482 DR MATTHEWS DUNCAN ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE FERTILITY 



TABLE VII.* — Showing the Comparative Fecundity at Different Ages of the 

 Whole Wives in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855. 



Ages, 



Wives, 



Wives-Mothers, 



Proportion of latter to former is 1 in 



Percentage, 



15-19 



756 

 378 



20 



50-00 



20-24 



8874 

 3709 

 2-4 



41-79 



25-29 30-34 



14,622 

 5065 

 2-9 



14,579 



3872 



3-7 



34-64 26-56 



55-39 40-44 



11,871 

 2421 

 4-9 



20-39 



10,506 

 845 

 12-4 



8-04 



45-49 



7537 



96 

 78-5 



1-27 



The seventh table estabhshes a comparison between the numbers of married 

 women of various ages, and the numbers of such women bearing living children. 

 In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the number of wives within the ages of 15 and 49 

 inclusive, or who might have borne children in 1855, was 68,745, and the number 

 of wives-mothers in the same population, in the same j'ear, was 16,386,f or 1 in 4*2. 

 In the table these are arranged in columns of different ages, so as to exhibit the 

 comparative fecundity of the whole wives of different ages. It will be seen at a 

 glance, that the table shews that the fecundity of the mass of wives is greatest 

 in the first years of the child-bearing period of life, and I regret extremely that 

 the data at my disposal do not permit me to condescend on the circumstances in 

 this respect of each individual year. The table shows that, from the earliest 

 years of child-bearing life onwards, the fecundity of the mass of married women 

 gradually wanes to its extinction. It is also easily made out that while there 

 were 24,252 wives under 30 years of age, and of these 9152 bore children, there 

 were 44,493 wives of ages varying from 30 to 49 years inclusive, and of these 

 only 7234 bore children ; or, to speak in round numbers, the wives under 30 

 years of age were much more than twice as fecund as the wives above 30 years. 



* In this table, the actual numbers are given as nearly as possible. 



The numbers of wives have been arrived at in the following way. We have the population of 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1851 and 1861, and, by calculation, estimate the population in 1855. 

 We have the actual numbers of wives of different ages in 1861, and by an easy calculation of pro- 

 portions we reduce the numbers of wives of different ages to the numbers given for 1855. 



The number of wives-mothers extracted from the registers of 1855, is 16,301, bearing 16,500 

 legitimate children. But the Registrar- General's Reports state the number of children as 16,593. 

 Hence it appears tliat 93 births are omitted in the extracts. These omissions were made on 

 account of manifest carelessness and inaccuracy in the registers. To these 93 births, cori*esponds the 

 number of 92 mothers, one being deducted for a twin case. These 92 mothers have been added pro- 

 portionally to the others, in order to make up the total of 16,393. 



■\ The actual number of wives -mothers in Edinbvirgh and Glasgow in 1855 was 16,393. This 

 fio-ure is in the text reduced to 16,386, and seven wives-mothers omitted, because tliese seven were 

 altogether exceptional, occurring as they did between the ages of 50 and 57, and could only damage 

 the statement of results. 



