AN ESSAY IN POLITICAL ARITHMETIC

Tending to prove that in the hospital called L’Hotel Dieu at Paris, there die above 3,000 per annum by reason of ill accommodation.

1.  It appears that A.D. 1678 there entered into the Hospital of La Charite 2,647 souls, of which there died there within the said year 338, which is above an eighth part of the said 2,647; and that in the same year there entered into L’Hotel Dieu 21,491, and that there died out of that number 5,630, which is above one quarter, so as about half the said 5,630, being 2,815, seem to have died for want of as good usage and accommodation as might have been had at La Charite.

2.  Moreover, in the year 1679 there entered into La Charite 3,118, of which there died 452, which is above a seventh part, and in the same year there entered into L’Hotel Dieu 28,635, of which there died 8,397; and in both the said years 1678 and 1679 (being very different in their degrees of mortality) there entered into L’Hotel Dieu 28,635 and 2l,491—­in all 50,126, the medium whereof is 25,063; and there died out of the same in the said two years, 5,630 and 8,397—­in all 14,027, the medium whereof is 7,013.

3.  There entered in the said years into La Charite 2,647 and 3,118, in all 5,765, the medium whereof is 2,882, whereof there died 338 and 452, in all 790, the medium whereof is 395.

4.  Now, if there died out of L’Hotel Dieu 7,013 per annum, and that the proportion of those that died out of L’Hotel Dieu is double to those that died out of La Charite (as by the above numbers it appears to be near thereabouts), then it follows that half the said numbers of 7,013, being 3,506, did not die by natural necessity, but by the evil administration of that hospital.

5.  This conclusion seemed at the first sight very strange, and rather to be some mistake or chance than a solid and real truth; but considering the same matter as it appeared at London, we were more reconciled to the belief of it, viz.:-

(a.) In the Hospital of St. Bartholomew in London, there was sent out and cured in the year 1685, 1,764 persons, and there died out of the said hospital 252.  Moreover, there were sent out and cured out of St. Thomas’s Hospital 1,523, and buried, 209—­that is to say, there were cured in both hospitals 3,287, and buried out of both hospitals 461, and consequently cured and buried 3,748, of which number the 461 buried is less than an eighth part; whereas at La Charite the part that died was more than an eighth part; which shows that out of the most poor and wretched hospitals of London there died fewer in proportion than out of the best in Paris.

(b.) Furthermore, it hath been above shown that there died out of La Charite at a medium 395 per annum, and 141 out of Les Incurables, making in all 536; and that out of St. Bartholomew’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, London, there died at a medium but 461, of which Les Incurables are part; which shows that although there be more people in London than in Paris, yet there went at London not so many people to hospitals as there did at Paris, although the poorest hospitals at London were better than the best at Paris; which shows that the poorest people at London have better accommodation in their own houses than the best hospital of Paris affordeth.