340 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [july 4, 
Tlie statistics I formerly made use of, differed from the present 
ones in two respects : — 
1. They included a number of fathers of peers, all of whom, of 
course (as pointed out in the early part of this paper), left sons to 
inherit the title. The exclusion of these fathers from the present 
observations, has a tendency to increase the proportion of childless 
marriages. 
2. They included a number of elder brothers of the peers and 
elder brothers of their fathers, these being men whose male issue 
failed, that is to say, men who had either no children at all, or 
only daughters, or if they had a son or sons, their male issue had 
all died, and the title had therefore descended to a younger branch 
of the family. The exclusion of these men has a tendency to 
reduce the proportion of childless marriages. 
These two tendencies are therefore in opposite directions ; and, 
as it happens, they to a great extent neutralize each other, the 
aggregate result being that my present observations show 197 
marriages of men over 40, of which 84, or 42*6 per cent, were 
childless; against 339 marriages formerly considered, of which 137, 
or 40*4 per cent, were childless.* 
Comparing now the figures shown in Table D with those in Table B, 
we see that the exclusion of the elder brothers, and of the fathers’ 
elder brothers, has had the effect of reducing the proportion of 
childless marriages at all ages, with a trifling exception at the ages 
40-49 ; the reduction being particularly noticeable at the ages under 
30, at which more than half the total marriages took place. The 
new percentages given in Table D for the younger brothers and 
the younger uncles, are much nearer to those for the peers and 
their sons, than are our original figures in Table B, which related 
to all the brothers and all the uncles ; but we see that at all ages, 
the percentages for the younger brothers and the younger uncles, 
are still greater than the corresponding ones for the peers and their 
sons ; — in other words, that at all ages there is a less proportion of 
childless marriages among the peers and their sons, than there is 
among the younger brothers of the peers, and their fathers’ younger 
* Including, as hereafter explained, certain marriages of the fathers and 
grandfathers of peers, the total number of marriages of men over 40 included 
in the present observations, is 259, of which 118, or 45 *5 per cent, were childless. 
