AGE. Totals 1 Age 17. which should denote the death of the individual indicated in the first column, if it occurred in that year. If the individual experienced no sickness in the year following, the age under which he was classed, the mark put to signify his registration at that age remained without note against it; and if he lived to the end of the year, the third column was also left blank. The sums of these columns would therefore give, first, the total number of persons entered at each year of life; secondly, the total number of weeks and days of sickness experienced among them while passing through the following year; and, thirdly, the number of them who had died. The following Table is the result of the arrangement just mentioned: weeks. days. 25 634 520 4 26 744 460 1 27 844 514 3 28 903 727 5 From a careful examination of the ages assigned to the members, in those returns in which the dates of birth were given, it appeared to be the almost invariable practice of the parties who filled up the schedules, to state the age of each member as on the last birth-day. In arranging the returns it has been assumed that such practice was uniformly adhered to. And it has, from this consideration, been further assumed, that the aggregate of those persons stated to be of any two following ages might safely be considered as, on an average, to be of the higher of those two ages. This may not be precisely true; since the numbers of any two following ages are not equal, but that circumstance will have no sensible effect on the deductions eventually made from the data. The sum of all the sickness experienced among those of any two consecutive ages would, on the above assumption, represent the sickness experienced in one year among the number of Age. persons assumed to be living at the higher of the two ages: and the sum of the numbers dying, in the years following any two consecutive ages, would properly indicate the number of deaths which took place in the following year among the same number of persons. Consistently with what has been just stated, the one member said to be of the age 17, and the three members said to be of the age 18, have been considered to be four members of the full age of 18; and among those four members two weeks of sickness was experienced the year following. The three members stated to be of the age 18, and the fortytwo members stated to be of the age 19, have been considered as forty-five of the age 19; among whom twenty-five weeks, five days of sickness was experienced in the year following. The several ages observed upon were then combined, two and two, in the manner pointed out; and the following Table gives the result of such combination: 44 1233 1636 45 1186 1550 3 46 1115 1550 47 1009 1391 2 21 73 5312 37 306 780 1416 50 724 1291 51 657 1121 11 52 602 1129 13 53 574 1171 19 54 554 1169 33. 35466431 425223422 541 1366 57 As there is considerable irregularity in the mean quantity of sickness, and in the rate of mortality from year to year, as shown in the above Table, it was thought well again to combine the observations in each five successive years, making the aggregate of the numbers of persons at any five consecutive ages, to indicate the number of persons of the mean age; and the aggregate . of sickness and of the mortality, at those five ages, to represent the quantity of sickness and number of deaths occurring among the aggregate number of persons of the mean age. The following Table was obtained by so combining the ages five and five: AGE. Mean Annual quantity of Sickness, expressed in Weeks and deci mals of a Week. tality, showing out of what Annual Rate of Mor Number one would die. It was shown, at page 45, that if sickness be expressed in weeks and parts of a week, the mean quantity of sickness, experienced by an individual in one year, would be represented by a fraction, having for its denominator the number of persons observed upon, and for its numerator the number of weeks and parts of weeks of sickness experienced in a year by those persons in the aggregate. Now the first case, in the above Table, supposes 961 persons of the age 20 to have been observed upon; and shows that, among those 961 persons, 711 weeks and 2 days of sickness were experienced in the year following that age; consequently, the fraction representing the mean quantity of sickness which each individual of that age may expect to suffer, in the following Note. From the numbers of the several ages not being all the same, the average may not be of the mean age exactly; but, as was before observed, this will have an unimportant influence on the results. |