622 
Proceedings oj the Royal Society 
taken place elsewhere. Thus, the registrar of a Sutherlandshire 
parish, in a comparatively recent return, states that “ the fathers of 
all the illegitimate children belong to Caithness, while the mothers are 
either servants or outworkers in the same county, who came home to 
be confined.” In like manner, a Stirlingshire registrar states that no 
fewer than sixteen of the mothers of the twenty-seven illegitimate 
children registered in a certain quarter of the year 1871 were 
domestic servants who returned to their homes to give birth to their 
children. Unless, however, the fathers are to be regarded as solely 
responsible for the births in these two cases, the parishes in which 
the events occurred are hardly entitled to make an unqualified 
repudiation. 
The existence of a maternity hospital in any district usually helps 
to increase the number of illegitimate births, and ought fairly to be 
taken into account in every comparative estimate of morality. 
Again, the number of illegitimate births is frequently augmented 
by the temporary residence of lahourers employed in the construction 
of railways and other public works. A few years ago, the propor- 
tion of illegitimate births in a certain parish in Perthshire rose from 
the normal ratio of about 10 to no less than 20 per cent., the forma- 
tion of the Oban railway being the cause assigned by the registrar. 
A still higher fluctuation was reported from a similar cause by an 
Ayrshire registrar, in whose parish the ratio of illegitimacy amounted 
to no less than 30*3 per cent, as against 7 ‘4 per cent, during the 
preceding quarter. 
II. Marriages. — Many causes contribute to the fluctuation in 
the number of marriages in the same parish, as well as to the dis- 
proportion between the numbers in parishes similarly circumstanced. 
It need scarcely be remarked that the state of trade exercises a 
powerful influence on the matrimonial market. When work is 
abundant, wages liberal, and provisions cheap, the marriage rate is 
usually high; and accordingly the general prosperity and com- 
mercial activity of almost any district may be fairly inferred from 
the well-filled pages of the marriage register. This particularly 
applies to the great mining and manufacturing districts. Thus, the 
slackness of trade in Scotland during the years 1858, 1862, and 
1867 caused the marriages to decline from 5 to 8 per cent.; while 
