AND FECUNDITY OF WOMEN ACCORDING TO AGE. 



477 



TOOK, and others. I here present, as an example, the table of ages of mothers of legi- 

 timate and illegitimate offspring, whether born alive or dead, from the " Practical 

 Treatise on Midwifery" of Dr Collins, master of the Dublin Lying-in Hospital. 

 The data adduced by Dr Granville in the second volume of the "Transactions 

 of the Obstetrical Society of London," are closely similar. Judging from these 

 data, it would appear that most children are born of women at or near the age of 

 30 years or the middle of the child-bearing period of life ; and that the offspring 

 of mothers of ages advancing from the commencement of child-bearing to the age 

 of 30 or the middle of the child-bearing period gradually increases ; that the 

 climax is reached at this age, and that thereafter the offspring of mothers 

 advancing above 30 gradually diminishes. But while the age of 30 forms the 

 climax, there is not an equal fertility on either side of it ; a much larger part of 

 the population being born of mothers under 30 than of mothers above 30. 

 Dividing the number of mothers at 30 years, and adding together those on each 

 side of the division, we have on the side of the younger 12,106, and on the side 

 of the elder women 4279, giving a majority of 7827 in favour of the younger; 

 or, otherwise stated, we have three-fourths of the births among the younger 

 half, and only one-fourth among the elder. The mean age of the mothers in Dr 

 CoLLiNs's table is 27 years. 



TABLE I. — Showing the Age op bach of 16,385 Women, Delivered in the Dublin 



Lying-in Hospital. 



Age, .... 



15 



16 



17 



18 



19 



20 



21 



22 



23 



24 



25 



26 



27 



28 



29 



30 



31 



No. of Women, 



3 



19 



70 



237 



433 



926 



682 



1142 



1023 



10891174 



1295 



983 



1340 



517 



2346 



242 





Age,. . . . 



32 



33 



34 



35 



36 



37 



38 



39 



40 



41 



42 



43 



44 



45 



46 



47 



50 



53 



No. of Women, 



467 



378 



384 



396 



379 



153 



217 



65 



326 



15 



21 



18 



17 



11 



6 



6 



5 



1 



TABLE II. — Showing the Ages of 16,385 Women Delivered in the Dublin Lying-in 

 Hospital, arranged in Periods op Five Years. 



Age, 



15-19 



20-24 



25-29 



30-34 



35-39 



40-44 



45-49 



50 and over. 



No. of Women, . . 



762 



4862 



5309 



3817 



1210 



397 



22 



6 



Percentage, . . . 



4-65 



29-67 



32-40 



23-29 



7-38 



2-42 



•13 



•03 



The next table which I present shows an arranged collection of data, com- 

 prising the wives-mothers of living children born at or near the full time in 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 The former table has, regarding the use to be 



