Burials from all Diseases. From Smallpox. 1701 20,471 1095 1702 19,481 311 1703 20,720 898 1704 22,684 1501 1705 22,097 1095 1706 19,847 721 1707 21,600 1078 1708 21,291 1687 1709 21,800 1024 1710 24,620 3138 1711 19,833 915 1712 21,198 1943 1713 21,057 1614 1714 26,569 2810 1715 22,232 1057 1716 24,436 2427 1717 23,446 2211 1718 26,523 1884 1719 28,347 3229 1720 25,454 1440 1721 26,142 2375 1722 25,750 2167 ------- ------ 505,598 36,620 By these tables [wrote Dr. Jurin] it appears that upwards of 7 per cent., or somewhat more than a fourteenth part of mankind, die of the smallpox; and consequently the hazard of dying of that distemper, to every individual born into the world, is at least that of 1 in 14.[33] This large induction from London to universal mankind is noteworthy, because, as we shall see, it came to be often made, and involved a serious fallacy; for unless universal mankind dwelt in conditions similar to Londoners, it was idle to infer a common rate of disease and mortality. The population of London in 1701 was estimated at about 500,000 (there was no exact census), rising to about 600,000 in 1720. It was closely packed and lodged over cess-pools; the water supply was insufficient, and there was no effective drainage. The vast multitude was disposed, as if by design, for the generation and propagation of zymotic disease, and specially smallpox. Little attention was paid to personal cleanliness, and still less to ventilation, to light, to exercise. The condition of a large urban community a century ago is almost inconceivable at the present day. Londoners were then only slowly and blindly rising out of those modes of existence which made the Plague of 1665, and other plagues, possible. Hence we need not be astonished that smallpox was a common and persistent affliction; but it was less prevalent and less deadly than it is the custom to assert; and had the disease not been attended with injury to feminine beauty, there might have been no more fuss made about it than about any other form of eruptive fever. It has also to be observed, that smallpox as a cause of death was probably much exaggerated in the Bills of Mortality; for as Isaac Massey pointed out--