MISCELLANEOUS.

Twentieth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Edinburgh, July 31st August 6th. Section F. Statistics.

The following were its Officers and Committee:

President.-Dr. J. Lee.

Vice-Presidents.-Rev. Dr. Gordon, Dr. H. Marshall, Professor W. P. Alison, G. R. Porter, Esq.

Secretaries.-Prof. Hancock, Dr. J. Stark, J. Fletcher, Esq.

Committee.-T. Tooke, Esq., Lieut.-Col. Sykes, W. T. Thomson, Esq., J. Finlaison, Esq., F. Sopwith, Esq., W. Jerdan, Esq., W. Felkin, Esq., Sir J. P. Boileau, Bart., F. G. P. Neison, Esq., G. S. Finlay, Esq., J. Shuttleworth, Esq., R. Christie, Esq., W. Chambers, Esq., Sir C. Lemon, Bart., M.P., J. Gibson, Esq., J. Orpen, Esq., J. Ball, Esq.

The following were the contributions submitted to the Section :— 1. On the Self-imposed Taxation of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom. By G. R. Porter, Esq., F.R.S.

2. On the Cost of obtaining Patents in Different Countries. By Prof. Hancock.

3. On the Causes of Distress at Skull and Skibbereen during the Famine in Ireland. By Prof. Hancock.

4. An Inquiry into the Question, whether under our existing Social System there is a tendency to the increase of Capital in the hands of those already possessing Riches. By G. R. Porter, Esq., F.R.S. 5. On the Relations of Crime and Ignorance in England and Wales. By J. Fletcher, Esq.

6. On the Civil and Criminal Justice of the North-West Provinces of British India. By Lieut.-Col. W. H. Sykes.

7. Remarks suggested by an examination of the Recent Statistics of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain. By G. R. Porter, Esq., F.R.S. 8. On the Geographical Distribution of Disease as indicating the Connexion between Natural Phenomena and Health and Longevity. By K. Johnston, Esq.

9. Account of the System of Croft Husbandry and the Reclamation of Waste Lands, chiefly by Spade Labour, adopted at Gairlock, in Ross-shire since 1846, and its results, as illustrating the condition, under which the labour of Paupers and Criminals may safely be made productive. By Dr. Alison.

10. Some Observations with reference to an Investigation of the Fund established by Act of Parliament for a Provision for the Widows and Children of the Ministers of the Church of Scotland, and of the Principals and Masters of the Universities of Scotland from 1744 to 1849. By W. T. Thomson, Esq.

11. Some Statistics respecting the Sale of Encumbered Estates in Ireland. By Prof. Hancock.

12. Some Remarks on the City and Neighbourhood of Malaga, and on the Preparation of Raisins. By A. Milward, Esq.

13. On the Recent Progress of Glasgow in Population, Wealth, Commerce, and Manufactures. By Dr. J. Strang.

14. On the Prevalence and Mortality of Cholera in the Indian Armies. By Dr. C. Finch.

The next Meeting of the British Association will be held at Ipswich.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF

LONDON.

Fourth Ordinary Meeting. 17th February, 1851. Lieut.-Colonel W. H. Sykes, Vice-President, in the Chair. The following Gentlemen were elected Fellows:—

C. Lowcock Webb, Esq. | William Weir, Esq. | A. Thomas Thomson, Esq. Lieut.-Col. M. Tulloch read a Paper on the Statistics of Auckland, New Zealand, by A. S. Thomson, Esq., M.D.; and Mr. Fletcher brought before the notice of the Meeting an Abstract of the Official Returns presented to the Society by Earl Grey, completing the Statistics of New Munster and of the portion of the Islands not included in the above Paper.

Fifth Ordinary Meeting. 17th March, 1851.

The Right Honourable Lord Overstone, President, in the Chair. The following Gentlemen were elected Fellows:

Harry George Gordon, Esq. | William Neison, Esq. | John Bowman, Esq. A Paper was read by Lieut.-Col. Sykes on the Mortality in the Army, European and Native, under the Madras Government, from 1842

to 1848.

Sixth Ordinary Meeting. 14th April, 1851.

The Right Honourable Lord Overstone, President, in the Chair. James Startin, Esq., was elected a Fellow of the Society. A Paper was read by Mr. R. Thompson Jopling on the Sanitary Statistics of the Metropolis.

THE MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS,

REGISTERED IN THE DIVISIONS, COUNTIES, AND DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND,

AS PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL.

THIS Return comprises the Births and Deaths registered by 2,189 registrars in all the districts of England during the Autumn quarter ending December 31st, 1850; and the Marriages in more than 12,000 churches or chapels, 2,869 registered places of worship unconnected with the Established Church, and 623 Superintendent Registrars' offices, in the quarter that ended September 30th, 1850. The return of marriages is not complete; but the defects are inconsiderable, and have been supplied from previous years.

In their general character the returns of the last quarter of 1850 are still highly favourable; and imply a happier condition of the population at the close, than at the commencement of the year. While fewer lives have been lost by epidemic diseases, the marriages and births have increased.

The marriages celebrated in the summer quarter ending September 30th were 37,496, or more by ten thousand than were registered in the summer quarter of 1842; and two thousand four hundred more than have been returned in the summer quarter of any previous years. Allowing for increase of population, the proportion of marriages is greater than it has been in the same season of any year since the Registration commenced. Except in the Eastern and South-Eastern Counties, the increase of marriages has been general in all the great divisions of the country. In London the increase has been considerable; in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Bedfordshire, it has probably kept pace with the population; in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Cornwall; in Gloucestershire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, the increase has been still more marked; in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, however, the greater part of the excess has arisen. Northumberland, Cum

berland, and South Wales, exhibit nearly the same increase as the Midland Counties. Among the counties in which the marriages have decreased, or have not sensibly increased, may be named-Kent, Hampshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devonshire, Lincolnshire, the East and North Ridings of York, Westmorland, and North Wales. In the purely agricultural counties marriage then still went on slowly, but steadily; in all the iron and coal fields at but a slightly increasing rate; while in all the counties peopled by the workers in lace, silk, wool, and cotton, the number of marriages-of new families established—has increased at a rate of which there are few examples in the returns of the last hundred years. And the general result is an aggregate increase in the marriages of the whole country during the summer quarter of the year 1850.

The births in the quarter following, which ended on December 31st, 1850, were also the greatest number ever registered in the autumn quarter of any previous year. 146,268 children were born in the three months. The births are, in general, most numerous in the spring quarter, and were so in the spring of 1850: they have since greatly exceeded the numbers registered in previous years in all the divisions of the kingdom-whether agricultural or manufacturing—in counties ravaged by cholera, and in counties left unscathed by that plague.

The excess of births registered over deaths in the quarter is 54,245. The usual excess is forty thousand more births than deaths; the excess in the last quarter of 1845 was 50,000; in 1847, when influenza was epidemic, only 24,000; in 1849, when the cholera epidemic was rapidly declining, 38,000.

In the last quarter of the year 1850, 56,971 emigrants left the ports of the United Kingdom, at which there are Government emigration officers; 3,836 departed from Irish ports, 1,903 from Glasgow and Greenock, and 51,232 from three English ports; namely, 1,702 from Plymouth, 4,282 from London, and 45,248 from Liverpool. During the whole of the year 1850 the births were 593,567, the deaths 369,679, and consequently the excess of births over deaths was 223,888 in England: the same year 280,843 emigrants sailed from the shores of the United Kingdom,-214,606 (many of them of Irish birth) from England; 15,154 from Scotland, and 51,083 from Ireland.

That the health of the country is in a state not so unsatisfactory as it has been, is evident from the reduced mortality. 92,023 deaths were registered; and allowing for the probable increase of population, the rate of mortality is lower than it has been in any of the last quarters of the years 1839-50 except 1845. The rate has been such that I in 197 of the population died in the quarter. The chances were 196 to 1, in this quarter, that a person would live through the three months; the average chance of living through the three months in England is 184 to 1.

London has suffered less than usual from zymotic diseases; and the deaths from all causes has been 12,544. Of this number 1,946 took place in public institutions; namely, 114 in the military hospitals and asylums, 1,070 in workhouses, 636 in hospitals, exclusive of 9 deaths in hospitals for foreigners-108 in lunatic asylums, and 9 in prisons, so that 1 in 12 who died in London ended his days in workhouses, 1 in 20 in hospitals, 1 in 115 in lunatic asylums, and 1 in 1,381 in prisons.

In every division of England the mortality has declined, and been lower than in the corresponding quarters of 1846, 1847, 1849. Lancashire and Cheshire present the greatest fluctuations.

Marriages Registered in the Quarters ending September 30th, 1846-50; Births and Deaths Registered in the Quarters ending December 31st, 1846-50, in the Divisions, Counties, and Districts of England.

1851.]

Miscellaneous.

MORTALITY OF THE METROPOLIS.

187

A Table of the Mortality in the Metropolis, showing the Number of Deaths from all Causes, in the Quarters ending December of the Four Years, 1847-48-49-50.

*The deaths in the districts of Lewisham and Hampstead were included in the Metropolitan returns at the commencement of 1847, for the first time. Therefore the deaths for the previous year are not contained in the above table. In the quarter ending December, 1846, they were 188.

† Under the head of "sudden deaths," are classed not only deaths described as sudden, of which the cause has not been ascertained or stated; but also all deaths returned by the Coroner in vague terms, such as "found dead," "natural causes," &c., &c.

In the years previous to 1848, "Worms" and "Infantile Fever" were classed together. The former, of very rare occurrence, is now placed to diseases of stomach, &c.

METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for the Quarter ending December 31, 1850.

The mean of the numbers in the first column is 29-652 inches, and it represents that portion of the reading of the barometer due to the pressure of air; the remaining portion, or that due to the of water, is 0·271 inch; the sum of those two numbers is 29-923 inchies, and it represents the mean reading of the barometer, for the quarter ending December 31, 1850.

pressure