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OCR
86 THE GROWTH OF 385 Köze Plague year before the Great Plague, were to the births as 8 to 1. A very accurate idea might be obtained from a comparison of the bills of mortality, which were regularly published weekly after 1603. In 1682 Sir William: Petty estimated the houses at 84,000, and the number of people at 672,000. Another writer of the same period estimated them at about 530,000. It was not, in fact, until the present century that any accurate and trustworthy information was obtained. In 1801 the population of all London was 864,845. In 1861 the people actually resident in the city were 113,387. In 1871 they had declined to 75,983 ; and the latest estimates show that the number at present of those who inhabit the city, excluding, of course, those who visit it day by day on business, is considerably below 50,652, at which figure it stood in 1881.
