the 1,644 burials, which shows that the proportion between burials
and births are alike at London and Dublin, and that the accounts are
kept alike, and consequently are likely to be true, there being no
confederacy for that purpose; which, if they be true, we then say -

5. That the births are the best way (till the accounts of the
people shall be purposely taken) whereby to judge of the increase
and decrease of people, that of burials being subject to more
contingencies and variety of causes.

6. If births be as yet the measure of the people, and that the
births (as has been shown) are as five to eight, then eight-fifths
of the births is the number of the burials, where the year was not
considerable for extraordinary sickness or salubrity, and is the
rule whereby to measure the same. As for example, the medium of
births in Dublin was 1,026, the eight-fifths whereof is 1,641, but
the real burials were 1,644; so as in the said years they differed
little from the 1,641, which was the standard of health, and
consequently the years 1680, 1674, and 1668 were sickly years, more
or less, as they exceeded the said number, 1,641; and the rest were
healthful years, more or less, as they fell short of the same
number. But the city was more or less populous, as the births
differed from the number 1,026, viz., populous in the years 1680,
1679, 1678, and 1668, for other causes of this difference in births
are very occult and uncertain.

7. What hath been said of Dublin, serves also for London.

8. It hath already been observed by the London bills that there are
more males than females. It is to be further noted, that in these