ON THE VITAL STATISTICS OF LARGE TOWNS IN SCOTLAND. 141 



Table XVII. 

 Exhibiting the proportion which the resident marriages in DUNDEE, during 

 the years 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840 and 1841, bear to the population of these 

 years ; also the average annual amount of marriages to the mean popula- 

 tion. 



Table XVIII. 



Average annual proportion of marriages in the towns comprised in the Re- 

 port compared with each other. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The principal objects held in view in arranging the foregoing statistical in- 

 formation, have been to exhibit as accurately as possible the annual number 

 of individuals married who are resident within the boundaries of the chief 

 towns in Scotland, and to compare the amount of annual marriages which 

 take place on an average of years, in the belief that observations on the dif- 

 ference in the amount of annual marriages in those towns where the condi- 

 tion of the inhabitants is so various may lead to interesting results. 



The diiferences in the amount of these annual marriages are found to be 

 very great ; but to point out the exact causes of these differences would re- 

 quire a more minute and accurate knowledge of the moral condition and 

 physical circumstances of the people than we are possessed of, and would 

 exceed the limits of this Report ; but by the statement of facts contained in 

 the preceding pages an advance is made which has long been desired in 

 Scotland, where so little attention has been generally paid to vital statistics. 

 The tables open a new field, though still a limited one, to the statist whose 

 object it is to trace the immediate causes of changes which affect the welfare 

 of the people, with a view to suggest such improvements as may arrest in 

 its progress a retrograde movement in the condition of the inhabitants of 

 large towns : a movement to which public attention has lately so frequently 

 been drawn. 



To acquire, for instance, a correct knowledge of the causes of the great 



