118 Mk. Watt oh the Vital Statistics of Jive large Towns of Scotland. 



of which is given in tlie appendix of these Bills, and in the Report in 

 the volume of tJie Association, is far from being so perfect as would be 

 attainable were the Registers of deaths in Scotland kept in a more 

 perfect and systematic plan, yet it is believed, that the arrangement 

 is about as complete as can be satisfactorily followed in the present 

 state of these Registers ; and as the Registers of the towns reported on 

 are kept in a manner similar to each other, comparisons of the causes 

 of death at different ages, more especially of the more easily discrimi- 

 nated diseases, such as croup, fever, hooping-cough, measles, scarlet 

 fever, and small-pox, may be considered as satisfactory. One of the 

 greatest advantages of the Registers in these towns of Scotland is, that 

 tlie ages at which deaths take place are carefully recorded, which it 

 will be found is of great importance in arriving at a knowledge of the 

 comparative sanatory condition of towns. 



It is to be observed, that in the Mortality Tables for our Scotch 

 towns, there is a distinction between the amount of burials and the 

 amount of deaths ; this becomes necessary to enable the reader to make 

 comparisons between the amount of mortality in the English towns 

 and that of the Scotch, as the still-born children are not given in the 

 Reports of the Registrar General. 



As the population for the different towns, with the exception of 

 Edinburgh and Leith,are stated for each year in the foregoing Table of 

 Marriages, they are not inserted in Table No. II. The population of 

 Edinburgh and Leith amounts in 1837, to 164,676 ; in 1838, to 155,113 ; 

 in 1839, to 165,602 ; in 1840, to 166,089 ; and in 1841, to 166,554. 



From the returns it appears (Report, p. 180,) that in Edinburgh, 

 exclusive of Leith, although on an average of years the number of 

 female deaths is greater than the number of male deaths by 3*194 

 per cent, owing to there being a much greater proportion of females 

 than males in that city, the female life is better than the male life 

 by 0*500 per cent. ; while (page 182,) in Glasgow, though the number 

 of male deaths is 5-30 per cent, greater than the number of female 

 deaths, the female life is only 0*462 per cent, better than the male life. 

 In Aberdeen, the female life is better than the male life by 0*483 

 per cent., and the number of female deaths is greater than the 

 number of male deaths by 0*819 per cent. In Perth, the female life 

 is better than the male life, by 0*207 per cent., and the number of 

 female deaths is 6-104 per cent, greater than the number of male 

 deaths. And in Dundee, the female life is 0*332 per cent, better than 

 the male life, though the number of female deaths is 2*551 per cent, 

 greater than the number of male deaths. 



The following Table exhibits the average annual deaths, for three 

 years, in Edinburgh and Dundee, and for five years, in Glasgow, Aber- 

 deen, and Perth, with the proportion to the total average annual 

 deaths of each of a series of diseases. 



