TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 195 



Registers in Scotland to be, g-enerally speaking, in a most satisfactory state, parti- 

 cularly in tlio important department of Vital statistics, as to ■which the reports of 

 tlie Registrar-General, embodying the reports made to him by Dr. Stark, contain 

 reliable information of the most interesting and important kind. One singular 

 residt that seems to have been established by the tables there given is, that at 

 every quinquennial period of life, from 20 years of age up to 85, married men die in 

 Scotland at a much lower rate than unmarried men. Sometimes the difference is 

 very great, particularly between 20 and 45, up to which period it approximates to 

 as high a rate as 2 to 1 ; but after that, the difference, though less, is still very 

 considerably in favour of the married men. The subject is more complicated as 

 regards women, from obvious causes ; though here, too, marriage seems to be the 

 more favoured state. As regards both sexes, the advantage on the side of marriage 

 is easily accounted for up to a certain point. Generallj^ speaking, those who many 

 are likely as a class to be better lives than those who do not. The unmarried will 

 infalliblj' include a greater number of sickly or diseased constitutions than the 

 man-ied class. Without professing myself an implicit believer in Darwin, I acknow- 

 ledge the truth of several of his statements in his 'Descent of Man,' as to what 

 he calls Sexual selection. As a general rule, the attachments that lead to marriage 

 will be prompted by considerations that are intimately connected with health and 

 strength. Good looks, cheerful tempers, and buoyant constitutions are great 

 attractions, and those who are wholly devoid of these, as well as those who are the 

 victims of positive bad health, will often be excluded from having tickets in the 

 matrimonial lottery. No doubt causes occur not mifrequently which disturb these 

 natural tendencies. Some of these causes are allowable or laudable, others are the 

 reverse. In a few cases affection leading to marriage may be inspired by great 

 virtue, or gTeat talent, or liigh accomplishments, though not associated with health 

 or strength. In other cases, connexions maybe formed that are wholly unconnected 

 with love — as where rank, or wealth, or influence may overcome the natural repug- 

 nance excited by deformity or disease. Bm-ns, I thiulc it is, that says — 



" Be a lassie ne'er .sae black, 

 If she hae the penny siller, 

 Set her upon Tintoek tap — 

 The -wind will blaw a man till her." 



Still, as a general rule, both men and women who are married are likely, on an 

 average, to have more health and vitality than those who remain single. As 

 regards the male sex, again, those of them that are of dissolute habits or unsettled 

 and thriftless dispositions, are not so likely to marry as those who are orderly and 

 well-conducted, and in favourable circumstances of life. But after making allow- 

 ance for these elements, it still appears that the death-rate of married men is at all 

 periods of life lower than that of the unmarried. This can be accounted for only 

 on the footing that man'iage is favourable to health, by conducing to regular habits 

 of life, and by aiving natural scope to the domestic affections. It caimot be doubted, 

 for instance, that an old man who has a wife to take care of him, will be much 

 better looked after than if he lived alone. It is not necessary in adopting this view 

 to suppose that the married life is to be wholly free from sorrows, cares, and 

 anxieties. Even these are not always prejudicial to health ; and we are, perhaps, 

 the better for them when they are well encountered. Neither is it essential that 

 the matrimonial cuiTent should always run a smooth course. Most of us, probably, 

 would agree with the view taken by Paley, who, when an old clergj-man at an 

 episcopal dinner asserted that he had been married for forty years, but had never 

 had a difference with his wife, observed quietly to the bishop that "it mtist have 

 been very flat." An occasional ripple will occur in all water, unless it be frozen 

 over, and perhaps after marriage, as well as before it, there may be truth in the 

 maxim, "Amantium irre amoris redintegratio." 



In referring to this matter it has occurred to me to consider whether, if the lower 

 death-rate of married persons is an ascertained fact, this maj' not partly account fof 

 the general success of Life insttrance offices when well conducted. It is clear that 

 an office transacting on the usual calculations of mortality, has advantages of variov.g 

 kinds. In particular, its medical examinations, which are a most important part 



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