Bills of Mortality were instituted in the city of London in the year 1592, in order to collect and exhibit the number of deaths, and to record the progress, diffusion, and decline of the epidemic malady, with which the city was at that time infested; but upon the cessation of the plague, the bills were discontinued. It appears, however, in consequence of the recurrence of the sickness, that they were reestablished by public order in 1603, and on the 29th of October in the same year, being the first of the reign of King James, the establishment of a regular series of weekly bills of death commenced. In 1606 the number of christenings, as well as that of burials, appeared in the returns, and although diseases and casualties were recorded as early as 1604, no public notice was made of either before the year 1629, when another important improvement took place—that of distinguishing between the sexes. In 1728 the ages^[220] of all who died from under two years of age and upwards were regularly specified, and this may be considered as the last^[221] improvement which the bills of mortality have received; for notwithstanding the rapid march of those arts and sciences with which every branch of statistics is so intimately connected, the contents, arrangement, and language of these bills have remained unchanged. The collating, printing, and publishing these documents, as far as they relate to the metropolis, are placed under the superintendance and jurisdiction of the ancient corporation of parish clerks:^[222] a power which it is hardly necessary to observe is wholly inadequate to the accomplishment of the medical, political, and moral objects which these bills are calculated to promote. As to the nature of the diseases of which persons die, much error must necessarily arise from the absurd manner in which the investigation is conducted, as the following statement will clearly demonstrate.—The churchwardens of each parish within the bills of mortality, appoint two old women to the office of Searchers, who, on hearing the knell for the dead, repair to the sexton of the parish, to learn the name and residence of the deceased. They demand admittance into the house to examine the body, in order that they may see that there is nothing suspicious about it, and judge of what disease the person died, which they report to the parish clerk. The regular charge for the performance of this office is fourpence to each searcher; but if an extra gratuity be tendered, they seldom trouble the domestics with any examination. We entirely agree with Dr. Burrows^[223] in thinking that the office, as at present filled, should be entirely suppressed; and the attestation of a properly qualified medical practitioner, upon actual knowledge of the disease of which the person died, or upon inquiry and examination of the body, should be substituted. Were competent persons only appointed to report, the nomenclature^[224] and classification of diseases, in which there has been little variation since the origin of the bills, would consequently be reformed; and we should then derive from them the elucidation of many important and dubious medical points, as 1. The causes of many diseases, and their affinity to one another. 2. The rise, situation, increase, decrease, and cessation of epidemic and contagious diseases. 3. The means of guarding against their extension and effects. 4. The comparative healthiness of different countries and places, climates, and seasons. 5. The influence of particular trades and manufactures on the human constitution. Such are the medical advantages which would arise from correct and enlarged bills of mortality. Dr. William Heberden^[225] has made the following observations upon this subject: “People have fallen into two opposite errors concerning the Bills of Mortality; some have considered their authority as too vague to be made the foundation of any certain conclusions; and others have built upon this foundation, without sufficiently considering its real defects. Both parties are equally wrong. The agreement of the bills with each other does alone carry with it a strong proof that the numbers under the several articles are by no means set down at random, but must be taken from the uniform operation of some permanent cause. While the gradual changes they exhibit in particular diseases, correspond to the alterations which in time are known to take place in the channels through which the great stream of mortality is constantly flowing. That there are, however, many and very great imperfections in these bills cannot be doubted; for, First, the births include only those who are baptized according to the rites of the church of England, by which means all Jews, Quakers, and the very numerous body of dissenters are omitted. Secondly, of those who are of the church of England, a very large proportion are either buried in the country, or in burial grounds adjacent to London, but without the bills; the burials also in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in Westminster Abbey, the Temple, the Rolls, Lincoln’s Inn, St. Peters in the Tower, the Charter-house, the several hospitals of the metropolis, and other places which are not parochial cemeteries, are for that reason omitted; besides which, the great parishes of Mary-le-bone, and Pancras, have never yet had a place in the bills of mortality. Thirdly, many abortives and still-born are noticed in the deaths, but not in the births.” Dr. Heberden proceeds to examine the fluctuation observable in certain diseases, and which he considers under two distinct points of view; the first comprehending their variations in different years; the second those which take place in different parts of the same year; we must refer the reader for much curious matter, and useful information, to his work above cited. Many of the provincial bills of mortality are more perfect than those of London, a superiority for which we are indebted to the eminent physicians who have resided in those districts, in example of which we have only to refer to those of Chester by Dr. Haygarth,^[226] of York by Dr. White,^[227] while from the returns of Northampton Dr. Price computed his celebrated tables of the probabilities of life, and in a curious memoir read before the Royal Society he advances strong reasons for believing that there is a prodigious preponderancy in favour of the country above the most healthy cities.^[228] We shall conclude this subject with observing, that the metropolitan bills establish beyond all doubt the gratifying fact of the superior healthiness of London, notwithstanding its increase of population, in the present day to what it was during the seventeenth century, when the deaths exceeded the births, by more than one half of the whole number; while in the present age, the sum total of births exceeds that of deaths; the same improvements have taken place also in the provinces, and we are borne out by the concurrent testimony of our best political arithmeticians, in the assertion that the value of human life is increasing in Great Britain, while the diminution in the number of certain diseases, and the total extinction of others, offer the surest proofs of the general amelioration that has taken place in our national habits and manners.