Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/154



It results, from the foregoing series of Tables, that the claim to longevity set up by the Cornish Topographers for their native county, is by no means well founded in as far as regards the Landsend District, the whole population being comprehended in the estimate.

On the contrary, it appears to be established by these, more particularly by Tables VIII. X. and XII. that a considerably greater proportion of persons die in the early periods of life, that is under the 40th year, in the Hundred of Pen with, than in either the whole county of Cornwall, or at Carlisle; and that the mortality is even considerably above the average of the whole of England. As a necessary consequence of this, the numbers that attain to the higher periods of life, in this district, are proportionally smaller. This results from comparing with the other places the numbers that die at each age above the 40th year, as shewn by the parish registers, as also from comparing the numbers alive at each particular age, as shewn by the parliamentary returns. There is, indeed, a trifling exception to this in the extreme period of life, as will be seen by Table XII. from which it results that the proportion of persons that attain their 80th year, is greater in the Hundred of Penwith than the average of all England, although very considerably less in the whole county of Cornwall; while the proportion that reach their