ON THE VITAL. STATISTICS OP LARGE TOWNS IN SCOTLAND. 189 



is vested the management of burial-grounds, to procure registers of burials. 

 No uniform or systematic method of recording the causes oi" death has been 

 adopted ; but in some of the towns the names of the fatal diseases, as stated 

 by the friends of the deceased, together with the ages at which death took 

 place, have been carefully noted ; and the data from which the preceding 

 tables have been constructed have been obtained from these records. In 

 Aberdeen the causes of death have been but partially recorded, which ren- 

 ders the tables for that city less satisfactory than we could have desired. 

 In all cases, however, the ages at which death took place appear to have 

 been carefully attended to, which is an important feature in the tables. 



The only portion of these towns where a proper system of recording the 

 diseases which cause death is to be found, is in the parish of South Leith, 

 where Mr. Lyon has introduced the system recommended by the Committee 

 of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, appointed to consider the 

 best mode of framing public registers of deaths. This system is admirably 

 adapted for the purpose, and it would be most advantageous to the advance- 

 ment of our knowledge of the vital statistics of the country were it uniformly 

 adopted for all burying-ground registers. It is to be feared, however, that 

 there is no hope of this being done till government be prevailed upon to in- 

 troduce a legislative measure. There is proof of this, in no register whatever 

 being kept for the burial-ground of Newhaven, situated in North Leith, 

 which prevents us from completing the mortality tables of that town on the 

 same principles as the others, though for one of the burying-grounds (South 

 Leith) there is at present one of the besE registers in the country. 



The classification of diseases used in the foregoing tables is far from being so 

 perfect as would be attainable were the system of registration recommended 

 by the Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians adopted. The arrangement 

 followed in these tables was first drawn up, with the assistance of medical gen- 

 tlemen, in 1835, for the construction of the tables given in the Glasgow Mor- 

 tality Bills. This arrangement, which will be found in the Appendix, though 

 by no means so complete as could be wished, is probably as much so as it 

 can be made in the present state of the registers of deaths in Scotland. 



Whatever defects, however, may be observable in the arrangement of dis- 

 eases in these tables, as the registers from which our information is obtained 

 are kept in a manner similar to each other, and as the results are brought 

 out in the tables on an uniform plan, a comparison of the amount of mortality 

 exhibited under the heads of the different diseases and at various ages in the 

 different towns, will necessarily afford useful information. 



It will be observed, that one of the distinguishing features of these disease 

 tables is, that the number of deaths at the different ages is made to appear 

 under the head of the diseases which caused death at these ages ; and for 

 those whose local and general information on these matters may enable them 

 to assist in advancing our knowledge of the physical and moral condition of 

 the people, the proportions which the deaths at the different ages, and the 

 proportions which the amount of fatal diseases bear to the whole deaths, and 

 also to the population of the different towns, are carefully exhibited in sepa- 

 rate columns. 



In those tables in which the amount of deaths by the several diseases at 

 different ages is specified, in some cases for five and in others for three years, 

 not only the number as compared with the population is given, but the pro- 

 portion per cent, of the deaths at the different ages, and of the causes of 

 death, are added ; these proportions being well suited to a comparison of 

 the mortality which takes place in the several towns. 



Comparing the mortality of the different towns each year with their popu- 

 lation as ascertained by the census of 184<1, it is obvious that the proportion 



