STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 411 



declining — a proof of tlie greater wealth of the people no less than of the beneficial 

 influence of sanitary improvements.* The number of marriages and births 

 fluctuates, as a matter of course, according to whether times are prosperous or the 

 reverse ; but upon the whole it is remarkably steady, far more so than on the 

 continent. Still there are thousands of marriageable English men and women 

 who are either too poor to marry or dread the responsibility of becoming the 

 founders of a family. The number of females is larger than that of males, for 

 although more boys are born than girls, the mortality amongst the former is 

 greater, and in the end the female sex preponderates.! The normal increase of 

 the population is considerably retarded by the large number of persons living in 

 celibacy. If all Englishmen were to marry on attaining a marriageable age, 

 the population would double itself every twenty years, for to every marriage 

 there are four or five births. In England people marry younger and have more 

 children than in most other countries of Europe, and especially France. These 

 early marriages give birth to a feeling of responsibility, promote industry and 

 enterprise, and are conducive to a regular mode of life. 



The rate of mortality is about the same in England as in France. Ordinarily 

 it is supposed to be somewhat less, but we must bear in mind that still-born children 

 find no place in the tables published by the Registrar-General. + The British 

 Islands may certainly be included amongst the most salubrious countries of the 

 world. Medical men assert that Englishmen resist the ills that flesh is heir to 

 with great success. The mortality resulting from the surgical practice carried on 

 in English hospitals is less than half what it amounts to in French institutions of 

 the same class. " English flesh difl'ers from French flesh," says M. Velpeau. 

 The measles and scarlatina are attended with greater danger in England than on 

 the continent, but consumption is the great slayer on both sides of the Channel. 

 It carries ofl" nearly one-half of the men and women who die between the ages of 

 twenty and thirtj^, and altogether causes the deaths of one-tenth of the population. 

 Next to it, bronchitis, pneumonia, convulsions, small-pox, diarrhoea, and heart disease 

 prove most deadly. And whilst diseases of the chest fasten upon those of delicate 

 constitution, gout attacks and kills men of sanguine temperament and full of 

 animal spirits. 



Emigration carries ofi* annually a considerable proportion of the natural 

 increase of the population resulting from an excess of births. A regular emi- 

 gration movement first began after the great Napoleonic wars in 1815. It 



* Eate of marriages, births, and deaths (jn-o mille of total population) : — 



England and Wales. Scotland. 



It would be perfectly useless to give similar statistics for Ireland, as the returns from that kingdom 

 are imperfect and altogether misleading. 



t Between the years 1841 and 1876 there were born 1,048 boys to every 1,000 girls, but in the total 

 population there were 1,054 females to every 1,000 males. 



X Bertillon, "Encyclopédie des Sciences Médicales." 



