20 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
country districts respectively is not in itself sufficient to afford any 
indication of the true state of morality. Every statist is aware that 
the unrestrained passions which in rural districts result in illegitimate 
births are in large towns diverted into the channel of barren prosti- 
tution. The English Eegistrar-General remarks that, “ it is probable 
that a considerable portion of illegitimate children are the offspring of 
country girls who have gone into domestic service in towns, and 
have there been seduced ; and such girls will often return to 
the country for their confinement, and thus increase the country rate 
of illegitimacy by the addition of births which from their origin 
should duly be reckoned as belonging to the towns.” On the other 
hand, however, it is quite as likely that a good many mothers of 
illegitimate children conceived in rural districts resort to private 
lodgings or maternity hospitals in large towns for the purpose of 
being confined. 
In Scotland, during the two decades ending 1870 and 1880 
respectively, there had been a diminution in the rate of illegitimacy 
to the extent of nearly 1 per cent., viz., 8 ‘8 instead of 9 *7. If a wavy 
line be drawn from Portskerry, about twelve miles west of Thurso, 
to ForhGeorge, and thencOj l)y the eastern boundaries of Inverness, 
Argyll, Stirling, Lanark, and Ayr, to the mouth of Loch Ryan, it 
will be found that all the counties to the west of the line present a 
percentage of illegitimacy below the ratio for the whole of Scotland 
while two-thirds of the counties to the east of the line present a per- 
centage above that ratio — the majority of the others yielding a 
percentage closely bordering on the national rate. There were thus 
ten counties on the west of the line in question below the national 
ratio ; while of the twenty-one counties on the east of the line, 
fourteen ranged from 9*0 (hTairn) to 16’6 (Banff), and the remain- 
ing seven from 7 ’3 (Fife) to 8*7 (Selkirk). One of these seven 
(Edinburgh) contains a large city, while three others (Fife, Clack- 
mannan, and Selkirk) embrace towns of considerable size, thereby 
probably accounting, by the barren prostitution of large centres, for 
the comparatively siuall number of illegitimate births. The insular 
counties (Orkney and Shetland) were . considerably below the 
national average — having respectively 6’0 and 4*8 per cent. 
In 1881 the population of the Western area amounted to 
1,859,000, and of the Eastern area to 1,814,000 — a difference of 
