256 Report of Statistical Section 



former Chairman and Secretaries (page 177) being again elected, with 

 the exception of the Physical, in which Mr. MacKain was chosen 

 secretarj. 



The following report from the Statistical section was presented and 

 approved. 



Friday, I2th April, 1844, — Mr. Murray in the Chair. 



Mr. Murray of Monkland Iron Works was elected Chairman, and 

 Dr. Watt Secretary for the following year. 



Dr. AVatt read the following paper on the defective state of the 

 Registers of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Scotland. The fol- 

 lowing gentlemen were appointed a standing Committee to watch 

 over any measure that may be brought into Parliament for the im- 

 provement of these Registers, and to take such steps as may be found 

 necessary to urge it forward. — Mr. John Wilson, Convener. 



Committee: — Mr. John Wilson of Auchineaden ; Mr. Smith of 

 Deanston ; Mr. Murray of Monkland Iron Works ; Mr. Walter Crum 

 of Thornliebank ; Dr. Andrew Buchanan, Glasgow College ; Dr. R. 

 D. Thomson, Glasgow College ; Mr. Leadbetter of Ericht Bank ; Mr. 

 William Bankier, of CuUibheag, Provost of Calton ; Mr. Keddie, 

 Glasgow ; Dr. Watt, City Statist. 



As it is of great importance to the poorer classes of society in 

 many matters connected with their welfare, and also to the more 

 wealthy classes, in the settlement and conveying of property, as well as 

 in some of their domestic arrangements, that the Registers of Mar- 

 riages, Births, and Deaths should be accurately kept, it is surprising 

 that these Registers for Scotland should still remain in the very im- 

 perfect state they now are, and that no legislative measure should yet 

 have been obtained for their improvement. 



A knowledge of the laws of mortality is intimately connected with, 

 and illustrative of the social condition of the people. Hitherto this 

 knowledge in Scotland has been based on imperfect data, owing to 

 these Registers being very incomplete ; so much so, that in the solu- 

 tion of some of the most important questions affecting the sanatory 

 condition of towns, the philanthropist and the scientific inquirer, in 

 their endeavours to ameliorate those evils which appear to be so fatal 

 to life, in various towns and districts of this division of the Empire, 

 have to depend more on the speculative views of men, than on the 

 knowledge of incontrovertible facts. In the greater part of Scotland 

 no Registers of deaths are kept at all ; and in those towns or districts 

 in which they are kept, the mode of Registration is very imperfect : 

 for although reliance may be placed on the accuracy with which the 

 ages at death, and a few of the more easily discriminated diseases, 

 such as eruptive fevers, hooping-cough, and some others, are recorded, 



