INFLUENCE OF MARRIAGE ON DEATH-RATE. 241 



exhibits the mortality per thousand of married and 

 iin married men in Scotland: 



From this table we are to understand that out of 

 one hundred thousand married persons (including 

 widowers) from 20 to 25 years old, 626 die in the 

 course of each year; while out of a similar number 

 of unmarried persons, between the same ages, no less 

 than 1,231 die in each year. And in like manner all 

 the other lines of the table are to be interpreted. 



Commenting on the evidence supplied by the above 

 figures, Dr. Stark stated that ' bachelorhood is more 

 destructive to life than the most unwholesome trades, 

 or than residence in an unwholesome house or district, 

 where there has never been the most distant attempt 

 at sanitary improvement of any kind.' And this view 

 has been very generally accepted, not only by the public, 

 but by professed statisticians. Yet as a matter of fact, 

 we believe that no such inferences can legitimately 



