The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-13 00:00:00

VITAL STATISTICS.

A now volume issued by the Registrar-General
of Scotland gives the result of some inquiries upon
several subjects of much interest. One among
them is the fruitfulness of marriages. The usual
mode of calculating is by observing the proportion
of legitimate children in a year to the year's mar-
riage ; that proportion in Scotland, in the yeer
under review, was considerably greater than in
England or in France, and it is thought probable
that the married Scottish woman is more prolific
than the English or the French. But an attempt
has been made to ascertain the fruitfulness of every
fruitful marriage. In Edinburgh the women who
bore children in 1855 had borne altogether, upon
an average, 3.7 children, and in Glasgow the pro-
portion was 3.8; the largeness of the numbers in
these cities gives the calculation a value much be-
yond that of any similar statistics hitherto pub-
lished. So far as may be inferred from the returns
at present obtained, it appears that the proportion
of unfruitful marriages increases with a higher rank
in life, and is probably less in Scotland than in
Kngland. Some curious facts came out in prepar-
ing the Glasgow table. One mother who was only
18 had four children, one who was 22 had seven
children, and of two who were only 34 the one had
13 and the other 14 children ; and, on the other
hand, two women became mothers as late in life as
at 51, four at 52, and one mother was registered as
having given birth to a child in the 57th year of
her age. Another subject to which attention is
called is the conspicuous proof upon these registers
of the less waste of female life than of male; at every
age, taking quinquennial periods up to 20, and then
decennial, the proportional mortality among women
in Scotland is less than that of men. There being
no account of religious profession in the Scotch
census, it is worthy of notice that in Scotland in
1856, of which the records are here furnished, out
of every 100 marriages 47 were celebrated by clergy-
men of the Established Church of Scotland, 22 by
the Free Church, 14 by the United Presbyterian
(so commonly called the U. P.) Church, nine by the
Roman Catholic Church, not quite two by the Epis-
copal Church; and these numbers are considered
roughly to indicate the proportion of the population
attached to each denomination. In elementary educa-
tion Scotland is ahead of England ; 88 per cent. of
the men married and 76 per cent. of the women
were able to sign the register in 1856. It is calculated
that in that year, in addition to the emigration beyond
seas, a number as large—about 13,000—must have
left Scotland for England and Ireland. Our northern
neighbour sends us in this emigration many cool
clear heads; she can boast and prove by tables and
returns that brain diseases are very much less
prevalent and fatal in Scotland than in England—
a fact of whica it would be interesting to know the
cause. The inhabitants of towns in Scotland, it ap-
pears, are cut off by tubercular diseases in twice the
proportion of those in the country—a circumstance
which seems to favour the doctrine that they are
diseases of debility and imperfect assimilation. Of
the exoessive mortality of towns beyond that of the
rural districts, nearly half occurs among infants
under 5 years old. Without pursuing these topics
further, we must notice that the volume does not
close without a word for whisky, " the national
drink of Scotland," as beer is that of England. In
the year of which we are speaking, liver diseases
cut off the English in the proportion of 34 in every
100,000 persons, and 35 in the previous year ; while
the Scotch were struck down in the proportion of
only 26 in the one year, and 27 in the other. It is
suggested that further observations should be made,
and that if they have the same result Chancellors of
the Exchequer should lay these things to heart and
not be so ready to favour the consumption of beer
and light wines to the prejudice of that which,
after all, may prove to be a better beverage.