28l 



INFLUENCE OF MARRIAGE ON DEATH 

 AND CRIME. 



THERE are reasons for believing that a thoroughly 

 hearty blunder has a better chance of thriving than an 

 average truth. Men still believe in the influence of 

 the moon on the weather, and many even still suppose 

 that the moon shifts her horns to announce weather 

 changes, and not according to strict unchanging law ; 

 whereas only a few among the discoveries of science 

 have ever found general acceptance. Nay, I believe 

 to this day, if the civilised world were polled on the 

 question of the earth's rotundity, and then on the 

 question whether the moon rules weather changes, 

 more would be found to vote in favour of the easily 

 understood blunder than of the less readily understood 

 truth. 



As an instance of the vitality of attractive errors 

 may be specially noted the recent revival of Dr. Stark's 

 theory that marriage conduces to longevity. I take 

 some interest in the vitality of this special error, as I 

 chanced to be one of the first to point out the fallacious 

 nature of the reasoning on which it was based. My 

 paper, written anonymously in 1868, was subsequently 

 quoted by Dr. Farr, who had dealt with the influence 

 of marriage on mortality in France in a paper read 

 nearly 20 years ago before the Association for Pro- 

 moting Social Science, and who is justly described by 



