632 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
countries in which the marriages are abstracted by months, they 
have been this year taken out in greater detail for a single county, 
viz., Gloucestershire, and for a single large town, viz., Manchester, 
ihe first two columns in the following table give the results, the 
months having been reduced to an equality as regards number of 
days. Other columns are added, giving the figures for some other 
countries : — 
Marriages in each Month per 1000 in Year. 
Month. 
Glouces- 
tershire, 
1881. 
Man- 
chester, 
1881. 
Scot- 
land, 
1861-70. 
German 
Empire. 
1872-80. 
Den- 
mark, 
1875-79. 
Nor- 
way. 
1876-78. 
Switzer- 
land, 
1876-78. 
France, 
1876-79. 
Italy. 
1876-78, 
January, 
52 
75 
74 
80 
44 
62 
60 
101 
99 
February, . 
71 
73 
61 
99 
50 
45 
102 
120 
142 
March, . . 
69 
56 
57 
46 
67 
55 
69 
43 
73 
April, . 
99 
86 
58 
98 
95 
85 
96 
85 
86 
May, . . 
71 
64 
49 
103 
137 
73 
114 
91 
72 
June, . . 
90 
111 
144 
77 
74 
127 
81 
94 
65 
July, . . 
79 
73 
98 
70 
56 
109 
71 
80 
53 
August, . . 
78 
94 
64 
57 
44 
47 
64 
60 
60 
September, . 
83 
90 
58 
78 
56 
66 
74 
73 
74 
October. 
106 
87 
64 
106 
111 
116 
95 
91 
81 
November, . 
76 
76 
100 
124 
165 
118 
111 
111 
101 
December, . 
126 
115 
173 
62 
101 
97 
63 
51 
94 
“ The county of Gloucestershire, comprising, as it does, the bulk of 
the great ‘town of Bristol, as well as a large agricultural population, 
may be taken as fairly representing the total of England and Wales ; 
and it was selected because, as a matter of fact, the distribution of 
its marriages by quarters was found to correspond very closely with 
the distribution in the country at large. It will be noticed that the 
months in which most marriages occurred were December, October, 
April, and June. The excesses in December, April, and June were 
due to the festival periods of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide 
respectively; while the excess in October marks the period of 
leisure, and of cash in the labourer’s pocket, which follows the 
close of harvest-time. This excess in October would doubtless 
have been still more marked had a purely agricultural country been 
selected ; for in the completely urban population of Manchester no 
such excess in October is noticeable, whereas the festival months of 
Christmas and Whitsuntide show high figures. In the town the 
