LAWS OF THE STERILITY OF WOMEN. 317 



of any of the contiguous years. From this fertility, the sterility can be easily 

 computed. 



Now, in 1855, there were, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 4447 marriages, and 

 3722 first deliveries of living children, leaving 725 marriges sterile, or 1 in 61. 

 But in these figures are included 75 marriages which did not take place till after 

 the women had passed 44 years of age, and these will damage the physiological 

 value of the statement, as these 75 women could not be expected to be prolific. 



Of women between the ages of 15 and 44 inclusive, there were married 4372 ; 

 among wives of the same ages, 3710 had first children, leaving 654 marriages 

 sterile, or 1 in 66. In other words, 15 per cent, of all the marriages between 15 

 and 44 years of age, as they occur in our population, are sterile. 



The statement of the amount of sterility just given appears to me, from the 

 largeness of the figures used, to be far more valuable than any other I know of. 

 But on account of their great interest, I shall quote the statements of two authors.* 

 " In the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales (vol. vi. p. 245 ; see also Neue Ab- 

 handlungen der Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. xi. p. 70), it is 

 stated," says Sir James Y. Simpson,! "that Hedin, a Swedish minister, had noticed 

 that in his parish, composed of 800 souls, one barren woman is not met with for 

 ten fertile. It is further stated, that Frank asserted, but from what data is not 

 mentioned, that it would be found on investigation, that in most communities 

 containing 300 to 400 couples, at least 6 or 7 would be sterile, without anything 

 in their physical condition to explain the fact. It seems to have been from this 

 assertion of Frank's, that Burdach, who is almost the only author who even 

 alludes to the matter, has given the general statement, that one marriage only in 

 50 is unproductive (Dr Allen Thomson's excellent essay on Generation, in Todd's 

 Cyclopaedia, vol ii. p. 478, foot note). 



" For the purpose of ascertaining the point by numerical data, I had a census 

 taken of two villages of considerable size, viz., Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, and 

 Bathgate in West Lothian, — the one consisting principally of a seafaring popula- 

 tion, and the other of persons engaged in agriculture and manufacture. 



" The following form the results in these two places: — Of 210 marriages in 

 Grangemouth, 182 had offspring ; 27 had none ; or about one marriage in 10 was 

 without issue. Of the 27 unproductive marriages, all the subjects had lived in 

 wedlock upwards of five years, and in all, the female had been married that 

 period before she reached the age of 45. Again, of 402 marriages in Bathgate, 

 365 had offspring; 37 had none; or about one marriage in 11 was unproductive. 

 There were at the same time living in the village 122 relicts of marriages, and of 



* Lever's statement I here quote, but I cannot ascribe much value to it, because no evidence 

 is adduced, and because there is an evident numerical error in some part of the passage. He says. 

 " It is found that ^th, or 5 per cent, of married women are wholly unprolific." — Organic Diseases 

 of Uterus, p. 5. 



| Obstetric Works, vol. i. p. 323. 



L 



