CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



season July to September ; but they sensibly 

 increase in France towards the end of the great 

 heat in August and September. The aged suc- 

 cumb most in great cold, and infants in great 

 heat, as in France, In England, there were few 

 marriages during the commercial depression to- 

 wards the end of 1842, and they also became 

 fewer after the potato rot of 1846. . In the great 

 scarcity in England in 1799-1800, marriages were 

 1 8 per cent, fewer than in previous abundant 

 years. Even the commercial failures in the end 

 of 1857 made sensibly fewer marriages in Decem- 

 ber than in the same month in 1855 and 1856. 

 After a longer time, scarcity and commercial de- 

 pression are followed by fewer births. In Scot- 

 land, as in England, most births occur in the 

 second quarter of the year, most marriages in the 

 last, and most deaths in the first. 



The birth, marriage, and death rates increase 

 with the density of the population, being lowest 

 in agricultural, and highest in manufacturing and 

 mining districts, and in towns. In Scotland, 1855- 

 70, to loco of the population the annual varia- 

 tion, in insular districts, of births was from 22-7 to 

 31-6; of persons married, from 8-8 to 1-16; and of 

 deaths, from 12-9 to 18-5 ; in mainland rural dis- 

 tricts, 30-7 to 34-0, u-o to 12-4, 16-5 to 20-0 ; and 

 in town districts, 34-0 to 39-4, 15-6 to 18-8, 25-2 

 to 29-6. In England and Wales, 1861-70, the 

 mean annual death-rate to looo persons living 

 was 24-8 in 130 districts and 59 sub-districts, and 

 only 19-7 in the remaining districts and sub-dis- 

 tricts, comprising chiefly the small towns and 

 country parishes. During the same period, while 

 the mean annual birth-rate in 1000 of the popula- 

 tion of all England and Wales was 35-2, it varied 

 in the counties from 30-2 in Westmoreland to 

 42-0 in Durham. In London and other 19 large 

 towns in the United Kingdom, to loco persons 

 living in 1871, the birth-rate varied from 33-3 to 

 44-1, mean 36-0; and the death-rate from 19-3 to 

 36-5, mean 26-9. 



We now enter into more detail as to births, 

 marriages, and deaths. 



Births. 



Proportion of the Sexes. In Europe, says M. 

 Ouetelet, about 106 males on an average are born 

 to every 100 females, but the excess of males is 

 afterwards decreased by their greater death-rate. 

 In England and Wales, the ratio has been for many 

 years 104 males to 100 females; only twice, 1852-71, 

 has the ratio reached 105 to 100, and only twice 

 has it been under 104 to 100. In Scotland, the 

 mean ratio of male to female births, 1855-70, was 

 105-5 to I00 > an d in illegitimate births 106-4 to 

 loo. In France, 1817-60, these ratios were 104 to 

 100, and 105 to 100 respectively. Thus proportion- 

 ally more males are born out of, than in, wedlock. 

 A country life also favours male births. At the Cape 

 of Good Hope, female births predominate among 

 the free inhabitants, and male births among 

 slaves. Within certain limits, the sex of the 

 child is oftener that of the older parent ; thus, 

 there is a less overplus of boys when the husband 

 is older, and when both parents are much under 

 20 years of age. From peculiar causes, the annual 

 ratio of male to female births varies in different 

 divisions of a 'country. In England and Wales, 

 1861-71, in the different counties, the annual 

 ratio of male to female births varied most in 



530 



Rutland, the extremes being 94-3 male to 100 

 female births in 1868, and 123-5 to Io m I 87O. 



Number of Births to a Marriage. Fertility de- 

 notes the number of children born in a population, 

 and includes fecundity, which is the capability of 

 bearing children. The number of children born 

 to married women increases from the age of 1 5 to 

 25, and then decreases, and rapidly so after the 

 age of 40, on to the end of child-bearing life, soon 

 after the age of 50, though child-bearing has been 

 recorded at the age of 60. At least 7 in 8 children 

 are born to women of the ages 20-40, and 3 in 5 are 

 born of women under 30 years of age. In Sweden, 

 marriage is generally four years later in life than 

 in Scotland ; and most children are born to 

 women of ages 30-35 in Sweden, but to those 

 of ages 25-30 in Scotland. In England, there 

 are on the average 5, and in Scotland, 4-5 

 births to a marriage, and in France, only 3-2. Of 

 wives, loo of ages 15-55 bear yearly in England 

 and Wales 22 children, and in France 15. Early 

 marriage hastens sterility. Some females bear 

 20 to 30 children. 



The nobility and higher ranks of a country have 

 fewer children than the other ranks, and many of 

 their marriages are unfruitful ; hence the extinc- 

 tion of many noble families in all ages. The mar- 

 riages of English peers yield on the average 4-4 

 children, when the female is married under the 

 age of 1 6, and the children to a marriage increase 

 to 5 -43, when she marries from the age of 24 to 

 27. The families of peers marrying heiresses, 

 soon die out, as an heiress is generally an only 

 child, and transmits a tendency to produce few or 

 no children. 



Plurality of Births. Women normally bear 

 only i child at a time. But a woman may con- 

 ceive 2 to 5 children in one pregnancy ; not above 

 4 of these have been born alive at one lying-in. 

 European statistics shew i pregnancy in about 81 

 to produce twins ; i in 7271 to produce triplets ; 

 i in 160,000, quadruplets. Among idiots and 

 imbeciles, and their relatives, a much higher 

 ratio of children are twin-born than in the 

 general community, and twinning is often ac- 

 companied with deformities. Newly married 

 women are more likely to have twins than 

 others, and women of the ages 25 to 29 have 

 most twins. Twins are oftenest of opposite sexes, 

 and twin-males are more frequent than twin- 

 females. 



Pathology of Births. Of births, 10 in n are 

 natural, or require no artificial aid ; I in 20 require 

 surgical aid. One pregnancy in 78 is followed by 

 abortion, and i in 22 by a still birth. Still births 

 are comparatively more frequent in cities than in 

 rural districts ; in first pregnancies than in sub- 

 sequent ; in male than in female children, males 

 being larger ; in illegitimates than legitimates. 

 Abortion or miscarriage is more frequent among 

 the higher ranks, from their luxuriousness, sensi- 

 tiveness, and excitability, than among the hard- 

 working, though the latter are more exposed to 

 accidental causes of abortion. The mean yearly 

 deaths in England and Wales, 1847-71, of 

 women in childbirth, was 49 to 10,000 chil- 

 dren born alive. The mortality of women in child- 

 birth at the ages of 25-35, 35-45, 45-5 5, is in the 

 ratio of 2, 3, and 4. 



Legitimate and Illegitimate Births. Illegiti- 

 mate children become generally less healthy, 



