Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/145

 was, as has been already mentioned, 60,642, while the number of statute acres constituting the district, is 90,957, or 142 square miles. Now, it appears from the parliamentary returns for 1821, that the proportion of inhabitants to the square mile in all England and Wales, was 210 in that year, while in all Cornwall it was only 194:, and in the agricultural county of Sussex. only 162; but the foregoing statement gives for the Hundred of Penwith 427 persons to each square mile. That this great superiority does not depend on the populousness of the towns, is very certain, as we find that it is still maintained in a very considerable degree, after deducting the whole of their inhabitants. Thus, if we deduct one-fifth of the whole population, (12,128) we have still a proportion of 341 inhabitants to every square mile. This very great populousness is occasioned principally by the great proportion of persons employed in the mines, which, in this point of view, may be considered as subterranean factories. Is it, also, partly owing to the smallness of the farms, and to the universal habit of very early marriages? The existence of small farms, which necessarily produce many masters, and a comparatively small number of servants, would seem almost necessarily to conduce to frequent marriages.

The number of inhabitants in this district, in the four decennial periods since the commencement of the present century, was as follows:─

This gives an increase of 41 per cent. in the whole 30 years, which is considerably above the average