146 REPORT— 1842. 



BIRTHS AND BAPTISMS. 



The inattention which prevails among parents in Scotland in regard to the 

 recording of the births of their children in the public registers, even though 

 the parties themselves continue to experience great inconvenience on many 

 occasions on account of the omission, is so very great, as to render the ab- 

 stracts of births of no avail to the statist, in so far at least as regards the 

 statistics of human life. If we compare the proportion of births recorded for 

 England and Wales, as exhibited in the Registrar General's Report for 

 1839-40, the year for which the number of births for England have been 

 most fully ascertained, we may form a pretty correct judgement of the defi- 

 ciency of the registers of births in Scotland. The proportion of births re- 

 corded for England and Wales for 1839-40 to the population of 1841 is 

 3*153 per cent., while the number of births or baptisms recorded for Edin- 

 burgh and Leith for the years exhibited in the preceding abstracts, to the 

 mean population of these years, is0*992 per cent.; for Aberdeen 1 "311 per cent.; 

 for Glasgow 1*160 per cent.; for Dundee 1*497 per cent.; and for Perth 1*704 

 per cent. It will thus be perceived that the smallest proportion of births or 

 baptisms are recorded for Edinburgh and Leith, and the greatest for Perth ; 

 and that the whole of these records are so incomplete, as to give no indica- 

 tion of the true number of births for these towns. 



The preceding abstracts of births or baptisms are useless to the statist, 

 and the only advantage to be derived from their publication is the proof they 

 afford of the utter inefficiency of the present mode of registering births in 

 Scotland, and to show the necessity there is for some legislative measure 

 being obtained to remedy this great national defect. Among the public as 

 well as private advantages which would arise from the improvement of Scotch 

 registers of births, it may be mentioned, that, in the event of an alteration 

 taking place in the Poor Laws of the country, complete registers of this na- 

 ture would be the most legitimate and least inconvenient means of proving 

 the birth-place of parties requiring aid from the public funds. 



More than one attempt has been made in Glasgow to obtain complete re- 

 turns of the amount of children baptised, from the clergymen of all denomi- 

 nations, within the limits of the bills of mortality, without leading to a 

 satisfactory result. It is therefore to be feared, that this very important 

 branch of the vital statistics of Scotland must remain incomplete till Govern- 

 ment be induced to apply a remedy. 



