188 report— 1842. 



Burials at the Public Expense. 



The returns for Edinburgh and Glasgow for these burials have not yet been 

 fully received for 1840 and 1841. 

 The per-centage of the whole burials 1 in lg39 in lg38> fa lg37< 



which took place at the public expense V cent> 



m Edinburgh and L,eitn * ... .J x 



And in Glasgow 21-66 23-20 26*30 per cent. 



Aberdeen. — In the city of Aberdeen the average annual amount of burials 

 at the public expense these five years is 4*115 per cent of the whole burials. 



Perth. — In the city of Perth the average annual amount of burials at the 

 public expense these five years is 4*398 per cent, of the whole burials. 



Dundee. — In the town of Dundee the average annual amount of burials 

 at the public expense these five years is 11*560 per cent of the whole deaths. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



MORTALITY. 



The principal object of the preceding tables being, as far as possible, to 

 supply that defect in the knowledge of the vital statistics of large towns 

 in Scotland which has so long existed, care has been taken to exhibit, on an 

 uniform plan, as extensive a collection of facts relative to disease and death 

 as the defective state of the registers in these towns will afford ; from which 

 deductions may be drawn as to how far the amount of deaths is influenced 

 by the local circumstances of the various towns, or to the moral and physical 

 condition of their inhabitants — differing, as they do, in the occupations in 

 which the people are engaged, and the comparative numbers of those in ex- 

 treme poverty, and of those in comfortable or wealthy circumstances. 



The mortality of the towns reported on being so various, and all of the 

 towns showing a greater proportion of deaths than is observable in country 

 districts, it becomes a matter of high importance to trace these differences to 

 their true causes, by which means the philanthropist and the legislator might 

 be guided in adopting such measures as might tend to remove these causes, 

 and ultimately lead to an effectual amelioration of the condition of the people. 



But to trace the causes of the numerous results exhibited iu the preceding 

 tables to the local peculiarities of these towns or to the condition of the 

 people, would require a very minute knowledge of the circumstances of the 

 inhabitants, and would inconveniently extend the limits of this Report. All 

 that can be here attempted, therefore, is to point out some of the most remark- 

 able of the results, and to offer a few observations as to how far these results 

 may have been occasioned by local circumstances, and to endeavour to dis- 

 cover — limited as our present knowledge is with regard to the vital statistics 

 of the country — if there be not general laws governing the distribution of 

 disease, and the amount of deaths from each disease, at the different ages of 

 the town population. 



Before proceeding to a summary of the leading facts elicited in these 

 tables, a few observations may be necessary in explanation of the tables 

 themselves, and of the manner in which they have been constructed. 



The want of a proper system for the registration of deaths as well as of 

 births and marriages, has long been much felt in Scotland, and repeated at- 

 tempts have been made to introduce a legislative measure for its improve- 

 ment, but without success. In the absence of a proper system for the 

 registration of deaths, considerable attention has been paid by the magi- 

 strates, kirk sessions, and other parties of some of the large towns, in whom I 



* Paper read at the Statistical Section of the British Association at Glasgow in 1840. 



