that have been christened and buried, dissenters in= “los 
“cluded, in the whole town. And in the parish of All Saints, containing the 
greatest part of the town, an account has been kept since 1735 of the ages ial. 
¢¢ at which all have died there. oi 
. males D159): : males 2377 males 
Christened Dn S000}1220 Buried hol Sa15,1659 To 
Of these died (Chest 
Under two years of age 1529 50 and 60....384 vol. i 
Between 2and 5.... 362 60. ...%70....37% not; 
B,..0A30.50..,901 70. ...'80....358 Milne 
10. ..20. 5 "180 80... . 90....199 vatior 
20... 30." 373 80... . 100... 793 ton, \ 
30....40, J, 829 i probs 
20. C50. 365 Total. ... 4689, keep 
——— tions 
“The XVIIth Table in this volumeis the genuine table of observations for from 
“ Northampton, from which may be calculated the true probabilities and also ¢ 
“values of lives in that town.” To the preceding paragraph is added this note. time 
““Inthefourth edition of this treatise the following corrections were made in this me e 
‘“ table; first, the table printed in the first three editions having been formed bers 
“from the Northampton bills for 36 years, this table was rendered a little in the 
“ more correct in consequence of being formed from the same bill for 46 closelr 
“ years. Secondly, the bills give the number dying annually between 20 and It 
“30 greater than between 30 and 40; but this being a circumstance which death: 
“ does not exist in any other register of mortality, and, undoubtedly, owing to inform 
“some accidental and local causes, the decrements were made equal between el 
“22 and 40; preserving, however, the total of deaths between 20 and 40 burial 
¢“ the same that the bills give them. Thirdly, the bills giving only the totals of uli 
““ deaths under 2 years of age and between 2 and 5, the proportions of trang 
““ deaths for every particular year between 2 and 5, and for every quarter of der. 
“a year after birth till one year of age, were made the same nearly that the bol 
¢ Chester register makes them.” , 
Such are the alterations which Dr. Price made in the data which were fied 
presented to him, and he reduced the table of mortality to the radix 11650; i 
why he chose this number in preference to any other we have not been able Er 
to discover. Dr. Price has also neglected to inform us what method he ras 
made use of to interpolate the living at those ages, between every ten years, ol 
which are not given by the observations. » 
88. Such is the history of the Northampton Tables. We shall now quote on 
Dr. Price’s observations on the Chester Tables. pe 
““ Chester is a healthy town, of moderate size, where the births had for Hy 
“many years a little exceeded the burials; and the register to which I refer Choc, 
‘“ had the particular advantage of being under the direction of Dr. Haygarth, i gy 
“its founder as well as conductor. As it gives an accurate account of the wy 
*“ distempers of which all the inhabitants die in every season and at every age, R 
“it contains much physical instruction ; but my views lead me only to take fo 
“ notice of that part of it which gives the law according to which human life self