318 



.NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«"» S. No-42., Oct. 18. '66. 



receive such rents, and have an officer as a check 

 upon them. Old Bailey, in hid Dictionary, gives 

 the same definition of acateri/ as the Technological. 



Perhaps some of your Irish readers can supply 

 i^odern instances of accates being reserved in 

 leases, although such things must now soon be ob- 

 solete. W. C. 



Richmond. 



Proportion of Males and Females (2"^ S. li. 

 268.) — It appears that the Mormons use sta- 

 tistics with but little success. Their harems need 

 to be supported by stronger props. Hear on the 

 point in question a high scientific authority : 



" N'otvvithstanding that in any ordinary population 

 there is a decided preponderance in the number of fe- 

 males, the number of male births is considerably greater 

 than that of females. Taking the average of the whole of 

 Europe, the proportion is about 106 males to 100 females." 

 — Carpenter's Human Physiology, § 1017, p. 1054., ed. 4. 

 1853. 



The tables employed by Dr. Carpenter are those 

 of M, Hofacker in Germany, Aanales (T Hygiene, 

 Oct. 1829 ; and of Mr. Sadler in Britain, Law of 

 Population, vol. ii. p. 343. 



Of course the number of males becomes con- 

 siderably lessened from the deleterious influences, 

 and abuses, and greater risks to which men are 

 subject ; from the peril of the seas, warfare, 

 working in mines and manufactories, with similar 

 employments that tend to curtail life. 



Be it, however, that the proportion of the sexes 

 is thus somewhat unequalised, still the disparity 

 cannot favour Mormon license ; much less will It 

 justify the following scale of indulgence. 



A most trustworthy witness, Lieut. Gunnison, 

 informs us that when he was In Utah, the three 

 members of the Presidency had no less than 

 eighty-two wives between them, and that one of 

 the three " was called an old bachelor, because he 

 had only a baker's dozen." (^Hist. of the Mormons, 

 by Lieut. Gunnison, p. 120. Philadelphia, 1852.) 



F.S. 



Churchdown. 



In answer to A. A. D.'s Query, I send you the 

 following extracts from the Sixteenth Annual Re- 

 port of the Registrar General : 



" 313,756 boys and 298,635 girls were born [in Eng- 

 land] in the year ri853] ; the proportion of the numbers 

 was 1-051 to I'OOO^ or nearly 105 to 100 = 21 boys to 20 

 girls." 



The proportion varies, however : 



" In all England the proportion of bovs has increased 

 since 1850, from 104-2 to 105-1." 



I have before me the returns of the number of 

 births in England, from 1838 to 1853. Although 

 the proportion fluctuates, the boys are always in 

 excess over the girls. So Apostle Pratt is wrong 

 as regards one country of Europe. 



LiMUS LUTUM. 



Parish Registers (2"^ S. il. 66. 151.) — The ex- 

 treme importance of this subject, I trust will ex- 

 cuse me for making some suggestions and queries 

 about it. 



In the first place, it Is well known that registers 

 of baptisms, burials, and marriages were ordered 

 to be kept by Cromwell, the Vicar-general in 

 1536. At what date were copies ordered to be 

 transmitted to bishops' or archdeacons' registry ? 



I find, in several register books In the diocese 

 of Norwich, entries like the following : 



" Copy exhibited at Archdeacon'' s Visitation up to this 

 date." 

 " Copy exhibited at Bishop's Visitation up to this date." 



At the present time the custom is to send them 

 to the bishop's registrar In January or February. 

 I think this is ordered by the act of 1813. 



Did the archdeacon's registrar, In former days, 

 hand them over to the bishop's registrar ? or are 

 they now kept distinct ? 



In the Norwich diocese, the bishop holds a visi- 

 tation only once In seven years ; In other dioceses 

 rarely more than triennlally. 



In one of the population returns, I think for 

 the census of 1831, are returns of what register- 

 books were then In existence in each parish. I 

 have reason to think this somewhat incorrect. 



At present, most archdeacons, in their an- 

 nual visitation queries to the churchwardens, ask 

 If a faithful register is kept of baptisms, burials, 

 and mai-riages, and whether an Iron chest Is pro- 

 vided for their safe custody. I would humbly 

 suggest, that every archdeacon, when he makes 

 his personal inspection of each church, or the 

 rural deans, in those dioceses which have them, 

 should furnish themselves with the census return 

 which contains the list of register-books (which I 

 before stated I believe to be that of 1831), and 

 satisfy themselves by personal examination that 

 they are properly preserved. I think this would 

 be a sufficient guarantee for their safe custody. 

 But I think, too, that copies should be taken, to 

 avoid the risk of the originals perishing by fire or 

 otherwise. E. G. R. 



It appears to me, that by far the simplest plan 

 for having these valuable documents preserved, 

 would be to have the whole of them at once made 

 over to the Registrar- General ; when those found 

 wanting (and I fear they would be very nume- 

 rous) could, in great measure, be supplied by the 

 copies supposed to be preserved In the various 

 Diocesan registries. When, in care of the Regis- 

 trar-general, further decay or destruction would 

 be prevented, and In such an excellently ma- 

 naged department, arrangements would doubtless 

 soon be made to have the older and more illegible 

 books carefully copied, and the whole placed in 

 such a manner that reference could be made with 

 ease and certainty. 



