1853] 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



71 



to each pe'son they would cover 7 square miles. The author supplied 

 a furiber illustia ion, hy slating that if all the people of Great Britain 

 had in pass through London in procession 4 abreast, ami every facility 



■nr.,c .,ff ...I ..I r ... <!,,.;.. I',.,,. ,...) ii > ,,.K.,I .^..c- ..,,., lO l..,nro /loiK- 



I "•■■■' '-'■' ■■■■-'• — ■-■■* [-•' ~ ■••- „ j 



was aff.rded for their free .and uuinteiruptcd passage 12 hours daily, 

 Sundays excepted, it would take nearly 3 -Months lor the whole popu- 

 lation of Great Britain to file through at quick march, four deep. The 

 excess of f 'males in Gieat Britain was 51:2,361, < 

 have, filled the l-rvnlal Palac 5 rimes over. The proportion 

 the sexes was 100 males to 105 females, a remarkably fact 

 was considered that the births dun met the last 13 years had given the 

 reversed prop trtion of 1 05 hoys to 100 girls I i" 

 exhibits the population of 

 1851 inclusivt : — 



as many as would, 

 bel ween 

 when it 



... .i statement 

 Great Britain at each census from 180 L to 



Years. 



Males. 



Females. 



Total. 



1801 



5 368 703 



5 518.7X0 



10 917,433 



1811 



6.1 1 l.2fil 



6.3 1 2 .-59 



12 421.120 



1821 



7 096 053 



7.306,590 



14.402,643 



1831 



8 133 416 



8 430,69-2 



16.564 138 



1841 



9 212.418 



9,581.368 



18.-13.786 



1851 



10 386.048 



10.735 919 



21.121,967 



T> e increase of population ;n the last half cm tury was njv aids o 

 10 000.000, and nearly equalled the increase in all preceding ages, not- 

 withstanding that millions had emigrated in the interval. The increase 

 still continued, but the rnte of increase had declined, chiefly from ac- 

 celerated emigration. At the rate of increase prevailing from 1801 

 to 1851, the population would double it-elf ii 52*^ years. The rela- 

 tion of population lo mean lifetime and to interval between genera- 

 tions was then disenspe I. The effects of fertile marriages and of early 

 marriages, respectively, were stated; also the result of a change in the 

 social c mdition ( »f unmarried women; hkewi-e, the effect of migration 

 and emigration, respectively, on population; the effect of an abundance 

 of the necessaries of life was indicated, and, on the contrary, the 

 result of famines, pestilences, and calamities. The terms " family" 

 and "occupier" were defined, and" pome remarks by Dr. Cams, on 

 English dwellings, wore cited. The Engl. sh (says the Doctor) divide 

 their edifices perpendicularly in hon«es, while on the Continent and in 

 many parts of Scotland the edifices are divided horizontally into fl ors. 

 The definition of a " house." adopted for the purposes of the census, 

 was "isolated dwelling or dwellings, separated by parly wall*-." The 

 following tab!.? gives the number of houses in Great Britain in 1851: 





Inhabited. 



Uninhabited. 



Building. 



England 



Scotland 



3 076K20 



37 .308 



2ll 1.4 9 



21815 



144.499 



12.146 



8 995 



1.095 



25.192 



' 2,420 



1 ,379 



20 i 







Tnlal 



3 670 9-2 



166 735 



29 194 



A>>nn| 4 p C v c,.|,t of the houses in Greal Britain were unoccupied, 

 in 1851, and to every 131 houses inhabited or uninhabited, the re was 

 one in course of election. In Ei gland and Wales the number of per- 

 sons to a house was 5'5: 'n Scotland 7'8, or about the same as in Lon- 

 don- in Edinburgh and Glasgow the numbers were respectively 20-6 

 and 27 5. Sul j lined is a statement of the numlier of inhabited nouses 

 and r.imili, s in Great B [tain at each censes, from 1801 to 1851.— also 

 of persons to a house, excluding the Islai ds in the Biilish Sea-: — 



Tears. 



Inhabited 

 Houses. 



Families. 



Persons to a 

 House. 



18H1 

 181-1 

 1821 

 1831 

 1841 

 1851 



1 870 476 



2 101.597 

 2 -:2 V 31 

 2«5".937 



3 446 797 

 3.641.347 



2.260X12 



2 514 215 

 2.941.383 



3 414.175 



(No returns.) 



4 3 1 1.388 



56 

 5-7 

 58 

 57 

 5-4 

 5-7 



The number of inhabited houses had neatly doubled in the last half 

 century, and upwards of two million new families hid been f< unded. 

 67,609 families, taken at hazard, were analyzed into their constituent 

 part, atid they yave sum curious results. About 5 per cent, only of 

 the families in Great Britain consisted of husbands, wife, children, 

 and servants, geneially considered the requisites of domestic felicity; 

 ■while 893 families had each ten children at home, 317 had each eleven 

 and 64 had each twelve. The number of each class of institution, and 

 the number of persons inhabiting them, are annexed: — 



Class of Institution, 



B, tracks' 



Wo khouses 



Prisons 



Lunatic Asylums.. 



Hospitals 



Asylums, ^dtc 



Number 

 if .Insti- 

 utioiiS. 



174 

 746 

 257 

 149 

 118 

 573 



habii 



Total . 



Persoi 

 '.hem. 



41, ,-34 

 65,786 

 24,593 

 9,753 

 5 893 

 27,i83 



'(117 | 178H4I 



Female 



9.100 

 65.796 



6 369 

 11,251 



5.754 

 19548 



1 7,-15 



Total. 



53.933 



131,582 

 311 959 

 21004 

 11.647 

 46.731 



295 856 



UI iiie^e -So.ooU.i ., i.v .„., 2uU J4U Me.e li.maCt'n, and 35.516 orticers 

 and servants. The excess of males in the prisons arose from the fact 

 that crime was four times as prevalent among mahs as mong females. 

 T he number of fhe houseless classes, i. *?., of persons sleeping in bams, 

 tents, and the open air, on the night of the cent us, was 18,219 The 

 following tahle gives the number ol these classes, together with those 

 sleei in g in haree's and vessels: — 



Fer.soi s sleep 



i.g in 



.Vlal-s. 



Kelllrth s. 



I'olal 



Barges.. 



10 395 

 7,25 1 



4614 

 48,895 



2 529 

 2721 



3 661 

 2 853 



12 924 

 9 972 



Barns 



Tents or Opel 

 Vessels 



Air.. 



8.277 

 ' 51,748 







Total 



71.155 



1 1 766 



82 921 







Ii was mentioned as a curious trait ol gypsy leeling that a whole 

 tribe struck their tents, and passed into another parish in order in es- 

 cape enumeration. The composition of a town was next described; 

 also, the laws of operating upon the location of lamilies. The num- 

 ber of cities and towns of various magnitudes in Great Britain, was- 

 8 i5: — viz. 580 in England and Wales, '225 in Scotland, and 10 in the 

 Channel Islands. The town and country population was equally ba- 

 lanced: — 10l£ millions against lO, 1 ^ millions. The density in the 

 towns was 3 337 persons to the square mile; in the country only 120, 

 The average population of each town_in England and Wales was 

 15 500; of each town in Scotland 6,654. I he average ground area of 

 the English town was 4 3-5 miles. The mariner in which the ground 

 area in Great Britain was occupied by the popu'ation was illustrated 

 by a series of squares The adventitious character of ceilain towns 

 was alluded to; many had risen rapidly from villages to cities, and had 

 almost acquired a metropolitan character. In 1851, Great Britain 

 contained 70 towns, of iO 000 inhabitants and upwards. There was 

 an increasing tendency of the people to concentrate themselves in 

 masses. London extended over an area of 78,029 acres, or 1 12 square 

 miles, and the number of its inhabitants, rapidly increasing, was 

 2,362 236 on the day of the lasi census. The author illustrated this 

 number by a curious calculation: — a conception of this vast mass 

 of people might be formed by the tact, that it 'the metropolis was sur- 

 rounded by a wall, having a north gate, a south gam, an east gate, 

 and a wes' gate, and each of the four gales was of sufficient width to 

 allow a column of persons to pass out freely lour abreast, and a per- 

 emptory necessity required the immediate evacuation of the city, it 

 could not be iccouiplished nndet four-and-twenty hours, hy the expi- 

 ration • f which time the head of each of the four cdums wou'd have 

 advanced a no less distance than seventy Ave miles from their respec- 

 tive gates, all the people in- close fi : e, four deep. In respect to the 

 density or proximity of the population, a French writer had suggested 

 the term "specific population," after the analogy of "specific gravity" 

 in lieu of the terms in common use, " thinlv popnlater " and p pulous. 

 The statement annexed exhibits the p rea of Great. Britain in acres and 

 squaie.mi'es, the square in miles, the. number of aces to a person, or 

 persons to a square mile, and 'he mean proximity of the population on 



the livnn'hpcic of qn . fi'V-1 'OS 1 rihn'ion ■ — 





A'e-i. 



s) ^ 

 K — 



■n 



oo ■- 



j. 

 '" & 



•J v- 



- - CO 





In acres. 



In so. 



Miles. 



3 — >» 



England 



Scotland 



Wale-. . . 



32 5911 129 



■20 047,462 



4 734 486 



25-2,000 



50 922 



31 321 



7.398 



394 



- 226 



177 



86 



20 



19 

 6-9 

 4-7 

 1 8 



332 

 92 



m 



363 



104 



197 



162 



99 



Islands 



Great Britain 



57 624 377 



90 038 



229 



2-7 



233 



124 . 



The 624 districts ot England and W 

 piiy ranged from 18 persons to the sq 



les c as-seii in an order of rien- 



c mile in Northumberland, to 



185,751 in the east London district. In all Lnodon there were 19 375 



