CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



longest life is 47-8 years. There would thus be 

 27 married couples to 9 widowers and 1 1 widows ; 

 but re-marriage reduces the widowers to 3, and 

 the widows to 6, a fact of much social importance. 

 In the British aristocracy, bachelors delay mar- 

 riage much longer than in the general population. 

 This is also the case among officers in the Indian 

 service ; and the older they are before marriage, 

 the younger are their wives. 



In 1861 and 1871, in England and Wales, I in 

 about 2-8 of the population were living married. 

 In England and Wales, 1871, of married men in 

 100 of the general population, there were at the 

 following ages : 23 at ages 20-25 ; 60 at 25-30; 

 75 at 30-35 ; 82 at 35-40 ; 83 at 40-45 ; 84 at 

 45-50. About a sixth fewer Scotch are living 

 married, than English. About 4 in 6 of the 

 males, and 4 in 7 of the females, in Great Britain 

 are living married. Never above 3 in 4 females 

 of any age are married, but 4 in 5 males of the 

 age of 45-50 are married. Husbands are to 

 widowers as 9 to i in England and Scotland ; 

 and wives are to widows as 4 or 5 to i in Eng- 

 land, and 3 or 4 to r in Scotland. On comparing 

 the conjugal conditions of England in 1871 and 

 France in 1866, we find that in every 100 of the 

 population of the age of 20 and upwards, there 

 were in England and France respectively 27-10 

 and 28-68 bachelors ; 66-10 and 63-37 husbands ; 

 6-80 and 7-95 widowers ; 25-80 and 23-71 spin- 

 sters ; 60-60 and 61-33 wives; and 13-60 and 

 14-96 widows. Males while serving in the army 

 and navy marry in far less ratio than those in 

 civil life. In the army, I in 4 officers, and I in 6-6 

 men, marry ; and in the navy I in 3-3 officers, 

 and i in 4-2 men. In Britain, 1851, the mean 

 age of the wife was 40-65 years, and of the hus- 

 band, 40-05. Of ages at and above 20, i in 10 

 men, and i in 8 women, never marry. 



Deaths. 



The duration of life of the individual human 

 being is proverbially uncertain, but from the 

 recorded ages at death of a multitude of persons, 

 can be predicted the average lifetime of those 

 still living. This gives the law of mortality, or 

 numerical relation between the number of persons 

 living at any assigned age, and the number re- 

 maining alive at every subsequent age, and so 

 the number dying in the intervals. This law 

 varies with the observed causes of the mean dura- 

 tion of life, such as climate, soil, civilisation, food, 

 clothing, progress of medicine, sanitation, &c. Igno- 

 rance, incautiousness, and accident constantly ex- 

 pose man to conditions destructive of life, and in 

 large bodies of men these operate regularly. 



Rate of Mortality. In England, during the 

 period 1690-1820, the ratio of deaths to the popu- 

 lation fell no less than two-fifths. This decrease 

 of mortality arose chiefly towards the end of the 

 period, from the introduction of vaccination. The 

 annual mean mortality rate in England and Wales, 

 1838-71, was 22-4 in 1000 persons living; extremes 

 20-5 and 25-1 ; and in Scotland, 1855-70, mean 

 21-9, extremes 19-5 and 23-5. The mortality of 

 France fell from 36 in 1000 of the population in 

 1775 to 23 in 1845 the annual mean, 1853-70, was 

 23-4, and extremes 21 -7 and 28-3. From records 

 for various periods, 1817-55, the mean annual 

 mortality of looo of the population was 20 in Nor- 

 way, 22 in Denmark, 23 in Sweden, 29 in Holland 



532 



and the north of Russia, 25 in Belgium and 

 Switzerland, and 33 in Italy, Turkey, and Greece. 

 In New Zealand, the mean annual mortality, 1860- 

 71, was only 12-6 in 1000 of the population ; and 

 it was 1 8 in 1871 in New South Wales. For 

 males, the mean annual mortality rate in England 

 and Wales, 1838-71, was 23-3 in 1000 living ; 

 and for females 21-5. In France, 1817-60, it 

 was for males 24-3, and for females 23-6. In the 

 following large cities, the mortality in icoo of the 

 population was, in 1871 In London, 24-7 ; Ports- 

 mouth, 19-3 ; Liverpool, 35-1 ; Sunderland, 36-5 ; 

 Calcutta, 24 ; Madras, 30 ; New York, 29 ; Rot- 

 terdam, 34 ; Haarlem, 24 ; Amsterdam, 29. 



Mr B. Gompertz, F.R.S., in 1820, gave a phys- 

 iological theory of mortality or duration of human 

 life. Assuming that the power of the body to 

 resist destruction or disease loses equal propor- 

 tions in equal successive small intervals of time, 

 he derived in terms of three constants (determined 

 by observation, and subject to nearly sudden 

 changes), the number of survivors of any number 

 of persons of any given age, at the end of any 

 number of years from that age. This theory 

 gives a mortality table for all ages, approximating 

 to the mortality tables based on observation alone. 

 But many causes influence the rate of mortality 

 of a people, and for practical purposes, as in 

 insuring lives, we must trust not to an a priori 

 theory, but to tables shewing the observed ratio 

 of the number of subsequent annual deaths among 

 a large number of persons who have entered a 

 given age. This ratio is the law of mortality of 

 that age, or the probability that a person entering 

 that year of age will not survive it. 



New English Life and Mortality Table. This 

 table, published in 1864, was deduced by Dr W. 

 Fair from the ratio of the population living in 

 England and Wales at the censuses 1841 

 (15,914,148) and 1851 (17,927,609) to the 6,470,720 

 deaths at different ages registered, 1838-54, in 

 the same country. The base of the table is 

 100,000 children born alive during these 17 years, 

 in the ratio of 51,174 males to 48,825 females, and 

 the rates of mortality and survivorship are given 

 for each successive period of life. The following 

 extract gives, for a few years of life, the number of 

 males and females living, or attaining the years of 

 age noted, to every 100,000 births ; the number of 

 males and females of the population who die in 

 those years ; and the mean or expected after- 

 lifetime of the survivors at those years. Age 

 means past lifetime. 



ENGLISH LIFE AND MORTALITY TABLE FOR IOO,OOO 

 BIRTHS. 



