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The census of 1841 shows the population of Ireland to have been in that
year 8,175,124. Taking the usual ratio of births over deaths, it should
have increased in 1851 to 9,018,799, instead of which it fell to
6,552,385; thus, being nearly two millions and a-half less than it
should have been. These two millions and a-half disappeared in the
Famine. They disappeared by death and emigration. The emigration during
the ten years from 1842 to 1851, both inclusive, was 1,436,862.
Subtracting this from the amount of decrease in the population, namely,
2,476,414, the remainder will be 1,039,552; which number of persons must
have died of starvation and its concomitant epidemics; but even this
number, great as it is, must be supplemented by the deaths which
occurred among Famine emigrants, in excess of the percentage of deaths
among ordinary emigrants.
During the Famine-emigration period this excess became most remarkable
and alarming. The deaths on the voyage to Canada rose from five in the
thousand (the ordinary rate) to about sixty in the thousand; and the
deaths whilst the ships were in quarantine rose from one to forty in the
thousand. So that instead of six emigrants in the thousand dying on the
voyage and during quarantine, one hundred died.
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