TO REV. DR. STILES. IPSWICH, June 13, 1783. Reverend Sir:-I have had the honor of receiving your kind letter of the 21st of April, but had not the pleasure of seeing the young Gentleman who brought it. I am particularly obliged by the minutes you gave me of the Aurora Borealis, and I am happy to find that I saw the Aurora you mention of the 29th of March. I have only time to give you an extract of the minutes which I then made, and am sorry they are not more particular as to the height.

At 8 h. 4', observed a curious Aur. Borealis. The whole northern hemisphere was of a pale light, having several detached ranges of thin, narrow, dusky clouds stretched across it, from the horizon to 45° altitude, a little above and parallel to the horizon, with the appearance of lamps, or pale torches, interspersed throughout the lower Nn. region, continually changing their situation and emitting converging corruscations toward the zenith. But the most singular circumstance in this phenomenon was the waving, tremulous, or rather flashing vapor, streaming from every direction toward the zenith. This vapor was of a bright color, without any tincture of red, and striated with very fine striæ. At 15' after 8 h., it extended as far as E.S.E. and W.S.W., near the horizon, forming a zone 22° S. of the zenith composed of transverse striæ directed toward the zenith, and nearly meeting a little to the S.E. of it, forming a kind of vertex in the neck of Leo Major. At times the center was nearly in the dusky star in Cancer, often changing its form and situation, with a quick waving motion. But at times the luminous vapor was more stationary. It then assumed the appearance of a white cloud of a uniform density, composed of fine striæ curiously turned round its head and indentation, considerably obscuring stars of the first magnitude-a very rare fluid continually waving or flashing over the striated vapor, nearly resembling the tremulous motion of a flame in a clear and steady fire on the hearth, but without any of the red appearance. At 9 o'clock the light vapor formed a large and dense cloud spread almost over the western hemisphere, and passing the meridian east near the zenith; at 10, much diminished, wind W., and small; at 11,

N.W., and fresh. There were many small detached clouds W. and S. of the zenith-the light appeared at a distance above those clouds. At 10, the mercury ranged, in Fahrenheit's Therm., 53; Barometer, 29.72. These are the minutes I made at that time.

A very unusual Aur. Borealis appeared here on the evening of the 7th of April, which I fear you did not notice, as you make no mention of it. I paid more particular attention to this, than the Aurora of the 29th of March, as it afforded a much better opportunity for ascertaining its situation. As it was probably seen not far distant from you, shall give you the minutes I made of part of the phenomenon. At 8 h. 46′, when I first saw it, a bright zone, which extended across the horizon from E. to W. at little north of the zenith, was making its progress, with an apparent motion, to the south. It soon passed the zenith, and continued its motion uniformly, from end to end, preserving its position as to E. and W. points, 36° 20' S. of the zenith. At 9 h. 2', began to dissipate, or rather disappear, becoming less and less luminous, till no traces were to be seen. The zone was of a pale light color, but considerably dense and bright, and not of perfectly uniform breadth. Upon measuring its breadth with a sextant (which I could do with great accuracy) at different times, and in different parts, found the mean 16° 10′. Its greatest distance from the zenith. was determined by the same instrument, with the assistance of my globe. Another zone appeared in the N. at 9 h. 14', similar in every circumstance, only that it was much fainter, and but 12° 15' broad. It passed only 5° 40′ S. of the zenith, when it disappeared. Wind N.W., small. My present engagements are such, I have not time to make any remarks. I am, Rev'd Sir, with the greatest esteem, Your most obd't and most

REVEREND PRESIDENT STILES.

VOL. II.-14

H. S.,

M. CUTLER.

[For the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.] IPSWICH, Feb. 14, 1783.

To PROF. EDWARD WIGGLESWORTH.*

Reverend Sir:-Want of leisure, and knowing that you were in a low state of health, has prevented my answering your request so soon as I should otherwise have done. I now send you the number of houses, families, males and females, married persons, unmarried males and females above 15, widowers, widows, males and females under 15, males and females between 50 and 60, 60 and 70, 70 and 80, and upward of 80, in this small parish, as they stood on the first day of this year. I have taken considerable pains to make this enumeration as accurate as possible, and have included white and black servants, and blacks who live in families by themselves.

While I was making this enumeration, I attempted to procure further information on this subject from the deliberate recollection of each particular family; but the frequent emigrations into back settlements, and interchanging of families with neighboring parishes, prevented my obtaining, with certainty, any thing material, except that sixty years ago the number of houses rather exceeded the present number, and that of the inhabitants must have been nearly the same.

The former account I sent you of births and deaths was not made out for complete years, and did not come down so late as the time of enumerating the inhabitants. I have therefore inclosed a table of births and deaths from the first day of January, 1772, to the first day of January, 1783, including eleven years. And also a table of diseases for the same time, in which you will see, under each year, the disease of which every person, between the same periods of life noted in the Table of Mortality, was supposed to die. I have no doubt but there may be errors in this table, but I presume there are none that are very considerable. It has been my practice to minute the disorder that each person was said to die of, in my

* Edward Wigglesworth was born in 1732. Graduated at Harvard, 1749. Was Hollis Professor of Theology from 1765 until his death, in 1794. He was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.-The Memorial History of Boston.

register of deaths, with no other view than to satisfy my own curiosity, and have not done it with that care and attention that the importance of such a register now appears to me to demand. The principal errors, I suspect, are in the diseases of children, who are incapable of describing their feelings, and the symptoms of particular diseases do not appear so distinct in them as in adults, and in the article of consumption, by which Physicians intend a disorder of the lungs, and of which they make several species; but every disorder that is attended with a wasting of the muscular flesh, though by no means pulmonic, is generally termed a consumption.

The reason that the number of inhabitants has not increased in this parish for sixty years past, when the births for the last eleven years are more than double the number of deaths, is wholly owing to emigrations into new settlements. By the former register kept in this parish, it appears that the rate of births and deaths for sixty years has been nearly the same with the last eleven. The inhabitants have not been very subject to epidemic diseases, or those which are generally more rife at particular seasons of the year. The situation of the parish approaches to a level, interspersed with small hills, and some quantity of low meadow and swampy land, four miles from the sea. The people, who are almost all farmers, are laborious and temperate; the water exceeding good, and the air generally very free and pure. Hence, you will see that calculations on American population can not be made from our old settlements. We not only lose the excess of annual births above annual deaths, by emigration, but those adventurers consist chiefly of the young, healthy and robust, on whom population principally depends, while the aged and invalids remain in their old habitations. The new settlements must, therefore, greatly exceed the old in the increase of population, in proportion to the number of inhabitants.

It is obvious that many important questions in civil society, respecting the annuities of, widows and persons in old age, reversionary payments, and several other matters, can be determined only by a knowledge of the expectation of human life in various places, and this knowledge can be obtained only from registers of mortality in those places. But I apprehend that

information of still greater consequence may be derived from faithful and minute registers of the various diseases most fatal to mankind at different ages, and in different situations, accompanying these registers of mortality. Various causes have influence in bringing on diseases and shortening the duration of life, such as particular employments, irregularities, and intemperance in living, and a careless inattention to sudden vicissitudes of heat and cold and changes in the atmosphere common to every situation, but I doubt not it may be made to appear that the influence of different airs and different situations on the human constitution, and the probability of living longer, especially in the early part of life, in one place than in another, is vastly greater than is generally imagined. Few are aware of the danger arising from unwholesome air, and the constant use of water impregnated with foreign bodies, frequently met with in particular situations, and which are very common causes of diseases. Neither air nor water are often so replenished with noxious qualities as to produce such immediate violent effects as to put people on their guard against them. But their less perceptible influence may render them more generally hurtful to mankind.

An ingenious writer, Dr. Alexander, has indeed called in question the baneful effects of vapor arising from stagnant waters, and affirmed that nothing is to be apprehended from the neighborhood of putrid marshes. But Dr. Priestly has proved, by repeated experiments, that this opinion is illfounded and dangerous, and that putrid water is in an high degree noxious. And Dr. Price has found the assertions of Dr. Priestly to be fully confirmed, by comparing tables exhibiting the rates of mortality in upward of eighty small country parishes in Switzerland, in all the different situations, from marshy ground to that of the Alps. The difference of the probability of life between the high and low land is very remarkable. In the mountains, one-half that are born live to the age of 47. In marshy ground, one-half live only to the age of 25. In the hills, one in 20 of all that are born, live to 80. In a marshy situation, only one in 52 reaches this age.

The cold springs that usually surround the edges of fenny,