628 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
conditions, or in that of hTewington, where the proportion of inhabi- 
tants to the area which they occupy is so much smaller than in any 
of the other districts. 
I have already referred to the increase of what may be termed the 
natural mortality of any particular district by the existence of a 
hospital or infirmary within its bounds, and, in like manner, the 
number of deaths is considerably increased by large lunatic asylums 
and poorhouses, in both of which the mortality is abnormally high. 
In a single summer quarter, not many years ago, in one of the 
districts of Greenock, no fewer than fifteen of the deaths in the 
infirmary were of persons belonging to an adjoining parish. About 
the same period, in a Mid-Lothian parish, ten of the sixty-six persons 
whose deaths had been recorded were lunatics or paupers from other 
localities. The mortality of such districts as Bridgeton (Glasgow), 
St Giles’ (Edinburgh), St Mary’s (Dundee), Larbert (Stirlingshire), 
and many others, is largely augmented by the existence of hospitals, 
infirmaries, and other public institutions. In referring to the cir- 
cumstance of the deaths being above the average, the registrar of 
Stirling, in his return for the third quarter of 1878, explained that 
the mortality of the district was considerably increased by the 
l^resence of the Combination Poorhouse (embracing several parishes), 
the Koyal Infirmary for the county, the Military Hospital, &c. A 
similar augmentation is frequently found in some of the most salu- 
brious country districts, which are habitually resorted to by delicate 
persons in search of health, such as Eothesay, Crieff, Grantown, 
Torres, &c. Nearer home, we find that the exceptionally low mor- 
tality of the district of Newington (already referred to) is con- 
siderably increased by the deaths of invalids temporarily resident at 
Morningside, in consequence of the genial climate of that favoured 
locality. 
Weather, of course, exercises a potent influence on the mortality 
returns in every corner of the kingdom. The old proverb, “ A green 
Yule makes a fat kirkyard,” has long been disproved by the reports 
of the Eegistrar-General. When the weather is unseasonably mild, 
as during the past winter, sickness frequently prevails, but the 
mortality is materially lessened. On the other hand, the marked 
effect of a severe winter upon the lives of the old, the young, and 
the delicate has been repeatedly illustrated by the Registrar’s 
