122 Mr. Watt on the Vital Statistics of Jive large Toums of Scotland. 



belief, that under more advantageous circumstances, in respect to the 

 better registration of the causes of death, the precise effects of these 

 laws may bo so clearly established, as to place the science of vital 

 statistics upon a more certain basis, and lead to the adoption of such 

 sanatory regulations as to secure — what may be esteemed one of the 

 greatest blessings to a community — a healthy population. 



I would farther observe, that many of the results brought forward 

 in the tables, and in the general remarks upon them, now published 

 in the volume of the British Association, tend to prove that the excess 

 of mortality in various localities, is as the condition of the people and 

 the local circumstances of towns. This is exemplified to a considerable 

 extent by a comparison of the mortality at different ages in London 

 and Manchester, with that of Edinburgh and Glasgow at the same 

 ages. It cannot escape observation, that with the exception of the 

 difference in the amount of their populations, London and Edinburgh 

 bear a great resemblance to each other, as to the general condition 

 and occupations of their inhabitants ; and it is well known, that Man- 

 chester and Glasgow bear a close resemblance to each other in these 

 respects. The figures in the three tables given in the original report 

 exhibiting the comparative mortality of five English towns, prove that 

 the mortality of Manchester at different ages, bears the same proportion 

 to that of London, as the mortality of Glasgow at the same ages bears 

 to that of Edinburgh. Though the three tables for the English towns, 

 substituted for those in the original report, for the very proper reasons 

 stated by the chairman in his introduction to the report, do not give 

 the figures which exhibit this fact in the most striking light, they 

 may be obtained from them ; and although these figures do not turn 

 out to be precisely the same as those contained in the original tables, 

 they are not very different 



The facts recorded, (Report, Table No. 74, page 185,) show that 

 the mortality under five years of age in Glasgow, is greater than it is 

 in Edinburgh under the same age by 10*96 per cent.,* while (No. 

 75, page 186,) it is found, that the mortality in Manchester under five 

 years of age is 10*83 per cent, greater than it is in London under the 

 same age. Again, (Table 76,) it will be seen that in Glasgow the 

 mortality under 20 years of age is 12*07 per cent, greater than in 

 Edinburgh under that age ; and (Table 77,) it will be found that the 

 mortality in Manchester under 20 years of age is 11*76 per cent, 

 greater than in London under the same age. It will also be observed, 

 (Table 78,) that in Glasgow the mortality at 20 years and upwards, is 

 12*07 per cent, less than it is in Edinburgh ; while (Table 79,) it will 

 be found that the mortality at 20 years and upwards in Manchester 

 is 11.76 per cent less than it is in London. 



* It will be observed, that these per centages are of the whole deaths in each town 

 respectively. 



