Ch. xi. On the Fruitful/less of Marriages. 477 



sideration, and materially influence the average 

 proportions. According to Sussmilch, in all Po- 

 merania, from 1748 to 1756 both included, the 

 number of persons who married were 56,956, and 

 of these 10,58.6 were widows and widowers.* 

 According to Busching, in Prussia and Silesia, for 

 the year 1781, out of 29,308 persons who married, 

 4,841, were widows and widowers,! and conse- 

 quently the proportion of marriages will be given 

 full one sixth too much. In estimating the proli- 

 fickness of married women, the number of illegi- 

 timate births % would tend, though in a slight 

 degree, to counterbalance the overplus of mar- 

 riages ; and as it is found that the number of 

 widowers who marry again, is greater than the 

 number of widows, the whole of the correction 

 should not on this account be applied ; but in 

 estimating the proportion of the born which lives 

 to marry from a comparison of the marriages with 

 the births or deaths, which is what we are now 

 about to proceed to, the whole of this correction 

 is always necessary. 



It is obvious, in the second place, that the 

 marriages of any year can never be contem- 

 porary with the births from which they have 

 resulted, but must always be at such a dis- 

 tance from them as is equal to the average age 



* Gottliche Ordnung, vol. i. tables, p. 98. 



f Sussmilch, vol. iii. tables, p. 95. 



{ In France, before the revolution, the proportion of illegiti- 

 mate births was -j 1 T of the whole number. Probably it is less in 

 this country. 



