An Account of the Births and Burials with the Number of the Inhabitants at Stoke-Damerell in the County of Devon. Communicated by the Reverend Mr. Barrow

VII. An Account of the Births and Burials with the Number of the Inhabitants at Stoke-Damerell in the County of Devon. Communicated by the Reverend Mr. Barrow. Several Accounts of Births and Burials having been published for the Satisfaction of the Curious; the following, which in one Respect (the Number of Inhabitants) is more particular than most I have seen, will, I hope, be acceptable to the Publick. A Survey being taken about Michaelmas 1733, of the Inhabitants of Stoke-Damerell in the County of Devon, the Number of Persons, Men, Women, and Children, residing in the Parish, amounted to 3361. By the Register, I find that in the same Year, 28 Couple were married, 61 Males and 61 Females baptized, and 62 People buried. | Baptized | Buried | Number of People | |----------|--------|-----------------| | 122 | 62 | 3361 | Whence it appears that the Number of Persons who died, is one more than half the Number of Children born; and that about 1 in 54 died. It is to be observed, that the General Fever, which almost all the Inhabitants of the same Place were ill of at the same time, was in part within the Year mentioned: also that one of the Persons included in the Number of those buried, was a Foreigner brought from on board a Dutch Ship in the River; and that 2 more were drowned from on board a Man of War; but the Ships Companies are not included in the Number of the Inhabitants. Not from this Account only, but from Experience and Observations, both of my self and better Judges, I reckon the Parish of Stoke-Damerell as healthful an Air as any in England. VIII. An Extraordinary Case of the Foramen Ovale of the Heart, being found open in an Adult, communicated by Claudius Amyand, Esq; Serjeant Surgeon to his Majesty, and F. R. S. Mr.* dying at the Age of Twenty-two, of an Illness that had perplexed his Physicians, was opened, to discover an Imposthume, which was apprehended in the Belly. As nothing was observed there worth notice, saving a very great Relaxation of the Viscera, the Cause of his Death was looked for in the Thorax; there the Lungs were strongly attached to the Pleura on each Side, and a large Collection of Water in each Cavity, especially on the Left, where the posterior Lobe was inflamed, and tending to Suppuration; the Quantity of Water in the Pericardium was greater than usual, and the Heart much larger than could be expected in so great an Atrophy as the Patient was reduced to; in it the Foramen Ovale was found open, so as to give passage to a large Finger, when a fungous Substance, which grew from the Circumference of the Foramen, and did stop up the same, was removed. The Valve was hardly perceptible, it being callous and furled up. The Ductus Arteriosus was found close as usual. This Patient had enjoyed great Health till lately, and had given no sign of this opening of the Foramen Ovale, which is præternatural in Adults. ERRATA: Pag. 146, l.21. r. Duplicita. Pag. 165, dele N., B. &c. all the 4 lines at the bottom.