240 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



drawn from the above table. Dr. Stark appears to 

 me to have fallen into the mistake, which M. Quetelet 

 tells us is so common, of trying to make his statistics 

 carry more weight than they are capable of bearing. 

 It is important that the matter should be put in a 

 just light, for the Eoyal Commission on the Law of 

 Marriage has revealed no more striking fact than that 

 of the prevalence of immature marriages, and such 

 reasoning as Dr. Stark's certainly cannot tend to dis- 

 courage these unwise alliances. If death strikes down 

 in five years only half as many of those who are mar- 

 ried as of those who are unmarried between the ages of 

 20 and 25 (as appears from the above table), and if the 

 proportion of deaths between the two classes goes on 

 continually diminishing in each successive lustre (as is 

 also shown by the above table), it seems reasonable to 

 infer that the death-rate would be even more strikingly 

 disproportionate for persons between the ages of fifteen 

 and twenty than for persons between the ages of 

 twenty and twenty-five. I believe, indeed, that if 

 Dr. Stark had extended his table to include the former 

 ages, the result would have been such as I have 

 indicated. Yet few will suppose that very youth- 

 ful marriages can exercise so singularly beneficial an 

 effect. 



To many Dr. Stark's conclusion may appear to be a 

 natural and obvious sequitur from the evidence upon 

 which it is founded. Admitting the facts and I see 

 no reason for doubting them it may appear at first 

 sight that we are bound to accept the conclusion that 



