LAWS OF THE FERTILITY OF WOMEN. 



295 



TABLE III. — Showing, from the data of St George's-in-the-East, the Fertility 

 of Fertile Wives Aged from 15 to 45 Years. 



Years 

 Married. 



Motliers. 



Children. 



Average of 

 each Mother. 



Years 

 Married. 



Mothers. 



Children. 



Average of 

 each Mother. 



** 



56 



59 



1-05 



8 s - 



"1 2 



76 



269 



354 



3 A 



60 



88 



146 



ll- 6 - 



254 



1,178 



4-64 



*A 



54 



99 



1-83 



16- 5 - 



lu 12 



215 



1,319 



6-13 



5 6 



66 



184 



2-79 



21 T 5 2 



148 



1,075 



7-26 



6- 5 - 



57 



163 



2-86 



26A 



44 



353 



8-02 



7VW 



« 12 



60 



196 



326 











The direct results of this Table are given in the figures, and require no state- 

 ment. But comparing it with the preceding Table, we observe that, as is easily 

 understood, the differences between the fertile and the persistently fertile increase 

 as the duration of marriage increases ; and that, while the numbers of the children 

 of fertile women is about a third of the years of duration of marriage, the numbers 

 of the children of persistently fertile women is about a half of the years of dura- 

 tion of marriage. In other words, if these Tables are at all trustworthy, we may 

 guess that the number (surviving or not) of a fertile married woman's family is 

 about a third of the number of years since her marriage. But if, in addition to 

 knowing that the married woman has a family, we know that she has just had 

 an addition to her family, then we may guess that the number of her family is 

 about a half of the number of years since her marriage. 



From the same London data I have also framed the following Table, without 

 doing any apparent violence to them, and with a result that is extremely interest- 

 ing. The student will observe, that beside the data from St George's-in-the-East 

 I have placed corresponding data extracted from the Edinburgh and Glasgow 

 registers of 1855. The comparison of the fertility of a set of fertile wives — that 

 is, all wives who have borne children some time during their still-continuing mar- 

 ried lives — with that of a set of persistently fertile wives — that is, exclusively, 

 of wives bearing at the ends of the periods under consideration (that is, in this 

 Table, the end of their child-bearing lives) — is, as already said, marred, and loses 

 value on account of the two sets being of very different numbers, different locali- 

 ties, and different populations. Taking it as it stands, we find that fertile women 

 generally, living with husbands for 16 years before the conclusion of child-bearing 

 life, have an average family of about 41 ; while persistently fertile wives — that is, 

 wives bearing children at the end of their child-bearing lives — have an average 

 family of Hi. While fertile wives, married 21 years, before and up to the age of 



VOL. XXIV. PART I. 4 L 



