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 PRINTED [N U.S.A. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 HB891 .091 
 Fecundity.ferti!iWjSteS^^^ 
 
 3 1924 030 410 801 
 
 olin 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030410801 
 
ON FECUNDITY, FERTILITY 
 AND STERILITY 
 
FECUNDITY 
 FERTILITY, STERILITY 
 
 AND ALLIED TOPICS 
 
 J. MATTHEWS DUNCAN, A.M. M.D. 
 
 L.R.C.S.E. F.R.C.P.E. F.R.S.E. 
 
 Lecturer on Midwifeiy in Surgeons' Hall Medical School, Physician for Diseases of Women 
 
 to the Royal Infirmary, 
 
 Formerly Examiner in Midwifery to the University of St. Andrews, 
 
 ('orrespon:-ing Member of the Imperial Royal Society of Physicians of Vienna, 
 
 Honorary Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London, 
 
 Fellow of the North of England Obstetrical Society, 
 
 etc. etc. etc. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 WILLIAM WOOD & CO. 
 
 1868. 
 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE 
 
 OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUEGH 
 ONE OF ITS MEMBEES 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 In publishing this volume I have to apologise for its 
 many imperfections, arising from its being rather 
 hurriedly thrown together than carefully composed. 
 For such imperfections I can claim the excuse of a 
 busy professional man — that it has been entirely 
 written in scattered liorce suhsecivce. Of its positive 
 faults, unknown to me, but probably existing, I must 
 bear the full blame ; only, in anticipation, I express 
 my regret that they should find their way into my 
 work. 
 
 I have pleasure in calling special attention to 
 Part VI. of the volume, the valuable contribution of 
 Professor Tait, made in the most generous manner, 
 and at much inconvenience to himself 
 
 30 Charlotte Squahe, Edinbukgh. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the Variations of the Fecundity and Fertility 
 
 OF Women according to Age . . . . 1 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Actual Fertility of the Female Population as 
 
 A Whole at Different Ages .... 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Comparative Fertility of the Female Population 
 
 AS A Whole at Different Ages . . . .12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Comparative Fecundity of the Whole Wives in 
 
 OUR Population at Different Ages . . .18 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Initial Fecundity of Women at Different Ages 24 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Fecundity of Women at Different Ages . . 34 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAET 11. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the Weight and Length of the Newly-bokn 
 
 Child . . . . 45 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On the Initluence of Primogenituee on the Weight 
 
 OF THE Newly-born Child . . 46 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Variation of the Weight of the Newly-born 
 
 Child according to the Age of the Mother . 5 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the Influence of Primogeniture on the Length 
 
 OF THE Newly-born Child . . .53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Variation of the Length of the Newly-born 
 
 Child according to the Age of the Mother . 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Professor ■Hecker's Observations . ,61 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 On some Laws of the Production of Twins 65 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Number of Twins Born of Women of Different 
 
 Ages .... ■ ... 72 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Iot-luence of Age on Woman's Fertility in Twins 76 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Initial Fertility in Twins at Dieterent Ages . 81 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 The Eelation of the Frequency of Twins to the 
 
 Number of the Mother's Pregnancy . . 87 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 The Size of Families in which Twins occur . . 94 
 
 PAET IV. 
 
 On the Laws of the Fertility of Women . . .101 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Fertility of the Whole Marriages in a Popula- 
 tion . . 103 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Fertility of the Whole Fertile Marriages in a 
 
 Population at A Given Time . . . .108 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Annual Fertility of the Married Women of Child- 
 bearing Age in a Population . . . .110 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 The Size of the Families in a Population at a Given 
 
 Time 112 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fertility of the Whole Marriages in a Population 
 
 THAT are Fertile at a Given Time . • - 1 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Fertility of Fertile Marrla.ges lasting during 
 
 THE Whole Child-bearing Period of Life . 116 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Fertility of Persistently Fertile Marriages 
 lasting during the Whole Child-bearing Period 
 OF Life . . 118 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fertility of Persistently Fertile Wives at Different 
 
 Yeaks of Married Life . . . .120 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Fertility of Fertile Wives at Different Periods of 
 
 Married Life 122 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Degrees of Fertility of Wives-Mothers of Families 
 
 OF Different Numbers 127 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Fertility of Wives-Mothers Married at Different 
 
 Ages ... ... .138 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Fertility of Persistently Fertile Wives of Dif- 
 ferent Ages , 152 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Fertility OF THE Older Women . . . .162 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 Contributions to the Adult Population by MarrUlGes 
 
 AT Different Ages 166 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Comparison of the Fecundity and Fertility of 
 
 Different Peoples ■ 174 
 
 PART V. 
 
 On some Laws of the Sterility of Women . 181 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 Sterility of Marrla.ges in the Population . . 182 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Sterility of Wives . . ■ , ■ - . .185 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 Absolute Sterility of Wives 190 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 Sterility According TO THE Ages OF Wives . .192 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 E XPECTATION OF Sterility . . . . .194 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Eelative Sterility . . . 1 ^ ^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Expectation of Relative Sterility . 
 
 200 
 
 PAET VI. 
 
 Note on Formula representing the Fecundity and 
 
 Fertility of Women . . . 207 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Fertility and Fecundity of the Mass of Wives . 209 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Fecundity and Fertility of the Average Individual 218 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Relative Fertility of Different Races . . .222 
 
 PAET VII. 
 
 On the Mortality of Childbed as affected by the 
 Number of the Labour and the Age of the 
 Mother ... . 229 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Relation of the Number of the Labour to the 
 
 Mortality from Puerperal Fever . . .232 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Eelation of the Number of the Labour to the 
 
 Mortality accompanying Parturition . . 241 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 The Influence of Childbed Mortality, and specially 
 OF THE Mortality consequent on Primiparity, 
 
 ON THE whole MORTALITY OF WOMEN AT THE ChILD- 
 
 BEAEiNG Ages . . ... 25 3 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 The Eelation of Age to the Mortality from Puer- 
 peral Fever . . . . . 260 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 The Eelation of the Age of the Mother to the Mor- 
 tality accompanying Parturition . . .268 
 
 PAET VIII. 
 
 On the Age of Nubility . . . . .277 
 
 PAET IX. 
 
 The Doctrine of the Duration of Labour . 295 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Duration of Labour in Eelation to the Mor- 
 tality of the Mother in Parturition and Child- 
 bed 299 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAKT X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On THE Duration OF Pregnancy . . • .319 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Interval between Insemination and Conception 320 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Interval between Insemination and Parturition 331 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Interval between the Last Menstration and 
 
 Parturition 335 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Prediction of the Day of Confinement . .339 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Protraction of the Period of Pregnancy . . . 343 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Dr. Montgomery's Opinions 352 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 Harvey's Opinions 360 
 
 APPENDIX 363 
 
PART I. 
 
 ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE FECUNDITY AND PEETILITY 
 OF WOMEN ACCOEDING TO AGE. 
 
 It has from the earliest times been a matter of philo- 
 sophical inquiry how much influence the age of women, 
 at the time of commencing to live in wedlock, exerts 
 upon their fertility, and opposite opinions on this poiat 
 have been embraced by authors of note. The various 
 questions connected with this topic have always been 
 unsatisfactorily treated, on account of the insufficiency 
 and iuaccuracy of the data used to settle them, when 
 facts and not mere impressions were the foundations of 
 argument. In the following pages I have attempted 
 to introduce some degree of exactness into the subject, 
 and have used a considerable mass of figures as the 
 almost exclusive basis of my conclusions. :. 
 
 In 1855, when the systematic registration of births 
 in Scotland was established^, the schedule in use exacted 
 from the public a variety of interesting details in con- 
 nection with each return — a circumstance which gives 
 to the registers for that year an extraordinary value. 
 For, in consequence, I believe, of numerous complaints 
 regarding the irksome labour of filling up the docu- 
 ment, it was discontinued, and a much less compre- 
 
2 VAKIATIONS OF THE FECUNDITY 
 
 hensive schedule has been in use ever since. It is 
 from the registers of births for 1855 that I have ex- 
 tracted almost all the data which have yielded the 
 results I am now about to communicate. Similar 
 data cannot be found in the subsequent registers, nor, 
 so far as I know, in any other registers whatsoever. 
 
 The exigencies of time, labour, and expense, con- 
 strained me to restrict the number of births to be 
 operated on, within moderate limits ; and I selected 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, with their 16,593 children 
 legitimately born in 1855, as the field of operations. 
 It is needless to enter fully upon the reasons of my 
 selecting the conditions of legitimate birth in Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow; my only object was to secure as 
 much as possible of accuracy and completeness in the 
 filling up of the schedules — an object quite incompatible 
 with the inclusion of the data derived from mothers of 
 illegitimate children. It must be noted, that legiti- 
 mate births, as registered, include only births of living 
 children at the full term of pregnancy, or near it. 
 
 The weU-known difiiculty of handling statistics 
 without infringement of the rules of logic has made 
 me very cautious in my progress in this investiga- 
 tion, and I am all the more bound to be careful, be- 
 cause it will be necessary, in connection with my pre- 
 sent topic, to point out great errors made by authors 
 who have entered upon it. But, although I trust no 
 fault wiU be found with my mode of reasoning, I have 
 to admit the existence of some comparatively few and 
 unimportant errors in the details given in the registers. 
 
AJSTD FERTILITY OF WOMEST. 3 
 
 The chief of these will be stated in connection with 
 the tables to be brought forward. So far as I know, 
 the errors are all in the original registers ; in the ela- 
 boration of the details thence derived I have spared 
 nothing that could insure accuracy; and must here 
 mention my obligations to the various intelligent and 
 assiduous gentlemen who have assisted me in the 
 work, especially the late Dr. Craig, Drs. Anderson and 
 Linton, and Messrs. Brown and Slater. 
 
 The first part of my investigations is confined to 
 the determination of the comparative fertility or pro- 
 ductiveness and fecundity of women at different ages. 
 It is necessary, in order to avoid confusion, here to 
 establish some amount of distinction, which I shall 
 maintain as I go on, between fertility or productive- 
 ness and fecundity. By fertility or productiveness I 
 mean the amount of births as distinguished from the 
 capability to bear. This quality of fertility or pro- 
 ductiveness is interestiag chiefly to the statistician or 
 the political enconomist. When a population is the 
 subject of consideration it does not even involve the 
 capability of every individual considered to bear, nor 
 even the conditions necessary for conception. By 
 fecundity I mean the demonstrated capability to bear 
 children ; it implies the conditions necessary for con- 
 ception in the women of whom its variations are pre- 
 dicated. This quahty of fecundity is interesting chiefly 
 to the physiologist and physician. In short, fertility 
 implies fecundity, and also introduces the idea of 
 number of progeny ; while fecundity simply indi- 
 
4 VARIATIONS OF THE FECUNDITY 
 
 cates the quality without any superadded notion of 
 quantity. 
 
 In discussing the subject of comparative fertility 
 and fecundity at diflPerent ages, I may incidentally 
 afford means for estimating the degree of fertility or 
 fecundity of different ages : but I wish it to be dis- 
 tinctly understood that I have not proposed to myself, 
 in this part, the consideration of the actual degree or 
 amount of fertility or fecundity at any age, but chiefly 
 the variations of fertility or fecundity at different ages 
 as compared with one another. The fertilities of 
 mothers of different ages I shall take up ia a subse- 
 quent part. 
 
AND FERTILITY OF WOMEN. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE ACTUAL FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE POPULATION AS 
 A WHOLE AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 The fii'st law which I propose to establish has reference 
 to the ages of the mothers of legitimate children. In 
 Edinbm-gh and Glasgow, legitimate births form at least 
 90 per cent of the whole born. The law therefore 
 regards the ages of the women from whose fertility 90 
 per cent of the population are recruited. 
 
 It must be observed that this law or general state- 
 ment shows nothing regarding the fecundity of women 
 of different ages, although it has been held as doing so ; 
 it merely enunciates a truth in the doctrine of popu- 
 lation. I place it first because it is pretty well known, 
 because in my own investigations it was fixst made out, 
 and chiefly because it is essential, before proceeding 
 farther, to show the facts on which it is founded in 
 their true light, avoiding the great errors of which 
 similar facts have been made the basis.* 
 
 The facts or data illustrating this law, with which 
 I am best acquainted, have been derived from reports 
 of lying-in dispensaries, as by Dr. Granville, or from 
 
 * See Granville, Transactions of Obstetrical Sobiety of London, vol. ii 
 
6 FERTILITY OF THE FBMAXE 
 
 similar accounts of lying-in hospitals, as by Dr. CoUms, 
 Drs. Hardy and M'Clintock, and others. I here pre- 
 sent, as an example, the table of ages of mothers of 
 legitimate and illegitimate offspring, whether bom alive 
 or dead, from the Practical Treatise on Midwifery of 
 Dr. Collins, master of the Dublin Lying-in Hospital. 
 The data adduced by Dr. Granville in the second 
 volume of the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society 
 of London are closely similar. Judging from these 
 data, it would appear that most children are born of 
 women at or near the age of thirty years, or the middle 
 of the child-bearing period of life ; and that the off- 
 spring of mothers of ages advancing from the com- 
 mencement of child-bearing to the age of thirty, or the 
 middle of the child-bearing period, gradually increases; 
 that the climax is reached at this age, and that there- 
 after the offspring of mothers advancing above thirty 
 gradually diminishes. But while the age of thirty 
 forms the climax, there is not an equal fertility on 
 either side of it, a much larger part of the population 
 being born of mothers under thirty than of mothers 
 above thirty. Dividing the number of mothers at 
 thirty years, and adding together those on each side of 
 the division, we have on the side of the younger 
 12,106, and on the side of the elder women 4279, 
 giving a majority of 7827 in favour of the younger; 
 or, otherwise stated, we have three-fourths of the 
 births among the younger half, and only one-fourth 
 among the elder. The mean age of the mothers in 
 Dr. Collins' table is twenty-seven years. 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
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o FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE 
 
 The next table whicli I present shows an arranged 
 collection of data, comprising the wives-piothers of 
 living chUdren born at or near the full time in Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow in 1855. The former table has, 
 regarding the use to be made of it, the advantage over 
 this table, of including all mothers bearing children, 
 whether legitimate or not, alive or dead, in the Dublia 
 Hospital. But in every other respect this second table 
 presents what I judge to be more reliable data. The 
 former table contains a class of cases selected according 
 to complicated conditions which it is impossible to 
 state, but which are the result of the correlated cir- 
 cumstances of the Hospital, and of the class from 
 which in Dublin it draws its patients. In the second 
 table, the conditions of selection are fewer and less im- 
 portant, the chief being the legitimacy, life and matu- 
 rity, or at least viability, of the offspring. Now the 
 limits of the influence of these difl'erent conditions are 
 pretty well known, and the proportional differences 
 between the two tables are too great to be accounted 
 for by these differences. The second table is thus 
 shown to be the more trustworthy. 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFEEENT AGES. 
 
 
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10 FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE 
 
 An inspection of this table shows again that the 
 year of maternal life yielding most recruits to the 
 general population is the thirtieth, and an easy calcula- 
 tion makes out that about three-fifths of the legiti- 
 mately-born population are derived from women of 
 thirty years and under, while two-fifths are derived 
 from women of thirty years and upwards. For, 
 dividing mothers of thirty years of age, and adding 
 together those on each side of the point of division, 
 we have on the side of the younger 9708 mothers, and 
 on the side of the elder 6593, giving a majority of 
 3115 in favour of the younger. The mean age of the 
 wives-mothers in this table is above twenty-nine. 
 
 From these data I conclude : — 
 
 1. That the actual, not the relative, fertility of our 
 female population, as a whole, at difierent ages, in- 
 creases from the commencement of the child-bearing 
 period of life, until the age of thirty is reached, and 
 then declines to its extinction with the child-bearuig 
 faculty. 
 
 2. That the actual fertility is much greater before 
 the climax, thirty years, is reached, than after it is 
 passed. 
 
 3. That at least three-fifths of the population are 
 recruited from women not exceeding thirty years of age. 
 
 Before leaving these tables, it is expedient to direct 
 attention to a striking lowness of figure at the ages of 
 twenty-nine and thirty-one respectively in Dr. Collins' 
 data. A similar fall on each side of the highest number 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. 11 
 
 occurs in Dr. Granville's table, wliicli has been referred 
 to, and in every similar table which I know. This 
 curiosity has given rise to very natural and ingenious 
 speculation. Dr. Granville suggests that by the earlier 
 decrement nature means to rest awhile, and gather 
 strength for the enormous jump she is to make in the 
 following year, and that by the second decrement she 
 means to evince the exhaustion which iavariably 
 follows over-exertion ! But I cannot acquiesce in this 
 fanciful hypothesis, believing that really no such 
 decrement, jump, and second decrement, occur. My 
 explanation of this tabular phenomenon is suggested 
 by the occurrence of similar falls on each side of the 
 age of forty years in Collins' table, and ia my own 
 and in others. I am too well aware, from ample ex- 
 perience, of the impossibility of getting women's ages 
 stated correctly, especially if they have passed twenty- 
 five years, and have often observed, that when pushed 
 they say thirty or forty, as a round easy number ; and 
 the state of the tables appears to me merely to indicate 
 that women about thirty-one and forty-one years of 
 age frequently say they are thirty and forty years old, 
 respectively. In short, these decrements are evidence 
 of the unfortunate element of error which creeps into 
 the most carefully-prepared vital statistics on a large 
 scale. 
 
12 COMPARATIVE FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 THE COMPARATIVE FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE POPU- 
 LATION AS A WHOLE AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 Having shown the actual fertility of women at different 
 ages in our population, I now proceed to the ques- 
 tion of the comparative productiveness of our whole 
 female population at different ages. To settle this, it 
 is oidy necessary to compare the number of children 
 born of women of different ages with the number of 
 women living at the different ages respectively. The 
 result of the calculations involved in this comparison 
 will be to show, not simply (as in Chapter I.) the 
 numbers of children born of women at different ages, 
 but the number of mothers relatively to the number of 
 women living at different ages; in other words, the 
 comparative fertility or productiveness of our female 
 population as a whole at different ages. 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 13 
 
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14 COMPARATIVE FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE 
 
 Table V, is constructed so as to bring out the de- 
 sired results, and at the same time be easily compared 
 with Table YI. It must be observed that the fifth 
 table does not exhibit results whose actual amounts 
 are of much value, but results the value of which is 
 very great with a view to determining the question of 
 comparative amounts or productiveness. For, while 
 the numbers of women at different ages include the 
 whole women living at these ages in Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow in 1861, the numbers of children born at dif- 
 ferent ages, as given in the table, include only children 
 born under the conditions of legitimacy, live birth, and 
 complete or nearly complete maturity in 1855. 
 
 In his work on Annuities,'"" etc., Mr. MUne in 1815 
 published a valuable table, which he describes as 
 " showing the fecundity of women . at the different 
 periods of life ia Sweden and Finland, from 1780 to 
 1795, both years inclusive." It is taken from a paper 
 by Mr. Nicander, to which he gives a reference, but 
 unfortunately I have not been able to ascertain the 
 exact conditions (if any) under which the table was 
 prepared. 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 582. Large extracts from the Swedish, returns, 
 with remarks, are to be found in the Enghsh Eegistrar- General's 
 Sixth Annual Eeport, 1844, p. 267, et seq. 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 15 
 
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16 COMPARATIVE FERTILITY OF THE FEMALE 
 
 In the last line of both Tables V. and VI. it will be 
 remarked that the first and last proportional numbers 
 are very low, or that at the beginning of the scale, at 
 the age of from fifteen to nineteen inclusive, fertility 
 is comparatively very small ; and that at the end of 
 the scale, at the age of from forty-five to forty-nine 
 inclusive, fertility is again comparatively very small. 
 This no doubt depends to a great degree on the cir- 
 cumstance, that among the women from fifteen to 
 nineteen years of age are included a large proportion 
 of immature girls, and among the women from forty- 
 five to forty-nine years of age a large proportion of 
 women whose child-beariag powers have disappeared. 
 Keeping in view this undoubted partial explanation of 
 the lowness of the figure, or the lowness of fertUity at 
 these ages, the tables are seen to yield interesting re- 
 sults. They show that the fertility of the populations 
 of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and of Sweden and Fin- 
 land, increases gradually till the middle of the chUd- 
 bearing period of life, or about the age of thirty years, 
 and that then fertUity gradually falls ofi" towards its 
 complete extinction. 
 
 My knowledge of the conditions under which my 
 own table was framed, as already stated, being exact, 
 as compared with my knowledge of Mr. Nicander's, I 
 shall, in framing conclusions, adopt the results it 
 affords. On like grounds I shall excuse myself from 
 proceeding to compare the easUy-remarked differences 
 of the results of the two tables. 
 
 In regard, then, to the comparative fertility of our 
 
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. l7 
 
 whole female population at diflferent ages, I con- 
 clude — 
 
 1. That it increases gradually from the commence- 
 ment of the chUd-beariag period of life until about the 
 age of thirty years is reached, and that then it stiU 
 more gradually declines. 
 
 2. That it is greater in the decade of years foUow- 
 ing the climax of about thirty years of age than in the 
 decade of years preceding the climax. 
 
COMPARATIVE FECUNDITY OF WIVES 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE COMPAEATIVB FECUNDITY OF THE WHOLE WIVES IN 
 OUR POPULATION AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 '1 
 
 I NOW proceed to the question of the fecundity, not 
 fertility or productiveness, of the mass of wives of dif- 
 ferent ages iu Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the two 
 preceding chapters the fecundity or comparative power 
 of production at different ages has not been entered on ; 
 ia them have been considered merely the actual pro- 
 duction of children by women of different ages, and 
 the comparative amounts of production by the female 
 popidation at different ages. It is known that at aU 
 ages there is a great mass of spinsters whose produc- 
 tiveness is not tested, and it is of course necessary, in 
 order to determine questions of fecundity, to eliminate 
 aU women not living in married life, or not having 
 their fecundity tested ia the ordinary way, from our 
 observations and calculations. In this chapter, there- 
 fore, the comparison is not of mothers with women 
 living, as in Chapter II., but of wives-mothers with 
 wives. 
 
AT DIFFEEENT AGES. 
 
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20 COMPARATIVE FECUNDITY OF WIVES 
 
 The seventh table establishes a comparison between 
 the numbers of married women of various ages, and the 
 numbers of such women bearing living children. In 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, the number of wives within the 
 ages of fifteen and forty-nine inclusive, or who might 
 have borne children in 1855, was 68,745, and the num- 
 ber of wives-mothers in the same population, in the 
 same year, was 16,386,* or 1 in 4-2. In the tables these 
 are arranged in columns of different ages, so as to exhibit 
 the comparative fecundity of the whole wives of dif- 
 ferent ages. It will be seen at a glance that the table 
 shows that the fecundity of the mass of wives is 
 greatest in the first years of the child-bearing period of 
 life ; and I regret extremely that the data at my dis- 
 posal do not permit me to condescend on the circum- 
 stances in this respect of each individual year. The 
 table shows that, from the earliest years of child-bear- 
 ing life onwards, the fecundity of the mass of married 
 women gradually wanes to its extinction. It is also 
 easUy made out that whUe there were 24,252 wives 
 under thirty years of age, and of these 9152 bore 
 children, there were 44,493 wives of ages varying from 
 thirty to forty-nine years inclusive, and of these only 
 7234 bore children; or, to speak in round numbers, 
 
 * The actual number of wives-mothers in Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow in 1855 was 16,393. This figure is in the text reduced to 
 16,386, and seven wives-mothers omitted, because these seven were 
 altogether exceptional, occurring as they did between the ages of 
 fifty and fifty-seven, and could only damage the statement of 
 results. _^ 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 21 
 
 the wives under thirty years of age were much more 
 than twice as fecund as the wives above thirty years. 
 But a more interesting and valuable comparison may 
 be made by taking the same number of fifteen years 
 before and after the middle of child-bearing life, a total 
 period of thirty years, which includes the immense 
 majority of child-bearing women. Doing so, we find 
 that of 24,252 wives under thirty years of age, 9152 
 bore living children, and that of 36,956 wives of ages 
 from thirty to forty-four inclusive, 7138 bore living 
 children. Had the elder women been as prolific as 
 the younger, they would have produced 13,946 child- 
 ren, instead of 7138 ; that is, the fecundity of the 
 younger women was almost double that of the older. 
 
 The data at my disposal enable me to give the 
 figures for each year of age up to twenty. But the 
 numbers are so small that little value can be placed 
 on the results drawn from them. So far as they go, 
 they indicate great fecundity of a mass of wives at 
 seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. 
 
22 
 
 COMPARATIVE FECUNDITY OF WIVES 
 
 TABLE VIII. — Showing the Comparative Fecundity of 
 Wives at Ages of 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, in Edinburgh 
 AND Glasgow m 1855. 
 
 Ages 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 Wives 
 
 Wives-Mothers . . . 
 
 13 
 
 i 
 
 55 
 
 28 
 
 232 
 116 
 
 455 
 
 228 
 
 1043 
 405 
 
 Proportion of latter to) 
 former is 1 in . 1 
 
 Or percentage . . . 
 
 3-25 
 
 1'96 
 
 2-00 
 
 1-99 
 
 2-57 
 
 30-77 
 
 50-91 
 
 50-00 
 
 50-11 
 
 38-83 
 
 Table VII. has been prepared so as to give the 
 actual amounts. I found it possible to do this with 
 a near approach to exactness, and it is evident that 
 in this way the results derived are not only comparative 
 statements, with only relative value, but also state- 
 ments of actual values. 
 
 From the data now given I conclude — 
 
 1. That the fecundity of the mass of wives in our 
 population is greatest at the commencement of the 
 child-bearing period of life, and after that period gra- 
 dually diminishes. 
 
 2. That the fecundity of the whole wives in our 
 population included within the child-bearing period of 
 life is, before thirty years of age is reached, more than 
 twice as great as it is after that period. 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 23 
 
 3. That the fecundity of the wives in our popula- 
 tion declines with great rapidity after the age of forty 
 is reached. 
 
 Some of these conclusions may be stated with the 
 actual numerical results, as follows : — While of all the 
 wives living in Edinburgh and Glasgow between the 
 ages of fifteen and forty-five, one in 3 '8, or 2 6 '3 per 
 cent, bore a living child ; of those between the ages of 
 fifteen and twenty-nine inclusive, one in 2*6, or 38'4 
 per cent, bore a living child ; and of those between the 
 ages of thirty and forty-four inclusive, one in 5*1, or 
 19"6 per cent, bore a liviag child. 
 
 It wUl subsequently be shown that these conclu- 
 sions regarding a mass of wives are not true, if applied 
 to the individuals forming that mass. A different law 
 governs iadividuals. - Their fecundity is greatest from 
 twenty to twenty-five ; that is, a woman marrying at 
 that age is more likely to demonstrate her fecundity 
 than if she married at any other age. But it will 
 naturally be rejoiaed, if such is true of individuals, why 
 not of masses ? In the sequel, the explanation wUl be 
 given : it is founded on the law of intensity of fer- 
 tility, and may, for the present purpose, be shortly 
 stated thus : — The comparatively greater intensity of 
 fertility of the fertile wives married from fifteen to 
 twenty, over that of those married at from twenty to 
 twenty-five, does more than make up for the sterility 
 of some of the younger. Though less fecund, they are 
 more fertUe as a mass. 
 
24 INITIAL FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE INITIAL FECUNDITY OF WOMEN AT DIFFERENT 
 
 AGES. 
 
 In commencing the statistical inquiry whose results I 
 am now giving, my object was to discover the fecundity 
 of women at different ages, and I now proceed to 
 address myself to this point. 
 
 It is not my object to illustrate the subject of the 
 arrival of young girls at the age of maturity, the change 
 of the girl into the fertile woman. In the case of some 
 peoples, facts might be collected regarding wives so 
 young as to be in a large proportion sterile from imma- 
 turity ; and their fecundity gradually appearing as 
 age advanced, might produce a column of mothers from 
 ten to twenty years of age, showing a gradually-in- 
 creasing fecundity of the population at these ages. 
 Even in our tables, derived from the data of wives in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, some interesting results are 
 to be found, and allowance must be made for a certain 
 amount of immaturity in the wives of from fifteen to 
 twenty years of age. But this question of the arrival 
 of girls at maturity is foreign to the present topic. In 
 it, all the women are supposed to be mature, and sub- 
 jected to the conditions essential for procreation. 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 25 
 
 The fecundity of individual women is known to 
 vary extremely. Some are very frequently pregnant, 
 and repeatedly, or even constantly, have plural" births, 
 and thrive with it all. Under like conditions other 
 women are absolutely sterile, or a miscarriage or a dead 
 mature chUd forms the climax of their fecundity ; and 
 this little may be effected at the expense of permanent 
 constitutional exhaustion. Between these extremes of 
 great fecundity and absolute sterility there is an un- 
 limited series of varying degrees of fertility. On this 
 iaterestiug aspect of the subject of fecundity the pre- 
 sent research throws little light. It is founded on the 
 result of an aggregate of cases, and can show almost 
 nothing as to individuals. It illustrates the fecundity 
 at different ages of women generally, not the iadivi- 
 dual fecundity of any. 
 
 The table given in last chapter (Table VII.), affords 
 data which cannot be applied to settle the question of 
 the fecundity of women of different ages. For it is 
 evident that among the mass of wives of each succeed- 
 ing year, or series of years, are included the wives who 
 were once of the former series, or part of them — that 
 is, a class of wives whose fecundity has been at least 
 liable to be iacreased, diminished, or exhausted by pro- 
 creation, before they have come to form part of the 
 wives in any of the columns after the first. In order 
 to arrive at the fecundity of women or wives at differ- 
 ent ages, it is necessary to secure that the conditions 
 of the compared women of these different ages be as 
 nearly the same as possible. This is not attempted in 
 the seventh table. 
 
26 
 
 INITIAL FECUNDITY OK WOMEN 
 
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AT DIFFERENT AGES. 27 
 
 Table IX. is constructed to show the relative initial 
 fecundity of newly-married women, of different ages. 
 By the returns of the Eegistrar-General we calculate 
 how many women at each succeeding year of age con- 
 tracted marriage in 1855, ia Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
 My extracts from the register for 1855 show how 
 many of these women bore living children before they 
 had been a year married. When the two figures are 
 compared for each age, we have the fecundity at the 
 outset of child-bearing at each age. The table reads 
 as foUows : — Of 700 women married between fifteen 
 and nineteen years of age inclusive, 96 bore a living 
 child before they had been wives for twelve months, 
 or one in every 7'3 ; and so on. 
 
 Table X. is in every respect the same as the former, 
 only it shows the fecundity within twenty-four months 
 of married life ; or the number of women bearing living 
 children in 1855, and before they were two years mar- 
 ried, is compared with the number of newly-married. 
 The observation that the fecundity within twenty-four 
 months is much more than twice as much as the 
 fecundity withiu twelve months after marriage, appears 
 to me to give this table more substantial value than 
 the former, as an indication of the actual fecundity of 
 the outset of child-bearing at different ages. 
 
 Both these tables show the highest rate of iuitial 
 fecundity to be between the ages of twenty and twenty- 
 four inclusive, and a gradual declension from that time 
 on either side as age diminishes or increases. 
 
28 
 
 INITIAL FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
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UNDER TWENTY YEARS OF AGE. 29 
 
 The two following tables (XL and XII.) show that 
 on the side of the women younger than twenty years, 
 initial fecundity steadily decreases with age. In re- 
 gard, however, to these young wives, it may be objected 
 that there is a source of error from immaturity, which 
 is certainly very trifling after the age of twenty is 
 reached. And the objection is, theoretically at least, 
 quite just, for it is absurd to attempt to measure the 
 fecundity of women who have not become sexually 
 mature, and the admixture of immature with mature 
 is a source of error, important, directly according to its 
 amount. It is unsatisfactory merely to allege ia answer, 
 that immature girls are not likely to be found among 
 young wives in such numbers as to form a source of 
 great error. I have therefore taken the following 
 means to ensure that this source of error be completely 
 excluded. 
 
30 
 
 INITIAL FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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UNDER TWENTY YEAES OF AGE. 
 
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32 INITIAL FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 The commencement of menstruation is generally 
 considered by physicians an indication of the arrival 
 of sexual maturity. It may be true that some are 
 still immature in whom this phenomenon has shown 
 itself, and it certainly is true that some are mature 
 before its appearance. Yet it forms a generally accre- 
 dited indication of maturity.* The following table 
 (XIII.), framed by Dr. Whitehead, is a large collection 
 of data, showing the age of the appearance of men- 
 struation in 4000 individuals in this country. It is 
 easy to calculate what fraction of the whole 4000 had 
 begun to menstruate at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, 
 and nineteen years of age respectively; or, in other 
 words, what fraction was believed capable of exhibit- 
 ing fecundity at these ages. This I have done, and 
 have corrected the numbers of wives in tables eleventh 
 and twelfth accordingly, reducing them to similar 
 fractional parts. After making this correction for 
 immaturity, I have calculated the proportions of wives- 
 mothers to wives, and placed the results in the last 
 line. They remain the same so far as to show a steady 
 diminution of fecundity as age diminishes. 
 
 Table XIII. — " Showing the Age at which Puberty was 
 
 ACCOMPLISHED IN FoUR THOUSAND INDIVIDUALS." (WHITE- 
 HEAD on Sterility and Abortion, p. 46.) 
 
 At Age of 10 years 9 first Menstruated. 
 11 » 26 
 12 „ 136 „ 
 
 * See the Discussion on the Age of Nubility. Here, maturity 
 is meant merely to imply ability to bear children, not fitness for 
 married Ufe. 
 
UNDER TWENTY YEARS OF AGE. 
 
 33 
 
 At age of 13 years 332 first menstruated. 
 
 14 
 
 )J 
 
 638 
 
 15 
 
 >? 
 
 761 
 
 16 
 
 75 
 
 967 
 
 17 
 
 J) 
 
 499 
 
 18 
 
 JJ 
 
 393 
 
 19 
 
 » 
 
 148 
 
 20 
 
 ?J 
 
 71 
 
 21 
 
 J> 
 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 ?7 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 J) 
 
 2 . 
 
 24 
 
 ?J 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 JJ 
 
 1 
 
 26 
 
 )? 
 
 1 
 
 From these data I conclude — 
 
 1. That the initial fecundity of women gradually 
 waxes to a climax, and then gradually wanes. 
 
 2. That initial fecundity is very high from twenty 
 to thirty-four years of age. 
 
 3. That the climax of initial fecundity is probably 
 about the age of twenty-five years. 
 
34 FECUKDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FECUNDITY OF WOMEN AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 It is plain that many women may prove fecund after, 
 two years of married life have passed ; and all such 
 women are lost sight of, if we proceed to inquire only 
 in the way adopted in the last chapter, on initial 
 fecundity. The women excluded, by the adoption of 
 the way just named, may be enough to make the laws 
 of initial fecundity deceitful and misleading, if any 
 argument as to fecundity generally be drawn from 
 them. 
 
 To make a general table, including aU married 
 women, I compare the calculated number of marriages 
 at various ages in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, 
 with the number of &st children born iu that year of 
 women married at various ages. Although the primi- 
 paree of 1855 will not all be women married in that 
 year, it may be assumed that, if the marriages be 
 nearly alike for some years, the numeration of the 
 primiparee of one year will give pretty accurately the 
 fecundity of the married women of any year. This 
 process is carried out in the following table : — 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
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36 FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 This table is valuable, in a particular way, con- 
 firming the results arrived at in the last chapter, by 
 like results obtained by a different method of ana- 
 lysing the same data. Its results have reference 
 to the average individual woman, not to a mass of 
 women. The conclusions to be derived from it are 
 easily observed : — 
 
 1. That nearly all women married at from twenty 
 to twenty-five years of age are fecund. 
 
 2. That the fecundity of very young (fifteen to 
 twenty) wives, below twenty, is greater than that of 
 wives married at from twenty-five to twenty-nine. 
 
 3. That there is a climax of fecundity in women, 
 which is reached between twenty and twenty-five 
 years of age. 
 
 A remarkable illustration of the variation of fecun- 
 dity at different ages is acquired by observation of the 
 fertility of the domestic fowl. 
 
 " It has been ascertained (says Mr. Geyeliu)* that 
 the ovarium of a fowl is composed of 600 ovula or 
 eggs; therefore, a hen during the whole of her life can- 
 not possibly lay more eggs than 600, which in a natural 
 course are distributed over nine years, in the following 
 proportion : — 
 
 * Poultry -Breeding in a Commercial Point of View. By Geo. 
 Kennedy Geyelin, C.E. London 1865, p. 18. 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 37 
 
 TABLE XV. — Showing the Fertility of the Domestic Fowl 
 AT Different Ages. 
 
 First year after birth 15 to 20 
 Second „ 100 „ 120 
 
 Third „ 120 „ 135 
 
 Fourth „ 100 „ 115 
 
 Fifth „ 60 „ 80 
 
 Sixth year after birth 50 to 60 
 
 Seventh „ 35 „ 40 
 
 Eighth „ 15 „ 20 
 
 Ninth „ 1 „ 10 
 
 " It follows that it would not be profitable to keep 
 hens after their fourth year, as their produce would 
 not pay for their keep, except when they are of a 
 valuable or scarce breed." 
 
 At this point my present inquiry is closed. I 
 know of no other way of advancing our knowledge of 
 this subject than by the collection and analysis of 
 statistics. The only quarry for such materials, that I 
 know of, is the Scottish registers for 1855. The tables 
 adduced might be improved by going over a larger 
 field, and increasing the numbers analysed. But I do 
 not see how the matter in the registers could be turned 
 to more account without encroaching on another topic 
 which is at the same time closely connected with that 
 under discussion — viz. the fertility of marriage. Or, 
 as marriage is scarcely admissible as a term in physio- 
 logy, I should give this subject the title of " sustained 
 fecundity," the degrees of fertility which w^omen of 
 different ages, beginning to live with men, continue to 
 exhibit during the child-bearing period of life. 
 
 The views hitherto entertaiued regarding the in- 
 fluence of age on fecundity have been various. " In 
 regard to age (says Burdach*) fecundity is diminished 
 * Physiologie, torn. ii. " 117. 
 
38 FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 in the first and last portions of the continuance of the 
 aptitude for procreation. The elk, the bear, etc., have 
 at first only a single young one, then they come to 
 have most frequently two, and at last again only one. 
 The young hamster produces only from 3 to 6 young 
 ones, whUst that of a more advanced age produces 
 from 8 to 16. The same is true of the pig. This 
 rule appears to be general, since it applies also to the 
 Entomostraceae ; according to Juriae, the number of 
 the young of the Monoculus pulex is at first from 4 to 
 5, afterwards rising gradually as high as 18. We 
 scarcely ever encounter the births of 3 or 4 children 
 except in women who have passed the thirtieth year. 
 Precocious marriages are not only less fertile, but the 
 children also which are the result of them have an in- 
 creased rate of mortality. According to Sadler, every 
 marriage in th'e families of the peers of England yields 
 4"40 children when the woman was married below 
 sixteen years of age ; 4"63 from this age to twenty ; 
 5"21 from twenty to twenty-three ; and 5*43 from 
 twenty-four to twenty-seven." The notions here ex- 
 pressed by Burdach are in the main correct ; but it is 
 evident that they are very indefinite. They are to be 
 regarded, also, more in the light of happy guesses than 
 of well-founded opinions. Burdach evidently places 
 chief refiance on the evidence afi"orded by the numbers 
 at a birth. From many quarters I have received cor- 
 roboration of Burdach's statements regarding the iu- 
 crease and subsequent decrease of the number produced 
 at a birth by pluriparous animals, and I have received 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 39 
 
 similar information regarding bitches, guiaea-pigs, etc. 
 Wlien I first paid attention to this subject, the plural 
 births of women appeared to me to form a simple key 
 for the determination of the fecundity of women at 
 different ages. But I soon became dissatisfied with the 
 materials I quickly collected. Woman is not a pluri- 
 parous animal, neither does she produce so regularly, 
 or according to season, as the animals with which she 
 is compared. In her the occurrence of twins and 
 triplets is an exception to the normal rule, and the 
 number of children born by her cannot be so simple 
 and sure a test of fecundity as in the case of animals 
 having multiple litters at stated periods. Indeed, it is 
 apparent that the evidence derived from plural births 
 alone in women may positively_mislead, for a woman 
 may be more fertile bearing one child at a time fre- 
 quently than another bearing twins or triplets more 
 seldom. In this place Ishall only say that the nume- 
 rical study of twias, in reference to the age of the 
 mother^ yields interesting results, which do not confirm 
 Burdach's statement regarding them, yet are not hos- 
 tile to the conclusions here stated. Burdach, in his 
 work, describes an annual rise and fall in the fecundity 
 of some pluriparous animals. This annual variation 
 forms a series of wavelets in the course of the great 
 wave ruiming from youth to old age, and culminating 
 in middle life. This annual rise and fall of fecundity 
 he attributes to the influence of cold.''' 
 
 * This influence of cold has always been a favourite notion. It 
 has some poetical truth, but it has never, so far as I know, got any 
 
40 FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 In his Treatise on Man, M. Quetelet has, with 
 some care, collected the statistical materials available 
 at the time for advancing the settlement of the question 
 of the relation of age to fecundity. He does not allude 
 
 substantial basis. Eoberton's labours on the influence of heat and 
 cold upon the commencement of menstruation have ended chiefly 
 in negative results, and have tended rather to overthrow than con- 
 firm what may be called the popular opinions. They are to be 
 found in his work on Physiology and Diseases of Women, and on 
 Midwifery. 
 
 More recently Dr. Stark, in an ofiicial report to the registrar- 
 general for Scotland, has, by means of a comparison of the Swedish 
 returns with those of Scotland, arrived at a definite conclusion re- 
 garding the influence of cold. " The comparison," he says, " would 
 seem to indicate that cold does delay the childbearing period of 
 life in women, as has been often supposed, but never till now proved 
 by trustworthy facts" (Eighth detailed Annual Report, 1866, p. 
 XV.) Speaking of Sweden, he remarks that — " it would appeal 
 that the childbearing period of hfe in that country is, as it were, 
 delayed for a period of about four years later than lq this country. 
 Thus, instead of the greatest number of women bearing children 
 between the ages of twenty-five to thirty, as in this country, in 
 Sweden the greatest number bear children between the ages of 
 thirty to thirty-five years. Then, instead of the next most prohfic 
 age being, as it is in Scotland, from twenty to twenty-five, and from 
 thirty to thirty-five years of age, in Sweden it is from twenty-five 
 to thirty, and from thirty- five to forty years of age, while nearly the 
 same number of women bear children above forty as between 
 twenty and twenty- five years of age. These facts are so singular, 
 that in Table VIII. are given the number and proportion of mothers 
 at different ages in Scotland and in Sweden, that the difference in 
 the prolific periods of the females of each country may be seen at 
 a glance. By comparison of the facts, it will be observed that, at 
 all ages under twenty-five years, only half the number of women 
 bear children in Sweden as compared with Scotland ; whereas, at 
 the other end of the childbearing period, only half the number of 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 41 
 
 to the opinions of Burdach, probably because tliey 
 have no sufficient foundation, but he refers to Milne, 
 Malthus, Sadler, Granville, Finlayson, and several 
 foreign authors, who have more or less directly tried 
 to throw light on the topic. Quetelet's whole chapter 
 
 women above forty years of age bear children in Scotland, as in 
 Sweden.'' 
 
 These striking facts demand the study of physiologists if they 
 have the bearing upon the influence of cold which Dr. Stark ascribes 
 to them. But we cannot, in the present state of our knowledge, 
 admit the validity of this bearing. We hesitate before accepting the 
 doctrine of Dr. Stark regarding cold. The differences between the 
 two countries may be explained by cold, but we do not think this 
 probable, for they appear to us far too considerable at aU ages, and 
 specially too great at the late ages (above forty) to be accounted for 
 by the influence of cold. Besides, in order that such tables as Dr. 
 Stark adduces, be admitted as proving anything, it is necessary first 
 of aU to collate with them a table of the ages of Swedish women at 
 marriage for comparison with similax Scottish tables. Difference 
 in the ages at marriage may account for all the striking facts in the 
 table. Indeed, the observation has repeatedly forced itself upon 
 me, that comparisons of this kind made between two countries are 
 dangerous foundations for argument, so great is the risk of error 
 from the conditions of the statistics differing in the countries. [See 
 foot-note, p. 107.] 
 
 Whatever value may be ascribed to the opinion of Burdach and 
 Stark as to the influence of cold, or to the statement of Burdach, 
 unsupported as it is by data, that there is an annual rise and fall 
 in the fecundity of some pluriparous animals, I think the observa- 
 tion of the size of a yearly series of hen's eggs lends some shadow 
 of confirmation to the supposed existence of an annual rise and 
 decline of fecundity. For I am informed by more than one hen- 
 wife that the first and last of a hen's yearly series of eggs are 
 smaller than the eggs laid when the process is in undisturbed 
 operation. But I have found no satisfactory ground of connection 
 of this phenomenon with degrees of temperature. 
 
42 FECUNDITY OF WOMEN 
 
 on the influence of age on the fecundity of marriages 
 is very unsatisfactory. It is at least difficult to reconcile 
 witli one another the conclusions arrived at in various 
 parts of this chapter, and I shall not attempt to do it. 
 It is only fair to say that he seems conscious of the 
 numerical deficiency of data sufficient for a basis of any 
 conclusion, and as an example of the state of matters, 
 the table of Sadler, which he and Burdach both quote, 
 may be mentioned; in it, the number of marriages 
 analysed is under 500, and they are all selected accord- 
 ing to extraordinary conditions. The final conclusion 
 which M. Quetelet announces, is, that it is before the 
 age of twenty-six years that we observe the greatest 
 fecundity in women. 
 
 The latest writer on this topic, whom I know of, is 
 Dr. Granville, who, in an interesting paper in the 
 London Obstetrical Transactions, returns to the de- 
 scription of his former labours in the same field. In 
 this paper, production or fertility is confounded with 
 productive power or fecundity, and the table to which 
 I have alluded in Chapter I. he describes not as showing 
 the fertility at difierent ages of the industrial classes 
 of the metropolis, but erroneously, as showing the alter- 
 nations in the productive power of women at different 
 ages. 
 
 In this part, then, I have, inter alia, shown that the 
 great majority of the population is recruited from 
 women under thirty years of age; but that the mass of 
 women in the population, of from thirty to forty years 
 of age, contribute to the general fertility a larger pro- 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 43 
 
 portional share than the mass of women of from twenty 
 to thirty years of age : — 
 
 Further, that the wives in our population, taken 
 collectively as a mass, show a gradually decreasing 
 fecundity as age advances ; but that the average indi- 
 vidual wife shows a degree of fecundity which increases 
 till probably about the age of twenty-five, and then 
 diminishes. 
 
 The fecundity of the average individual woman may 
 be described as forming a wave which, from sterility, 
 rises gradually to its highest, and then, more gradually, 
 falls again to sterility. 
 
PAKT II. 
 
 ON THE "WEIGHT AND LENGTH OF THE NEWLY-BORN 
 CHILD. 
 
 Inquiring into the influence of the age of the mother 
 upon fecundity, I desired to find out if any light could 
 be thrown upon the subject by the variations, if any, 
 of the weight and length of mature children bom of 
 women of different ages ; intending to assume that 
 the weight and length of the child might increase or 
 diminish with the high or low state of the fecundity 
 of woman, or of the vigour of the generative functions. 
 The observations, upon which aU my conclusions 
 are founded, have been drawn from the records of the 
 Edinburgh Eoyal Maternity Hospital. They amount 
 to 2070 pregnancies, with 2087 children. They are 
 not nearly so numerous as I could desire, but no more 
 are available to me. 
 
46 INFLUENCE OF PKIMOGENTTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF PKIMOGENITUEE ON THE WEIGHT 
 OF THE NEWXY-BOEN CHILD. 
 
 Professor Heoe:er of Munich, in a recent work,* 
 publishes some calculations made to show the mean 
 weight of the children of primiparae as compared with 
 those of multiparee, and he finds that the latter ex- 
 ceed the former in weight. His figures are as follows : 
 — 378 children of primiparee weighed, on an average, 
 7'07 lbs. each ; 718 children of multiparas weighed, on 
 an average, 7'38 lbs. each ; among these 1096 infants, 
 the average weight of the mature children of primi- 
 parae was less than that of the mature children of 
 multiparas by '309 lb. 
 
 My observations on 2053 children confirm those 
 of M. Hecker. The average weight of 1011 children 
 of primiparous females was 7' 170 lbs.; the average 
 weight of 1042 children of multiparous females was 
 7"277 lbs. ; the average weight of mature children of 
 primiparae being less than that of the mature children 
 of multiparas by "107 lb. 
 
 * Klinik der Gebiirtskunde. Von Dr. C. Hecker und Dr. L. 
 Buhl. S. 46. Leipzig 1861. 
 
ON WEIGHT OF NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 47 
 
 If these results are subjected to some study, their 
 apparent value almost entirely disappears. Hecker 
 evidently would imply that primogeniture is the cir- 
 cumstance which determines the comparative lightness 
 of first-born children, and vice versd. But it is evi- 
 dent that, in order to a just comparison of the weights 
 of children of primiparse with those of multiparse, the 
 children compared must be born in circumstances as 
 nearly identical as possible. Especially, care must be 
 had that the now known influence of age of the 
 mother be taken into account, and this care M. Hecker 
 has altogether omitted, an omission for which he is not 
 in any degree blameable, seeing that, when he wrote, 
 the influence of age was not discovered. 
 
 In the following investigation it will, I think, be 
 established that some connection exists between varia- 
 tions in the weight of the newly-born child, and, not 
 primiparity or multiparity, but the age of the mother 
 at the time of the birth. No doubt, any statistic of 
 a population or of an hospital may show greater weight 
 in second and subsequent births than in first, because 
 the great majority of primiparae are young, and their 
 age, anticipating the arrival of the climax of fecundity, 
 may tell upon the size of their offspring. The following 
 considerations seem to me almost to prove the nullity 
 of influence on weight exercised by primiparity. 
 
 1. The weight of the chUdren of primiparse is not 
 nearly uniform, but varies according to the law of the 
 age of the mother. (See Table XX.) 
 
 2. The weight of the children of all mothers, 
 
48 INFLUENCE OF PRIMOGENITURE 
 
 -whetlier primiparse or multiparse, varies according to 
 the same law of mother's age. (See Table XVIL) 
 
 3. The following Table (XVI.) of the mean weights 
 of the children of first and subsequent pregnancies 
 shows no increase or decrease according to the number 
 of the pregnancy. No doubt the children of first 
 pregnancies are lightest, but this may be accounted for 
 by age. . After the first pregnancy there is no variation 
 according to any law. There is, indeed, great uni- 
 formity in pregnancies after the first. I have ap- 
 pended a line of mean ages to show that even the 
 average woman of seventh and subsequent pregnancies 
 has not passed into the ages in which the decline of 
 fecundity is strongly marked. It is perhaps on this 
 account that no gradual diminution of weight is ob- 
 served in the more advanced pregnancies. I may add 
 that I have an impression that, were data forthcoming 
 to extend this table to eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, 
 twelfth pregnancies, and so on, a diminution of the 
 mean weight of the children would appear, and that it 
 would correspond to the average age of the woman, 
 advancing in these pregnancies into years of decided 
 decline of fecundity. 
 
ON WEIGHT OF NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 
 
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50 INFLUENCE OF PRIMOGENITURE. 
 
 Before advancing, I may here interpolate a remark 
 regarding the difficulty and danger of labour in primi- 
 parae. The popular notion of the increased difficulty 
 and danger of a first labour in a woman no longer 
 young may find its explanation, in part at least, in the 
 increased bulk of the child as indicated by its increased 
 weight and length in such women. I have often heard 
 that an old primiparous woman passes through labour 
 more easily than one somewhat younger, and we may 
 possibly find this also accounted for by the com- 
 paratively small size of children born in the latest 
 periods of fecundity. 
 
WEIGHT OF NEWLY- BORN CHILD. 51 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE VARIATION OF THE WEIGHT OF THE NEWLY- BORN 
 CHILD ACCORDING TO THE AGE OF THE MOTHER. 
 
 I HAVE already shown tliat the fecundity of the average 
 individual woman increases to about the age of twenty- 
 five years. This conclusion receives very interesting 
 corroboration from the following Table (XVII.) of the 
 average weights of mature children born of mothers of 
 ages gradually rising to twenty-five years. The weight 
 of the child gradually increases to its climax in the age 
 of from twenty-five years to twenty-nine. After this 
 age the weight of the child declines, and the diminution 
 goes on by very slow degrees. This slowness is entirely 
 out of proportion with the rapid diminution of fecundity 
 of women of similar ages. But, in the present deficiency 
 of data, it wUl be well not to attempt to push the dis- 
 cussion farther. 
 
52 
 
 WEIGHT OF NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 
 
 TABLE XVII. — Showing the Average Weight of Children 
 BORN OP Mothers op Different Ages. 
 
 Age of Mother. 
 
 Number of 
 Pregnancies. 
 
 Total Weight. 
 
 Average Weight. 
 
 
 
 lbs. oz. 
 
 lbs. oz. 
 
 15-19 
 
 209 
 
 1459 10 
 
 6 15-741 
 
 20-24 
 
 832 
 
 6008 7i 
 
 7 3-547 
 
 25-29 
 
 670 
 
 4220 4 
 
 7 6-463 
 
 30-34 
 
 278 
 
 2020 6 
 
 7 4-281 
 
 35-39 
 
 139 
 
 1011 2 
 
 7 4-388 
 
 40-44 
 
 38 
 
 272 
 
 7 2-526 
 
 45-49 
 
 3 
 
 20 12 
 
 6 14-666 
 
 The decrease of children's weight may perhaps 
 not be justly compared with the decrease of fecundity, 
 for this last decrease is produced chiefly by women 
 entirely deserting the category of the fecund, and 
 bearing no children for comparison. The decrease of 
 the fecundity of the average woman is not produced 
 by diminished fecundity of the individual woman, but 
 by the arrestment or disappearance of fecundity in 
 women previously fertile. 
 
LENGTH OF NEWLY BORN CHILD. 53 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF PRIMOGENITUEE ON THE LENGTH 
 OF THE NEWLY-BOEN CHILD. 
 
 It will be interesting now to inquire if Hecker's opinion 
 regarding the influence of primogeniture be confirmed 
 by a study of the varying lengths of children. Hecker 
 himself has, in his clinical work, made no observations on 
 this point, and it must, I think, be admitted that length 
 of mature infants is not nearly so good, a test of growth 
 and nourishment as weight. Yet it will immediately 
 appear that interesting corroboration of other allied 
 laws, if not of Hecker's, may be drawn from a study 
 of lengths ; and it was not to be expected that the 
 estimation of such measurements should be omitted by 
 an obstetrician who has laid great stress on the value of 
 length as an indication of maturity, enunciating the 
 doctrine that good evidence of maturity cannot be ob- 
 tained so satisfactorily by weighing as by measuring. 
 
 Among 2053 mature single children there were 
 1011 born of primiparse; the average length of these 
 was 19"213 inches; — there were 1042 born of multi- 
 parse ; the average length of these was 19 "202 inches ; 
 the average length of mature children of primiparee 
 
54 INFLUENCE OF PRIMOGENITURE ON 
 
 exceeding that of the mature children of multiparse by 
 ■Oil inch. The difference here in favour of primiparse 
 is so slight that it may be disregarded. No notable 
 difference in this respect, therefore, is made out between 
 primiparaB and multiparae, a circumstance which shows 
 that weights and lengths of children have no direct or 
 certain relation, one to another, if the figures adduced 
 have been carefully ascertained and are numerous 
 enough to justify such a statistical conclusion. 
 
 The remarks, which I have already made in con- 
 nection with the corresponding observations on the 
 weight of children of primiparee and multiparee, are so 
 closely applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the present 
 topic also, that I shall not repeat them. I shall only 
 here give a table of the lengths of children born in 
 first and succeeding pregnancies, to show that there is 
 no increase or decrease of length according to the 
 number of the pregnancy ; that length does not seem 
 to be under any law connected with the first or subse- 
 quent occurrence of pregnancy. 
 
LENGTH OF NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 
 
 55 
 
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56 LENGTH OP NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 
 
 Althougli, however, the facts here adduced do not 
 show the influence of age in conjunction with primi- 
 parity, I have little doubt that a large enough collection 
 would show comparative shortness of firstborn children, 
 just as comparative lightness has been shown, and for 
 the same reason — ^namely, because primiparous women 
 are, in a very large proportion, young. 
 
LENGTH OF NEWLY-BORN CHILD. 
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE VARIATION OF THE LENGTH OF THE NEWLY-BOKN 
 CHILD ACCORDING TO THE AGE OF THE MOTHER. 
 
 AltliDugli the observations I have tabulated bear 
 no evidence in regard to the influence of primiparity 
 or of multiparity, yet when thrown together so as to 
 be questioned regarding their relation to maternal age, 
 they support the doctrine which I have elsewhere 
 maiutained. Length of the newly-born child is shown 
 in Table XIX. to increase as the mother gets older 
 untn the period from 25 to 29 is reached : after this, 
 the length of the child gradually diminishes. 
 
 TABLE XIX. — Showing the Average Length oe Children 
 BORN OE Mothers of Different Ages. 
 
 Age of Motlier. 
 
 No. of Children. 
 
 Total Lengtli. 
 
 Average Length. 
 
 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 15-19 
 
 209 
 
 3,972| 
 
 19-007 
 
 20-24 
 
 839 
 
 16,082^ 
 
 19-168 
 
 25-29 
 
 574 
 
 11,109^ 
 
 19-365 
 
 30-34 
 
 280 
 
 5,384i 
 
 19-229 
 
 35-39 
 
 142 
 
 2,683| 
 
 18-899 
 
 40-44 
 
 39 
 
 737^ 
 
 18-910 
 
 45-49 
 
 3 
 
 54i 
 
 18-166 
 
58 LENGTH OF NEWLY-BOEN CHILD 
 
 It appears, then, that a careful study of the weights 
 and lengths of newly-born mature children lends some 
 support to the doctrine that the vigour of the female 
 reproductive system waxes till the age of about 25 
 years is reached, and then wanes. 
 
 I here append two general tables containing numer- 
 ous details which speak for themselves : — 
 
ACCORDING TO AGE OF MOTHER. 
 
 59 
 
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 M 
 
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 No. 
 
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 nanc 
 
 
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60 
 
 LENGTH OF NEWLY-BOEN CHILD. 
 
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 !-• I— ( i-H I— 1 r-H i-H )—) 
 
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 Age of 
 Mothers. 
 
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PROFESSOR HECKER's OBSERVATIONS. 61 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 PROFESSOR HEOKEr's OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 My inquiries were first publislied ia the Edinburgh 
 Medical Journal, December 1864. Ttiat article called 
 forth from Professor Hecker of Munich a very complete 
 and elaborate article on the same topic. It appeared 
 in the Monatsschrift fur Geburtskunde und Frauen- 
 krankheiten, November 1865. The Bavarian professor's 
 results are not identical with mine, though they tally 
 with them ia one of the chief conclusions. While 
 miae are founded on 2087 observations, Hecker's have 
 for a basis the far larger number of 4449, and on this 
 account alone demand a higher degree of confidence. 
 But I have preferred to adhere in the meantime to the 
 form of my own original statements, and to add to 
 them here the conclusions of Hecker. For neither 
 Hecker's nor my numbers show a satisfactory or assur- 
 ing amount of steadiness in the increase and decrease 
 of the figures ; and, considering the small differences 
 which the figures show as they increase or decrease, 
 it is necessary, in order to have considerable assurance 
 as to the reliability of the results, to possess a much 
 larger statistical basis than even the 4449 observations 
 of Hecker. I have already said that Hecker's numbers 
 give his conclusions a value superior to that of mine. 
 
62 PROFESSOR HECKER's OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 and I must add that I hold Hecker to have demon- 
 strated an increase of -weight and length of the child 
 with the number of the pregnancy. Only it appears 
 to me that this conclusion of Hecker must be applied, 
 not generally to all pregnancies, but only as far as the 
 fifth ; for his figures are given only for the pregnancies 
 numbering from first to fifth. 
 
 I now give the conclusions of this author — 
 
 " 1. The view of Matthews Duncan, that increase 
 of weight and length of the child is in direct depend- 
 ence on the age of the mother has been shown to he 
 quite correct. 
 
 " 2. On the other hand, it is not established that 
 there is, within the chUd-bearing period of woman's 
 life, a distinct climax of increase of its weight and 
 length ; it is rather shown that increase, on the whole, 
 goes on tni the end of fruitfulness. 
 
 " 3. Age is not, as Duncan implies, the only factor 
 of this increase, but an influence must be distinctly re- 
 cognised as exerted by the number of the pregnancy." 
 
 The results of Hecker are not without support in 
 the general history of fruitfulness of women, as will be 
 shown hereafter. They may, if verified, stand beside 
 the law of the intensity of fertility of women as age at 
 marriage advances, or as families increase in number. 
 On the other hand, if my conclusions come to be con- 
 firmed, they may take their place with the law of the 
 rise and decline of the fecundity of women.* 
 
 * A study of the domestic fowl's eggs seems to lend some con- 
 firmation to my statistical results. The small eggs of the young 
 
PROFESSOR HECKERS OBSERVATIONS. 63 
 
 In leaving this topic, I wish to point out another 
 subject for investigation, from whose elucidation some 
 explanation of the variations of the weight and length 
 of the newly-born child may arise. Hecker, Clay, 
 Montgomery, and Joulin mention the comparative 
 shortness of the pregnancy of primiparse. This may 
 account for the smallness of first-born children ; and 
 a similar relation may be established between the 
 duration of pregnancies of different numbers, and of 
 women of different ages, and the relative weight and 
 length of the resulting offspring. 
 
 Dr. Montgomery's* opinions that there is no good 
 foundation for any such rule as would affirm that the 
 duration of human gestation is directly proportioned to 
 the age of the woman, and that there is no relation 
 between the duration of pregnancy and the size of the 
 chUd produced, need not discourage the inquirer, for 
 they are founded, as a perusal of his work shows, more 
 upon individual instances than upon a large collection 
 of data. I shall refer to the latter of these opinions 
 when I discuss the protraction of pregnancy in the 
 latter part of this volume. Dr. Clay t has, in a formal 
 
 h.eii are generally known. I am informed by two experienced hen- 
 wives tliat tlie old hen also lays a comparatively small egg. An 
 observation of my own shows that these eggs are sometimes entirely 
 without yolk, or with an imperfect one. 
 
 * See Montgomery, Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy, 2d 
 ed. p. 535, etc. 
 
 t Observations on the Term of Utero- Gestation. An interest- 
 ing essay by Charles Clay, M.D. London, 1855. 
 
64 PROFESSOR HECKER's OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 maimer, and in direct opposition to M. Tessier,* laid 
 down the proposition, that, as age increases, the term 
 of utero-gestation is lengthened ; and, so far as they 
 go, his observations confirm it. But they are too few 
 for a satisfactory basis, and they require to be cor- 
 rected for the influence of the number of the pregnancy. 
 The probability that age might exercise an influence 
 on this term was long ago indicated by Condorcet.t 
 
 * Mem. de I'Acad. Roy ale des Sciences, 1817, p. 16. 
 t Ibid. p. 3. 
 
PART III. 
 
 ON SOME LAWS OF THE PRODUCTION OP TWINS. 
 
 HiTHEETO the variations of fecundity have been most 
 frequently and most easily observed in animals whicli 
 have ordinarily multiple births, and the number of 
 whose young, born at different litters, varies. Such 
 difference in number at different times cannot fail to 
 strike the observant eye, and little ingenuity is needed 
 to make the number of young a test of the degree of 
 fecundity. To such an argument I can find no ob- 
 jection. 
 
 Among women, the birth of twins occurs once in 
 about eighty deliveries. Triplets, quadruplets, quin- 
 tuplets, and even higher figures, are occasionally 
 observed ; they are very uncommon, and the rarity is 
 progressive with the number. The normal or ordinary 
 rule in woman is to bear one child at a time ; and the 
 next most frequent condition is temporary or per- 
 sistent sterility — ^two points in which she signally 
 differs from what is generally believed of the animals 
 subjected to the observations referred to. 
 
 It is easy to understand how a regularly-bearing 
 animal, the number of whose young born at different 
 litters varies, may in its individual history give good 
 
66 ON SOME LAWS OF THE 
 
 illustration, if not evidence, of some law of the varia- 
 tion of fecundity. In irregularly-bearing uniparous 
 woman no such illustration or evidence of any law can 
 be got by observing an individual, and recourse must 
 be had to statistics, to the analysis of the details 
 regarding the pregnancies of large numbers of women, 
 subjected to the conditions essential to fecundity. 
 
 The rarity of a plural birth in woman, and the 
 increased danger to both mother and offspring in these 
 circumstances, render such an event, in a certain 
 limited sense, an abnormity.* This abnormity, if used 
 alone, is not a good test of fecundity, and it has been 
 resorted to for this purpose in consequence of the 
 
 * On this subject, consult a valuable paper by Dr. Artbur Mit- 
 chell, publislied in the Medical Times and Gazette of November 
 15, 1862. In that paper Dr. MitcbeU demonstrates the abnormality 
 of twin-bearing in the human female ; and to his other proofs he 
 might have added the occurrence of acephalous monsters, only as 
 one of twins. His conclusions are : — 
 
 " 1. Among imbecUes and idiots a much larger proportion 
 is actually found to be twin-born than among the general com- 
 munity. 
 
 " 2. Among the relatives of imbecUes and idiots twinning is also 
 found to be very frequent. 
 
 " 3. In families, when twinning is frequent, bodily deformities 
 (of defect and of excess) likewise occur with frequency. 
 
 " 4. The whole history of twin births is exceptional, indicates 
 imperfect development and feeble organisation in the product, and 
 leads us to regard twinning in the human species as a departure 
 from the physiological rule, and therefore injurious to all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 " 5. When we pass from twins to triplets and quadruplets, every- 
 thing we know regarding these latter gives support to the general 
 conclusions in question." 
 
PRODUCTION OF TWINS. 67 
 
 enticement of its apparently simple and easy appli- 
 cation to woman as to the lower animals. 
 
 It is, at first sight, evident that a woman, even 
 repeatedly bearing twins, may be surpassed in fecun- 
 dity by another bearing single chUdren more rapidly 
 or for a longer period. Neglect of these and other 
 such truths has led to errors ; and I may cite a popular 
 hasty conclusion regarding the comparative fertility of 
 races in illustration. The greater frequency of plural 
 births in one race than in others, as in the Irish com- 
 pared with the English, has been represented as 
 showing that the former is more prolific than the 
 latter. Whether the conclusion be true or not, I do 
 not here propose to inquire ;* certainly, the grounds of 
 the conclusion are insufficient to establish it, and un- 
 satisfactory, seeing that an opposite conclusion is not 
 absolutely inconsistent with them, as I have just shown. 
 And a little ingenuity easily discovers other arguments 
 
 * The facts as they appear in Collins' data, and in my statistics 
 of Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, are as follows : — In the Dublin 
 Lying-in Hospital 16,385 women produced 480 twin children. In 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, 16,301 wives produced 396 twin 
 children. As already often repeated, the two sets of cases are not 
 suited for exact comparison. The result (including all sources of 
 error) is, that the women delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 should have produced 477 twin children instead of 396, if they 
 were not to allow themselves to be surpassed in double births. The 
 variation of the frequency of twin births in different countries is so 
 great (Oesterlen, Handbuch der medicirdschen 8tatistik) as to re- 
 move all probability from the notion or behef that the greater or 
 less frequency of twins shows greater or less general fertility. See 
 also Boudin, Oeographie et Statistique Medicales, tome ii. p. 62. 
 
68 ON SOME LAWS OF THE 
 
 against the popular view; for example, it might be said 
 that twins, as an unnatural and excessive strain upon 
 the female reproductive powers, may exhaust the fe- 
 cund energies, and lead to comparative barrenness 
 subsequently. 
 
 In illustration of the treatment of this subject by 
 physiologists, I cite the following passage from the 
 works of Burdach :* — " In regard to age (says he), 
 fecundity is diminished in the first and last portions of 
 the continance of the aptitude for procreation. The 
 elk, the bear, etc., have at first only a single young one, 
 then they come to have most frequently two, and at 
 last again only one. The young hamster produces 
 only from three to six young ones, whilst that of a 
 more advanced age produces from eight to sixteen. 
 The same is true of the pig. This rule appears to be 
 general, since it applies also to the Entomostracese ; 
 according to Jurine, the number of the young of the 
 Monoculus pulex is at first from four to five, afterwards 
 rising gradually as high as eighteen. We scarcely 
 ever encounter the births of three or four children 
 except in women who have passed the thirtieth year.t 
 
 * Phydologie, tome ii. p. 117. 
 
 t Tkere is a general deficiency of evidence for Burdach's state- 
 ments. In order to test his assertion couceming the ages of women 
 bearing triplets and quadruplets, I have hastUy collected the follow- 
 ing ten authentic cases of triplets &om the works of CoUms, 
 M'Clintock and Hardy, Braun Chiari and Spsth, Hugenberger, 
 and from my note-book. They speak for themselves, and it will be 
 observed that triplets are by no means exclusively confined to 
 women above thirty years of age. Yet it is noticeable that not one 
 
PRODUCTION OF TWINS. 69 
 
 Precocious marriages are not only less fertUe, but the 
 children also which are the result of them have an in- 
 creased rate of mortality. According to Sadler, every 
 marriage in the families of the peers of England yield 
 4'40 children when the woman was married below six- 
 teen years of age ; 4"63 from this age to twenty, 5"21 
 from twenty to twenty-three, and 5"43 from twenty- 
 four to twenty-seven." 
 
 In support of Burdach's statements generally, I 
 here quote an extract from a letter on this subject from 
 the highly intelligent gamekeeper of a Scottish noble- 
 man. It forms a very favourable example of the kind 
 of information I have been able to collect on this topic. 
 "My observation has led me to believe that, as a 
 general rule, a bitch has fewer puppies the first, and 
 gradually increases year by year till her strength 
 begins to fail. Then a rapid diminution follows, 
 ending in one or two. This rule, however, is very 
 materially affected by circumstances, and one may 
 
 occurs among the younger child-TDearing women, and not one in a 
 first pregnancy. 
 
 TABLE XXII.— Table of Ten Cases of Teiplbts. 
 
 Age of Motlier . . . 
 
 27 
 
 27 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 33 
 
 35 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 No. of Pregnancy. . 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 An interesting fact in connection witli this subject is mentioned in 
 Hugenherger's report of the St. Petersburg Mid-vvives' Institute 
 (1863). Three women admitted there between 1846-59 in their 
 fifteenth pregnancies had triplets, and each had triplets three times 
 in succession. 
 
70 ON SOME LAWS OF THE 
 
 come to very erroneous conclusions by overlooking 
 these. Such, for instance, is the state of the health, con- 
 dition, amount of work. According to the state of the 
 hea;lth, there may be many or few (puppies), weak or 
 strong production ; according to the condition, there 
 will be few or many. If the animal is in a good fair 
 condition, there will be many ; if overfed, few. And 
 as regards the amount of work a dog has to perform, 
 so will the decline be rapid or gradual ; and hence, if 
 a bitch is worked hard year after year, she will fail 
 rapidly, and the diminution of her puppies will be 
 accordingly ; but if worked moderately, and weU 
 kept, she will fail gradually, and the diminution will 
 be less rapid. 
 
 " The above rule holds good in reference to breed- 
 ing sows, but it is a common thing in their case for 
 condition (fatness) to interrupt the rule. When a sow 
 or bitch in an overfed state is brought in contact with 
 the male, and afterwards increases in fat, which in this 
 state they are very liable to do rapidly, consequently 
 there must be a pressure upon the womb, and hence 
 the embryo wiU be crushed, and thus production wUl 
 be prevented. I believe it is well known how easily 
 the embryo can be injured or destroyed, but I do not 
 think it is well known how much it wUl endure in the 
 foetal or more advanced state. We had an instance of 
 this last year, when the great spate was in the month 
 of May, when so many of our pheasant eggs were car- 
 ried away by the flood and covered in water, many of 
 which we lifted from under one and two feet of water. 
 
PKODUCTION OF TWINS. 71 
 
 and many we got floating about in the ditches, which 
 had been a night and a good part of a day in the cold 
 water. Now, we knew that many of these eggs had 
 been a good whUe sat upon; and being anxious if 
 possible to save some of them, got them set under 
 common hens, and many of them hatched wonderfully 
 well : some of them came out a few days after we set 
 them. Now, had these eggs been in the embryo state 
 a little shake and being in cold-water an hour or two 
 would have rendered them quite useless. 
 
 " I have never observed any cause that led to a 
 greater proportion of males or females in a litter. 
 From what I have observed, I do not think that age 
 or strength on either side has anything to do with 
 it." 
 
72 NUMBER OF TWINS BORN OF 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 THE NUMBER OF TWINS BORN OF WOMEN OF 
 DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 I HAVE made a collection of 1512 twins from the 
 sources iadicated in the footnote,* and have arranged 
 them so as to show the various ages of their mothers 
 in quinquennial periods. This table shows that in the 
 general population it so happens that the number of 
 twins bom increases with the age of the mother until 
 the age from twenty-five to twenty-nine inclusive is 
 reached, and that after this age is passed the number 
 of twins born regularly diminishes, — a result which 
 accords with what is observed of the fertility generally 
 of the whole female population ; the actual fertility of 
 the female population increasing from the commence- 
 ment of the child-bearing period of life until the age 
 of thirty is reached, and then declining to its extiac- 
 tion with the child-bearing faculty.t 
 
 * Collins, Practical Treatise; private letter from Dr. M'Clin- 
 took, giviBg extracts from the Dublia Hospital Register ; M'Cliii- 
 tock and Hardy on Midwifery and Puerperal Diseases; Chiari 
 Braun und Spsetli, Klinik der Geburtskunde ; my own extracts 
 from tlie Registers of Ediaburgli and Glasgow for 1855. 
 
 t Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for 1863-64, 
 p. 479 ; and Part I. of this volume. 
 
WOMEN OF DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 73 
 
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74 NUMBER OP TWINS BORN OF 
 
 But while there is this general accordance of results, 
 an examination of the table at once reveals to the 
 observer great differences between the general fertility 
 of women and their fertility in twins. These differ- 
 ences will be the subject of further description ; in the 
 meantime, I shall only adduce sufficient evidence to 
 show that there is great difference, so much indeed as 
 at once to demonstrate that the production of or 
 fertility in twins is in woman not subjected to the 
 same laws as fertility generally. 
 
 The mean age of 16,385 parturient women included 
 in Dr. Collins' tables is 27 years. The mean age of 
 240 women in the same lists bearing twins is 29. The 
 twin-bearer is older than the general run of bearers. 
 
 The number of twins born by women under and 
 above thirty years in Dr. Collins' lists is 153 and 87, 
 showing a majority of 66 on the side of the younger 
 women, and thus a smaller proportional number of 
 twins born of the young women than of all children 
 born of the same. 
 
 But the data of Dr. Collins axe not the best I can 
 adduce to elucidate this point. His are derived from 
 a class of cases submitted to selection, the conditions 
 being all those connected with admission to the Lying- 
 in Institution of Dublin. I bring forward data derived 
 from an analysis of the whole legitimate births in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855. These show still 
 more markedly and satisfactorily than the data of 
 Collins, that a far larger proportion of twins than of 
 children generally is born of elderly women. It is 
 
WOMEN OF DIFFERENT AGES. 75 
 
 easy to imagine reasons for tlie greater though similar 
 difference shown by my statistics than by those of 
 Collins ; and there can scarcely be a doubt that mine 
 are, in regard to this point, far more reliable than his. 
 The mean age of 16,301 mothers of legitimate children 
 ia Edinburgh and Glasgow, in 1855, was above twenty- 
 nine years. The mean age of 198 wives bearing twins 
 was thirty-one years. The twin-bearer is here again 
 older than the general run of bearers. In the same 
 population the number of twins born by women under 
 thirty years of age was 86 ; the number born by 
 women above thirty years was 112, — showing a ma- 
 jority of 26 on the side of the elder women. Or, while 
 of all births among these 16,301 wives three-fifths 
 occurred among women under thirty years of age, 
 there occurred only two-fifths of the twins among 
 these younger women.* 
 
 * It is necessary to remark that the statements here given are 
 not absolute or exact. For while the Dublin statistics include all 
 the births at or near the full time, the statistics of Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow include the same, with the exception of those born dead. 
 But it is evident that were the figures to be exactly true, not only 
 should the dead-born be included, but also all bom in miscarriages 
 or abortions. Until such comparative statistics are procured as in- 
 clude aU. births, mature and premature, living and dead, no state- 
 ment, even of the comparative frequency of twin births, can be ab- 
 solutely relied on ; for fewer plural pregnancies come to maturity 
 than pregnancies with single children. Chiari Braun and Spaeth 
 have shown that abortions are comparatively more frequent in plural 
 pregnancies than in ordinary pregnancies. 
 
76 INFLUENCE OF AGE ON WOMAN S 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF AGE ON "WOMAN'S FERTILITY 
 IN TWINS. 
 
 I HERB first produce a table formed by adding tlie data 
 of Dr. Collins to my own, and showing the very re- 
 markable result tbat, speaking generally, tbe older a 
 mother is the more likely is she to have twins. 
 
 WhUe, of mothers from fifteen to nineteen years of 
 age, only every 189th had twias at a birth, mothers 
 rising in age were more prolific in twins, till at the 
 age of from thirty-five to thirty-nine years the climax of 
 fortuity ia twins was reached, every forty-fifth woman 
 producing two at a birth, or fully four times as many 
 as the women under twenty. This statement of gTa- 
 duaUy-increasuig fertility in twins does not, so far as 
 the table shows, appear to hold good after the age 
 of forty is reached. And I shall have presently to 
 pokit out an analogous divergence from the same 
 statement, but in an opposite direction, when I treat 
 of the influence of primiparity in increasing twin- 
 
FERTILITY IN TWINS. 
 
 11 
 
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78 INFLUENCE OF AGE ON WOMAN S 
 
 births.* I venture, therefore, founding on the above 
 observations, to state the law, that from the earliest 
 child-bearing period, till the age of forty is reached,— 
 that is, tm a period when fecundity has become extra- 
 ordinarly diminished — the fertility of mothers in twins 
 gradually increases. 
 
 This twenty-fourth table, showing a fertility in 
 twins gradually increasing with age, is almost exactly 
 opposed to what our knowledge of the fecundity of 
 women generally would lead us to expect. The general 
 productiveness of a mass of wives is greatest at the 
 commencement of the child-bearing period of life, and 
 after that epoch gradually diminishes. 
 
 In the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth tables twin- 
 bearing mothers are compared with the whole mothers. 
 I here produce a table of twin-bearing mothers compared 
 with married women of corresponding ages. This 
 twenty-sixth table is, in more respects than one, not 
 very satisfactory. It cannot, I think, be expected to 
 yield much. Yet its evidence is to the effect that 
 when woman generally is most fecund she is least likely 
 to produce twins. Between the ages of twenty and 
 thirty years, fewest wives have twins. Before and after 
 
 * Eegarding twins as an abnormal birtli, and tlie children as 
 Comparatively feebly organised or imperfectly developed, it may be 
 found tbat their frequency in first births confirms an opinion, 
 held not without reason, that a first-born child (not in a twin-birth) 
 is, in general, more feeble than its followers. A first pregnancy is 
 short. A first child is of comparatively hght weight. A first egg 
 of a fowl is smaller than those which foUow. 
 
FERTILITY IN TWINS. 79 
 
 that period of high general fecundity the special pro- 
 ductiveness in twins increases. And this result is in 
 general accordance with what we have already shown 
 regarding productiveness of twins — that is, it is the 
 opposite of what we know of general fecundity; more- 
 over, it may find some special support from the evidence 
 of the twenty-fifth table, and of the twenty-ninth. 
 
80 
 
 
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INITIAL FERTILITY IN TWINS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INITIAL FERTILITY IN TWINS AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 The results arrived at in tlie former chapter are con- 
 firmed by a comparison of the initial fecundity of 
 wives generally with the special initial fecundity in 
 twins of the same women. The twenty- seventh table 
 is unfortunately not large enough in numbers to aflford 
 results of a high degree of reliability. I believe that 
 a more extensive collection will probably show a regular 
 increase of initial productiveness of twins with increas- 
 ing age. I leave it as it stands, showing that the wives 
 married youngest have the fewest twins, and that there 
 is an increase as age advances. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 INITIAL FERTILITY IN TWINS 
 
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AT DIFFERENT AGES. 83 
 
 Fertility in twins is better or more justly con- 
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 the fecundity of a mass of wives both sterile and 
 fertile. In the former case all the women brought 
 into comparison bear children, and thus show their 
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 of forty is reached. Every 153d woman among the 
 youngest fertile women bears twins (within two years 
 after marriage) ; among the older women, from thirty- 
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 bears twins within two years after marriage, or nearly 
 four times as many. 
 
INITIAL FERTILITY IN TWINS 
 
 
 
 
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AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
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86 INITIAL FERTILITY IN TWINS. 
 
 I here interpolate another (twenty-ninth) table, 
 which is supplementary to the twenty-eighth. It is 
 composed of all mothers except those who have borne 
 children within the first two years -of marriage. Its 
 evidence is to the same general effect as that of the 
 preceding, only it seems to show the increased fertility 
 in twins of the youngest women — a circumstance to 
 which I have already called attention. 
 
 The especial value of these tables of iaitial fertility, 
 and of subsequent fertility at various ages, lies in their 
 eliminating entirely, or almost entirely, the disturbing 
 element of the number of the pregnancy, and leaving 
 evidence of the effects of age simply. In short, they 
 contribute to the demonstration of the law of the 
 influence of age stated in the second chapter of this 
 part. 
 
RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF TWINS. 87 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE FREQUENCY OF TWINS TO THE 
 NUMBER OF THE MOTHBr's PREGNANCY. 
 
 If it be true that the older a woman is who stUl 
 retains a degree of fecundity, the more likely is she to 
 bear twins, then we should, without further data, guess 
 that twins were comparatively more frequent in late 
 than in early pregnancies. And this is confirmed by 
 an iuvestigation of the subject. In the following table 
 are given the number of children born in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow ia 1855 ia first and subsequent preg- 
 nancies, and beside them are placed for comparison the 
 number of twins born in the same. A glance at the 
 table shows that up to the ninth pregnancy, far beyond 
 the average number of pregnancies, and as far as we 
 have considerable numbers to guide us, the proportional 
 frequency of twins increases with the number of the 
 pregnancy. To this general statement there is an 
 exception in the case of first pregnancies. Woman has 
 apparently an increased chance of bearing twins iu her 
 fibrst pregnancy, which leads to a disorder of the general 
 rule above stated. With this notable exception, the 
 rule holds manifestly good, at least tiU the ninth preg- 
 nancy is passed. After the ninth pregnancy, the table, 
 from the smallness of the numbers and the irregularity 
 
88 RELATION OF FREQUENCY OF TWINS TO 
 
 of the results, cannot be nmch relied on. Yet it shows, 
 on an average, a stUl increasing fertility in twins as 
 the number of the pregnancy advances. According to 
 Table XXX., among a thousand child-bearing women 
 pregnant for a first, second, or third time, as these 
 pregnancies happen to occur in our population, nine only 
 
 TABLE XXX. — Showing the Actual and Compaeative 
 Number of Twins born in First and Subsequent 
 Pregnancies.* 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Twins. 
 
 latter to former. 
 
 1st 
 
 3722 
 
 45 
 
 1-21 
 
 2d 
 
 2893 
 
 19 
 
 •66 
 
 3d 
 
 2534 
 
 24 
 
 •94 
 
 4tli 
 
 V 1982 
 
 19 
 
 •96 
 
 Sth 
 
 1543 
 
 19 
 
 1-23 
 
 eth 
 
 1221 
 
 18 
 
 1-47 
 
 7th 
 
 848 
 
 17 
 
 2-00 
 
 8th 
 
 641 
 
 14 
 
 2^18 
 
 9th 
 
 425 
 
 14 
 
 3-29 
 
 10th 
 
 222 
 
 3 
 
 1-35 
 
 11th 
 
 152 
 
 2 
 
 1^31 
 
 12th 
 
 61 
 
 3 
 
 4^92 
 
 13th 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 14th 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 15th 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 16th 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 50^00 
 
 * It is necessary to note a source of error that exists in this 
 table. In the third column are given the twins registered lq 1855, 
 and no other twins are supposed to have been in the family pre- 
 viously. The registers only give the number of previous viable 
 children, whether twins or not ; they do not give the number of 
 pregnancies. These are talien directly from the number of viable 
 children. 
 
NUMBER OF MOTHER'S PREGNANCY. 89 
 
 will produce twins ; among a tbousand similar wo- 
 men in fourth, fifth, and sixth pregnancies, there will be 
 twelve twin births ; among a thousand similar women 
 in seventh, eighth, and ninth pregnancies, there will be 
 twenty-four twin births ; and among a thousand simi- 
 lar women in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth pregnancies, 
 there will be twenty-five double births. 
 
 It may then be stated that, after passing the first 
 pregnancy, a woman's chance of bearing twins increases 
 with each subsequent pregnancy. 
 
 The broad statement, that multiparous women are 
 more likely to have twins than primiparous, has been 
 made by Chiari Braun and Spaeth, and by Hugen- 
 berger. But this is only an imperfect development of 
 the general statement just enunciated. 
 
 I have hitherto carefully abstained from giving 
 this general statement the dignity of a law; for it 
 may be only a coincidence resulting from the circum- 
 stance that age of mothers increases as the number of 
 the pregnancy increases. The law of increased fre- 
 quency of twins with advancing age may afford the 
 explanation of the increased frequency as the number 
 of the pregnancy advances. It remains to be deter- 
 mined, then, whether this general statement be a law 
 or only a coroUary to the law of age. 
 
 I now present a table (XXXI.) which is so con- 
 structed from the data at my command as to avoid 
 error from the influence of age, women of the same age, 
 but of different pregnancies, being compared. In it 
 various adjacent pregnancies and ages are thrown 
 
90 
 
 EELATION OF FREQUENCY OF TWINS TO 
 
 H 
 O 
 
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 5 
 
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 p. 
 
 £ 
 
NUMBER OF MOTHEU's PREG2S"ANCY. 91 
 
 together in order to attain considerable numbers, with 
 a view to reaching a trustworthy conclusion, and these 
 collocations diminish the value of the table. 
 
 Yet an inspection of it will, I believe, convince the 
 observer of the influence of the number of the preg- 
 nancy. And a comparison of this table with those 
 previously given demonstrating the influence of age, 
 leaves no doubt that the increase of twins with the 
 number of the pregnancy is greater than could be 
 accounted for by the error introduced by using quin- 
 quennial periods — that is, by the possible accumulation 
 of the more advanced pregnancies in the last years of 
 the quinquennial periods contrasted. 
 
 The increased frequency of twin-bearing as the 
 number of the pregnancy increases may therefore be 
 now regarded as a law of the production of twins. 
 
 In order to the more complete discussion of the 
 influence of the number of the pregnancy on the 
 frequency of twin births, I produce another table 
 (XXXII.) whose interesting results throw light on the 
 subject. 
 
 The third column of this table shows how a 
 hundred twin births are distributed according to the 
 number of the pregnancy. It is evident that, speak- 
 ing generally, twinning becomes rarer as the number 
 of the pregnancy increases ; and at the top of the list, 
 far surpassing all the rest, is the first pregnancy with 
 the large number of nearly 23 per cent of all twin 
 births. Actually, then, twinning diminishes as the 
 number of the pregnancy increases. 
 
92 RELATION OF FREQUENCY OF TWINS TO 
 
 TABLE XXXII.— Showing the Frequency of Twin Births 
 
 AND OF ALL BiRTHS IN FIRST AND SUBSEQUENT PREG- 
 NANCIES.* . 
 
 Number of 
 Birth in 
 Family. 
 
 Number of 
 Twin-Bearing 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Twin-Bearing 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 Percentage 
 
 of l ^ . 
 Mothers. 
 
 1st 
 
 45 
 
 22-7 
 
 22-8 
 
 2d 
 
 19 
 
 9-6 
 
 17-7 
 
 3d i- 
 
 24 
 
 12-1 
 
 15-5 
 
 4th 
 
 19 
 
 9-6 
 
 12-1 
 
 5tli 
 
 19 
 
 9-6 
 
 9-4 
 
 6th 
 
 18 
 
 9-1 
 
 7-4 
 
 7th 
 
 17 
 
 8-6 
 
 5-2 . 
 
 8th 
 
 14 
 
 7-1 
 
 3-9 
 
 9th 
 
 14 
 
 7-1 
 
 2-6 
 
 10th 
 
 3 
 
 1-5 
 
 13 
 
 nth 
 
 2 
 
 1-0 
 
 •9 
 
 12th 
 
 3 
 
 1-5 
 
 •3 
 
 13th 
 
 
 
 
 14th 
 
 
 
 
 15th 
 
 
 
 
 16th 
 
 1 
 
 0-5 
 
 •01 
 
 But we must go further into the matter, and we 
 find that, as the number of the pregnancy increases, so 
 the number of all births, single and plural, diminishes. 
 The fourth column in Table XXXII. shows how a 
 hundred births are distributed among the pregnancies 
 in some of which twins occurred. There is a regular 
 diminution as the number of the pregnancy increases ; 
 and, in order to comprehend the relation of twin- 
 bearing to child-bearing generally, this column must 
 
 * This table reads as follows : — 22-7 per cent of twin -bearing 
 mothers are bearing their first viable children ; 22 "S per cent of all 
 mothers are bearing their first viable children ; and so on. 
 
NUMBER OF MOTHER'S PREGNANCY. 93 
 
 be contrasted with the preceding. Doing so, we find 
 the first four pregnancies forming a contrast to the 
 subsequent pregnancies. In the former, or first four 
 pregnancies, the proportion of twinners in a hundred 
 twinners is smaller than the proportion of child- 
 bearers in a hundred : in the latter, or the fifth and 
 subsequent pregnancies, the proportion of twinners in 
 a hundred twinners surpasses the proportion of child- 
 bearers in a hundred, and the preponderance goes on 
 iucreasing from the fifth at least as far as the ninth 
 pregnancy. 
 
 In this chapter I have shown that — 
 
 1. The actual number of twins born in difierent 
 pregnancies decreases as the number of the pregnancy 
 increases. 
 
 2. The comparative number of twins born in dif- 
 ferent pregnancies increases as the number of the preg- 
 nancy increases. 
 
 3. The increase of the comparative number of 
 twins with the number of the pregnancy does not 
 appear to hold good with the first pregnancy as com- 
 pared with the three immediately subsequent preg- 
 nancies ; women in their first pregnancies being more 
 likely to bear twins than in those immediately subse- 
 quent. 
 
94 THE SIZE OF FAMILIES 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SIZE OF FAMILIES IN WHICH TWINS OCCUR. 
 
 It is very desirable to know what influence the hav- 
 ing of twins has upon women's fertility. Do women 
 having twins bear larger families than those never 
 getting but one at a birth ? To this question one 
 naturally gives an affirmative answer.* Of course, if 
 women's subsequent fertility be not affected by twin- 
 bearing, there will be just an excess above ordinary 
 families of a unit for every pair born in a family, and 
 I daresay 1 am right in saying this is the popular 
 belief. It receives some sort of support from the cir- 
 cumstance that twins are relatively more frequently 
 additions to an already existing considerable fanuly 
 than they are either the first of a family or additional 
 to an already existing small family. Moreover, twins 
 occur with greater proportional frequency in elderly 
 
 * In this chapter no consideration is taken of the survival 
 of the children forming the family. No douht, twins in a family 
 will diminish the chances of survival. Although it is probahle that 
 races may differ as to amount of twinning without difference in 
 general fertihty, it appears to me that twinning may come to he a 
 good test of excessive fertility or of the imperfection of the children. 
 
IN WHICH TWINS OCCUR. 
 
 95 
 
 than in younger women, and are therefore certainly 
 less likely, and perhaps less liable, to interfere with 
 further or subsequent productiveness than if they 
 occurred chiefly among the younger women. 
 
 To contribute to the solution of this interesting 
 question, I have framed the following table (XXXIII.) 
 It also appears to support the affirmative response 
 to the question just given. It shows that the 
 average size of families of women married the same 
 number of years is greater in the twin-bearing than in 
 ordinary families, counting down to the birth of the 
 twins. This is all that I can say in favour of the view 
 or supposition that twin-bearing women have larger 
 families than their neighbours. But the view is very 
 far from being so demonstrated true. 
 
 TA.BLE XXXIII. — Showing the Average Size of Families 
 
 AFTER DIFFERENT DURATIONS OF MARRIAGE IN MOTHERS 
 GENERALLY, AND IN MOTHERS BEARING TwiNS.* 
 
 No. of Years Married. 
 
 Average size of 
 Families 
 
 Average size of 
 Twin Families 
 
 Under 5. 
 
 5-9. 
 
 1-6;- ' 3-940 
 
 2-5?;oT)art z 
 
 -bults 
 
 1^-14. 
 
 6-063 
 7-397 
 
 15-19. 
 
 7-967 
 9-793 
 
 20-24. 
 
 9-868 
 9-533 
 
 25-29. 
 
 13-075 
 
 ■ddfc 
 The thirty-third table -i,ems. to me certainly to 
 
 show that twinning has retrospectively no connection 
 
 * The mothers in this table are those only who continue fertile 
 up till the diEferent durations of marriage. 
 
96 THE SIZE or FAMILIES 
 
 with a diminished degree of fertility of woman ; that 
 a woman destined to have twins at some future time 
 is in the meantime as fertile as any other ; that twin- 
 ning does not occur to supplement pre-existing defi- 
 ciency. So far from this being the case, the table 
 shows that twin-bearing women have on the whole 
 been already more fertile than then- neighbours ; that 
 the twins come as additions to families already num- 
 bering above the average. For, keeping in mind that 
 twins are comparatively most frequent in the latter 
 pregnancies of women, it is easily seen that while, in 
 the first column, that is among women under five 
 years married, or in the earlier pregnancies of women, 
 twinning does not add so much as a unit to the 
 average size of the family in which the twins occur ; 
 in the next column, or among women from five to 
 ten years married, twinning does add a unit ; in the 
 third and fourth columns, containing the greater pro- 
 portional number of twin-bearers, the twinning adds 
 more than a unit ; or, in other words, the women, even 
 if they did not have t"'ms, have borne larger families 
 than their neighbours. The table shows then that the 
 great majority of women h^"^ twins are already 
 more prolific than usual. "^^^^ f st column of women 
 is evidently exceptional i jlates to women from 
 twenty to twenty-four 7., s married, and who have 
 passed (as shown i_ " \ier ways) their ninth preg- 
 nancy ; and, as already shown, it is founded on a very 
 narrow foundation of figures. 
 
 But all this is only nearly a complete demonstration 
 
IN WHICH TWINS OCCUR. 97 
 
 of the affirmative, that twin-bearers are more fertile 
 than others. No doubt a twinner is in that birth more 
 fertile than a uniparous woman. No doubt, as just 
 shown, a twin-bearer is, counting up tUl the time of 
 twinning, more fertile than a woman bearing one at a 
 time. But the real question is not answered. Does a 
 woman who has finished bearing a famUy, and has in 
 that family had twins, produce more or fewer than a 
 woman always uniparous ? In other words, do twin- 
 bearing women, who have shown all the fertility of 
 their lives, produce larger or smaller families than 
 women uniformly uniparous ? This is the real ques- 
 tion. To it the above-mentioned argunients do not 
 supply a conclusive answer; and I regret to say I 
 must leave it unanswered. Only I admit that the 
 affirmative is probably the true answer. To pro- 
 cure a reliable solution, mothers must be compared 
 who have borne their last children. I have no such 
 data. Table XXXIII. is not a table of women who 
 have borne their last children. It carries the women 
 of a population down only to their children born and 
 registered in 1855. 
 
 In bringing this part to a conclusion, I may re- 
 mark that the chief results of it appear to me to be 
 well established by the evidence. Yet I cannot but 
 feel that a larger accumulation of data would have 
 added to their security and firmness. 
 
 It is interestiag, first of all, to note that twin- 
 
98 ON FERTILITY IN TWINS. 
 
 bearing is not an accident, that it is subjected to laws 
 of whicb we now have a glimpse. A phUosoplier 
 might have fancied twinning to be the result of the 
 act of conception taking place on the rupture of a 
 Graafian vesicle fortuitously containing a double ovum 
 or two ova, or on the rupture of two Graafian vesicles 
 accidentally matured simultaneously ; in other words, 
 that twinning was the result of some transcendental 
 primordial energies in the ovary, whose products 
 might be attributed to chance, because their origin 
 was not only unknown but inscrutable by any known 
 means of investigation. The data, as here arranged, 
 compared, and reasoned upon, seem already to carry 
 us so far as to remove twin-bearing from the cate- 
 gory of the accidental, and to indicate to us laws 
 of their occurrence which may be steps in the lad- 
 der of ascent to higher knowledge and wonderful 
 discovery. 
 
 In the course of this part I have attempted to 
 demonstrate the following conclusions : — 
 
 1. The largest number of twins is produced by 
 women of from twenty-five to twenty-nine years of 
 age ; and on each side of this climax of fertility in 
 twins there is a gradually increasing falling ofi" in their 
 number as age diminishes on the one side and in- 
 creases on the other. (Table XXIII.) 
 
 2. Twins are not regularly distributed among 
 births generally; their production, therefore, is not 
 
ON FERTILITY IN TWINS. 99 
 
 subjected to the same laws as govern ordinary fer- 
 tility. 
 
 3. The mean age of twin-bearing mothers is 
 greater than that of mothers generally. 
 
 4. Twins increase in frequency as mothers become 
 older (Table XXIV.) This forms a striking contrast 
 to the fecundity of a mass of wives (not mothers) 
 which diminishes as their age increases. It accords, 
 however, with the law of intensity of fertility of fertile 
 women. 
 
 5. Newly-married women are more likely to have 
 twins the older they are. (Tables XXVII. and 
 XXVIII.) 
 
 6. AVbUe the fecundity of the average individual 
 increases with age till twenty-five is reached, and then 
 gradually diminishes, there is some probability that 
 the opposite is true, so far as regards twins alone, 
 fertility in twins being greatest when fecundity is 
 least, and vice versa. (Tables XXV XXVI. XXIX.) 
 
 7. The actual number of twins born of a mass of 
 women in different pregnancies decreases as the 
 number of the pregnancy increases. (Table XXX.) 
 
 8. The number of twins, relatively to the number 
 of children born in different pregnancies, increases with 
 the number of the pregnancy. In other words, a 
 woman is more likely to have twins in each succeeding 
 pregnancy than in the former pregnancy. The first 
 pregnancy forms an exception to this rule. (Tables 
 XXX., XXXL, and XXXII.) 
 
100 ON FERTILITY IN TWINS. 
 
 9. Iii an individual, twin-bearing is of course a 
 sign of high fertility at the time. It also, in a mass 
 of women, shows a high amount of fertility, at least 
 till the time of the birth of the twins. (Table 
 XXXIII.) 
 
 10. It is probable, though not proved, that twin- 
 bearing women have larger families than women uni- 
 formly uniparous. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 ON THE LAWS OP THE FERTILITY OF WOMEN. 
 
 When concluding my account of fecundity, including 
 the question of the age at which women are most likely 
 to have chUdren after marriage, I said that I could not 
 advance further without encroaching on another topic 
 — viz. the fertility of marriage ; or, as marriage is 
 scarcely admissible as a term in physiology, the sub- 
 ject may be designated " sustained fecundity," or the 
 laws of the fertility of women cohabiting with men 
 during the chUd-bearing period of life. It is this sub- 
 ject which I propose now to enter upon. So far as I 
 know, very little is ascertained in this department of 
 physiology. The writings upon it are for the most 
 part to be found in the works of political economists, 
 and are chiefly confined to the single question of the 
 rate of increase of a population under varying circum- 
 stances. To illustrate this topic, which is one of little 
 interest to the physiologist, data are numerous and 
 abundant. But when the writers referred to attempt 
 to go deeper into the fundamental laws of the fertility 
 of women, having very scanty materials and using 
 them without care, they arrive at scanty jcesults, which 
 are either positively erroneous or of little value. 
 
 " The statistics," says Major Graham, registrar- 
 
102 LAWS OF THE FERTILITY OF WOMEN. 
 
 general for England, " of a country in wHch the age 
 of a mother at marriage, and at the birth of her 
 children, is not recorded, must always remain imper- 
 fect, and leave us without the means of solving some 
 of the most important social questions."* These data 
 were secured for the first year of the registrations in 
 Scotland. The results to be now described are derived 
 from a study of a part of these registers — namely, those 
 of Edinburgh and Glasgow for 1855, and are founded 
 on an analysis of 16,301 families of wives. 
 
 * Registrar- General's Report for 1845, p. xiv. (England.) 
 
FEKTILITY OF MARRIAGES. 103 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FERTILITY OF THE WHOLE MARRIAGES IN A 
 POPULATION. 
 
 On this subject much has been written, in latter times 
 chiefly by Malthusians Snd anti-Malthusians, to whose 
 works I refer generally. Elaborate comparisons are 
 made between the fertilities of marriage in different 
 countries ; and there are exhibited variations to so 
 great an extent, that they appear themselves to show 
 the worthlessness of the data and of the comparisons 
 instituted, at least in a physiological point of view. 
 In illustration, I may refer to the variations described 
 by M. Benoiston de Chateauneuf,* in a paper on the 
 intensity of fecundity in Europe at the commencement 
 of the nineteenth century. The highest figure is 
 derived from some villages in Scotland, where there 
 are asserted to be six or seven children to a marriage, 
 whUe his lowest figure is 2 '4 4, the alleged productive- 
 ness of some marriages in Paris. 
 
 We shall restrict our view to Great Britain ; and 
 we find the method, generally followed, of estimating 
 the fertility of marriage, to be the very old and simple 
 one of dividing the number of legitimate births in any 
 year by the number of marriages. "In 1861," says 
 * Annates des Sciences Naturelles, tome ix. 1826. 
 
104 FERTILITY OP WHOLE MAERIAGES 
 
 Dr. Stark,* " for every marriage which occurred in 
 Scotland there were born 4-64 legitimate children; 
 that is to say, 464 legitimate children were born to 
 every 100 marriages. During the same year, in Eng- 
 land, only 3-89 legitimate children were born to every 
 marriage, or 389 legitimate children to every 100 
 marriages." This is an exemplification of the ordinary 
 method of calculating ; and it is evident that the result 
 derived is of not the slightest value as a contribution 
 to the science of fertility. For, besides including mar- 
 riages of all durations and at every fecund age, also 
 second and third marriages, it includes many marriages 
 at ages when fecundity has entirely disappeared. It 
 is impossible, indeed, to state what is the exact relation 
 between the number of marriages in a population in 
 any year and the number of legitimate children born 
 in the same year, with a view to any physiological 
 result. This aspect of the statement is, however, 
 well worthy of being pointed out, because authors of 
 respectability, whom it is needless to name, refer to 
 and use these figures as exhibiting the fertility of con- 
 tinued married life in England and Scotland. Malthus 
 was well aware of the real meaning of these figures — 
 of the fact that they merely show the relative fre- 
 quency of marriage-ceremonies and births in a popu- 
 lation. " The rule," he says,t " which has been here 
 laid down, attempts to estimate the prolificness of 
 
 * Seventh Detailed Annual RepoH for 1861, published in 1865, 
 p. xviii. (Scotland.) 
 
 t Essay on the Principle of Population, vol. ii. p. 6. 
 
IN A POPULATION. 105 
 
 marriages, taken as they occur ; but this prolificness 
 should be carefully distinguished from the prolificness 
 of first marriages and of married women, and still more 
 from the natural prolificness of women in general, 
 taken at the most -favourable age. It is probable," he 
 adds, " that the natural prolificness of women is nearly 
 the same in most parts of the world ; but the prolific- 
 ness of marriages is liable to be affected by a variety 
 of circumstances peculiar to each country, and particu- 
 larly by the number of late marriages." 
 
 As a corollary from the preceding data, of value 
 only in proportion to their value, it may be stated 
 that the average duration of fertility in married 
 women (including those who do not bear children) is 
 about 1^ years. For, as the intervals between mar- 
 riage and the birth of a child, and between the births 
 of successive children, is, on an average, 20 months, 
 and as there are about 4^ children to each marriage, 
 we have about 7-|- years, counting from marriage, 
 spent in producing that number. 
 
 British authors, as Graunt, Short, Malthus, Sadler, 
 Senior, and those of later date, name 4, 4-|, or 5, as 
 the fertility of marriage. Malthus, founding on such 
 data, gives a wife four children produced within eight 
 years, a statement which cannot be passed over with- 
 out the obvious remark that Malthus, so calculating, 
 utterly neglects the force of the wise words which we 
 have just quoted from his work. 
 
 Making use of the Swedish returns, Major Graham 
 
106 FERTILITY OF WHOLE MARRIAGES 
 
 has, in his last annual report, published results ob- 
 tained in a novel manner. I quote his words :* — 
 
 " The marriages in a calendar year give rise to 
 births, which are registered year after year for 20 
 years. The births to the 167,723 marriages in the 
 year 1859 could only be determined by following the 
 families and counting all the children unto the end. 
 The division of the sum of the children by the mar- 
 riages would accurately express the fecundity, as it has 
 been called, of marriages. If the annual marriages do 
 not increase or decrease in number through a series of 
 years, the division of the annual births by the annual 
 marriages of the same years expresses the fecundity 
 pretty accurately ; but the marriages in England are 
 increasing rapidly ; consequently the 740,275 births 
 registered in the year 1864 must be divided by the 
 marriages of some earlier year to get an approximation 
 to the fecundity. , As the age of the mothers is unfor- 
 tunately not recorded, the interval in England is un- 
 known which intervenes between the mean age of 
 marriage and the mean age of the mothers when their 
 children are bom ; otherwise that interval would uidi- 
 cate the calendar years with which the births of the 
 year 1864 should be compared. 
 
 " But the interval in Sweden between the mean 
 ages of mothers at marriage (25'8 years) and their 
 mean age at the births of their children (31 '7) is six 
 years ; and the interval in England cannot differ much 
 
 * Twenty -seventh Annual Report of the Registrar- General 
 (England), p. xix. 
 
m A POPULATION... 107 
 
 from six years* Hence, if the legitimate births of given 
 years are divided by the marriages of six years' earlier 
 date, the quotient will be the proportion of children to 
 a marriage within close limits. In England the births 
 thus determined to a marriage were 4'255, 4"301, 
 4-304, in the years 1862, 1863, and 1864. In Scot- 
 land the births in 1862 to the average marriages of 
 six years' earlier date (1855, 1856, and 1857) were 
 4-694." 
 
 * The table published by Dr. Stark, in tbe Eighth Detailed 
 Annual Report (Scotland), with a view to skew tbe influence of 
 cold on fecundity, seems to me to sbow, that Major Graham's argu- 
 ment from Sweden to England is not well founded. The differ- 
 ences there shown to exist between the two countries are probably 
 greater than Major Graham knew when he wrote the passage quoted 
 above. The meaa age of first marriages ia England is 24-6 years 
 for females (Census of Great Britain for 1851, vol. i. p. xxxi.). The 
 mean age at the birth of children is, lq GoUins' collection, 27 years; 
 in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1865, a little above 29 (see pages 
 6 and 10). 
 
108 FERTILE MARRIAGES IN A POPULATION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FERTILITY OF THE WHOLE FERTILE MARRIAGES IN A 
 POPULATION, AT A GIVEN TIME. 
 
 I HAVE nothing satisfactory to offer as to prolific mar- 
 riages to contrast with the statements given concerning 
 all marriages. Dr. Lever* says, that " the average 
 number of children consequent upon a prolific (not 
 every) marriage is shown to be rather more than 5f, 
 but not amounting to 6." This is given without any 
 authority stated or evidence detailed, and I know not 
 what value to ascribe to it. In a physiological point 
 of view, its value must be scarcely appreciable ; for no 
 allowance is made for the duration of the marriage, 
 nor for the age of the woman at the time of the cere- 
 mony. 
 
 In St. George's-in-the-East, London, the average 
 number of children consequent on the prolific marriages 
 was 5'33 to each marriage.t That is, 5'33 is the average 
 number of chfldxen that has been born in all the fami- 
 lies in a place at a given time. It tells nothing con- 
 
 * On Organic Diseases of the Uterus, p. .5. 
 + Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol, 
 xi. 1848, p. 235. 
 
FERTILE MARRIAGES IN A POPULATION. 109 
 
 cerning the average number in completed families, or 
 iQ still-growing families,* or in existing or still undis- 
 persed families. 
 
 Franklin says that the females in America have 
 " one with another, eight children to a marriage ;"t 
 almost certainly a great exaggeration, especially as he 
 does not even state, as a condition, that the marriages 
 were prolific. 
 
 * Some interesting facts regarding the fertility of Esquimaux 
 women are to be found in Eoberton's Essays and Notes on Physio- 
 logy and Diseases of Women, p. 53. 
 
 t Sadler. Law of Population, vol. ii. 495. 
 
110 ANNUAL PEETILITY OP MARBIED WOMEN. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 ANNUAL FERTILITY OF THE MARRIED WOMEN OP CHILD- 
 BEARING AGE IN A POPULATION. 
 
 Seeing the inexactness of the statements of which 
 those just given are an example, Dr. Stark has adopted 
 another method of arriving at the comparative pro- 
 lificness of marriages m England and Scotland. " In 
 1861," says he, " when the census was taken in Eng- 
 land, the number of wives at the child-bearing ages — 
 viz. 15 to 45 — was 2,319,649 ; and as the number of 
 legitimate children born during the year amounted to 
 652,249, this gives the proportion of one legitimate 
 child for every 3'55 wives at the ages of 15 to 45 in 
 the population ; or, in other words, every 355 wives in 
 England, at these ages, gave birth to 100 children 
 duiing the year. In Scotland, during the same year, 
 there were 305,524 wives between the ages of 15 and 
 45 years; and as 97,080 legitimate children were bom 
 during the year, this gives the proportion of one legiti- 
 mate child for every 3"14 wives at these ages in the 
 population ; or, in other words, every 314 Asdves ta the 
 population of Scotland, at these ages, gave birth to 
 100 legitimate children during the year."* 
 
 * Seventh Detailed Annual Beiwrt (Scotland), p. xix. 
 
ANNUAL FERTILITY OF MARRIED WOMEN. Ill 
 
 While for every marriage in 1861 there were born 
 ia the same year in Scotland 4 '64 legitimate chUdxen ; 
 every 3*15 wives between 15 and 45 in Scotland in 
 the same year produced one legitimate child. Of 
 54,408 wives in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 be- 
 tween 15 and 44 years of age inclusive, 16,290 bore 
 children fit for registering ; or, one child was born to 
 every 3'3 wives aged from 15 to 44. 
 
 If we adopt these latter statements, we must take 
 care to note that they do not give the fertility of the 
 whole marriages in a population, as the older and for- 
 mer statements ia Chapter I. do. These latter give 
 the annual productiveness of a mass of married women 
 in our populations. The results of the two methods 
 of computing the fertility of marriage cannot be con- 
 trasted, for each is concerned with an entirely different 
 topic from the other. 
 
112 SIZE OF FAMILIES. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE SIZE OF THE FAMILIES IN" A POPULATION AT 
 A GIVEN TIME. 
 
 In order to prevent confusion with calciilations which 
 are found in writings on population, I here insert an 
 extract from Major Graham's writings on the subject 
 of this chapter. Analysing a part of the English 
 returns he comes to the conclusion that the average 
 number of children to an existing family is 2"26.* 
 
 " The number ' (says he) of children resident with 
 their parents was 93,788 ; and there were 2'26 child- 
 ren on an average to each family, or 4 '2 6 children and 
 parents, including the father and mother, to each 
 family of this class. Striking off the families consist- 
 ing of husband and wife, sole, there remain 31,896 
 pairs having with them at home 93,788 children; that 
 is 2'94 children to a family, or 4'94 children and 
 parents to a family. A fourth part of the families had 
 four children or more at home, and these families of 
 parents and children consisted of seven persons on an 
 average." 
 
 * Censm of England and Wales, 1861 — General Report, 
 vol. iii. p. xi. 
 
FERTILITY OF MARRIAGES IN A POPULATION. 113 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 FERTILITY OF THE WHOLE MARRIAGES IN A POPULATION 
 THAT ARE FERTILE AT A GIVEN TIME. 
 
 In Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 there were 16,393 
 wives who bore first or subsequent children. Of these 
 the necessary data are given in 16,301 cases. These 
 16,301 mothers had produced 60,381 children; or 3'7 
 children constituted the average production of each 
 mother. In other words, excluding the large class of 
 wives sterile in 1855, we have 3' 7 as the average 
 number of children (surviving or not surviving) in 
 each family that increased in 1855. 
 
 To compare with the above result, we may observe 
 16,414 women delivered in the Dublin Lying-in Hos- 
 pital during Dr. Collins' mastership, who had borne 
 53,458 children, whose families, on an average, num- 
 bered 3'25 ; also 6634 women delivered in the same 
 hospital during the period reported on by Drs. M'Clin- 
 tock and Hardy, who had borne 20,680 children, whose 
 families, on an average, numbered 3'12. 
 
 As there can be no doubt that these 16,301 fami- 
 lies are a fair sample of all the growing families in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, it appears that the average 
 size of growing families existing at a particular time 
 
 in our population is between 3 and 4 ; and if it be 
 
 I 
 
114 FERTILITY OF THE WHOLE 
 
 true that, on an average, cMldren are born with an 
 interval not esceeding twenty months, then all mothers 
 child-bearing at any particular time have been on 
 an average less than seven years fertile. It is to be 
 remarked that this statement concerns only the fami- 
 lies of wives-mothers chUd-bearing at a particular 
 time {i.e. in 1855), and is not to be compared with the 
 corollary to Chapter I., which includes all families, 
 and especially the mass of completed families. 
 
 The accompanying Table (XXXIV.) shows the data 
 upon which these statements are founded. It, in ad- 
 dition, gives the percentage of children (surviving or 
 not) in families of different numbers, that increased in 
 1855. 
 
MARRIAGES IK A POPULATION. 
 
 115 
 
 TABLE XXXIV. — ^Showing the Number and Percentage 
 OE Mothers Bearing respectively 1st, 2d, and 3d 
 Children, and so on ; also Percentage of Children 
 in still growing Families of Different Numbers. 
 
 Number 
 
 Number of 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Percentage 
 
 of 
 
 Wives- 
 
 of Wives- 
 
 of 
 
 ChUd. 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 ChUdren. 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 22-83 
 
 6-16 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 17-74 
 
 9-58 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 15-54 
 
 12-59 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 12-16 
 
 13-13 
 
 6 
 
 1543 
 
 9-46 
 
 12-77 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 7-49 
 
 12-13 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 5-20 
 
 9-83 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 3-93 
 
 8-49 
 
 9 
 
 425 
 
 2-60 
 
 6-33 
 
 10 
 
 222 
 
 1-36 
 
 3-67 
 
 11 
 
 152 
 
 -93 
 
 2-77 
 
 12 
 
 61 
 
 ■37 
 
 1-21 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 •20 
 
 -732 
 
 14 
 
 11 
 
 -06 
 
 -255 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 -03 
 
 -149 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 •01 
 
 -053 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 -01 
 
 -056 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 -006 
 
 •029 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 •006 
 
 -031 
 
116 FERTILE MARRIAGES DURING 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FERTILITY OP FERTILE MARRIAGES LASTING DURING 
 THE WHOLE CHILD-BEARING PERIOD OF LIFE. 
 
 This subject may be stated in the form of a question: 
 How many children does a fertile woman produce, living 
 in wedlock from fifteen to forty- five years of age ? The 
 only collection of data known to me, which can throw 
 light on this point, is that published in the " Eeport to 
 the Council of the Statistical Society of London, from 
 a Committee of its Fellows, appointed to make an in- 
 vestigation of the state of the poorer classes in St. 
 George's-in-the-East."* In that district there were 
 found eighty mothers married at ages varying from 
 fifteen to nineteen, and who had lived in wedlock at 
 least thirty-one years. These fertUe wives, having lived 
 nearly all the child-bearing period of life in wedlock, 
 had borne on an average 9"12 children. 
 
 There are evident sources of inexactness in the above 
 very limited data which tend to diminish the average 
 fertility; and it will be as near the truth to state ten 
 as the average fertility of fertUe marriages lasting 
 during the whole child-bearing period of life. 
 
 * Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society, August 1848, vol. xi. 
 
CHILD-BEARING PERIOD. 117 
 
 The conclusions given in farther parts of this paper 
 will show that the figure of ten children, for thirty years 
 of child-bearing life, is not indicative of each mother 
 having borne a child every third year. The fertility, 
 while it lasts, wUl be shown to be much intenser than 
 this. The average interval between births of successive 
 children is hereafter shown to be twenty months, which 
 gives about seventeen years as the average duration of 
 fecundity in a fertile woman living in the married state 
 all the child-bearing period of life. 
 
 In his work on Ahortion and Sterility Dr. White- 
 head gives no data which I can properly collate with 
 those just given. After stating his belief that the actual 
 duration of the child-bearing period in the female of 
 this climate is about twenty years, he adds that a 
 woman, under favourable circumstances, has in that 
 period twelve children. But as this includes abortions 
 and premature deliveries, which he estimates at 1-^ for 
 each individual, the figure 12 has to undergo that re- 
 duction for comparison with 10, and the approximation 
 is very close. 
 
 Sadler states as a fact, " that marriages, on the 
 average, are only fruitful for about a third part of the 
 term of possible fecundity."* But he nowhere, so far 
 as I know, afi"ords any evidence of this statement, and 
 I therefore attach to it no importance. 
 
 * Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 276. 
 
118 PERSISTENTLY FERTILE MARRIAGES 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE FERTILITY OF PERSISTENTLY FERTILE MARRIAGES 
 LASTING DURING THE WHOLE CHILD-BEARING PERIOD 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 This subject may also be conveniently stated in the 
 form of a question : How many children does a fertile 
 woman produce, living in wedlock from fifteen to forty- 
 five years of age, and bearing children periodically up 
 to the end of that time ? 
 
 To this question I cannot give at once an answer 
 founded on sufiicient data ; and I shall invert my usual 
 mode of proceeding, stating the conclusion— namely, 
 that fifteen at least is the average number of children 
 borne by a persistently fertile female in thii'ty years, 
 before giving the reasons for it. These are as follows : 
 — A persistently fertile woman, at all ages, is found to 
 have borne one child about every two years ; the average 
 fertility of fifteen mothers who have had each twenty- 
 six years of persistently fertile life is thirteen; the 
 thirty-seventh table, to be hereafter given, showing an 
 excess of fertility on the part of those long persistently 
 fertile, or bearing children in the year of countiag, 
 would give sixteen as the proportional fertility of thirty 
 years of persistently fertile marriage, calculating from 
 
DUKING CHILD-BEARING PERIOD. 119 
 
 the actual values given for the other results in the table. 
 The deficiency of actual facts for settling this point is 
 to be seen in the next Table (XXXV.), where the number 
 of women bearing children when above twenty-six years 
 married is only seven. 
 
 On this subject Allen Thomson makes the following 
 statement, which is remarkably accurate, seeing that it 
 is apparently not founded on any analysis of documents. 
 "A healthy woman," says he,* "bearing during the 
 whole time, and with the common duration of interval, 
 may have in all from twelve to sixteen children, but 
 some have as many as eighteen or twenty." 
 
 * Todd's Gyclopcedia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p. 478. 
 
120 PERSISTENTLY FERTILE WIVES 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FERTILITY OP PERSISTENTLY FERTILE WIVES AT 
 DIFFERENT YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 The following Table (XXXV.), from the 1855 Edin- 
 burgh, and Glasgow data, gives at a glance the rate of 
 yearly- increasing production of wives -mothers who 
 are stiU fertile — that is, who produced a living child 
 in the year of our census or counting. It is framed by 
 adding together the whole children born of mothers 
 having different durations of marriage, and dividing 
 the sum by the number of mothers corresponding to 
 each duration of marriage. The results will be found, 
 on the whole, to tally pretty closely with those given 
 in Table XXXIX. It is easy to account for the 
 differences between the two tables. In the latter table 
 the wives arrived at different numbers of progeny are 
 collated and compared, while in the former the wives 
 arrived at different durations of marriage are collated 
 and compared. The table requires no further explana- 
 tion ; it is easily read. 
 
AT DIFFERENT YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 121 
 
 TABLE XXXV. — Showing the Average Number op Child- 
 ren THAT HAVE BEEN BORN AT THE COMPLETION OF EACH 
 
 Year oe Persistently Fertile Marriage. 
 
 
 Number of 
 
 Number 
 
 Average to 
 
 Duration of Marriage. 
 
 WiYes- 
 
 of 
 
 eacli 
 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Mother. 
 
 1 year married and under 
 
 16,301 
 
 60,381 
 
 3-70 
 
 3,172 
 
 3,336 
 
 1-06 
 
 2 years „ 
 
 1,223 
 
 2,090 
 
 1-70 
 
 3 „ 
 
 1,540 
 
 3,195 
 
 2-07 
 
 4 , 
 
 i V 
 
 1,248 
 
 3,229 
 
 2-58 
 
 5 , 
 
 ) jj 
 
 1,193 
 
 3,645 
 
 3-05 
 
 6 , 
 
 > J) 
 
 1,122 
 
 3,959 
 
 3-53 
 
 7 , 
 
 J » 
 
 870 
 
 3,414 
 
 3-92 
 
 8 , 
 
 ) 5J 
 
 733 
 
 3,225 
 
 4-40 
 
 9 , 
 
 J JJ 
 
 719 
 
 3,447 
 
 4-79 
 
 10 
 
 J V 
 
 761 
 
 4,021 
 
 5-28 
 
 11 
 
 J >J 
 
 624 
 
 3,502 
 
 5-61 
 
 12 
 
 J » 
 
 520 
 
 3,134 
 
 6-03 
 
 13 
 
 > J> 
 
 441 
 
 2,878 
 
 6-53 
 
 14 
 
 J it 
 
 393 
 
 2,698 
 
 6'86 
 
 15 
 
 ? » 
 
 372 
 
 2,659 
 
 7-15 
 
 16 
 
 J 77 
 
 293 
 
 2,248 
 
 7-67 
 
 17 
 
 J >7 
 
 240 
 
 1,918 
 
 7-99 
 
 18 
 
 ) » 
 
 198 
 
 1,647 
 
 8-32 
 
 19 
 
 > )5 
 
 177 
 
 1,541 
 
 8-71 
 
 20 
 
 ? » 
 
 142 
 
 1,303 
 
 9-17 
 
 21 
 
 > J7 
 
 115 
 
 1,116 
 
 9-70 
 
 22 
 
 > ?J 
 
 80 
 
 790 
 
 9'87 
 
 23 
 
 ) ?> 
 
 56 
 
 557 
 
 9-95 
 
 24 
 
 ) )) 
 
 39 
 
 415 
 
 ]0'64 
 
 25 
 
 J) )> 
 
 8 
 
 95 
 
 11-87 
 
 26 
 
 » )> 
 
 15 
 
 195 
 
 13-00 
 
 27 
 
 71 J» 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 12-50 
 
 28 
 
 »> » 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 14-00 
 
 29 
 
 » )) 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 14-00 
 
 30 
 
 ?J J) 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 13-00 
 
122 FERTILE WIVES AT DIFFERENT 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FERTILITY OF FERTILE WIVES AT DIFFERENT PERIODS 
 OF MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 With a view to comparison with the results given in 
 Table XXXV., I have prepared the following Table 
 (XXXVI.) from the data of St. George's-in-the-East, 
 already referred to. The circumstances in which these 
 data were collected, and their paucity, do not justify 
 me in ascribing to them a value equal to those given 
 in Table XXXV., nor do I think they are well adapted 
 for the purpose of the comparison for which they are 
 adduced. But I know no other to refer to. 
 
 As in the Eeport of the Committee of the Statistical 
 Society, the periods are counted from the birth of the 
 first child; I have added to them 17 months (lAths 
 year), the average interval between marriage and birth 
 of a first child, with a view to make the table more 
 easily contrasted with Table XXXV. 
 
 The direct results of this table are given in the 
 figures, and require no statement. But comparing it 
 with the preceding table, we observe that, as is easily 
 understood, the differences between the fertile and the 
 persistently fertile increase as the duration of marriage 
 increases ; and that, while the numbers of the children 
 
PERIODS OF MARKIED LIFE. 
 
 123 
 
 of fertile women is about a third of the years of dura- 
 tion of marriage, the numbers of the children of per- 
 sistently fertile women is about a half of the years of 
 duration of marriage. In other words, if these tables 
 are at all trustworthy, we may guess that the number 
 (surviving or not) of a fertile married woman's family 
 is about a third of the number of years since her mar- 
 riage. But if, in addition to knowing that the married 
 woman has a family, we know that she has just had 
 an addition to her family, then we may guess that the 
 number of her family is about a half of the number of 
 years since her marriage. 
 
 TAELE XXXVI. — Showing, from the data of St. George's- 
 in-the-East, the Fertility of Fertile Wives aged from 
 15 TO 45 Years. 
 
 Years 
 Married. 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 OhUiii-en. 
 
 Average of 
 each Mother. 
 
 2A 
 
 56 
 
 59 
 
 1-05 
 
 3A 
 
 60 
 
 88 
 
 1-46 
 
 4A 
 
 54 
 
 99 
 
 1-83 
 
 5A 
 
 66 
 
 184 
 
 2-79 
 
 6A 
 
 57 
 
 163 
 
 2-86 
 
 7A 
 
 60 
 
 196 
 
 3-26 
 
 8A 
 
 76 
 
 269 
 
 3-54 
 
 IIA 
 
 254 
 
 1178 
 
 4-64 
 
 16A 
 
 215 
 
 1319 
 
 6-13 
 
 21t^2 
 
 148 
 
 1075 
 
 7-26 
 
 26A 
 
 44 
 
 353 
 
 8-02 
 
 From the same London data I have also framed 
 the following table, without doing any apparent 
 violence to them, and with a result which is extremely 
 
124 FERTILE WIVES AT DIFFERENT 
 
 interesting. The student will observe that beside the 
 data from St. Greorge's-in-the-East I have placed corre- 
 sponding data extracted from the Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow registers of 1855. The comparison of the 
 fertility of a set of fertile wives— that is, aU wives who 
 have borne children some time during their stiU- 
 continuing married lives — with that of a set of per- 
 sistently fertile wives — that is, exclusively, of wives 
 bearing at the ends of the periods under consideration 
 (that is, in this table, the end of their child-bearing 
 lives) — is, as already said, marred, and loses value on 
 account of the two sets being of very different numbers, 
 different localities, and different populations. Taking 
 it as it stands, we find that fertile women generally, 
 living with husbands for sixteen years before the con- 
 clusion of child-bearing life, have an average family of 
 about Al ; while peristently fertile wives — that is, wives 
 bearing children at the end of their chUd-bearing lives 
 — have an average family of 11 2. While fertile wives, 
 married twenty-one years, before and up to the age of 
 forty-five, have an average family of about 6 ; per- 
 sistently fertile wives have an average family of lOi 
 While fertile wives married for twenty-six years, before 
 and up to the age of forty-five, have an average family 
 of 8 ; persistently fertile wives, in the same circum- 
 stances, have an average family of about 14. While 
 fertile wives, married for thirty-one years, before and 
 up to the age of forty-five years, have an average 
 family of 9 ; persistently fertile wives, in the same 
 circumstances, have an average family which may be 
 estimated at 16. 
 
PERIODS OF MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 125 
 
 o 
 
 02 
 
 P3 
 
 W 
 H 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 I— I 
 
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 W 
 B 
 
 Fh 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
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 P3 
 
 (—1 
 
 S H 
 
 o 
 
 W 
 
 > 
 
 1 
 
 **-t ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 IN 1855. 
 
 adren at 
 Life 
 
 «) ° 2 
 
 a rB o 
 
 <x> 
 
 CO 
 00 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
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 l-H 
 
 I— 1 
 
 — H 
 
 l-H 
 
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 c^ 
 
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 * 
 
 CO 
 
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 fi 
 
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 Ct-I 
 
 
 
 
 
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 g 
 
 gsa 
 
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 tn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 l-H 
 
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 r-H 
 
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 g ^ 
 
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 S! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tM 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 & 
 
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 C3 
 
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 00 
 
 l~ 
 
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 oq 
 
 
 BiS 
 
 
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 I-H 
 
 
 
 sg 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ? 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 g 
 
 f- 
 
 ti 
 
 
 t! 
 
 <o 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 S 
 
 k. 
 
 !>> 
 
 >-. 
 
 >-> 
 
 
 I-H 
 
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 r-H 
 
 CO 
 
 
 "S 
 
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 (M 
 
 cq 
 
 I-H 
 
 
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 +3 
 
 -t^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 A^ 
 
 
 CQ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
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 C3 
 
 
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 « 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4^ 
 
 -*^ 
 
 += 
 
 +3 
 
 
 R 
 
 <i 
 
 <1 
 
 < 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 -*^ bo 
 
 02 
 
 -* 
 
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 -* 
 
 
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 r-H 
 
 (M 
 
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 CO 
 
 
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 lO 
 
 O 
 
 lO 
 
 o 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 rH 
 
 cq 
 
 IM 
 
 CO 
 
126 FERTILE WIVES AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 
 
 In this Table (XXXVII.) it will be observed that 
 the differences between the fertile and the persistently 
 fertile are much greater than in the former (XXXV. 
 and XXXVI.) , a circumstance which is easily ex- 
 plained. For, in the latter, all the women have been 
 long married, and the persistently fertile have had 
 time to far outrun the average fertility of aU the fer- 
 tile. It must also be noted that all the women in the 
 table are fertile at or near the end of the child-bearing 
 period, a time at which, it wUl be hereafter shown, the 
 intensity of fertility is greater than at any other. 
 
FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS. 127 
 
 CHAPTBE X. 
 
 DEGREES OF FERTILITY OF WIVES -MOTHERS OF 
 FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS. 
 
 Under this head the first question that raises itself 
 relates to the interval between marriage and the birth 
 of the first child. In Table XXXVIII. this question 
 is found fully answered. In fertUe marriages generally 
 there intervene about 17 months (1"38 year) between 
 the ceremony and the birth of the first child. But in 
 women of all ages this interval is far from being iden- 
 tical. As age increases above 25 years, the interval 
 increases ; the birth of a living child is longer de- 
 ferred. The table does not confirm this statement 
 for wives married at 40 and upwards ; but this is 
 almost certainly a mere result of the paucity of the 
 data at these ages. The whole tenor of the table con- 
 firms the law of greatest fecundity according to age, 
 meaning by fecundity likelihood of having children. 
 For, it is observed, that not only are wives most fecund 
 from 20 to 24, but also that they begin the career of 
 fertility sooner than their younger or elder sisters. 
 
128 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS OF 
 
 TABLE XXX Vin. — Showino the Interval between Marriage and 
 THE Birth of a First Child in Wives Married at Different 
 Ages. 
 
 
 
 
 Mother's Age at 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 15-19. 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 . 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 
 
 Less 
 
 94 
 
 325 
 
 126 
 
 44 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 
 608 
 
 
 1 
 
 409 
 
 1259 
 
 533 
 
 135 
 
 49 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2390 
 
 
 2 
 
 83 
 
 202 
 
 88 
 
 45 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 .•* 
 
 437 
 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 35 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 • •. 
 
 133 
 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 31 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 • * - 
 
 61 
 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 ... 
 
 *•* 
 
 32 
 
 nd 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 • •* 
 
 ... 
 
 27 
 
 .2 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 >•* 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 12 
 
 c3 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 ^i 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 < • • 
 
 • • • 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 . i>H 
 
 11 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 • •. 
 
 ■ ■• 
 
 • . . 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 »• • 
 
 t • ■ 
 
 • ■ . 
 
 2 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 >•■ 
 
 
 • • ■ 
 
 
 • •• 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '- 
 
 18 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 •• 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 Total 
 
 649 
 
 1905 
 
 809 
 
 251 
 
 96 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 3722 
 
 Average 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 interval 
 between 
 Marriage 
 
 Tear. 
 
 1-516 
 
 1-329 
 
 1-350 
 
 1-510 
 
 1-594 
 
 1-400 
 
 1-000 
 
 L-385 
 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 or 
 
 and Birth 
 of fi rst 
 
 jMonths. 
 
 18-2 
 
 15-9 
 
 16-2 
 
 18-1 
 
 19-1 
 
 16-8 
 
 12-0 
 
 16-6 
 
 Child. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 It is noteworthy, that while the average iaterval 
 between marriage and the birth of the first child is 
 seventeen months, the average interval between the 
 births of successive children, however numerous, is a 
 little under twenty months ; the two intervals approxi- 
 
FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS. 129 
 
 mating one another so closely as to destroy all proba- 
 bility of the truth of the explanations usually offered 
 for the delay of impregnation after a recent childbirth, 
 and of the efficacy of continued lactation in retarding 
 the occurrence of a new conception. And we shall 
 soon see, in a quotation from Sadler, that he finds that 
 women who do not suckle their ofi'spring have as long 
 an interval between conceptions as others. But, while 
 Sadler by this demonstration destroys the only physio- 
 logical foundation for his invective against the rich 
 who do not suckle, he nevertheless proceeds enthusi- 
 astically, as if the dictum of physiologists were valid, 
 even after their argument was ruined. 
 
 Speaking of the interval between marriage and a 
 first birth, Sadler gives the following indefinite state- 
 ment : — " Married females do not become fruitful, on 
 the average, during the first year of their nuptials, 
 but nearly so. A great number of cases which I have 
 collected, with a view of determining this point, give 
 three-fourths of them as producing their first child at 
 the average of one year after marriage." * 
 
 Whitehead,! founding on the observation of 541 
 married women of the average age of twenty-two 
 years, makes out the average interval between mar- 
 riage and the birth of a first child to be 11^ months. 
 
 Queteletl admits, with sufficient probability, as an 
 average term, that the birth of the first-born takes place 
 
 * The Law of Population, vol ii. p. 30. 
 t On Abortion and Sterility, p. 242. 
 % Treatise on Man, p. 15. 
 K 
 
130 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVBS-MOTHEES OF 
 
 within the first year which follows marriage. His 
 error, as those of the others, depends upon the acknow- 
 ledged want of documents. 
 
 TABLE XXXIX. — Showing the Average Duration or Mar- 
 riage AT Birth of each Successive Child ; and the 
 Average Interval between the Births of the succes- 
 sive Children. * 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Children. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Mothers. 
 
 Duration of 
 
 Man-iage 
 in Months. 
 
 Average interral 
 between suc- 
 cessive Births. 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 17 
 
 170 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 38 
 
 19-0 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 64 
 
 21-3 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 90 
 
 22-5 
 
 5 
 
 1543 
 
 115 
 
 23-0 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 137 
 
 22-8 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 162 
 
 23-1 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 181 
 
 22-6 
 
 9 
 
 425 
 
 203 
 
 22-5 
 
 10 
 
 222 
 
 225 
 
 22-5 
 
 11 
 
 152 
 
 235 
 
 21-4 
 
 12 
 
 61 
 
 246 
 
 20-6 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 263 
 
 20-2 
 
 U 
 
 11 
 
 281 
 
 20-1 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 280 
 
 18-7 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 336 
 
 21-0 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 252 
 
 14-8 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 252 
 
 14-0 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 204 
 
 10-7 
 
 Average 
 
 19-9 
 
 * This is not a correct statement of the contents of this tahle. 
 The last column does not directly give the average interval between 
 the births of successive children, but the average interval between 
 marriage and the birth of the child, divided by the number of the 
 children born. For brevity's sake, the title is left as it stands. 
 
FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS. 131 
 
 It next comes to be inquired at what rate children 
 succeed each other in families. This interesting topic 
 is developed from the data given in Table XXXIX. 
 It is formed by dividing the whole years of duration 
 of sets of marriages, of different durations, by the 
 number of children born in the corresponding mar- 
 riages ; and it must be remembered that as our data 
 all spring from women who were fertile on the year of 
 our census or counting, no women are included who, 
 although fertile formerly, have now ceased to be so ; 
 and it is evident that, for the purposes of our argu- 
 ment, this is just. 
 
 The first conclusions deducible from the data are — 
 
 1. That the mass of early or first children, up to 
 the third or fourth, come into the world in more quick 
 succession than those that immediately follow. 
 
 2. That a mass of children, numbering from the 
 fourth or fifth on to the tenth, succeed one another 
 more slowly than those of the first category, and of the 
 third. 
 
 3. That a mass of children, following the tenth, 
 come into the world hurrying after one another with a 
 gradually-increasing rapidity, which excels that of .all 
 their predecessors (a circumstance which may, in part 
 at least, account for the great mortality of women bear- 
 ing children after the ninth).* 
 
 While all these propositions are true of a large 
 
 number of children, it must not be supposed that they 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Journal, September 1865, p. 209 ; and 
 Part VII. of this volume. , 
 
132 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS OF 
 
 directly indicate laws regulating the fertility of women. 
 But the table bears important information relative to 
 this last topic. And it appears to me that the first of 
 the three conclusions given above can be explained 
 only by supposing what may therefore be held as 
 equally well demonstrated — 
 
 (1.) That wives bearing their early children, up to 
 the third or fourth, breed more rapidly than they sub- 
 sequently do. 
 
 For the average fertility of all wives is at least 4 
 children ; and the great mass of fertile wives is there- 
 fore included in the calculation. All the wives des- 
 tined to bear large families, and furnish data for the 
 second and third conclusions, are included in the data 
 for first 4 children. The mass of children born in 
 families numbering 1 1 and more is not large enough to 
 have great influence on the data, should it be the case 
 that they are proportionately very quick breeders from 
 the first. 
 
 If we now regard the mothers whose children have 
 afi'orded the data for the second conclusion as to the 
 rapidity of the succession of a mass of children, we 
 shall have, I think, no difiiculty in accepting the pro- 
 position — 
 
 (2.) That wives produce their children, numbering 
 from the third or fourth on to the tenth, at greater 
 intervals than their earlier progeny. 
 
 For, in the calculations, the earlier and more 
 rapidly-succeeding progeny are included, and have 
 their full influence, and diminish the periods given in 
 
FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS. 133 
 
 the table opposite children numbering from 4 to 10, 
 reducing them below what they would be were preg- 
 nancies from 4 to 1 alone counted, exclusive of those 
 from 1 to 4. 
 
 Regarding now the mothers of families numbering 
 1 1 or more, it is evident that their paucity, though not 
 such as to destroy aU their value, is such as to prevent 
 their having a paramount influence upon the figures 
 of the two preceding categories. It might therefore 
 appear necessary to leave undecided whether their 
 specially rapid bearing were a consequence of their 
 great fertility, and therefore an acquired or secondary 
 rapidity, or were an original condition true of even 
 their earlier pregnancies. That the latter is to be ac- 
 cepted to the exclusion of the former supposition is 
 evident, if we observe that the married life of the 
 women with families above 10 is not long enough 
 to admit of their having gone through the series of 
 lengths of pregnancies given in the table opposite 
 each successive child. It is thus shown — 
 
 (3.) That wives bearing more than 10 children, or 
 wives bearing very large families, breed more rapidly 
 than others during their whole child-bearing lives. 
 
 Wives, therefore, who bear numerous progeny, do 
 so in virtue of two diff'erences from other women. 
 They bear their children more rapidly, and they con- 
 tinue fertile longer than their neighbours. 
 
 Were the third conclusion just given not before us, 
 it might be supposed that the rapid bearing of earlier 
 children was a result of youth and vigour. This sup- 
 
134 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS OF 
 
 position is not only inconsistent with the third con- 
 clusion, but with the law to be hereafter demonstrated, 
 that the oldest women, who are continuedly fertile, 
 bear children more rapidly than any other. 
 
 The average length of interval between all succes- 
 sive children is (19 '9) nearly 20 months. 
 
 I have frequently heard it said that a fertile wo- 
 man bears a child every two years. Some authors have 
 made careful statements on this point. Whitehead* 
 says that fertile women produce children every 20 
 months ; but " this includes abortions, false concep- 
 tions, so-called premature deliveries, and all having an 
 unsuccessful issue, the average amount of which will 
 be rather more than Ij for each individual." Sir 
 William Petty long ago laid it down that " every 
 teeming woman can bear a child once in two years." 
 Malthust adopts the same period, and refers to the 
 Statistical Account of Scotland as confirming it. The 
 number and exactness, however, of the data here ad- 
 duced, and the circumstance that they include only 
 children born alive (excluding still-born and abortions), 
 leave no room for doubt that all the authors referred 
 to under-estimate the rate at which married women 
 bring children into the world. J 
 
 * On Abortion and Sterility, p. 245. 
 
 t An Essay on the Principle of Population, vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
 X See also Eoberton's Essays and Notes on the Physiology of 
 Women, p. 185. His conclusions (p. 193) are as follows : — 
 
 " The first coroUary wIucIl I would draw from the facts collected 
 in Manchester and in York, is, that in 7 out of 8 women who suckle 
 
FAMILIES OF DIFFEEENT NUMBERS. 135 
 
 On this point Sadler is so full and distinct that I 
 quote his words : — " The interval of time," says he, " at 
 which the fruitful couples produce their children, cal- 
 culated from the period of their marriage to the birth 
 of their last child, including the greater prolificness of 
 the first year, exceeds 2 years. It extends to between 
 2^ and 2^ years, if calculated from the first birth."* In 
 this calculation, as in that of the iaterval between mar- 
 riage and the birth of a first chUd, Sadler evidently 
 errs, making the former too long and the latter too 
 short. For both he gives no data ; yet, ia regard to 
 the interval between the births of successive children 
 he says : — " All the tables are constructed upon the 
 presumption of its certainty, and happily it is one 
 which, on this very debatable question, has never been 
 made the subject of controversy, and which does not 
 admit of it. Nothing," he continues, " is more certain 
 or better ascertained than the average period at which 
 the human female, in a state of prolificness, repro- 
 
 for as long a period as the working classes in this country are in 
 tte habit of doing, there will elapse an interval of from 12 to 15 
 months from parturition to the commencement of the subsequent 
 pregnancy. 
 
 " Second, That in a majority of instances, when suckling is pro- 
 longed to even 19 or 20 months, pregnancy does not take place till 
 after weaning. 
 
 " Third, That lactation having this influence on the generative 
 function, we are warranted in regarding the secretion of milk as 
 the cause which regulates the periods of conception in mankind, 
 as instinct operates to the same end in graminivorous quadrupeds, 
 and probably in aU other animals." 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 30. 
 
136 FERTILITY OP WIVES-MOTHERS OF 
 
 duces. Were we, indeed, to form our general rules 
 from particular exceptions, we should in this, as in all 
 other cases, be grievously misled. We might conclude, 
 for instance, that she would continue to multiply within 
 the year; but general computations will rectify any 
 such error, and conduct us to conclusions which are not 
 only reconcilable with philosophy and truth, but re- 
 solvable into the ordinations of a merciful Providence. 
 The human mother has to feed her infant for a period 
 pretty nearly corresponding in length to that of gesta- 
 tion (I speak now as regards the necessity of the great 
 mass of the community, with whom the question evi- 
 dently rests) ; nature, therefore, has kindly ordained, as 
 a general rule, that the period of impregnation shall be 
 postponed till that essential duty is discharged, and for 
 a period somewhat beyond it ; and he must be ignorant 
 indeed who does not see most clearly that the health, 
 and indeed frequently the existence, of both mother 
 and offspring are secured by this physical regulation 
 of the common parent of mankind. The human being, 
 in reference to the term of existence, multiplies later, 
 and at longer intervals, and ceases to be prolific sooner, 
 than any other animated being with whom we are 
 acquainted ; hence we find, on the average, that in the 
 maternal state, during its period of fruitfulness, the 
 births are not so frequent as once in two years. Even 
 in the rank of society which is absolved from the neces- 
 sity (though not from the duty) of fulfilling one of the 
 most important of the maternal offices, that of feeding 
 from their own bosoms their infant ofispring, and who 
 
FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS. 137 
 
 too often avail themselves of that unnatural immunity, 
 consequently removing what our physiologists regard 
 as one of the physical impediments to an accelerated 
 prolificness,* — even in this rank, I find the births are 
 at intervals of about, but rather exceeding, two years. 
 That period, therefore, as it respects the mass of the 
 community, who are differently circumstanced in this 
 respect, cannot be shorter. But arguments and proofs 
 on this point are unnecessary, no writer having ever ven- 
 tured upon supposing a shorter period than two years 
 possible ; and even Sir William Petty, when labouring 
 to prove the possibility of a doubling every ten years 
 for a century after the flood, amongst his other suppo- 
 sitions, so extravagant if applied to the present era, 
 only lays it down that every teeming woman can bear 
 a chUd ' once in two years.'" 
 
 * On this subject tlie work of Eoberton already cited may be 
 consulted ; also a paper by Professor Laycock, quoted by Eoberton. 
 
138 
 
 FERTILITY OP WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVES -MOTHERS MARRIED AT 
 DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 Before discussing this and the next topics, it is neces- 
 sary to remark that fertility may be maintained in 
 degree in two ways — either by long continuance or by 
 intensity whde it lasts. At present I omit entirely 
 the consideration of the intensity of fertility while it 
 lasts, taking up this in the next part. But I shall show 
 that, of a mass of fertile women, the younger are on 
 the whole more fertile than the older. To demonstrate 
 this I first adduce a table drawn from the data of 
 
 TABLE XL. — Showing the Fertility of Wives-Mothers 
 
 MARRIED AT DlFEERENT AgES, FROM THE DATA OF St. 
 
 George's-in-the-East. 
 
 Mother's Age at 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 11^ Years Married. 
 
 Average Number 
 of Children. 
 
 21g Years Married. 
 
 Average Number 
 of Children. 
 
 15-19 
 
 5-0 
 
 7-7 
 
 20-24 
 
 4-5 
 
 7-0 
 
 25-29 
 
 4-4 
 
 6-4 
 
 30-34 
 
 3-4 
 
 3-0 
 
 St. George's-in-the-East. It is evident here that the 
 
MAREIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 139 
 
 younger women 11 years married, and also those 21 
 years married, have on an average larger families than 
 the elder, of whatever respective ages. It must be 
 observed that the table includes all wives who, in a 
 small selected population, have shown any fertility ; 
 and it must be added that the committee of the 
 Statistical Society have enunciated the same conclu- 
 sion. I quote their own words : — " The following 
 abstract will show the average number of children to 
 each marriage, at the respective periods of 10, 20, 30, 
 and 40 years after the birth of the first child, for each 
 class of marriages formed at the four different quin- 
 quennial periods of life : — 
 
 Table XLI. 
 
 Years elapsed 
 
 since Birth 
 of First Child. 
 
 Average numher of Children to each Marriage formed at Ages 
 
 16-20 
 
 21-25 
 
 26-30 
 
 31-35 
 
 10 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 5-05 
 
 7-68 
 
 8'41 
 
 10-85 
 
 4-51 
 7-01 
 7-89 
 8-24 
 
 4-42 
 6-43 
 6-80 
 5-00 
 
 3-44 
 3-00 
 7-00 
 4-00 
 
 " It is thus obvious that marriages formed under 
 the age of twenty-five are more prolific than those 
 formed after that age, and that those formed between 
 sixteen and twenty years of age are still more so than 
 those at any of the superior ages."* 
 
 * Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. xi. p. 223. 
 
140 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 As doctrine is still taught exactly the opposite of 
 that here sustained, it is important to establish the 
 latter, if possible, by further proof. At another place 
 I shall show the erroneous interpretation of the data 
 which have been adduced in support of the opposite 
 doctrine — namely, that marriages formed late in life 
 are more prolific than those formed earlier. 
 
 The figures now to be adduced not only confirm 
 the doctrine that early marriages are more fruitful than 
 late marriages ; they also explain it, showing that the 
 younger married have a longer continuance of fertility 
 than the older married, allowing to both the same 
 duration of marriage, and all within the child-bearing 
 period of life. So far as the demonstration has hitherto 
 gone, we have shown that the younger are more fertile 
 than the elder ; that, excluding those who have no 
 children, the younger will bear larger families than 
 the elder. We have not shown which bear their child- 
 ren most rapidly — that is, which have the greatest in- 
 tensity of fertility while it lasts — leaving this topic 
 for another chapter. We now proceed to show that, 
 among the fertile, the younger have a longer continu- 
 ance of fertility than the elder. It is this last circum- 
 stance which accounts for the greater fertility of the 
 marriages of the younger. The following table de- 
 monstrates this. It needs no explanation. The details 
 are given in the footnote.* 
 
 * The Table XLII. may be easily seen to be made up from tlie 
 following five tables— XLIII. XLIV. XLV. XLVI. XL VII. In 
 
MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 141 
 
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 tliese five tables of the fertility of married life at different epochs, 
 the number of wives-mothers at the respective epochs is the actual 
 registered number in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855. The num- 
 ber of wives of different ages is got by estimating, and the Carlisle 
 
142 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 In order to derive from Table XLII. more informa- 
 tion as to the relative numerical value of the fertility 
 of a mass of wives in the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth 
 years of married life, and so on, I have framed the 
 following Table (LIV.) I have freely pointed out 
 
 Table of Mortality is used. The estimate is not made in the 
 exaetest way, but the errors wiU not injure the comparison of the 
 figures with one another, as the same (perhaps unavoidable) error 
 is introduced into all. The results probably give a near approach 
 to the true degrees of fertility ; for, while among the child-bearing 
 there are some omitted, there are probably fewer marriages omitted, 
 and the number of wives as estimated would be too large were not 
 a very high percentage taken off (1 in 100) for the special mortahty 
 of first confinements. (See Part VII. of this volume, and Dr. 
 Stark's Eeport in the Seventh Annual Report of the Registrar- 
 General for Scotland, p. xxxii.) 
 
 To find how many women, 5, 10, and 15 years married, are 
 alive and not widowed in 1855, it would strictly be necessary to 
 have the numbers married in 1850, 1845, and 1840, from which 
 the estimates should be made. Instead of doing this, I have esti- 
 mated from the number married in 1855. As the population 
 is increasing not greatly, this error thus introduced will not be 
 great. 
 
 It is partly with a view to correct this error that I have taken 
 off an extravagantly high percentage for the mortality of first 
 labours. 
 
 In making the estimate I have doubled the mortality in order 
 to exclude the widowed. 
 
 TABLE XLIII. — Fertility of Wives in the Fifth Year of Makkied Life. 
 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 644 
 247 
 2-6 
 
 1686 
 
 6n 
 
 2-7 
 
 1008 
 244 
 4-1 
 
 358 
 
 72 
 
 4-9 
 
 179 
 
 17 
 
 10-5 
 
 3875 
 1191 
 3-2 
 
 Number of Wives-Mothers 
 
 Number Child-bearing, 1 in 
 
MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 143 
 
 the sources of error in the fundamental figures of Table 
 XLII. ; and after all I flatter myself that in these 
 fundamental figures there is an approach to truth such 
 as to justify the further deduction of Table LIV. ; 
 only it is necessary to mention that in this table there 
 
 TABLE XLIV. — Feetilitt op Wives in the Tenth Yeab of Mabeied Life. 
 
 Ages at CMld-bearing 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 594 
 186 
 3-2 
 
 1528 
 381 
 4-0 
 
 902 
 153 
 6-9 
 
 313 
 36 
 
 8-7 
 
 3337 
 756 
 4-4 
 
 
 Number Child-beariDg, 1 in 
 
 
 TABLE XLV. — Feetilitt op Wives in the Fifteenth Yeae op Maerbed Life. 
 
 Ages at Child-bearing 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 532 
 116 
 4-6 
 
 1360 
 200 
 6-8 
 
 782 
 
 43 
 
 18-2 
 
 262 
 
 7 
 
 37-4 
 
 2936 
 366 
 8-0 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE XLVI. — Feetilitt op Wives in the Twentieth Yeae op Maeeied Lipe. 
 
 Ages at Child-bearing 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 477 
 56 
 8-5 
 
 1171 
 
 80 
 
 14-6 
 
 649 
 
 5 
 
 129-8 
 
 2297 
 141 
 16-3 
 
 
 Number Child-bearing, 1 in 
 
 
 TABLE XLVII. — Feetilitt op Wives in the Twentt-pipth Yeab op 
 Maeeied Lipe. 
 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 408 
 
 6 
 
 68-0 
 
 961 
 
 2 
 
 480-5 
 
 1396 
 
 8 
 
 171-0 
 
 Number of Wives-Mothers 
 
 T^ilTTibftr nf Ohilfl-hpfniTifTj 1 in 
 
 
144 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 are no actual values to keep it close to the truth. 
 Taking, then, Table XLII. as giving actual values, we 
 have the fertilities for 1855 ; or for 12 months. But 
 as 20 months has been shown to be the average time- 
 
 I tave now to add six tables, XLVIII. to LIU. inclusive. 
 These are constructed with a view to meet what might form a reason- 
 able criticism on the six preceding, XLII. to XL VII. inclusive. In 
 these latter are included all the married — that is, the fertile and 
 sterile. ISTow, the amount of sterility varies in marriages at different 
 ages, and it may be considered desirable to eliminate this source 
 of difference in order to have a view of the duration of fertility 
 in those married women who are fertile. The tables of sterility 
 hereafter given afford means of estimating the proportion sterile 
 in marriages at different ages. By this means the tables XLVIII. 
 to LIU. are constructed. They give a view of the duration of the 
 fertility of fertile women married at different ages. 
 
 TABLE XLVIII. — SnowraG the Dueation of FEETn.iTY IH FEETn:.E Wneb 
 Mabried at Various Ages (as shq-ivn within Twelve Months). 
 
 Age of Mother at MaiTiage 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-39 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 Total. 
 
 The number Child-'beariiig in ) 
 the 5th year of Married Life > 
 is 1 in , ) 
 
 2-4 
 
 2-7 
 
 3-0 
 
 3-1 
 
 4-9 
 
 2-8 
 
 
 The numbei^ Child -hearing in ) 
 the 10th year of Married Life > 
 
 3-0 
 
 4-0 
 
 4-2 
 
 5-4 
 
 
 3-9 
 
 
 The number Child-bearing in ) 
 
 the 15th year of Married Life > 
 
 4-2 
 
 6-8 
 
 I3-I 
 
 23-3 
 
 
 7-0 
 
 
 The number Child-bearing in ] 
 the 20th year of Married Life > 
 
 7-9 
 
 14-6 
 
 95-8 
 
 
 
 14-7 
 
 
 The number Child-bearing in ) 
 the 25th year of Married Life > 
 
 63-0 
 
 480-6 
 
 
 
 
 167-4 
 
 
MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 145 
 
 unit of fertility, the fertilities of 1855 must be increased 
 in like proportion; for as 12 is to 20 so are the fer- 
 tilities given in Table XLII. to the real fertilities. All 
 the fertile women cannot be presumed to have shown 
 that quality in 12 months, but all may be pre- 
 sumed to have shown it in 20 months. In this way 
 
 TABLE XLIX. — Fertility or Fertile Wives m Fifth Yeah oe Married 
 
 LlEE. 
 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Number of Wives 
 
 644 
 
 1686 
 
 1008 
 
 358 
 
 179 
 
 3875 
 
 Number of Wives-Mothers 
 
 Niunber CMld-bearing in 5tli ) 
 year of Married Life ( 
 
 597 
 247 
 2-4 
 
 1686 
 611 
 2-7 
 
 728 
 244 
 3-0 
 
 223 
 72 
 3-1 
 
 84 
 17 
 4-9 
 
 3318 
 1191 
 
 2-8 
 
 Or of Wives -Mothers, 1 in 
 
 TABLE L. — Fertilitt oe Fertile Wives in Tenth Year op Married Life. 
 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 594 
 
 1528 
 
 902 
 
 313 
 
 3337 
 
 
 Niunber of Wives -Motliers 
 
 551 
 186 
 3-0 
 
 1528 
 381 
 4-0 
 
 650 
 153 
 4-2 
 
 195 
 36 
 5-4 
 
 2924 
 756 
 3-9 
 
 Number Child-bearing in 10th year of 
 Married Life 
 
 
 
 TABLE LI. — Fertility op Fertile Wives in Fifteenth Year op Married 
 
 Life. 
 
 Ages at Child-bearing 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 Number of Wives 
 
 532 
 
 1360 
 
 782 
 
 262 
 
 2936 
 
 
 Number of Wives-Mothers 
 
 493 
 116 
 4-2 
 
 1360 
 200 
 6-8 
 
 565 
 
 43 
 
 13-1 
 
 163 
 
 7 
 
 23-3 
 
 2581 
 366 
 7-0 
 
 Number Child-bearing in 15th year of | 
 Married Life ( 
 
 Or of Wives-Mothers, 1 in 
 
 
146 
 
 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 the following table (LIV.) may be held as an estimate 
 of the comparative amount of fertility in living child- 
 ren, shown by wives at diflferent epochs of married life. 
 
 The table shows a gradually-diminishing amount 
 of perseverance in fertility as age advances. In illus- 
 tration of the mode of reading it, I may state that 
 about a half of aU wives are fertile at the fifth year of 
 married life ; more than a third are fertile at the tenth 
 year of married life ; and only a fifth part of the whole 
 wives arrived at the fifteenth year of married life are 
 fertile ; and so on. 
 
 Another interesting result is got from this Table 
 (LIV.), by comparing the different horizontal columns 
 with one another. Eeading the figures of adjacent 
 columns obliquely from below upwards, we have a 
 
 TABLE LII. — Fertility of Fertile Wives in Twentieth Year op 
 Married Liee. 
 
 Ages at Child-bearing 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 Number of Wives 
 
 477 
 
 1171 
 
 649 
 
 2297 
 
 
 
 442 
 56 
 7-9 
 
 1171 
 
 80 
 
 14-6 
 
 469 
 
 5 
 
 95-8 
 
 2082 
 
 141 
 
 14-7 
 
 Number Child-bearing in 20th year of Married ) 
 Life \ 
 
 
 TABLE LIU. — Fertilitt of Fertile Wives in Twbntt-fiu'th Year of 
 Married Life. 
 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 408 
 
 961 
 
 1396 
 
 
 
 378 
 
 6 
 
 63-0 
 
 961 
 
 2 
 
 480-5 
 
 1339 
 
 8 
 
 167-4 
 
 Number Child-bearing in 25th year of Married Life ... 
 Or of Wives-Mothers, 1 in .' 
 
 
MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 147 
 
 comparison of the fertility of a mass of wives of tlie 
 same age, but of quinquennial differences of duration 
 of marriage. And it is very interesting to observe that 
 the younger married closely approach in fertility those 
 married five years later in life, both being arrived at 
 the same year of life at the time of the comparison. 
 
 Short and SussmHch maintain that early marriages 
 are not favourable to the population. But, so far as I 
 know, they adduce no satisfactory evidence whatever 
 for their belief Yet they have considerable authority 
 on their side, including the redoubtable Sadler, who 
 arrays in his support the venerable names of Aristotle, 
 of Plato, of Virgil, and of Plutarch. 
 
 It is to be remarked, that I here object to this state- 
 ment of these authors only so far as the number of 
 living births is concerned, and I do not consider the 
 diminished chances of survival which children of very 
 early marriages are believed to have. There can be, in 
 my opinion, no doubt that early marriages are most 
 favourable to the population;* and as I have already 
 shown that wives under twenty are less fecund than 
 those from twenty on to at least twenty-four years of 
 age,i" the fertility of the younger, as a mass, is the 
 more striking. But although most highly fertile as a 
 mass, the number of sterile among those married 
 under twenty years of age is not inconsiderable, and 
 it is probably this amount of sterility which, while 
 
 * See Chapter XIV. of this Part, farther on. 
 + Transactions of the Royal Society, 1864, or Table XIV. in 
 this volume, p. 35. 
 
148 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHERS 
 
 satisfactory statistical evidence was deficient, has given 
 rise to the error now commented upon. The authors 
 referred to give no definition of what they mean by 
 
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MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 149 
 
 early marriage. Whatever they may mean, they have 
 no good evidence for their doctrine. 
 
 Queteletf enunciates on this topic the following 
 doctrine as a natural consequence from his data and 
 reasonings. A marriage, says he, if it be not barren, 
 produces the same number of births at whatever period 
 it takes place, provided the age of the woman does not 
 exceed twenty-six years. After this age the number 
 of children, he adds, diminishes. Not only do I, of 
 course, think Quetelet wxong in his conclusions, but I 
 
 * I here subjoin a table identical with, the preceding (LIV.), 
 except that it is corrected for sterility, just as Tables XLVIII. to 
 LIII. inclusive have been. 
 
 TABLE LV. — Showinq the Probable Amount of Continuance m Feetimtt 
 AT Different Epochs op Fertile Wives maebied at Various Ages. 
 
 Age of Mother at Marriage 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 Total. 
 
 The proportion Child-bearing 1 
 about the 6th year of Mar- > 
 ried Life is 1 in . . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of . . 
 
 1-44 
 69-4 
 
 1-62 
 617 
 
 1-80 
 55-5 
 
 1-86 
 53-8 
 
 2-94 
 34-0 
 
 1-68 
 59-4 
 
 The proportion Child-bearing 1 
 about the 10th year of Mar- > 
 ried Life is 1 in . . . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of 
 
 1-80 
 55-5 
 
 2-40 
 417 
 
 2-52 
 397 
 
 3-24 
 30-8 
 
 
 2-34 
 427 
 
 The proportion Child-bearing ) 
 about the 15th year of Mar- > 
 ried Life is 1 in . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of . 
 
 2-52 
 397 
 
 4-08 
 24-5 
 
 7-86 
 127 
 
 13-98 
 7 1 
 
 
 4-20 
 23-8 
 
 8-82 
 11-3 
 
 100-44 
 -99 
 
 The proportion ChUd-bearing ) 
 about the 20th year of Mar- [ 
 ried Life is 1 in . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of . . 
 
 474 
 21-1 
 
 876 
 11-4 
 
 57-48 
 17 
 
 
 
 The proportion ChUd-bearing ) 
 about the 25th year of Mar- > 
 ried Life is 1 in . .) 
 
 Or a percentage of . 
 
 37-80 
 2-6 
 
 288-30 
 -38 
 
 
 
 
 t Treatise on Man, p. 15. 
 
150 FERTILITY OF WIVES-MOTHEKS 
 
 cannot in his -work discover any satisfactory grounds 
 for them. 
 
 Before passing from the perseverance in fertility of 
 the early married, I shall point out a difficulty of 
 which it gives the solution. In Part I. Chapter V. 
 I showed that fecundity in wives from fifteen to nine- 
 teen years of age is less than at from twenty to twenty- 
 four ; that is, of the young women fewer have children. 
 At the same time (Chap. III.) I showed that the fecun- 
 dity of the mass of wives in our population is greatest 
 at the commencement of the child-bearing period of 
 life, and after that epoch gradually diminishes ; that is, 
 those not the most fecund do, as a mass, produce most 
 children. These two propositions are, at first sight, 
 difficult to reconcile ; and it is accordingly satisfactory 
 to be able to show that the greater continuance in fer- 
 tility of the mass of younger wives is the explanation 
 of the apparent anomaly. To illustrate how the tables 
 read in affording this explanation, I may state that 
 while I formerly showed that the wives from fifteen to 
 nineteen years of age are not so fecund as those from 
 twenty to twenty-four years of age, the tables last 
 adduced show that at the 5th year of marriage the 
 youngest married — that is, at ages from fifteen to 
 nineteen — already surpass all others in fertility, 1 in 1 '4 4 
 bearing ; that at the tenth year of marriage they still 
 further surpass in fertility all others, 1 in 1'80 bearing; 
 and that at the fifteenth year of marriage they in a 
 a stdl higher degree surpass all others, 1 in every 2'52 
 bearing children within a j'^ear. [Table LV.] 
 
MARRIED AT DIFFERENT AGES. 151 
 
 Finally, under this head I notice an important 
 element of the inexactness that enters into the data 
 here used — namely, the occurrence of second and third 
 marriages. But the influence of this element is almost 
 certainly inconsiderable, for the following reasons : — In 
 cases of second and subsequent marriages the data 
 used are exclusively those of the last marriage ; as far 
 as is known, a woman's previous marriage does not 
 interfere with her subsequent fertility ; it is shown ia 
 this paper that a woman's previous fertility tends to 
 ensure continuance in fertility ; it will be shown that 
 a woman's previous fertility tends to diminish the in- 
 tensity of her subsequent fertility, when that is com- 
 pared with the fertility of women late in being married 
 and having family ; and the admixture of second and 
 subsequent marriages in the data which include only 
 the last marriage, would tend to diminish the force of 
 the results as bearing out these conclusions. They are 
 therefore all the more secure, from the fact of the inter- 
 mingling of some data which would diminish their 
 apparent influence. 
 
 Another element of inexactness I shall only men- 
 tion — the occurrence of twins, and both being counted 
 in the figures. 
 
152 INTENSITY OF FERTILITY 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FERTILITY OF PERSISTENTLY FERTILE "WIVES OF 
 DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 I MAY here repeat, that by persistently fertile I mean 
 fertile at, or up till, the time of the collection of the data ; 
 and I adduce a table which clearly shows, so far as the 
 mass of figures can be relied on, that the fertility of 
 the elder is greater than of the younger, while it lasts ; 
 or, in other words, the fertility of the elder is the more 
 intense. 
 
 Table LVI. is read in the following manner : — To 
 take the second line — Fertile women five years mar- 
 ried, and under ten, have, if they are now from 15 
 to 19 years of age, 2-5 children; if now from 20 to 24 
 years of age, 319 chUdren ; if now from 25 to 29 
 years of age, 3'75 children ; and so on. 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 153 
 
 
 
 
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154 
 
 INTENSITY OF FERTILITY 
 
 The conclusion here arrived at is founded upon 
 lengths of married life.* Were the figures such as to 
 give, instead of lengths of married life, length of inter- 
 vals between the births of fiirst and last children, the 
 results would be still more striking ; for I have already 
 shown that, in the case of the elder, fertility is later 
 in begiuning to show itself than in the younger. 
 
 * The following tables giye all the details and calculations from 
 ■wMoh Table LVI. is constructed : — 
 
 TABLE LVII. — Of Women under 5 Yeaes Maebied. 
 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Average to 
 
 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 CMldren. 
 
 eacli Mother. 
 
 7183 
 
 11,880 
 
 1-654 
 
 Mother's age- 
 
 -16 to 19 years . 
 
 374 
 
 422 
 
 1-128 
 
 
 20 to 24 „ . 
 
 3180 
 
 4829 
 
 1-519 
 
 
 25 to 29 „ 
 
 2460 
 
 4489 
 
 1-825 
 
 
 30 to 34 „ 
 
 883 
 
 1536 
 
 1-844 
 
 
 35 to 39 „ 
 
 277 
 
 506 
 
 1-827 
 
 
 40 to 44 „ 
 
 53 
 
 90 
 
 1-698 
 
 
 45 to 49 „ 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 1-200 
 
 TABLE LVIII. — Op Women 5 Years Married and less than 10. 
 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Average to 
 
 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 Children. 
 
 each Mother 
 
 4637 
 
 17,690 
 
 3-815 
 
 Mother's age- 
 
 -16 to 19 years 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2-500 
 
 
 20 to 24 „ 
 
 499 
 
 1692 
 
 3-190 
 
 
 25 to 29 „ 
 
 2155 
 
 8082 
 
 3-750 
 
 
 30 to 34 „ 
 
 1418 
 
 5740 
 
 4-048 
 
 
 35 to 39 „ 
 
 461 
 
 1883 
 
 4-085 
 
 
 40 to 44 „ 
 
 96 
 
 364 
 
 3-792 
 
 
 45 to 49 „ 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 4-000 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 155 
 
 If, as I have shown, the younger are more prolific 
 than the elder, and if, as I also have shown, the elder 
 are more intensely fertile while their fertility lasts, than 
 the younger in the same time ; then it necessarily 
 follows, as a corollary, that the fertUe women mar- 
 ried younger have a longer continued fertility than 
 the fertile women married older. In no other way can 
 the younger surpass the elder in their whole fertility ; 
 a conclusion which has already been otherwise demon- 
 strated. 
 
 It may also be here pointed out that the figures of 
 
 TABLE LIX. — Of Women 10 Yeabs Maeeied and less than 15. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Children. 
 
 Average to 
 each Mother. 
 
 2739 
 
 16,233 
 
 5-930 
 
 Mother's age — 20 to 24 years . 
 25 to 29 „ 
 30 to 34 „ 
 35 to 39 „ 
 „ 40 to 44 „ 
 45 to 49 „ 
 
 9 
 
 415 
 
 1345 
 
 814 
 
 140 
 
 16 
 
 48 
 
 2263 
 
 7939 
 
 5044 
 
 835 
 
 104 
 
 5-333 
 5-453 
 5-903 
 6-197 
 5-964 
 6-500 
 
 TABLE LX. — Of Women 15 Yeaes Maeeied and less than 20. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Children. 
 
 Average to 
 each Mother. 
 
 1280 
 
 10,013 
 
 7-823 
 
 Mother's age — 25 to 29 years 
 
 30 to 34 ,, 
 
 „ 35 to 39 „ 
 
 40 to 44 „ 
 
 45 to 49 „ 
 
 7 
 
 253 
 
 721 
 
 273 
 
 23 
 
 42 
 
 1867 
 
 5706 
 
 2182 
 
 194 
 
 6-000 
 7-379 
 7-914 
 7-993 
 8-435 
 
156 
 
 INTENSITY OF FERTILITY 
 
 Table XXXIX. make it probable that elderly women 
 when fertile are more intensely so than younger, when 
 their fertility has already resulted in a large family, 
 for that table shows that the children in large families 
 are born very quickly one after another. 
 
 In his work on The Law of Population, Mr. 
 Sadler enters upon this subject of the varying fertility 
 
 TABLE LXI. — Of Women 20 Yeaes Maeeied and less than 25. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Children. 
 
 Average to 
 each Mother. 
 
 432 
 
 4181 
 
 9-678 
 
 Mother's age — 30 to 34 years 
 35 to 39 „ 
 40 to 44 „ 
 „ 45 to 49 „ 
 
 1 
 
 134 
 
 259 
 
 36 
 
 7 
 
 1259 
 
 2517 
 
 379 
 
 7-000 
 
 9-396 
 
 9-718 
 
 10-528 
 
 TABLE LXII. — Of Women 25 Yeabs Mabeied and less than 30. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Children. 
 
 Average to 
 each Mother. 
 
 29 
 
 371 
 
 12-793 
 
 Mother's age — 40 to 44 years 
 45 to 49 „ 
 
 19 
 10 
 
 235 
 136 
 
 12-368 
 13-600 
 
 TABLE LXIII.— Of Women 30 Years Mabeied. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 CMldi-en. 
 
 Average to 
 each Mother. 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 13-000 
 
 Mother's age — 45 to 49 years 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 13-000 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 157 
 
 of women according to age. Seeking arguments where- 
 with to overturn the teaching of Malthus, whose prin- 
 ciples he hated as well as opposed, he found data which 
 at first sight appear to support his doctrine "that 
 marriages are more prolific the longer they are 
 deferred." Were this true doctrine, it would certainly 
 go far to overturn the Malthusian system, and Mr. 
 Sadler might be justly proud of the demonstration. 
 The facts which he adduces may, without cavil, be 
 allowed to be, as he says, indisputable. It is his 
 illogical use of the facts which has to be pointed out. 
 Without pretending to enter on the defence of Mal- 
 thusian notions, we accept Mr. Sadler's challenge " to 
 evade the demonstration" which the aforesaid facts 
 aflford. And it is of importance to do so, because, 
 down to the latest authors, Sadler's facts and sup- 
 posed demonstrations are quoted with unsuspicious 
 approval.* 
 
 The first data afforded by Sadler are derived from 
 the records of Dr. Granville's experience as physician 
 to the Benevolent Lying-in Institution and the West- 
 minster Dispensary, the calculations having been made 
 by Mr. Finlayson. 
 
 * See Boudin, Traite de Geographie et de Statistique Medicates, 
 etc., tome ii. p. 59. 
 
158 
 
 INTENSITY OF FERTILITY 
 
 TABLE LXIV. — Showing the Effect the Postponement 
 OF THE Marriages of Females has upon their Annual 
 Prolificness. (Sadler.) 
 
 
 Average number of 
 
 Age when Married. 
 
 Bii-ths for each year 
 
 
 of Marriage. 
 
 From 13 to 16 . . . 
 
 •456706 
 
 „ 16 to 20 . 
 
 •503610 
 
 „ 21 to 24 . . 
 
 •520227 
 
 „ 25 to 28 . 
 
 •545163 
 
 „ 29 to 32 . . . 
 
 •589811 
 
 „ 33 to 36 
 
 •776866 
 
 „ 37 to 39 . 
 
 1-125000 
 
 Now, tHs table is made from the data of lying-in 
 charities. It is therefore not a table of fertile women, 
 but of persistently fertile women; for every woman 
 was entered in the records only when she came to have 
 attendance in her confinement. All that the table 
 offers is corroboration of the law enunciated in this 
 chapter, that elderly w^omen are more fertile than 
 younger so long as their fertility endures. 
 
 It is almost iacredible that so acute a reasoner as 
 Mr. Sadler is, could be so deceived by appearances as 
 to suppose his figures showed that marriages at thirty- 
 nine years of age are as fruitful as marriages of any 
 age down to thirteen. Yet, for aught he says, he 
 appears so to believe. 
 
 Sadler did indeed get the length of seeing that the 
 table just given was somewhat deficient. "It may," 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 159 
 
 he says,* "perhaps be objected to the whole of the 
 foregoing proofs, that they are derived from a register 
 which cannot profess to give the whole number of 
 children which the marriages it records shall produce 
 from their commencement to their termination, but 
 only those which have been born to each up to a 
 period within these limits, all the facts which it can 
 record being necessarily retrospective ones. I shall 
 therefore," he continues, "proceed to another series 
 of proofs of the same principle, which will at once 
 silence every such exception, and afford a strong 
 additional demonstration of its truth. These are 
 derived from the registers of the peerage, which, as 
 I have observed elsewhere, I have gone through in 
 order to collect a body of authentic facts illustrative 
 of many of the principles advanced in these volumes. 
 As far as they relate to the subject before us, those 
 facts are as follows:" — 
 
 TABLE LXV. — Showing the Effect of the Postponement 
 
 OF the MARRLA.GES OF THE PEERESSES ON THEIR PrOLIFIC- 
 
 NESS. (Sadler.) 
 
 Period of Marriage. 
 
 Nunitier 
 of Marriages. 
 
 Number 
 of Children. 
 
 Births to each 
 Marriage . 
 
 From 12 to 15 . . . 
 „ 16 to 19 . . . 
 
 „ 20 to 23 . . . 
 „ 24 to 27 . . . 
 
 32 
 172 
 198 
 
 86 
 
 141 
 
 797 
 
 1033 
 
 467 
 
 4-40 
 4-63 
 5-21 
 5-43 
 
 Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 279. 
 
160 INTENSITY OF FERTILITY 
 
 To this table of Sadler's many objections may be 
 made, such as the paucity and insecurity of the data, 
 as also their deficiency, the highest age of marriage 
 included in them being only twenty-seven, and all notice 
 of the important element of the duration of marriage 
 being omitted. 
 
 Sadler not only erred in supposing he had demon- 
 strated that late marriages are more prolific than early; 
 he was ignorant also that a larger proportion of the 
 elder than of the younger wives bears no children at all, 
 and that an older woman continues fertile a shorter 
 time than a younger, counting, in both cases, only up 
 to periods within the chdd-beariiig portion of life. 
 
 It is a natural, and I believe a true notion, that 
 twin-bearing is a sign of intense fertility in woman, 
 as the number of a litter certainly is in bitches 
 and other inferior animals. In confirmation of this 
 notion, and of the law of intensity of fertility now 
 demonstrated, we find that women are more likely 
 to bear twins the older they are. This subject is 
 capable of some interesting developments ; but, as I 
 have already elsewhere* entered upon them, I shall 
 add no more in this place. 
 
 In like manner, it is natural to suppose that the 
 length and weight of children should go with intensity 
 of fertility. Yet my researches f seem to show that 
 this is not the case, but that length and weight of 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Journal for Marcli and April 1865 ; and 
 Part III. of this volume. 
 
 t Edinburgh Medical Journal for December 1864, and Part II. 
 of this volume. 
 
AT DIFFERENT AGES. 161 
 
 children go with the intensity of fecundity, or likeli- 
 hood of bearing children, according to age. Professor 
 Hecker, of Munich, has, however, elaborately shown 
 that my conclusions on this head do not agree with 
 those derived from his larger data.* Mine are based 
 on 2087 observations only, and I am wUling, in the 
 meantime, to hold it as sub judice, whether his or my 
 conclusions are to be received. His do appear to me 
 to be more probable because they bring the laws of 
 length and weight of children, according to the mother's 
 age, into agreement with the law of intensity of 
 fertility here demonstrated. 
 
 * Monatsschrift fiir Geburtshunde und Frauenkranlcheiten, 
 November 1865. 
 
 M 
 
162 THE FERTILITY OF 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE FERTILITY OF THE OLDER WOMEN. 
 
 So ardently did Sadler desire the triumph of his attack 
 on Malthus, that he adopted the dream of Mason Good, 
 who says " that the usual term (of cessation of the 
 menses) is between forty and fifty, except where 
 women marry late in life, in which case, from the 
 postponement of the generative orgasm, they wUl occa- 
 sionally breed beyond their fiftieth year " ! ! * Mason 
 Good refers to some extraordinary cases of pregnancy 
 in old women, curiosities in physiology, but he adduces 
 no good evidence in favour of the doctrine he here pro- 
 pounds. An opposite doctrine is taught by Burns, an 
 author equally celebrated, and much more worthy of 
 confidence in a question of, the kind now before us. 
 " It is well known," says the Glasgow professor,t " that 
 women can only bear children until a certain age, after 
 which the uterus is no longer capable of performing 
 the action of gestation, or of performing it properly. 
 Now it is observable that this incapability or imper- 
 fection takes place sooner in those who are advanced 
 
 '■ The Study of Medicine, 1822, vol. iv. p. 63. 
 t Principles of Midioifery, tenth edition, p. 309. 
 
' ELDERLY WOMEN. 163 
 
 in life, before they marry, than in those who have 
 married and begun to bear children earlier. Thus we 
 find that a woman who marries at forty shall be very 
 apt to miscarry, whereas, had she married at thirty, 
 she might have borne children when older than forty ; 
 from which it may be inferred that the organs of 
 generation lose their power of acting properly sooner, 
 if not employed, than in the connubial state. The 
 same cause which tends to induce abortion at a 
 certain age, in those who have remained until that 
 time single, will also, at a period somewhat later, in 
 duce it in those who have been younger married ; for 
 in them we find that, after bearing several children, it 
 is not uncommon to conclude with an abortion ; or, 
 sometimes after this incomplete action, the uterus, in 
 a considerable time, recruits, as it were, and the woman 
 carries a child to the full time, after which she ceases 
 to conceive." My own opinion has always coincided 
 with that espressed by Burns ; * and I may add, that 
 the curious observation regarding abortion at the close 
 of the fertile period of life has its analogue in the 
 lower animals. Several times I have been told by 
 men of experience that an old bitch often ends her 
 career of breeding by a dead and premature pup. 
 Whitehead also t regards those pregnancies which 
 occur near the termination of the fruitful period in 
 
 * Burns' statement does not bear minute criticism, for he does 
 not distinguish between sooner as implying earlier advent of relative 
 sterility, and sooner as implying shorter duration of fertility. 
 
 t On Abortion and Sterility, p. 247. 
 
164 THE FERTILITY OF 
 
 women as being among the most commonly _ unsuc- 
 cessful. More recently Dr. Arthur Mitchell has con- 
 nected the occurrence of idiocy in a child with the 
 circumstance of its being the last-born of its mother.* 
 In Edinburgh and Glasgow, in 1855, 53 women 
 above the age of 45 bore living children. Among 
 those 53, only 1 was primiparous — her age was 49, 
 and she had only been one year married; 2 bore 
 second children — 1 was aged 46 years, and had been 
 four years married — the other was aged 52 years, and 
 had been three years married ; 4 bore fourth children ; 
 4 bore fifth children ; 3 bore sixth children ; 3 bore 
 seventh children ; 6 bore eighth children ; 8 bore ninth 
 children ; 7 bore tenth children ; 4 bore eleventh child- 
 ren ; 1 bore a twelfth child ; 4 bore thirteenth children ; 
 2 bore fom-teenth children ; 1 bore a fifteenth child ; 
 2 bore sixteenth children ; 1 bore a nineteenth chUd. 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Journal, June 1863, p. 1142. "That in 
 the mother (he remarks) which leads to the miscarriage may lead 
 also to the idiocy, and the only connection may be one through a 
 common cause.'' Again he says, " It frequently happens that be- 
 tween the birth of the idiot and that of the child which precedes or 
 follows, an interval occurs which is much longer than usual, or that 
 
 after the birth of the idiot permanent sterility appears 
 
 Again, when the idiot is born eighteen or twenty-four months after 
 the preceding child, but when for six or seven years thereafter no 
 impregnation occurs, he thought there was reason to suspect that 
 the imperfection in reproductive power, which showed itself iu the 
 idiot, had merely another and fuller expression in the subsequent 
 barrenness. And so also when permanent sterility follows. In 
 many cases indications of barrenness preceded the birth of the idiot, 
 and became permanent thereafter." 
 
ELDEKLY WOMEN. 165 
 
 In short, the great majority of women child-bearing 
 late in life are mothers of considerable families, not 
 women for whom a postponement of the generative 
 orgasm has to be imagined, a circumstance which 
 destroys all shadow of ground for Mason Good's sup- 
 position.* 
 
 * Por other corroborative evidence, see Eoberton, Physiology 
 and Diseases of Women, p. 183. "An. examination (says he) of 
 the table naturally suggests to the mind two questions : First, 
 Have -women, bearing children above the age of forty-five, generally 
 been married late in life ? ... To the first question I can give 
 only an imperfect, but perhaps a sufficient answer. Of eleven 
 wom6n, three of whom had a child each in her forty-ninth year, 
 and the other eight had each a chUd above that age, I ascertained 
 that the aggregate number of their children was 114 — i.e. ten 
 and a fraction for each woman ; a fact indicating that they must 
 have married rather early in life. Concerning the age of marriage 
 in two out of the eleven, I possess some little information ; the one 
 married at eighteen, had two children before she was twenty-one, 
 and brought forth her fourteenth child in her fiftieth year : the 
 other was married from a boarding-school at a very early age ; in 
 her fifty-third year she was delivered of her twelfth chUd." 
 
166 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ADULT POPULATION BY 
 MARRIAGES AT DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 This is the great question whicli political economists 
 have aimed at discussing, however confused and 
 irregular may have been their modes of proceeding. 
 The attentive reader will have already seen how 
 many subsidiary questions intervene between the mere 
 calculation of the number of births by women of 
 different ages and the question of fertility of marriages 
 at different ages, in children that will survive to adult 
 age. This last is the point which political philosophers 
 chiefly wish to solve ; yet several other calculations, 
 to which we have made reference, have been taken and 
 held as if they offered a solution of this great question 
 of population. 
 
 Indeed, even now, I can offer nothing positive 
 towards the solution of this important point. It 
 is very desirable it should be settled by the 
 accumulation and analysis of data ; and considering 
 the copiousness of the relative facts, I venture to 
 express a hope that some of our statisticians, especially 
 
ADULT POPULATION. 167 
 
 those having use of public money and charge of the 
 public records, will undertake the easy task. 
 
 The best solution I can offer appears to me to be 
 very trustworthy, and I feel some confidence that 
 actual data will be found to confirm it. It is arrived 
 at by the following process of reasoning. The ascer- 
 tained fertility of fertile marriages above twenty-five 
 years of age (Tables XL. and XLI.) is so much less 
 than that of those below that no further consideration 
 of the former requires to be made. Besides, the ascer- 
 tained sterility of marriages above twenty-five is so 
 much greater (Tables XIV. and LXVIII.) than that of 
 marriages under twenty-five, as stUl further to put out 
 of the competition all marriages above twenty-five. 
 
 The quinquenniads which may be regarded as mutual 
 rivals in fertility are the two first — that is, from 15 to 
 
 19 inclusive, and from 20 to 24 inclusive. To aid us 
 in deciding between the former and latter we have 
 to inquire into : — 1. Their fecundity (or sterility) ; 2. 
 Their fertility ; 3. Their survival of chUd-bearing ; 4. 
 The survival of their offspring ; 5. The healthiness of 
 their offspring. 
 
 In all except the second of these particulars, 
 the first quinquenniad is surpassed by the second. 
 Wives married at from 15 to 19 have seven per cent 
 of sterility among them, while wives married at from 
 
 20 to 24 appear to have none (Table LXVIII.) This 
 circumstance will make greatly against the fertility of 
 a mass of wives from 15 to 19. Indeed, considering 
 the small excess of the fertility of a mass of wives from 
 
168 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 
 15 to 19 over those of the next quinquenniad (Table 
 VII.), this drawback evidently has great effect. To 
 this drawback has to be added their less chance of 
 surviving a first confinement (Part VII.) Still 
 further, the diminished amount of survival of their 
 offspring (Table LXVI.) has to be taken into account ; 
 and after all these, some weight against the early 
 quinquenniad is to be ascribed to the general belief of 
 the greater unhealthiness of their progeny as affecting 
 their survival to adult age, or periods beyond those 
 concerning which we have the numerical statements 
 already referred to. 
 
 Although, then, wives of the first quinquenniad 
 have, in virtue of their great perseverance in fertUity, 
 a greater total fertility than wives of any other age, I 
 do yet regard the wives of the second quinquenniad — 
 that is from 20 to 24 — as most prolific in desirable 
 offspring, as contributing most to the adult population; 
 and this favourable view of the latter arises from the 
 evils just enumerated as attending what we may now 
 justly call premature marriages or marriages of im- 
 mature women. 
 
 As already shown, Sadler went far wrong in. 
 favouring the marriages of the elderly. I shall not 
 here discuss his view again, contenting myself with 
 merely quoting his words. " Thus, then, does it 
 plainly appear," says he, " that among the wealthy as 
 well as the poor the same law of nature prevails ; and, 
 consequently, it is universal. As far as the preceding 
 table goes, not only are the marriages more prolific the 
 
ADULT POPULATION. 169 
 
 longer they are deferred, but the deaths in their 
 offspring are proportionally less numerous ; causing, 
 therefore, by the inverse rates of fecundity and mor- 
 tality, the latter marriages to be far more conducive to 
 permanent increase than the former ones."* 
 
 On this subject Major Graham has not, so far as I 
 know, entered at any length. But I quote some remarks 
 by him upon it, merely premising that while they are on 
 the whole important and just, they yet appear to pro- 
 ceed on at least one insecure assumption — namely, that 
 the number of births to each generation would neces- 
 sarily grow less as the age of women at marriage 
 increased — an assumption which is rendered doubtful 
 by the demonstration of the variations, according to 
 age at marriage, of fecundity, fertility, and other im- 
 portant circumstances already mentioned in this chap- 
 ter. " The proportion of children to a marriage," says 
 Graham, " and consequently the population, are regu- 
 lated, not so much or so immediately by the numbers of 
 the people who marry as by the age at which marriage is 
 contracted. The mothers and fathers of nearly half of 
 the children now born are under 30 years of age ; 
 and if all the women who attain the age of 30 should 
 marry, and none should marry before that age is 
 attained, the births would decline to about two-thirds 
 and if the marriage age were postponed to 35 the 
 births would fall to one-third part of the present 
 number : so the population would rapidly decline ; 
 
 * Law nf Pnpulation, vol. ii. p. 281. 
 
170 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 
 firstly, because the number of births to each generation 
 would grow less ; and secondly, because, as the interval 
 between the births of successive generations would 
 increase, and the duration of life by hypothesis remain 
 the same, the numbers living contemporaneously — in 
 other words, the population — would be farther dimi- 
 nished."* 
 
 The most valuable contribution to this discus- 
 sion of which I know, is afforded by the Committee of 
 the Statistical Society of London, to whose labours 
 I have repeatedly made reference. My own remarks 
 at the beginning of this chapter are confirmatory of 
 those of the committee, from whose report I now quote : 
 " From this abstract (Table LXVI.)t it is obvious, that 
 of the three first periods, the children born of marriages 
 formed in the quinquennial term of life 21-25, are sub- 
 ject to a less rate of mortality than those of the period 
 immediately preceding or immediately following. The 
 rate of mortality in the most advanced period, 31-35, is 
 very irregular, and no doubt arises from the small number 
 
 * Census 1851. Report, vol. i. p. xlvi. 
 
 t TABLE LXVI. 
 
 Years 
 elapsed since 
 Birth of First 
 
 Clnld. 
 
 Mortality per cent of the Children bom to 
 Marriages formed at ages — 
 
 16-20 
 
 21-25 
 
 26-30 
 
 31-35 
 
 10 
 20 
 30 
 40 
 
 36-87 
 47-44 
 63-03 
 63-12 
 
 37-09 
 43-10 
 43-89 
 57-14 
 
 37-89 
 44-36 
 48-53 
 68-00 
 
 35-48 
 16-67 
 64-29 
 50-00 
 
ADULT POPULATION. 
 
 171 
 
 of families included in that group. The two preceding 
 series of facts furnish materials for the solution of a very- 
 interesting and highly important question — namely, 
 what is the effect of the marriages formed at those dif- 
 ferent tems of life on the ultimate increase of popula- 
 tion ? By the first (Table XLI.) of the two preceding 
 abstracts it was found, that the earlier the period of life 
 at which marriage was contracted the greater the num- 
 ber of children born ; but by the second abstract (Table 
 LXVI.) a difference is observable in the rate of mor- 
 tality of the various periods, and this must disturb the 
 results in the first class of facts. 
 
 " Let a represent the results given in the first ab- 
 stract, h represent those given in the second ; then 
 
 the actual increase resulting from each mar- 
 
 a 
 
 100 
 
 riage to the population. The following is an abstract 
 of the results thus arrived at : — 
 
 TABLE LXVII. 
 
 Years 
 elapsed since 
 
 Children alive by each Marriage contracted at the 
 following ages. 
 
 birth of first 
 child. 
 
 16-20 
 
 21-25 
 
 26-30 
 
 31-35 
 
 10 
 20 
 30 
 40 
 
 3-19 
 4-04 
 3-95 
 4-00 
 
 2-84 
 4-09 
 4-43 
 3-53 
 
 2-75 
 3-58 
 3-50 
 1-60 
 
 2-22 
 2-50 
 2-50 
 2-00 
 
 It hence follows that marriages formed under 25 years 
 of age increase the population more than those formed 
 above that age ; and on a close examination it will be 
 found that there is very little difference in this respect 
 
172 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 
 between marriages contracted at ages 16-20 and 21-25, 
 the rate of increase, however, being somewhat higher in 
 the former period. With regard to the last two quin- 
 quennial terms at which marriage is formed, it will be 
 seen that the rate of increase is not so great for ages 
 26-30 as in that immediately preceding, and in the 
 period 31-35 the rate of increase is still less ; in fact, the 
 earlier the period of marriage the greater the increase 
 resulting to the population, the difference between the 
 first and second periods being very little, between the 
 second and third very considerable, about 23 per cent, 
 and between the third and fourth about 20 per cent. 
 
 " In the consideration of these facts and observa- 
 tions, although they relate to 1506 families, from 
 which have resulted 8034 births, and of which 4616 
 children, or 57"46 per cent, are stiU alive, it must be 
 borne in mind that they include only one class of the 
 community, and may be subject to disturbing influ- 
 ences, such as to destroy their character as a type of 
 the general population ; however, there is reason to 
 suppose that these results may be a more faithful 
 representative of the condition of the whole population, 
 than if they were derived from a like number of 
 facts from either the middling or higher classes of 
 society. On reflection, it will also be found, that the 
 unfruitful marriages are not included in any of these 
 1506 families, aU included being more or less produc- 
 tive. Likewise, the marriages are all those in which 
 one or both the parents are still alive, and conse- 
 quently the results of fruitful marriages, in which the 
 
ADULT POPULATION. 173 
 
 parents have died before tlie lapse of the given period 
 of years brought under review, are excluded. An 
 influence, independent of the relative number of mar- 
 riages at each age, "wUl further affect the results arising 
 from the varying rates of mortality at the different 
 terms of life, even when equal numbers only at those 
 periods are considered ; and it will follow, that fewer 
 marriages of limited fruitfulness will be excluded from 
 the groups at the younger ages, the effect of which 
 must be to show in the preceding figures a reduced 
 ratio of children at each marriage formed at those 
 periods of life, compared with that which would appear 
 were all cases included. The relative bearing of all 
 the results is therefore so far modified. Also, the 
 children stiU alive, composing 57' id per cent of all 
 born, may, subsequent to the period now under observa- 
 tion, and when classified according to the ages at 
 marriage of their parents, show a very different rate of 
 mortality from that indicated in the respective classes 
 by those who have hitherto died, and stUl more 
 extended observations would be required to show, 
 whether any and what difference exists in the fruitful- 
 ness of the marriages in the succeeding generation. 
 Lastly, all these remarks have had reference to the 
 age of the mother only, at birth of her first child."* 
 
 * Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. xi. 1848, 
 p. 224. 
 
174 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE COMPARISON OF THE FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY 
 OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES. 
 
 I KNOW of no comparisons of tlie fecundity of different 
 peoples — i.e. of the proportional number of married 
 women who bear any children, who are not sterile. 
 To give to such comparison any physiological value, it 
 will be necessary to establish uniformity in the con- 
 dition of age of the women at marriage, as it has been 
 demonstrated that fecundity varies greatly according 
 to the variations of this circumstance. 
 
 Some approach may, however, be made to a com- 
 parison, not of the fecundity simply, but of the actual 
 fecundity of the whole marriages in England and Scot- 
 land. On this point, the reports of Major Graham 
 and Dr. Stark may be quoted. " A great number of 
 married people," says the former, " have no children 
 living ; and it was shown in the previous report, from 
 a limited but perhaps a sufficient number of facts, that 
 about 28 in 100 married pairs had no children residing 
 with them on the census night. From other observa- 
 tions, it may be estimated, however, that not more 
 than 20 in 100 families are childless, and consequently 
 
OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES. 175 
 
 that about 80 in 100 have children living."* This 
 rough estimate of the fecundity of English women 
 tallies very closely with that made for Scotland by Dr. 
 Stark. " Taking," says he, " two of the largest registra- 
 tion districts of Glasgow, it was found that of 14,523 
 married persons living together, 11,718 had children 
 living with them ; while 2805 had no children with 
 them. This would jdeld the proportion of 80 "6 8 6 per 
 cent with children, and 19 '3 14 per cent without child- 
 ren ; or, without the decimals, that in every 100 
 married couples, 81 had children, while 19 had none."t 
 
 I have already, in speaking of twins, shown how 
 fallacious a test of the fertility of a people their fre- 
 quency probably is. It has been used, however, as an 
 index of such fertility. 
 
 Dr. Stark has tried another plan of ascertaining 
 the comparative fertility of England and Scotland. 
 After pointing out that more children are born to each 
 marriage in Scotland than in England, he proceeds as 
 follows : — " But the comparison may be carried further 
 and closer, by ascertaining the exact number of the 
 married women at the child-bearing ages, and com- 
 paring their number with that of the legitimate births. 
 This ascertains to a nicety the fact we are in search of — 
 viz. the comparative fruitfulness of the married women 
 in England and in Scotland. In Scotland, in 1 8 6 1, there 
 were 305,524 married women between the ages of 15 
 and 45 years ; and as, during that year, there occurred 
 
 Census of 1851, vol. i. p. xliii. 
 t Census of Scotland, 1861, vol. ii. p. xxxvi. 
 
176 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY 
 
 97,180 legitimate births, it is clear that every 314 
 married women at the child-bearing ages gave birth 
 to 100 children during the year. In England, on the 
 other hand, during the same year, there were 2,319,641 
 married women between the ages of 15 and 45 years; 
 and as, during that year, there were born 652,249 
 legitimate children, it is apparent that every 355 
 married women at the child-bearing ages gave birth to 
 100 children. In other words, while Scotland required 
 only 314 married women annually to produce 100 
 legitimate children, England required 355 married 
 women (or 41 married women more) to produce the 
 same number. These striking facts, therefore, estab- 
 lish the pre-eminent vitality of the Scottish population, 
 and seem also to indicate that nature, in order to com- 
 pensate for the smaller proportion of marriages, renders 
 the married females more prolific."* 
 
 It appears to me that here Dr. Stark is satisfied 
 with insufiicient evidence. Before settling anything, 
 it is necessary to inquire if the interesting figures 
 quoted can be accounted for in any other way than by 
 supposing a pre-eminent vitality or fertility of the 
 Scottish people ; and there appear to me to be 
 several such ways. I agree with Major Graham, who 
 suggests one out of several explanations of this differ- 
 ence between England and Scotland, in considering it 
 to be not necessary to assume that there is any essen- 
 tial difference in the organisation, the fecundity, or the 
 
 * Census 1861. Report, vol. ii. p. xxviii. 
 
OP different: peoples. 177 
 
 virtue of the women living north and south of the 
 Tweed, 
 
 "The number (says Graham) of children to a 
 marriage appears to be greater in Scotland than in Eng- 
 land, and this is held to be a proof that married women 
 are more prolific in Scotland than in England. 
 
 "Proceeding upon another basis, the annual num- 
 ber of legitimate children registered in England was 
 626,506 in the five years 1856-60 ; when the average 
 number of wives of the age 15-55, determined directly 
 from the census returns of 1851 and 1861, was 
 2,843,374 ; consequently 100 wives bore 22'0 children 
 annually. In like manner it is found that 100 unmar- 
 ried women bore on an average 1'7 illegitimate child- 
 ren ; that is, 17 children to 1000 women. 100 women, 
 including the married and unmarried, bear 12"3 child- 
 ren annually on an average. 
 
 " In Scotland, during the same years, the following 
 proportions were found to exist : 100 wives bore 24 '8 
 children annually, 100 spinsters or widows bore 1"9 
 illegitimate children ; and 100 women bore 12'0 child- 
 ren, legitimate or illegitimate. 
 
 " The wives of Scotland, as weU as the spinsters, 
 
 are apparently more prolific than the corresponding 
 
 classes in England ; and yet, taken collectively, 
 
 the women of England are more prolific than the 
 
 women of Scotland. 1000 English women (age 15-55) 
 
 bear 123 registered children annually; while 1000 
 
 Scotch women bear 120 children. The difference is 
 
 slight, but it is in favour of the English women. 
 
 N 
 
178 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY 
 
 "This appears at first sight to be contradictory 
 and paradoxical. It is explained by the circumstance 
 that the proportion of recognised wives in the popula- 
 tion is much lower in proportion in Scotland than it is 
 in England, and as the fecundity of wives is to that of 
 spinsters as 13 to 1, a slight difference in the propor- 
 tions alters the birth-rates of the two populations. The 
 difference in this respect between England and Scot- 
 land is great ; in England 52 in 100 women of the age 
 15-55 are wives, 48 only are spinsters and widows; in 
 Scotland the proportions are reversedly 44 recognised 
 wives to 56 spinsters and widows. 
 
 "By altering the proportions in Scotland, for in- 
 stance by transferring 57,608 women from the ranks 
 of the unmarried to the married women, and by trans- 
 ferring 2130 children from the ranks of the iUegitunate 
 to the legitimate children, the fecundity of women — of 
 the wives and of the spinsters — of Scotland becomes 
 the same as the fecundity of the corresponding classes 
 in England — namely, wives having children 22*034 
 per cent, spinsters and widows 1'676 ; instead of 
 24*790 and 1"916 per cent; and when the transfer is 
 made, the proportions remaining stiU show a less 
 excess of women living in the state of marriage in 
 Scotland than in England."* 
 
 These passages illustrate forcibly the difficulty of 
 establishing a comparison between the fertilities of two 
 countries, even when they are in so many respects 
 
 * Twenty -seventh Annual Report of the Registrar-General, 1866, 
 p. xxi. 
 
OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES. 179 
 
 alike as is England to Scotland. There are two ways 
 of making this comparison justly. I, of course, imply 
 not a mere jirxtaposition of the actual fertilities ; that 
 is already made ; but an estimation of the comparative 
 fertilities ; and this word, when applied to a people, 
 cannot be construed so as to exclude the element of 
 fecundity (or sterility). 
 
 The first is the direct method. A number of 
 women, married at the same age and under other re- 
 spectively similar circumstances, are compared with 
 one another, as to their families, after having lived in 
 wedlock, all, the same number of years. 
 
 The second or indirect method is difficult and 
 complicated. Of it, Dr. Stark may be said to have 
 made the first step. The further progress to a true 
 result by this method consists in correcting Dr. 
 Stark's result by eliminating from it all errors whose 
 source is suspected ; in other words, by correcting it for 
 all known causes of possible error. Of these the chief 
 probably are the fertility of different ages at marriage, 
 and the fecundity of different ages ; the mortality of 
 primiparse and multiparse at different ages ; and the 
 survival of labour at different ages. 
 
 For further elaboration of this topic I refer to the 
 sixth part of this volume by Professor Tait. 
 
 This completes my remarks on the fertility of mar- 
 ried women. But the subject is susceptible of further 
 interesting developments, by an inverted method of 
 proceeding, which I proceed to carry out. 
 
180 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY. 
 
 It is evident that the conclusions arrived at in this 
 part, or others stUl more definite, can alone form a sure 
 basis for speculation in the great questions in political 
 economy regarding population, and the various means 
 of increasing it, or of retarding its excessive growth. 
 And it is to be hoped that the promoters of that science 
 will avaU themselves of information which Malthus, 
 Sadler, and their followers, evidently desired ardently 
 to possess. 
 
 But it is not to the political economist alone that 
 such information is valuable. It will form an element 
 in the guidance of social life, and will certainly greatly 
 contribute to the wisdom in councU of the well-informed 
 medical practitioner. 
 
PAET V. 
 
 ON SOME LAWS OF THE STEEILITY OF WOMEN. 
 
 Before commencing a discussion on the subject, it is 
 necessary to make some definitions, with a view to 
 avoiding the confusion which extensively prevails, 
 from the neglect of the all-important definition of 
 terms. I might be even more exact than I shall be, 
 and excuse myself from adopting such a seeming im- 
 provement, on the ground that further refinement of 
 definition would itself cause confusion in the present 
 stage of advancement of our knowledge. 
 
 Absolute sterility I shall hold to mean the condition 
 of a woman who, under ordinary favourable circum- 
 stances for breeding, produces no living or dead child, 
 nor any kind of abortion. 
 
 Sterility I shall hold to mean the condition of a 
 woman who, under ordinary favourable circumstances 
 for breeding, adds not even one to the population, or 
 produces no living and viable child. 
 
 Relative sterility I shall hold to mean the condi- 
 tion of a woman who, while she may or may not be 
 sterile, is, under ordinary favourable circumstances for 
 breeding, sterile in relation to the circumstance of 
 time ; or, in other words, in relation to her age, and 
 the duration of her married life. 
 
182 STERILITY OF MARRIAGES 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 STERILITY OP MAKRIAGES IN THE POPULATION. 
 
 Under this head, the age at marriage, and the dura- 
 tion of it, are not regarded. We simply compare the 
 number of people living in the married state, without 
 and with living children. The only information I 
 have on this point is derived from the writings of 
 Major Graham,'^'' and Dr. Stark.t "It is a pity," 
 says the latter, "that when the census was taken 
 up, a query had not been put to every married woman 
 whether she had borne children. We have at present 
 no means of ascertaining what proportion of the mar- 
 riages proves unfruitful ; and it is no criterion to 
 ascertain the number of married persons who had 
 children living with them on the night of the census. 
 Married persons who had a numerous family may 
 have none with them, because they are grown up, or 
 are absent at schools or trades. We kuow, however, 
 from other sources, that a considerable proportion of 
 
 * Census of England, 1851, vol. i. p. xliii., of Eeports by Messrs. 
 Graham, Farr, and Mann. 
 
 t Census of Scotland, 1861. Population Tables and Eeport. 
 vol. ii. p. xxxvi. 
 
IN THE POPULA.TION. 183 
 
 marriages proves unfruitful ; and as it was shown that 
 the married women of Scotland produce more children 
 in proportion to their number than the married women 
 of England, it would have been extremely interesting 
 to have ascertained whether that depended on more of 
 the Scottish married women being fruitful." 
 
 " As it may," continues Dr. Stark, " however, give. 
 a distant approximation, it may be stated, that taking 
 two of the largest registration districts of Glasgow, 
 it was found that of 14,523 married persons liv- 
 ing together, 11,718 had children living with them; 
 while 2805 had no children with them. This would 
 jdeld the proportion of 80 '6 8 6 per cent with children, 
 and 19 '3 14 per cent without children; or, without the 
 decimals, that in every 100 married couples, 81 had 
 children, while 19 had none. These numbers may be 
 safely taken as the proportion in the town populations, 
 seeing that for each district the proportions came out 
 within a very small decimal fraction of one another ; 
 also from the circumstance, that in other tables which 
 have been published in the Eegistrar-General's Second 
 Detailed Annual Report, relative to the proportions of 
 children borne by mothers at different ages in Edin- 
 burgh and in Glasgow, the results of the one town 
 almost exactly corresponded with those of the other." 
 
 I now quote from the report of the English Ee- 
 gistrar-General : — " A great number of married people 
 have no children living; and it was shown in the 
 previous report, from a limited but perhaps a sufficient 
 number of facts, that about 28 in 100 married pairs 
 
184 STERILITY OF MARRIAGES. 
 
 had no children residing with them on the census 
 night. From other observations, it may be estimated, 
 however, that not more than 20 in 100 families are 
 childless, and consequently that about 80 in 100 have 
 children li%ang." 
 
STERILITY OF WIVES. 185 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 STERILITY OF WIVES. 
 
 The wives who do not increase the population may be 
 called sterile. But a wife who has one or several 
 abortions, or who bears one or several dead children, 
 or to whom both of these events happen, adds not a 
 unit to the population ; and such a wife cannot be 
 said to be absolutely sterile. In order to discover the 
 amount of sterility of married women, I proceed on 
 the following plan. I take the registers of Ediaburgh 
 and Glasgow for 1855, and find what is the number 
 of first children produced in that year. With this I 
 compare the number of marriages in that year. It is 
 evident that the number of first children only should 
 be counted, for they indicate all the wives who are 
 not sterile. If one living child is born to a marriage, 
 that marriage is not sterile. Further, it is evident 
 that, although the first births in 1855 will not all per- 
 tain to the women married in that year, it may be 
 assumed that, if the marriages be nearly the same in 
 number for a few contiguous years, the first births ia 
 one year wiU give the fertility very accurately of any 
 
186 STERILITY OF WIVES. 
 
 of the contiguous years. From this fertility the 
 sterility can be easily computed. 
 
 Now, in 1855 there were, in Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow, 4447 marriages, and 3722 first deliveries of living 
 children, leaving 725 marriages sterUe, or 1 ia 6"1. 
 But in these figures are included 75 marriages which 
 did not take place till after the women had passed 
 forty-four years of age, and these will damage the 
 physiological value of the statement, as these 75 
 women could not be expected to be prolific. 
 
 Of women between the ages of fifteen and forty- 
 four inclusive, there were married 4372 j among wives 
 of the same ages, 3710 had first children, leaving 654 
 marriages sterUe, or 1 in 6 "6. In other words, 15 per 
 cent of all the marriages between fifteen and forty- 
 four years of age, as they occur in our population, are 
 sterile. 
 
 The statement of the amount of sterility just given 
 appears to me, from the largeness of the figures used, 
 to be far more valuable than any other I know of 
 But on account of their great interest, I shall quote 
 the statements of two authors : ''' — " In the Dictionnaire 
 des Sciences Medicates (vol. vi. p. 245 ; see also Neue 
 Abhandlungen der Schivedischen Akademie der Wis- 
 senschaften, vol. xi. p. 70), it is stated," says Sir James 
 
 * Lever's statement I here submit, but I cannot ascribe much 
 value to it, because no evidence is adduced, and because there is 
 an evident numerical error in some part of the passage. He says, 
 " It is found that ^th, or 5 per cent, of married women are wholly 
 unprolific." — Organic Diseases of Uterus, p. 5. 
 
STERILITY OF WIVES. 187 
 
 Y. Simpson * " that Hedin, a Swedish minister, had 
 noticed that in his parish, composed of 800 souls, one 
 barren woman is not met with for ten fertile. It is 
 further stated that Frank asserted, but from what 
 data is not mentioned, that it would be found on 
 investigation, that in most communities containing 
 300 to 400 couples, at least six or seven would be 
 sterile, without anything in their physical condition 
 to explain the fact. It seems to have been from this 
 assertion of Frank's, that Burdach, who is almost the 
 only author who even alludes to the matter, has given 
 the general statement that one marriage only in fifty 
 is unproductive (Dr. Allen Thomson's excellent essay 
 on Generation, in Todd's Cyclopcedia, vol. ii. p. 478, 
 footnote). 
 
 " For the purpose of ascertaining the point by 
 numerical data, I had a census taken of two villages 
 of considerable size — viz. Grangemouth in Stirling- 
 shire, and Bathgate in West Lothian — the one con- 
 sisting principally of a seafaring population, and the 
 other of persons engaged in agriculture and manu- 
 facture. 
 
 " The following form the results in these two 
 places: — Of 210 marriages in Grangemouth, 182 had 
 offspring; 27 had none; or about 1 marriage in 10 
 was without issue. Of the 27 unproductive marriages, 
 all the subjects had lived in wedlock upwards of 5 
 years, and in all, the female had been married that 
 period before she reached the age of 45. Again, of 402 
 
 * Obstetric Works, vol. i. p. 323. 
 
188 STEKILITY OF WIVES. 
 
 marriages in Bathgate, 365 had offspring; 37 had 
 none; or about 1 marriage in 11 was unproductive. 
 There were at the same time living in the village 122 
 relicts of marriages, and of these 102 were mothers; 
 20 were not mothers ; or about 1 in 6 had no family. 
 In all, of 467 wives and widows, 410 had offspring; 
 57 had none; or about 1 marriage in 8 was unpro- 
 ductive. Of these last 57, 6 had not been 5 years 
 married, and there were other 6 above the age of 45 
 when married. If we subtract these 12, we have, of 
 455 marriages, 410 productive; 45 unproductive; or 1 
 in lOith without issue. 
 
 " Returns such as I have just now adduced are 
 exceedingly difficult to obtain, in consequence of no 
 registers being anywhere kept, so far as. I know, that 
 could be brought to bear upon the question. If it had 
 been otherwise, I would here, if possible, have gladly 
 appealed to a larger body of statistical facts, in order 
 to arrive at a more certain and determinate average of 
 the proportion of unproductive marriages in the general 
 community. For the purpose, however, of extendiag 
 this basis of data, I have analysed, with some 
 care and trouble, the history of 503 marriages, detailed 
 by Sharpe, in his work on the British Peerage for 
 1833. Among British peers there were 401 marriages 
 with issue; 102 without issue; or of 503 existing mar- 
 riages among British peers ia 1833, 74 were without 
 issue after a period of 5 years. Of those who had not 
 yet lived in the married state for 5 years, 28 were stOl 
 .without family; and in Burke's Peerage for 1842 
 
STERILITY OF WIVES. 189 
 
 there still remained among these 28 marriages, 7 with- 
 out issue, making 81 as the total number of unpro- 
 ductive marriages among the original 503 ; or the pro- 
 portion of the unproductive to the productive marriages 
 among this number is, as nearly as possible, 1 in 6|-. 
 In the above calculation I have excluded 8 unpro- 
 ductive marriages, in which the age of the husband at 
 the date of marriage exceeded 56. These 8, however, 
 ought to be deducted from the original sum of total 
 marriages that were included ; or, in other words, the 
 503 should be reduced to 495, and then the whole 
 result would stand thus : — Among 495 marriages in the 
 British peerage, 81 were unproductive, or 1 in 61 were 
 without any family." The proportion of unproductive 
 marriages in Grangemouth, Bathgate, and the British 
 peerage, all taken together, was found by Simpson to 
 be 1 in 8|-. 
 
 Dr. West* states that he found the general average 
 of sterUe marriages among his patients at St. Bartho- 
 lomew's Hospital to be 1 sterile marriage in every 8'5.t 
 
 * Diseases of Women, 3d edition, p. 3. 
 
 t A statement of the sterility of Esquimaux women is given 
 by Eoberton, Essays and Notes on the Fhysiology and Diseases of 
 Women, p. 53. 
 
1.90 ABSOLUTE STERILITY 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 ABSOLUTE STERILITY OF WIVES. 
 
 In order to arrive at the absolute fertility, or, con- 
 versely, at the absolute sterility, of, the wives in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, it is necessary to add to the 
 number of wives bearing first living children the num- 
 ber of those who bear only dead children or abortions. 
 The number of abortions has been variously esti- 
 mated by Graunt, Short, Whitehead, and others. The 
 number of children born dead has been the subject of 
 much investigation, among others by Jacquemier, 
 Boudin, and Legoyt. But were our information on 
 these points very exact, it would not help us in this 
 inquiry. For our purpose, the desideratum is not the 
 number of abortions in a number of pregnancies, nor 
 the number of children born dead in a number of 
 births, but the proportional number of married women 
 who produce nought else than abortions or dead child- 
 ren, who, while not absolutely sterUe, yet add none to 
 the population. Of this class of wives I know of no 
 estimate.* I believe they are few, and I leave the 
 
 * The following extract from the work of Dr. West on Diseases 
 of Women (3d edit. p. 367), may be of some value. It refers to 
 
OF WIVES. 191 
 
 statement of the sterile as a near approximation to a 
 correct statement of the absolutely sterile. 
 
 the histories of a set of poor women labouring under uterine cancer. 
 "There were but two out of the whole 150 women whose preg- 
 nancy had issued merely in abortion." 
 
192 STERILITY ACCORDING TO AGE. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 STERILITY ACCORDING TO THE AGES OP WIVES. 
 
 To illustrate the variations of sterility according to 
 age, I bring forward the accompanying Table 
 (LXVIII.) 
 
 "With the numbers of marriages taking place in 
 Bdiiib"urgh and G-lasgow in 1855, at different ages of 
 the wives, are compared the numbers of first children 
 born in the. same year to wives married at the same 
 ages in that year or previously. The number of sterile 
 wives is got by subtracting the latter figures from the 
 former, and the percentage of sterile marriages is given 
 in the penultimate horizontal line. 
 
 So far as the numbers are to be relied upon, we 
 have from this table the interestiag results, that about 
 7 per cent of all the marriages between 15 and 19 
 years of age inclusive, and as they occur in. our popu- 
 lation, are without offspring; that those married at 
 ages from 20 to 24 inclusive are almost aU fertile ; and 
 that after that age sterility gradually increases ac- 
 cording to the greater age at the time of marriage. 
 
STERILITY ACCOEDING TO AGE. 
 
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194 EXPECTATION OF STERILITY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EXPECTATION OF STERILITY. 
 
 The main element in the expectation of sterility is the 
 age of the woman at marriage. This has just been 
 described. But, besides this, our statistics suggest to 
 us other laws as to the expectation of sterility. Of 
 these the first is : — 
 
 That the question of a woman's being probably 
 sterile is decided in three years of married life. For 
 whUe a large number are fertile for a first time in each 
 of the first three years of married life, only 7 per cent 
 of the fertile bear first children after three years of 
 marriage, or about 1 in 13. (Table LXIX.) 
 
 This same table affords us a second law of expec- 
 tation of sterility : — 
 
 That when the expectation of fertility is greatest, 
 the question of probable sterility is soonest decided, and 
 vice versa. For our tables show that of the wives 
 married from 20 to 24 who are all fertile, only 6 "2 per 
 cent begin to breed after three years of marriage; 
 while at the other ages, with less fecundity, a greater 
 percentage commences after the completion of the 
 third year of marriage. 
 
EXPECTATION OF STERILITY. 
 
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19G ' RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 Here I take into consideration only those who 
 have borne children — -only those who are not sterile. 
 Of course all these wives, if they survive in wedlock, 
 will sooner or later become relatively sterile. Now,, I 
 have already shown that the prolongation of fertility 
 was greater according as the age at marriage was less. 
 From this conclusion it is easy to derive one in regard 
 to relative sterility, to the effect that — .. 
 
 Relative sterility loill arrive after a shorter time 
 according as the age at marriage is greater. The 
 demonstration of these propositions is arrived at by 
 showing the proportional numbers bearing at different 
 years of married life, according to age at marriage. 
 This is an indirect way of proceeding, but it is the 
 only one I can find available, while I have no docu- 
 ments giving the ages of mothers at marriage, and their 
 ages at birth of last children, the mothers continuing 
 to live in wedlock. 
 
RELATIVE STEKILITY. 
 
 197 
 
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198 RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 Table LXX. gives the calculated amounts of 
 sterility at different periods of married life in women 
 married at different ages. It is needless to enter on 
 the method of construction of this Table. It is merely 
 the complement of Table LIV., given already, where 
 full details are stated. I shall only add, that this 
 Table is all calculated for 20 months, with a view to 
 giving the nearest accurate estimate, 20 months being 
 what I have called the time-unit of fertility, the 
 shortest time within which all women may be expected 
 to show fertility if they possess it. 
 
 In my remarks on the fertility of elderly women 
 (p. 162) I gave reason for believing that there was no 
 prolongation of the reproductive powers beyond ordi- 
 nary ages in the case of women married late in life. 
 In the same part (p. 140) I showed that the greater a 
 woman's age at marriage, the shorter is her era of child- 
 bearing; or, in other words, the less is her persever- 
 ance in fertility. But in neither of the chapters re- 
 ferred to have I pointed out what Professor Tait has 
 shown (p. 216) regarding the advent of relative sterility. 
 His table (No. LXXXIV.) shows that— 
 
 The older a fertile woman is at marriage, the 
 older is she before her fertility is exhausted ; that is, 
 before the advent of relative sterility. 
 
 Similar results are deducible from Table LXXL, 
 to which I refer the reader for actual numbers, not of 
 fertility, as in Professor Tait's, but of sterility. This 
 law, then, of the advent of sterility does not modify 
 the other closely-placed laws already alluded to. It 
 does not touch the question of the fertility of elderly 
 
RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 199 
 
 women, nor the varying perseverance in fertility of 
 women married at different ages ; it merely shows 
 that, although it is true that the older a fertile woman, 
 the shorter is her era of fertility, or the sooner does she 
 arrive at sterility ; yet this era of fertility, shortened 
 in proportion to age at marriage, carries the subject of 
 it into greater actual ages of fertility than are reached 
 by the earlier married.* 
 
 * I here subjoin a Table identical with the preceding (LXX.), 
 except that it is corrected for sterility, as the similar Tables in Part 
 lY. have been amended. 
 
 TABLE LXXL — SHOwma the Eelative Stekilitt oe a Mass oe Pebtile 
 Wives Married at dieeerekt Ages, at Successive Periods in Married Life. 
 
 Age of Mother at Marriage . 
 
 16-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 Total. 
 
 Proportion Sterile atout the | 
 5th year of Married life is >- 
 about 1 in ... . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of ... . 
 
 3-27 
 30-6 
 
 2-61 
 38-3 
 
 2-25 
 44-5 
 
 2-16 
 46-2 
 
 1-51 
 66-0 
 
 2-46 
 40-6 
 
 Proportion Sterile about the ] 
 10th year of Married Life > 
 is about 1 in . . . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of . ^. 
 
 2-25 
 44-5 
 
 1-71 
 58-3 
 
 1-66 
 60-3 
 
 1-44 
 69-2 
 
 
 1-74 
 57-3 
 
 Proportion Sterile about the ) 
 15th year of Married Life > 
 is about 1 in . . . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of 
 
 1-66 
 60-3 
 
 1-32 
 
 76-5 
 
 1-14 
 87-3 
 
 1-07 
 92-9 
 
 
 1-31 
 76-2 
 
 Proportion Sterile about the 1 
 20th year of Married Life > 
 is about 1 in ) 
 
 Or a percentage of . 
 
 1-27 
 78-9 
 
 1-13 
 
 88-6 
 
 1-02 
 98-3 
 
 
 
 1-13 
 
 88-7 
 
 Proportion Stei-ile about the ) 
 25th year of Married Life > 
 is about 1 in . . . ) 
 
 Or a percentage of 
 
 1-03 
 
 97-4 
 
 1-00 
 99-62 
 
 
 
 
 1-01 
 99-01 
 
200 EXPECTATrON OF RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EXPECTATION OF RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 As a sort of appendix, I produce five tables, giving 
 all the details of the expectation of continued fertility, 
 and, conversely, of relative sterility. These tables not 
 only give data for calculating the chances of relative 
 sterility, but also for calculating the probable number 
 of the famUy produced in women at different ages 
 becoming relatively sterile. To enter further upon 
 these considerations would be merely to give in writ- 
 ing what is more succinctly stated in the tables 
 themselves. 
 
 Lastly, I state a law of relative sterility for which 
 I do not here adduce the numerical proofs, these 
 having already been given in the former part. This 
 law is, that — 
 
 A wife who, having had children, has ceased for 
 three years to exhibit fertility, has probably become 
 relatively sterile ; that is, will probably bear no more 
 children ; and the probability increases as time 
 elapses. For the probability of sterility only com- 
 me]ices after three years of sterile marriage. Further, 
 the data given in Table XXXIV. show that fertile 
 
o 
 
 o 
 w 
 
 P^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 CO 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 I-H 
 CO 
 
 
 (7^ 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 03 
 
 i:^ 
 
 lb 
 
 1-H 
 
 1-H 
 133 
 I-H 
 T-H 
 
 CO 
 
 Ji 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CJO 
 
 
 
 
 lb 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■ 
 
 . 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 >o 
 
 < 
 
 > 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 OS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lb 
 
 00 
 
 : 
 
 
 ; 
 
 * 
 
 : 
 
 
 1-H 
 
 OO 
 
 CO 
 
 ; 
 
 ; 
 
 r~1 
 
 J;- 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 ,^3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 133 
 
 
 
 
 'P 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 T-H 
 
 S<) 
 
 1-H 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 CO 
 
 CM 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■s 
 
 : 
 
 : 
 
 CN 
 
 CO 
 
 (M 
 
 o 
 
 I-H 
 
 00 
 
 : 
 
 : 
 
 lO 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 t- 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 I-H 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 1-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 oo 
 
 CO 
 
 ' 
 
 : 
 
 CO 
 
 C33 
 
 I-H 
 
 ^ 
 
 I— t 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 OS 
 
 <M 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 •P 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 
 Ki 
 
 lO 
 
 C5 
 
 I-H 
 
 lO 
 
 
 X:- 
 
 
 a> 
 
 
 
 (M 
 
 
 r-H 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 ir^ 
 
 
 l-H 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 -73 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 to 
 
 i-H 
 
 O 
 
 00 
 CO 
 
 4|H 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 00 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 6i 
 
 T— 1 
 1—i 
 
 CO 
 I-H 
 
 CO 
 lO 
 
 r— 1 
 
 lb 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 T-H 
 
 CO 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 CO 
 cjl 
 
 <M 
 
 in 
 
 <J3 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 or, 
 
 
 
 »-H 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 c^q 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 ■{;! 
 
 CO 
 
 
 o 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CJ3 
 
 
 C33 
 lO 
 
 (7q 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 1-H 
 
 
 
 ,~^— > 
 
 
 ^— ' ' 
 
 
 /— ^— N 
 
 
 ,—*— > 
 
 
 , ■ , 
 
 
 ,— ^— ^ 
 
 ' 
 
 • 
 
 &0 B 
 
 • 
 
 tao d 
 
 
 l^.g 
 
 
 60 a 
 
 . 
 
 60 a 
 
 
 &C fl 
 
 
 
 
 
 p] 'i-I 
 
 
 
 
 
 a —I 
 
 ^ 
 
 id -rH 
 
 
 
 *P 7— I 
 
 
 'S f"* 
 
 
 V-H 
 
 
 •r I-H 
 
 . 
 
 •p-H 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■>-' 
 
 
 
 •g.s 
 
 
 T-S 
 
 
 V-S 
 
 
 ■g-s 
 
 
 *r| ^M 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 'S cn 
 
 
 c^5 
 
 ^2 
 
 02 'T' 
 
 
 §^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 05 
 CO 
 
 5 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 ^ 
 
 g CO 
 
 CM 
 
 ^ C33 
 
 • 
 
 1 
 o 
 
 CO g 
 
 1 
 
 CO ci 
 
 1 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 GO ^ 
 
 1 
 
 in 
 
 CO 
 
 00 o 
 
 lO CO 
 CO g 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 CD 
 
 cn lo 
 
 t- CO 
 
 CO g 
 
 
 
 5=2 
 
 CD 
 
 o fei 
 
 t 
 
 5cg 
 
 CD 
 
 «<H d 
 
 o 2 
 
 CD += 
 
 g 
 
 5c| 
 
 CD +3 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 TO -rH 
 
 o 
 
 i> cS 
 
 o 
 
 o t3 
 
 ClH ^ 
 
 .2 m 
 1^ g 
 
 cw 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 '§.2 
 
 
 TO .rH 
 
 o ce 
 
 .2 en 
 
 fe 
 
 ^ 
 
 1l 
 
 § 
 
 .2 » 
 1^ ? 
 
 ^ 
 
 g 
 
 .2 c« 
 
 k 
 
 1 
 
 CD 
 
 g 
 
 m 
 
 CD 
 
 > 
 
 W^ 
 
 ;^ 
 
 
 fe 
 
 3 
 
 S^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 £ 
 
 ^ 
 
 £ 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ph 
 
 ^ 
 
 £ 
 
 ^ 
 
 £ 
 
 ^a: 
 
202 EXPECTATION OF 
 
 women bear a child, on an average, about every two 
 years, so long as they remain fecund. The data given 
 in Table XXXVIII. show that successive children ia 
 a family succeed one another with an average interval 
 of about 20 months. To these propositions I have to 
 add the general consent, shown in the same place, that 
 fertile wives breed generally every two years ; conse- 
 quently, that no class breeds, though individuals do, 
 at shorter intervals ; and no class breeds at longer 
 intervals, though individuals do so. Considering these 
 different statements, it is apparent to the student that 
 there is no room left for any but a very inconsiderable 
 number of women to breed at longer intervals than 
 two years. For were there any considerable number 
 of wives breeding at longer intervals, the averages just 
 given would be far overpassed. And some of these 
 averages are, as already shown, considerably less than 
 were believed to be the true averages by writers who 
 were not thinking of the law now demonstrated, but 
 of the ordinary rate of time-fertility of married women. 
 
 Besides being of evident intrinsic value, ths con- 
 clusions here arrived at will afford to medical men 
 means of estimating the utility of the many vaunted 
 methods of curing sterility which are now much in 
 vogue, and which, considering the nature of the con- 
 dition to be cured, justly excite anxiety for the honour 
 of the profession in the minds of its best frieni^s. 
 
RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 203 
 
 ■3 
 1 
 
 S 7" 
 
 ,-1 CO 
 
 rt o 
 CO '^ 
 
 CO 05 
 
 12 - 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 CO 00 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 cq CO 
 
 > 
 
 • 
 
 Cq CO 
 
 I— I 
 
 
 1:- 
 
 
 
 CD 
 i-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 »n 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 • 
 
 i-H !M 
 
 > 
 
 I-H I-H 
 
 (M CD 
 
 
 
 I— 1 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 : • 
 
 CO g 
 
 ^ S 
 
 : : 
 
 -= 5 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 -* 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 lO 
 
 en 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 02 
 
 00 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 I-H 00 
 i-l CO 
 
 -^ § 
 
 - 2 
 
 ,-1 00 
 
 
 l-H 
 
 r-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 CO 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 <M 
 
 05 
 
 '^ 
 
 lO 
 
 lO 
 
 00 ^ 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 "-I CO 
 
 cq CO 
 
 5 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 i-H 
 
 
 +3 
 
 CO 
 
 o -* 
 
 00 
 
 CO (k 
 
 o ■? 
 
 I-H lO 
 
 ^ 
 
 I— ( <— I 
 
 >o 
 
 (7q I-H 
 
 
 
 00 '^ 
 
 ^ o 
 
 I-H T— t 
 
 § s 
 
 CO 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 CO ^ 
 OJ I-H 
 
 <M I-H 
 
 
 o s 
 
 00 
 
 liO 
 
 2 J^ 
 
 
 I-H OS 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 2 
 
 "" CN 
 
 '-' ^ 
 
 ^ (M 
 
 I-H cq 
 
 
 T-i <M 
 
 on 
 
 »o 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 ■^ 00 
 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ oo 
 
 
 
 
 <M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t- 
 
 
 ,-1 ^ 
 
 ^ 00 
 
 -^^ s 
 
 : : 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 -g 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 t- 
 
 ; ; 
 
 ,-( f> 
 
 ; ; 
 
 ; ; 
 
 '-^ S 
 
 1—1 
 
 * 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 ,~^ 
 
 ^~^-^~-. 
 
 ,-~^ 
 
 ,— -'*~— \ 
 
 ,, f- , 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■ f- a 
 
 • A a • 
 
 • & a • 
 
 • i a ■ 
 
 21 i a ■ 
 
 
 S o 
 
 3 o 
 
 3 o 
 
 3 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s°ii ■ 
 
 
 to CO -)^ ' 
 O CO « 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 s =3 g -a 
 
 o '-' p^ 
 
 
 
 » S s 
 
 l-'s.a 
 
 Number of C 
 
 
 
 B? MoT 
 
 
 1 g^.a 
 
 ^£^ 
 
 ^(S 
 
 ^(5 
 
 ^(i; 
 
 ^fM 
 
204 
 
 EXPECTATION OF 
 
 
 CO (O 
 
 
 ^ 2 
 
 Tti 
 
 CD 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 
 § » 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 
 ■-H (TO 
 
 6 
 
 ■^ CO 
 
 : : 
 
 : : 
 
 oq 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 '~* 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 
 
 r— 1 
 
 5 
 
 oq 
 
 6 
 
 : : 
 
 ; I 
 
 oq 
 
 00 
 CO 
 
 Til 
 
 i—i 
 
 
 T— ( 
 
 
 
 
 1-H 
 
 rg 
 
 (M 
 
 6 
 
 
 oq 
 
 
 Tf 
 
 1-1 n 
 
 0^ QO 
 
 • ■ 
 
 rH CO 
 
 ■* 
 
 CO 
 
 P— ( 
 
 to 
 
 iX> 
 
 
 oq 
 
 
 1> 
 
 o 
 
 (a 
 oq «o 
 
 
 oq 
 
 1-1 00 
 
 : : 
 
 
 oq 
 
 1-H 
 
 ■3 
 
 an 
 
 ^ oq 
 
 
 oq o5 
 
 CO 
 
 Ah 
 
 oq CO 
 
 1— i 
 
 i-t 
 
 
 •5 
 
 00 
 
 sq 2 
 
 
 
 oq 
 
 1-1 CD 
 
 oq 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 oq 
 
 
 
 
 ^ oq 
 "^ oq 
 
 s s 
 
 2 "O 
 
 CO 
 
 : : 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
 to 
 
 CO 
 
 '^ oq 
 
 
 1:^ 
 
 1— < 
 
 oq 
 
 W CO 
 
 oq 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 6 
 
 lO 
 
 rg 
 
 V 
 
 2 -^ 
 
 
 05 
 
 1-1 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 in 
 
 " Tt< 
 
 ^ I- 
 
 l-t 
 
 oq 
 
 00 
 
 ^ 
 
 CD i) 
 
 6 
 
 1—i 
 oq 05 
 
 oq 
 
 1-1 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 ih 
 
 "* 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 oq 
 
 
 oq 
 
 CO 
 
 i) 
 
 oq 
 
 oq 
 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 oq CO 
 
 lO J^ 
 
 rH 00 
 
 • • 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 oq 
 
 oq 
 
 1-^ 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 oq 
 
 J— ( 
 
 
 : : 
 
 : : 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 05 
 
 
 cq 
 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 ^ CO 
 
 
 '■ '• 
 
 = = 
 
 T-i 
 
 cn 
 oq 
 
 
 ;:* M Tii ■ 
 
 <3i O tJ • 
 
 S cq 'ts 
 
 S CM '^ ■ 
 
 OT • 
 
 to Td • 
 
 
 ^9 CO (u 
 
 
 ^ OO o 
 
 '^ CO QJ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 O lO "S 
 
 lO CO C 
 
 o t-'s: 
 
 lO fN 'C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1^1-9 
 
 s ss-=^ 
 
 ^ ^'^■^ 
 
 ^ ^^-^ 
 
 ^ • 
 
 -Sg-^ 
 
 
 60 <D ^ 
 
 M „ -1 
 
 
 
 
 « -■ 
 
 
 '^ S S » 
 
 rt t> CO to 
 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 =8 
 
 5 ^ Mi-I 
 
 1 il a 
 
 nil 
 
 llll 
 
 tS ^ w)c^ 
 
 l-2-ei 
 
 1 
 
 ^3 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 &iii 
 
 1 &iii 
 
 S =^9-^ 
 
 > l^n 
 
 ■So 
 
 
 
 O M rt 
 
 ^£ 
 
 ^fi 
 
 g£ 
 
 g£ 
 
 Eh 
 
 
RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 205 
 
 
 to 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 00 
 
 5p 
 r-H 
 
 "O 
 
 00 
 
 I-H 
 I-H 
 
 CO 
 
 <i> 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 rJl! 
 
 
 
 
 >o 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 <N 
 
 00 
 
 : 
 
 ; 
 
 CM 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 rC 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 
 CO 
 
 i-H 
 
 CO 
 
 I— t 
 
 (N 
 
 00 
 lO 
 
 l-H 
 
 CO 
 
 to 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 02 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 1— t 
 
 T-H 
 
 CT 
 
 
 CO 
 I-H 
 
 o 
 
 03 
 
 I-H 
 
 sq 
 
 02 
 
 05 
 
 ,^ 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 ^+3 
 O 
 
 i-H 
 
 
 i-H 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 to 
 
 I-H 
 
 ; 
 
 : 
 
 CO 
 
 OS 
 05 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 00 
 
 1:- 
 
 l-H 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 I-H 
 
 CO 
 
 to 
 
 rH 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 m 
 
 lb 
 
 05 
 
 l-H 
 
 to 
 00 
 
 : : 
 
 OS 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 I-H 
 I-H 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 >o 
 
 lO 
 
 05 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 t- 
 
 
 05 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 »o 
 
 
 
 
 <M 
 
 SO 
 
 IM 
 
 00 
 CO 
 
 (N 
 
 00 
 
 : 
 
 ; 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 cq 
 
 
 >o 
 
 
 
 
 »o 
 
 
 i 
 
 : 
 
 I— t 
 
 I-H 
 l-H 
 
 : 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 1>- 
 
 <M 
 
 
 
 
 
 l-H 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 •5 
 
 ; 
 
 ; 
 
 
 1:- 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 05 
 
 ■* 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 
 CT 
 
 
 
 .. - . . 
 
 
 ,_ ■ , 
 
 
 ... 
 
 i£3 
 
 ... 
 
 
 * 
 
 hn • 
 
 
 hn • 
 
 
 ^S • 
 
 Si ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 t~!n 
 
 -* 
 
 '^i: 
 
 ^ 
 
 0.=^ 
 
 s 
 
 t-"" 
 
 
 
 ;*^ ■ 
 
 
 rt =« 
 
 IQ 
 
 s^ • 
 
 
 05 -g • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t3 
 
 O 
 
 -1- 
 
 "S 
 
 
 =S 
 
 ^1 . 
 
 £ 
 1 
 
 5| . 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 f 
 
 f 
 
 =!s-^ 
 
 1 
 
 ■s 
 
 
 1 
 
 IIS 
 
 ■■e &■-*" 
 
 f 
 
 0.&rH 
 PlM 
 
 
 §3 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 O t>r-l 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
 !z; 
 
 iS 
 
 Oh 
 
 ^ 
 
 S 
 
 g 
 
 &H 
 
 s 
 
206 
 
 EXPECTATION OF RELATIVE STERILITY. 
 
 
 a 
 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 -^ 
 H 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 c3 
 
 O . 
 
 ■^ Xi 
 
 (M O 
 
 CO 
 
 » [: 
 
 H .- 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 05 
 
 t- 
 
 
 CO 
 
 T— ( 
 
 
 r-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Z£> 
 
 , 
 
 
 , 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 ; ; 
 
 ; 
 
 ; ; 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ; C 
 
 ; ; 
 
 \ \ 
 
 1— 1 
 
 
 
 
 r£J 
 
 CO 
 
 
 03 
 
 +3 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 05 
 
 ■^ 
 
 cq 
 
 ^ o 
 
 
 i-H CD 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 
 
 <^ o 
 
 '-' o 
 
 « lO 
 
 1— ' 
 
 CO 
 
 Oi 
 
 ^ 
 
 rd 
 
 
 
 
 
 c^ S 
 
 ', 
 
 <^ s 
 
 T-H 
 
 (M 
 
 
 5£> 
 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
 
 Oi _ A _ 
 
 
 .^ ^ 
 
 ' ^ 
 
 ^ • ^ 
 
 
 ■ b S 
 
 h s 
 
 6 f^ a 
 
 
 ^ s ° ■ 
 
 o^ S o ■ 
 
 -*H != O . 
 
 
 -* * 
 
 ^ w ttj 
 
 
 
 ges 40- 
 to 408 
 ried at 
 
 otliers of Ages 45- 
 n of above to 961 
 Wives Married at 
 13 1 in . . . 
 
 of Age 
 1369 
 ried at 
 
 3 
 
 others of A 
 n of above 
 Wives Mar 
 is 1 in . . 
 
 tal Wives-Mothers 
 
 oportion of above ' 
 
 viving Wives Mar 
 
 15-24 is 1 in . 
 
 O 
 
 ives-M 
 oportio 
 viving 
 15-19 
 
 ives-M 
 oportio 
 viving 
 20-24 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^f^ 
 
 ^£ 
 
 o u 
 H P-i 
 
PART VI. 
 
 NOTE ON FORMULAE REPRESENTING THE FECUNDITY AND 
 FERTILITY OF WOMEN.* 
 
 By Professor Tait. 
 
 1. Dr. Matthews Duncan having requested me to 
 point out to him some simple method of comparing 
 the fertility of different races, I endeavoured, as a 
 preliminary step, to represent by formulae some of the 
 chief results which he has obtained in his very lucid 
 and elaborate papers recently read to this Society and 
 printed in their Transactions for 1863-4 and for the 
 present session. Some of the formulae which I have 
 obtaiaed are so simple, and accord so well with the 
 tables, that I have thought them worth bringing before 
 the Society. Of course it must be understood that I 
 advocate no theory, and pretend to no physiological 
 knowledge of the question. I merely try to represent, 
 in a simple analytical form, the contents of some of 
 Dr. Duncan's tables. 
 
 * These chapters are here re-puhlished from this year's volume 
 of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, by the per- 
 mission of the CouncU of the Society, and with the kind acquies- 
 cence of Professor Tait. Their interest and importance are such as 
 to make me very glad to he able to present them, ia this place, to 
 my readers. — J. M. D. 
 
208 NOTE ON FORMULA. 
 
 2. To prevent misconception, let us begin by 
 defining tbe terms fecundity and fertility as they 
 will be used in this note, unless qualified in some 
 manner. 
 
 By fecundity at a given age "we mean the pro- 
 bability that during the lapse of one year of married 
 life, at that age, pregnancy, producing a living ehUd, 
 will ensue. This is, in all likelihood, modified in 
 each individual woman by the previous duration of 
 marriage (see § 10 below). But at present, in deal- 
 ing with the mass of wives, we omit this considera- 
 tion. We do not require, in our calculations, to con- 
 sider any questions connected with the duration of 
 life of husband and wife, of the length of time the 
 child may live, etc., as the numbers in the tables are 
 already influenced by such causes. The numbers in 
 the tables do not usually denote the fecundity as 
 above defined, but are quantities proportional to its 
 values. 
 
 By fertility, at any age, we mean the number of 
 children which a married woman of that age is likely 
 to have during the rest of her life, or some numerical 
 multiple of it. 
 
 The subject divides itself into three heads — (I.) 
 The fertility and fecundity of the mass of wives ; (II.) 
 Their value for the average individual ; (III.) The 
 relative fertility and fecundity of different races. 
 
 These we proceed to consider in order. 
 
FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY. 
 
 209 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY OF THE MASS OF WIVES. 
 
 3. If ff, represent the feciindity, and Fj the fertility 
 at the age of t years, the ordinary laws of probability, 
 if applicable to this question, give us the expression — 
 
 assuming that sterility arrives about the age of fifty. 
 
 Before going further, it may be well to verify this 
 formula by comparison with the tables, so that we may 
 be assured of the validity of our reasoning. 
 
 Dr. Duncan gives {Trans. R.S.JE., 1863-4, p. 358)* 
 the following numbers for the wives in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow, taken as a whole : — 
 
 TABLE LXXVII. — Showing Fecundity of Wives taken as 
 
 A WHOLE AT DIFFEEENT AOES. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Fecundity 
 
 50 
 
 41-8 
 
 34-6 
 
 26-6 
 
 20-4 
 
 8 
 
 1.3 
 
 The two last numbers are probably not so accurate 
 
 * Also p. 19 of this volume. 
 P 
 
210 
 
 FERTTLITY AND FECUNDITY OF 
 
 as the others — one from vague statements as to " forty 
 years of age ;" the other on account of some omissions 
 noticed in a footnote to the table. As, unfortunately, 
 we cannot get data for each year separately, we can 
 only test the above formula for intervals of five years. 
 The numbers just given may therefore be taken as 
 2oroportional to fr,, /as, f^-,, /sa, fm fa, and f„ 
 respectively. 
 
 4. We may now construct the second line of the 
 following table, according to the formula above, by 
 adding to the number for any quinquennial period all 
 those which follow it : — 
 
 [TABLE LXXVIII. — Showing Fertility calculated feom 
 Table LXXVII. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Fertility 
 
 182-7 
 
 132-7 
 
 90-9 
 
 56-3 
 
 29-7 
 
 9-3 
 
 1-3 
 
 F, 
 
 12 
 
 8-9 
 
 6 
 
 3-7 
 
 2 
 
 0-6 
 
 0-1 
 
 The numbers in the last line are proportional to 
 those in the second, on the assumption that a woman of 
 15-19 will have a family of twelve. 
 
 Dr. Duncan quotes {Trmis. R.S.E., 1865-6, p. 302)* 
 from the journal of the Statistical Society the folio whig 
 table of values of Fj for the mass of married women 
 in the district of St. George's-in-the-East. This is, 
 
 * Also p. 139 of this volume. 
 
THE MASS OF WOMEN. 
 
 211 
 
 unfortunately, not quite comparable with, the last, as 
 the quinquenniads differ by one year of age ; and, be- 
 sides, the ages at marriage differ in the different columns. 
 But there seems to be no attainable table so nearly 
 approaching what we require for comparison. 
 
 TABLE LXXIX. — Showing Fertility at Different Ages. 
 
 Age 
 
 16-20 
 
 21-25 
 
 26-30 
 
 31-35 
 
 F, 
 
 10-85 
 
 8-24 
 
 5-00 
 
 4-00 
 
 Neglecting the difference of the quinquenniads in the 
 two tables, and taking 11 instead of 12, for the sake 
 of direct comparison, as the value of F at 15-19 in 
 the first, we have — 
 
 TABLE LXXX. — Showing a Comparison of Tables 
 LXXVIII AND LXXIX. 
 
 Calculated 
 
 11 
 
 8-16 
 
 5-5 
 
 3-4 
 
 1-9 
 
 0.55 
 
 Observed 
 
 10-85 
 
 8-24 
 
 5-0 
 
 4-0 
 
 
 
 These numbers agree as well as could possibly be 
 expected. 
 
 5. If we project the numbers above given for 
 fv,---fii, and try to represent the values of/ for all ages 
 by the ordinates of a curve, whose abscissae denote the 
 corresponding ages, we have the continuous curve of 
 the following diagram. 
 
212 
 
 FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY OF 
 
THE MASS or WOMEN. 213 
 
 The straight line, which almost coiacides with the 
 continuous curve — at least from the age of 1 7 to that of 
 40 — and whose departure from it above that age must 
 depend to some extent on the defects of the table 
 pointed out in § 3, intersects the axis at 50. We may 
 obviously assume it as very nearly representing the 
 tables. And we can therefore express the value of yj 
 by a number proportional to 50-t. Thus — 
 
 (where A: is a number, whose value we can easUy find), 
 is a simple formula very closely representiug the tabu- 
 lated results. 
 
 6. But Fi can now be represented in a form almost 
 as simple. For — 
 
 = Jci{50-t) + (4:9-t)+ +1 I =|ft (50-f) (51-!!) 
 
 = J A; (50 — if, nearly enough for our purpose. 
 
 7. Thus it appears that — 
 
 Fecundity is proportional to the number of 
 years a woman's age is under fifty ; and 
 
 Fertility at that age is proportional to the 
 square of the same number. 
 
 8. To show, numerically, how closely these formulae 
 represent the tables is of course easy. 
 
214 
 
 FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY OP 
 
 TABLE LXXXI. — Showing Comparison of Obserated 
 Fecundity with Statement in Section 7. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Dr. Duncan 
 f(50-«) 
 
 50-0 
 49-5 
 
 41-8 
 42-0 
 
 34-6 
 34-5 
 
 26-6 
 27'0 
 
 20-4 
 19-5 
 
 8-0 
 12-0 
 
 1-3 
 
 4-5 
 
 TABLE LXXXII. — Showing Comparison of Observed Fer- 
 tility with Statement in Section 7, and with the 
 Process of Section 3. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Dr. Duncan 
 
 10-85 
 
 8-24 
 
 5-00 
 
 4-00 
 
 
 
 
 Calculated 
 from/j 
 as in (4) 
 
 11-0 
 
 8-16 
 
 5-5 
 
 3-4 
 
 1-9 
 
 0-55 
 
 0-09 
 
 10 ' ' 
 
 10-98 
 
 7-84 
 
 5-29 
 
 3-24 
 
 1-69 
 
 0-64 
 
 0-09 
 
 9. Example. — As an application of the formula, let 
 us suppose a woman, who was married ten years ago 
 at the age of twenty, to have now five children : — 
 
 At marriage . . F,, = ^Jc (50 - 20)' = 450 k 
 At present . . F,, = i ;t (50 - 30)' = 200 k 
 
 But the difference Fjo — F30, or 250 k, represents five children. 
 Hence Faj, or 200 k, represents four more. So that her family 
 will probably amount to nine. 
 
 10. As illustrating the subject further, I append 
 
THE MASS OF WOMEN. 
 
 215 
 
 portions of another of Dr. Duncan's tables {Trans. 
 R.S.E., 1865-6, p. 306),* with formula for comparison 
 founded on the type_y^ = h (C - <). 
 
 TABLE LXXXIII. — Showing the Modification produced 
 BY Age at Marriage upon the Formula representing 
 Fecundity. 
 
 Age at 
 
 
 Age 
 
 Age 
 
 Age 
 
 Age 
 
 Age 
 
 Age 
 
 Mamage 
 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 au-a4 
 
 35-b9 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 15-19 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Table 
 
 64-1 
 
 52-1 
 
 36-2 
 
 19-6 
 
 2-4 
 
 
 
 3 (43— age) . 
 
 63-0 
 
 48-0 
 
 33-0 
 
 18-0 
 
 3- 
 
 
 20-24 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Table 
 
 • ■ • 
 
 61-7 
 
 41-7 
 
 24-5 
 
 11-4 
 
 0-3 
 
 
 3 (46 — age) . . . 
 
 ... 
 
 67-0 
 
 42-0 
 
 27-0 
 
 120 
 
 0-0 
 
 25-29 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Table 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 40-6 
 
 28-2 
 
 91 
 
 1-3 
 
 
 2-66 (47-5— age) . 
 
 ... 
 
 
 41-4 
 
 28-0 
 
 14-7 
 
 1-4 
 
 30-34 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Table . ... 
 
 ■ > • 
 
 
 • ■ • 
 
 34-0 
 
 19-2 
 
 4-5 
 
 
 3 (48-5— age) . . 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 34-5 
 
 19-5 
 
 4-5 
 
 These formulee seem to represent the tables pretty 
 closely — with the exception of a solitary number for 
 those married at 25-29 — and, if they may be trusted, 
 indicate a very curious result. Of course, when the 
 fecundity is given by an expression of the form 
 ^ (C - t), C is the age at which sterility arrives. 
 
 Now, it appears that we have for wives married at 
 
 
 Fecundity. 
 
 15-19 
 
 k (43— age) 
 
 20-24 
 
 Ic (46— age) 
 
 25-29 
 
 k (47-5 — age) 
 
 30-34 
 
 k (48-5 — age) 
 
 * Also p. 148 of this volume. 
 
216 FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY OF 
 
 In words, the advent of sterility* is hastened by 
 early marriage. 
 
 Thus sterility occurs according to the following 
 table : — 
 
 TABLE LXXXIV. — Showikg the Age at Marriage, and] 
 0¥ THE Advent of Sterility. 
 
 at Marriage. 
 
 Age of SterilL- 
 
 15-19 
 
 43 
 
 20-24 
 
 46 
 
 25-29 
 
 47-5 
 
 30-34 
 
 48-5 
 
 This is singular enough, and seems to be well borne 
 out by the tables, siace the age of sterility is uniformly 
 later as the age at marriage is greater. But, of course, 
 far more extensive observations must be made and 
 discussed before such a point as this can be settled. 
 
 Accepting it, however, for the present, we may cal- 
 
 . culate from the last table, and the table of fecundity 
 
 already given, the whole fertility as depending on the 
 
 age at marriage. For, if t be the age at marriage, 
 
 Ct the corresponding age of sterility — 
 
 Whole fertiUty = J it (C« - tf. 
 
 In this formula h is to be found. But we have 
 
 Fecundity at marriage =/j = k (Cj — t). 
 Hence, whole fertility = ift (C« — t). 
 
 If we accept 1 children as representing the whole 
 fertility at 15-19, which seems a reasonable assump- 
 tion, we have 
 
 10=i/„(43-l7) = 13/„. 
 
 * This is the relative sterility of other parts of this work. — J. M. D. 
 
THE MASS OF WOMEN. 
 
 217 
 
 Hence /n = ^, from whicli (by proportion) the 
 other values of y are easily found. Hence — 
 
 TABLE LXXXV. — Showing the Insluence of the Advent 
 
 OF STEKn^ITY UPON THE WHOLE FERTILITY OF MAKRIASE. 
 
 Age at Marriage. 
 
 Whole FertUity. 
 
 F,. 
 
 15-19 
 
 10- 
 
 10- 
 
 20-24 
 
 7-7 
 
 7-4 
 
 25-29 
 
 5-5 
 
 5-0 
 
 30-34 
 
 3-4 
 
 31 
 
 The last column has been added for comparison, so 
 as to show how the later advent of sterility in the 
 more advanced marriages increases the fertility. 
 
 It may be well to notice that the interpretation of 
 the expression f^i = ^ is, that a wife of 1 5-1 9 will, 
 on the average, hecome pregnant at 1'3 years after 
 marriage — that is, she will have a child within about 
 two years of marriage. This limit of time depends, 
 however, on our assumption of 10 children as the 
 measure of the fertility at 15-19, and childless mar- 
 riages are included in the data. Dr. Duncan gives 
 {Trans. E.S.E., 1865-6, p. 297)* 1-52 as the average 
 interval between marriage and the birth of the first 
 child. The reason of the discrepancy is of course 
 this, that in our calculation the mass of wives is con- 
 sidered, and in Dr. Duncan's only fruitful marriages 
 are taken account of 
 
 * Also p. 128 of this volume. 
 
218 
 
 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY OF 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY OF THE AVERAGE 
 INDIVIDUAL. 
 
 11. If we endeavour to derive formulae of a similar 
 cLiaracter from the tables of sterility, the results are 
 not quite so simple. Thus we find {Trans. R.S.E., 
 1865-6, p. 319)—* 
 
 TABLE LXXXVI. — Showing the Percentage of Sterh^ity 
 
 IN Women Married at different Ages. 
 
 Age 
 at Marriage 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Sterile 
 Percentage 
 not Sterile 
 
 7-3 
 
 92-7 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 27-7 
 72-3 
 
 37-5 
 62-5 
 
 53-2 
 
 46-8 
 
 90-9 
 9-1 
 
 95-6 
 
 4-4 
 
 From the manner in which this table was formed, 
 it would appear that we are justified in taking the 
 numbers in the last line as proportional to the 
 average fecundity at the respective ages. But the 
 curve representing these numbers differs considerably 
 more from a straight line than that derived from the 
 other tables. It is the dotted curve in the figure. 
 * Also p. 193 of this volume. 
 
THE AVERAGE IKDIVIDUAL. 219 
 
 It is true that if we consider the loose way ia which 
 women from 30 to 40 call themselves 30, and those 
 from 40 to 50 oaU themselves 40, we might expect 
 the smaller ordinates belonging to higher ages to be 
 pushed back as it were towards 30 and 40, thereby 
 apparently accounting for the two depressions which 
 appear in the curve about those ages. That this is no 
 fancied explanation may be gathered from the follow- 
 ing scandalous facts recorded in the Census Eeport of 
 1851, p. 24 :— 
 
 In 1841 the number of girls, of ages 10-15 was 1,003,119 
 But in 1851 these had become young women 
 
 aged 20-25, and numbered 1,030,456 
 
 This number, when corrected from the tables of 
 mortality, obviously includes about 140,000 women 
 whose ages had increased by less than 10 in ten years. 
 
 Again, in 1841 the number of women aged 20-25 
 
 was 973,696 
 
 But in 1851 those who had reached 30-35 were 
 
 only 768,711 
 
 indicating at first sight a fearful death-rate, but really 
 showing how strong is the desire to be considered as 
 remaining under the magic limit of thirty years of 
 age. 
 
 To complete the examination, however, let us see 
 how far these data from sterility agree with the 
 formula deduced by the other processes. 
 
220 
 
 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY OF 
 
 TAELE LXXXVII. — Showing Comparison of Fecundity 
 as derived from sterility, with the statement in 
 Section 7. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Percentage 
 not Sterile 
 
 92-7 
 
 100 
 
 72-3 
 
 62-5 
 
 46-8 
 
 9-1 
 
 4.4 
 
 3?(50-age) 
 
 113-1 
 
 96 
 
 78-9 
 
 61-8 
 
 44-5 
 
 27-4 
 
 10-4 
 
 It is easy, of course, to construct a formula to 
 represent any series of numbers, but unless it be simple 
 it is of little use ; and the approximation we have got 
 seems close enough, if we remember the almost certain 
 deficiencies in the numbers for the two highest ages, 
 and the immaturity, etc., which may easily be supposed 
 to account for that at 15-19. But there is another 
 cause which may serve to account for part of the 
 discrepancy, as in fact Dr. Duncan's table shows. This 
 is that plural births are not eliminated. 
 
 In fact, at age 20-24 there are a good many more 
 children per annum than mothers in his table, which 
 thus virtually assumes that no woman of 20-24 is 
 sterile. This accounts for the great rise in the (dotted) 
 curve at the age of 22. 
 
 By the process of (3) we form the first line of the 
 following table. The second is formed on the type 
 
THE AVERAGE INDIVIDUAL. 
 
 221 
 
 TABLE LXXXVIII. — Showing Comparison of Eesults re- 
 specting Fertility derived by applying the Process 
 OF Section 3 to Table LXXXVI., with the Statement 
 IN Section 7. 
 
 Age . . 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 F.from/, 
 observed 
 
 387-8 
 
 295-1 
 
 195-1 
 
 120-8 
 
 60-3 
 
 13-5 
 
 4-4 
 
 |(50-.)^ 
 
 414 
 
 298 
 
 202 
 
 123 
 
 64 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 This coincidence also is close enough, and would 
 be stni closer if we had the numbers for f^^ and up- 
 wards, as the smaller numbers in the table, where the 
 deficiency lies, would thus be increased proportionally 
 much more than the larger ones. 
 
222 EELATIVE FERTILITY OF 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 RELATIVE FERTILITY OF DIFFERENT RACES. 
 
 12. We may apply the above results to compare the 
 fertility of different races — a problem of considerable 
 interest. We shall not attempt a rigorous solution, for 
 the application of which, indeed, we have no sufficient 
 data; but shall make one or two postulates, which will 
 probably be easily admitted, and which wiU enable us 
 to avoid complication. 
 
 13. Suppose that for ten or fifteen years we may 
 consider the number of marriages at any given age to 
 remain practically unaltered, we may then consider the 
 births in any one year as represented hy the total fer- 
 tility of those onarried in that year. That is, the child- 
 ren born in that year of mothers married at 30-34, for 
 instance, are due to those married last year, the year 
 before last, and so on for fifteen years back, at the age 
 of 30-34; and as the number is supposed nearly constant 
 for some years, we have the fertility of all for one year 
 (very nearly) by calculating the total fertility for the 
 rest of their lives of those married in that year. As 
 population, and with it the number of marriages, is 
 generally increasing, this process will slightly exaggerate 
 
DIFFERENT RACES. 223 
 
 the numbers sought ; but, in comparing two growing 
 countries, such as England and Scotland, no perceptible 
 error wiU be introduced. 
 
 14. We next assume that the law of fertility as 
 depending on age is the same in the two countries com- 
 pared. That is, we assume that 
 
 fj = h+l=i±t2 = etc. =e, 
 
 FT? 1? * 
 
 t -Tj +1 -Pi + 2 
 
 where e is some definite number ; and F<, F'^ represent 
 the fertility in the two races at age t. 
 
 This will evidently be the case if the fertility be really 
 expressible, as above, in the form 
 
 for two such expressions can only differ through the 
 number k; unless indeed the age at which sterility 
 comes on, here represented by 50, should happen to be 
 greatly different for different races. On this point we 
 have no information. 
 
 15. Let, then, /*( be the number of marriages of 
 women at t years of age in any one year, ^ the number 
 of legitimate births in a year, we have by the above 
 postulates 
 
 For another country 
 
 /3' = 2^'F' = e2/i'F, 
 
 where e is the ratio of the fertility of the second race 
 to that of the first. These equations give 
 
 ^g. 2^F 
 
 ^ i8 2^'F 
 
224 
 
 RELATIVE FERTILITY OF 
 
 where the absolute fertility of either country is no 
 longer involved, so that we may employ for the values 
 of F the expressions in § 4, or those in § 8. 
 
 16. Example. — From the Eegistrar-General's re- 
 ports for England and Scotland last published, we 
 extract the following data : — 
 
 TABLE LXXXIX. — Showing Number of Marriages and 
 Number of Legitimate Children in England and Scot- 
 land IN ONE Year. 
 
 
 England, 
 1864. 
 
 Scotland, 
 1862. 
 
 No. of Marriages . . . 
 Legitimate Births . . . 
 
 180,387 
 692,827 
 
 20,597 
 96,693 
 
 TABLE XC. — Showing Percentage for each Quinquenniad 
 OF Women Married in one Year in England and 
 Scotland, and the Corresponding Fertility from 
 Table LXXXVIII. 
 
 
 15-20 
 
 20-25 
 
 25-30 
 
 30-35 
 
 35-40 
 
 40-46 
 
 45-50 
 
 England . . 
 
 13-60 
 
 49-74 
 
 19-55 
 
 7-28 
 
 3-89 
 
 2-67 
 
 1-57 
 
 Scotland . 
 
 13-07 
 
 46-28 
 
 24-13 
 
 8-54 
 
 4-36 
 
 2-03 
 
 0-95 
 
 And we assume, in accordance with §§ 8 and 9— 
 
 F proportional to 
 
 12-0 
 
 8-9 
 
 6-0 
 
 3-7 
 
 2-0 
 
 0-6 
 
 0-1 
 
 20 597 
 This gives S/^F = /^^ [12 x 13-07 + 8-9 x 46-28 + 
 
 Also 
 Hence 
 
 100 
 
 = 20,597 X 7-55 for Scotland. 
 
 2/i'F = 180,387 X 7-595 for England. 
 
 692,827 20,597 7-55 
 
 96,693 180,387 7-595 
 
 = 0-812 nearly. 
 
DIFFERENT RACES. 225 
 
 A more accurate comparison would be obtained by 
 employing the average number of marriages at various 
 ages for five or ten consecutive years, instead of those 
 in any one year, as above, which are liable to consider- 
 able fluctuations. But we have not data enough. It 
 would appear, then, that the absolute fertility of the 
 mass of married, women in England is only about 80 
 per cent of that in Scotland. 
 
 That the fertility is less in England than in Scot- 
 land has been shown by the Eegistrar-General for 
 Scotland {Report, 1866). But he makes the ratio con- 
 siderably greater than the preceding estimate. 
 
 It is to be observed that if the insinuations we 
 sometimes hear about Scottish marriages have any 
 foundation in fact, their consideration would tend to 
 make the difference in fertility between the two coun- 
 tries even greater than that just given ; for legitima- 
 tion per suhsequens matrimonium does not put a 
 child's name on the Registrar's books. 
 
 17. The fact that in England and Scotland the 
 quantities s^F' and s^P are almost exactly propor- 
 tional to the number of marriages in the two countries, 
 shows that, although Scottish women, as a rule, marry 
 later in life than English women, the long period 
 (25-40) during which their marriage-rate exceeds 
 that in England, as compared with the shorter period 
 (20-25), during which it falls behind, almost makes 
 up for the diminished fertility at the more advanced 
 age. 
 
 18. It only remains to construct the values of the 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 RELATIVE FERTILITY OF 
 
 quantities Ft for each country, taken, of course, from 
 the mass of the wives. 
 
 As before (§ 15), we should have had 
 
 iS = s^P 
 
 if we had used proper absolute values of F. But we 
 used the numbers 12, 8'9, 6, etc., which are obviously 
 too large. Eeducing them all in the ratio s to 1, and 
 substituting for /3, etc., their values, we get 
 
 96,693 = 20,597 X 7-55 £. 
 This gives s = 0-622; 
 
 from which we construct the following table : — 
 
 TABLE XCI. — Showing CoMPAEAxrVE Fertility of a Mass 
 OF Wives in England and Scotland, taking account 
 OF the Age at Marriage. 
 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Scotland . . 
 England 
 
 7-44 
 6-04 
 
 5-54 
 4-49 
 
 3-77 
 3-02 
 
 2-30 
 1-87 
 
 1-24 
 1-01 
 
 0-37 
 0-30 
 
 0-06 
 0-05 
 
 19. In conclusion, it may merely be repeated 
 that we have attempted no elaborate or exact inquiry 
 into this question ; indeed the utter insufficiency of 
 data would have rendered such a proceeding absurd ; 
 and we have, for the same reason, abstained from em- 
 ploying some of our own results, such as those of § 10, 
 in modifying the earlier ones, by the help of which 
 they have been arrived at. Thus, for instance, we 
 should be led by the results of § 10 to use in the 
 formulae of §§ 5, 6, a number somewhat less than 50, as 
 
DIFFERENT RACES. 227 
 
 corresponding to the average age of sterility. As in all 
 questions of average, the value of our deductions in 
 this matter is mainly dependent on the extent and 
 accuracy of our data, and it is sad to thiak that the 
 enormous blue-books which load our shelves contain 
 so much painfully-elaborated information which is of 
 no use, and so little of those precious statistics which 
 would at once be easy of acquirement and invaluable 
 to physiologists. 
 
PART VII. 
 
 ON THE MORTALITY OF CHILDBED AS AFFECTED BY 
 THE NUMBER OF THE LABOUR AND THE AGE OF 
 THE MOTHER. 
 
 There are two important questions regarding the mor- 
 tality of lying-in women wMcli certainly have not 
 received the amount of attention which they deserve. 
 They are interesting and important, not only in them- 
 selves, but also, in a high degree, on account of their 
 bearing upon topics which are constantly discussed 
 without taking into account the great light and influ- 
 ence which the answers to them might bring upon 
 such topics. 
 
 The questions I allude to are : — Does the number 
 of a woman's pregnancy regulate in any degree the 
 mortality to be expected from lying-in? Does the 
 age of the chUdbearing woman regulate in any degree 
 the mortality accompanying this function ? 
 
 Analogous questions in regard to some surgical 
 operations and to some diseases have been discussed, 
 and not without good results. This circumstance ren- 
 ders it the more extraordinary that the questions I 
 have proposed regarding parturition have stimulated 
 so little iuquiry. The topics of childbearing and of 
 its mortality, and particularly the indefinite disease 
 puerperal fever, are among the most interesting and 
 
230 MORTALITY OF CHILDBED. 
 
 carefully studied in the whole range of medicine, and 
 the neglect of the two questions named I can attribute 
 only to the want of materials for their settlement. Yet 
 I do not hesitate to say, that had the profession set 
 these questions before them in their simplicity and im- 
 portance, materials would ere now have been found or 
 accumulated, and their most desiderated solution satis- 
 factorily effected ere this time. 
 
 I regret that at present I know of no data sufficient 
 satisfactorily to decide the questions raised. Yet I 
 shall lay before the profession such as I have collected 
 They are deficient in point of number and of precision. 
 Had the numbers been much larger the results would 
 have had value in spite of the want of precision in the 
 data as arranged for comparison. The element of want 
 of precision consists mainly in the comparison of dif- 
 ferent pregnancies not being confined to women of the 
 same age, or vice versa. This condition is of course 
 necessary to ensure against a probable source of error, 
 the amount of which is unknown, consisting in the 
 disturbing influence of age or of the number of the 
 labour, upon mortality. 
 
 It is well known that a large amount of puerperal 
 mortality is produced by that indefinite class of diseases 
 unphilosophically and injuriously combined under the 
 name of puerperal fever. So important is this class of 
 diseases that it appears to me worth while to discuss 
 separately the influence of age on the mortality from 
 them. The same should be done for all causes of death 
 in or after labour as soon as data are collected. In the 
 
MORTALITY OF CHILDBED. 231 
 
 case of puerperal fever some data are at hand. It is 
 not my object at present to enter on the vexed ques- 
 tions in reference to this erroneously so-caUed fever. 
 No doubt many grave and cardinal errors prevail re- 
 garding this class of diseases, and statistics may con- 
 tribute aid to demolish some of them. The invasion 
 of this disease is weU known to be described by a 
 class of obstetricians as an " accident." To remove it 
 from this category is a just object of ambition. To 
 some extent this has already been effected by Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson, who has shown that it is subject to the law 
 of the duration of labour.* The object will be further 
 promoted if it can be shown to be under a law of the 
 number of the pregnancy, or of the age of the mother, 
 or of both. 
 
 * Obstetric Worhs, vol. i. p. 530. See also Edinburgh Medical 
 Journal for July 1857. 
 
232 MORTALITY FROM 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE NUMBER OF THE LABOUR TO 
 THE MORTALITY FROM PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 It may at first siglit appear unnatural to enter upon a 
 special kind of mortality in cMldbed, before describing 
 the wbole mortality in childbed. And it is worth 
 whUe to consider this point briefly, to show that, at 
 least with the means at my disposal, the influence of 
 age is better and more securely observed in this special 
 kind of mortality than in the whole mortality of chfld- 
 bed. For, in proportion as puerperal fever has the 
 quality of an accident, as many obstetricians believe, 
 so will the unalloyed influence of the number of the 
 pregnancy upon its occurrence be observable. Were it 
 evidently not an accident, but due to this cause or the 
 other cause, it would be more and more difficult to 
 eliminate the influence of such causes upon the mor- 
 tality with a view to arriving at the results produced 
 by the number of the pregnancy. There are, speciaUy 
 in many first labours, such evident and direct causes of 
 death xr many cases that the influence of the number 
 of the pregnancy can make no alteration in the fate of 
 the mother. Such cases, in however great numbers, can 
 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 233 
 
 throw no light on the influence we are studying. In 
 proportion as such cases are intermingled with others 
 fitted to throw light on the subject, so wUl they obscure 
 that light. Deaths in childbed from puerperal fever 
 are, to some small extent, truly described as accidental : 
 no cause for the supervention of the disease may be 
 detected ; just as this is the case, so wUl be the value 
 of the testimony of such accidents to the influence of 
 the number of the pregnancy. 
 
 Before discussing generally the influence of the 
 number of the different successive pregnancies, I shall 
 compare, first of all, the influence of primiparity as 
 compared with that of births after all subsequent 
 pregnancies. It is well known that first pregnancies 
 are, as a whole, attended by a much greater mortality 
 than subsequent pregnancies, and this is a circum- 
 stance which scarcely demands explanation, for the 
 primiparous woman has a longer and more difficult 
 labour than others ; many primiparse are delivered 
 under the influence of depressing mental emotions ; in 
 primiparous women aU the arrangements, mechanical 
 and other, for delivery are tested, and subsequent de- 
 liveries occur only in those who have so far success- 
 fully endured the trial as to survive. But it is parti- 
 ctdarly illustrative of the topic of this paper to inquire 
 what effect primiparity has in labours that are natural, 
 in women against whose chances of recovery nothing 
 is known, who have easily passed through their trials. 
 
 Drs. Johnston and Sinclair, in their valuable work 
 on Practical Midwifery, describe 11,874 cases in 
 
234 MORTALITY FROM 
 
 which, the labours were "purely natural." Of these 
 3699 were examples of primiparity. There were, 
 therefore, 8175 births after the first. Of the 3699 
 primiparse, whose labours were purely natural, 20 died 
 of puerperal fever. Of the 8175 natural deliveries in 
 women who had already passed safely through the 
 dangers of parturition, 21 were followed by puerperal 
 fever and death. To compare these proportionally, 
 among purely natural deliveries in primipar^, every 
 185th woman died of puerperal fever, or '57 per cent; 
 while among similar deliveries in multiparas only 
 every 389th woman died, or "25 per cent. Puerperal 
 fever deaths are described by Messrs. Johnston and 
 Sinclair as "considered accidental." Their interest- 
 ing data show that primiparse are very greatly more 
 liable to this awful accident than others. 
 
 In order to illustrate this particular point I have 
 no other collection of cases of natiu-al labour to refer 
 to, and therefore nothiag so valuable and directly 
 applicable. But I shall adduce evidence derived from 
 more general collections of cases, including aU kinds 
 of labour. 
 
 Professor Hugenberger of St Petersburg has pub- 
 lished some observations on this poiat made in hospital 
 practice.* Of 2253 primiparse 97 died of puerperal 
 
 * "Das Puerperalfieber imSt. Petersburger Hebammen- Institute 
 von 1845-1859." S. 24. Separat-Abdruck aus der St. Petersburger 
 Medieinischen Zeitsclirift. For some furtber statistics pertinent 
 to the question, see the Klirdk der Gehurtskunde. Von Dr. C. 
 Hecker und Dr. L. Buhl. S. 226. 
 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 235 
 
 fever. Of 5783 multiparse 141 died of the same class 
 of diseases. Among the primiparse puerperal fever 
 death seized every 23d woman, or 4*35 per cent ; 
 whUe among the multiparas death in the same form 
 seized only every 40th woman, or 2'44 per cent. 
 
 Dr. Collins in his Practical Treatise describes 
 56 deaths from puerperal fever. Of these, 30 occurred 
 among 4969 primiparse, and 26 occurred among 11,445 
 multiparae. Among the primiparse every 165th woman 
 died of this disease, or "6 per cent. Among the multi- 
 parse every 440th woman died of it, or '23 per cent. 
 
 Among the married women whose deliveries were 
 registered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 there 
 were 58 puerperal fever deaths. Of these, 26 occurred 
 in 3722 primiparse, and 32 in 12,671 multiparse. Of 
 the primiparse puerperal fever carried off every 143d, 
 or '7 per cent ; of the multiparse every 396th, or "25 
 per cent. 
 
 Having shown, by the statistics already brought 
 forward, that deaths from puerperal fever are among 
 primiparse at least twice as numerous as among multi- 
 parse, I proceed now to inquire into the comparative 
 mortality from this cause in labours following succeed- 
 ing pregnancies. 
 
 Hugenberger devotes a short paragraph to this 
 topic, and gives interesting data, which I here produce 
 in a tabular form : — 
 
236 
 
 MORTALITY FKOM 
 
 TABLE XCII. — Showing the Mortality from Puerperal 
 Fever in Different Pregnancies. (From Hugenbergee.) 
 
 No. of 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Percentage 
 of Deaths. 
 
 Or one in 
 
 1st . . . 
 2d to 4tll . 
 5tli to 9th 
 10thtol9tli 
 
 2253 
 
 4031 
 
 1563 
 
 189 
 
 97 
 85 
 
 47 
 9 
 
 4-30 
 2-11 
 3-01 
 
 4-76 
 
 23 
 47 
 33 
 21 
 
 TMs table of Hugenberger's data justifies Ms re- 
 marks. He says that the greater or less frequency of 
 previous pregnancies appears to be not without ia- 
 fluence upon the lying-in, for while those pregnant 
 from the second to the fourth time show the most 
 favourable results, the first increment of mortality 
 begins with those in the fifth to the ninth pregnancies; 
 and a greater mortality still is observed in women ia 
 the tenth to the niaeteenth pregnancies. If we could 
 dare to adopt as demonstrated what Hugenberger's 
 data seem to show — and as yet I have adduced nothing 
 calculated to shake their evidence — we should have an 
 extremely interestiag addition to our knowledge of the 
 influence of the number of the pregnancy upon the 
 danger of confinement. It would appear that from 
 the very great danger of a first confinement, woman 
 passed into a period of comparative safety in the next 
 succeeding confinements, tiU she came to about the 
 fifth lying-in, when danger began to increase ; and as 
 pregnancy succeeded pregnancy, danger still further 
 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 237 
 
 increased, until it reached a degree as great as that of 
 a first confinement. 
 
 An interesting contrast of these results with what 
 ' is known of the fecundity of women at diff'erent ages 
 may be made. The average age of wives in Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow bearing first children is 24 years. 
 The average age of wives bearing fifth children is 31 
 years. From the 25th to the 30th year women are 
 more fertile than at any other time. It is within the 
 ages of 25 to 30 that are included the average ages of 
 women bearing second, third, and fourth children, 
 those produced with least danger to life. Hence, if 
 the data are good and suflficient, there is a coincidence 
 between the time of the greatest amount of safety and 
 that of the greatest fecundity ; and diminished fecun- 
 dity, or likelihood of having children, occurs when 
 danger is great; that is, in first pregnancies and in 
 fifth and subsequent pregnancies, or in pregnancies of 
 women below 25 years of age and above 30. But this 
 point will be better and more directly demonstrated 
 when the influence of age is itself discussed. 
 
 I shall now bring forward other data similar to 
 Hugenberger's, with a view to observing whether they 
 confirm his results or not. 
 
 In Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 there were 58 
 puerperal fever deaths of wives, aU occurring before 
 the ninth pregnancy. There were in that year de- 
 livered 15,384 wives pregnant for the eighth time or 
 less. Arranging these according to the number of the 
 pregnancy, we have the following : — 
 
238 
 
 MORTALITY I^ROM 
 
 TA:BLE XCIII.— Showing the Puerperal Fever Deaths op 
 Wives delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855. 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Or one in 
 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 Motliers. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 of Deaths. 
 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 26 
 
 ■698 
 
 143 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 8 
 
 ■276 
 
 361 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 11 
 
 ■434 
 
 230 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 6 
 
 ■303 
 
 330 
 
 5 
 
 1543 
 
 2 
 
 ■129 
 
 721 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 2 
 
 ■164 
 
 610 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 1 
 
 ■118 
 
 848 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 2 
 
 •312 
 
 320 
 
 This table is scarcely a fit object of comparison 
 witb Hugenberger's, for it will be observed that while 
 his table has cases of death in women even in the nine- 
 teenth pregnancy, no wife died after delivery in Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow in 1855 whose pregnancy was 
 above the eighth. So far as this imperfect table goes, 
 however, it is somewhat in opposition to the general 
 tenor of the results published by Hugenberger. 
 
 In the work on practical midwifery by Johnston 
 and Sinclair I find a table of 75 puerperal fever deaths, 
 in 74 of which the number of the pregnancy is given. 
 Unfortunately, I can discover in the work no data 
 regarding the number of the pregnancies of the whole 
 women delivered. Unwilling, however, to lose any 
 advantage that may be gained from the table of preg- 
 nancies of 74 puerperal fever deaths, I have in the 
 following table arranged them for comparison with the 
 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 239 
 
 TABLE XCIV. — Showing a Comparison of Puerperal 
 Fever Deaths in the Dublin Hospital with the Num- 
 ber OF Parturient Wives in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 in 1855. 
 
 No. of 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Percentage 
 of Deaths. 
 
 Or one in 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 40 
 
 1-07 
 
 93 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 6 
 
 ■27 
 
 482 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 11 
 
 ■43 
 
 230 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 3 
 
 •15 
 
 661 
 
 5 
 
 1543 
 
 3 
 
 •19 
 
 514 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 4 
 
 ■32 
 
 307 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 2 
 
 •23 
 
 424 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 425 
 
 3 
 
 •70 
 
 141 
 
 10 
 
 222 
 
 1 
 
 ■45 
 
 222 
 
 11 
 
 152 
 
 1 
 
 •60 
 
 152 
 
 ■whole women delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 
 1855. Of course the percentages derived from this 
 comparison are not figures of actual value, but only of 
 value for comparison with one another ; and it is in- 
 teresting to observe that they roughly confirm the 
 results of Hugenberger. After a great mortality in 
 first pregnancies, there is a great improvement in 
 second, third, and fourth pregnancies ; and then, again, 
 as the fifth pregnancy is passed, the mortality rises as 
 the number of the pregnancy increases. It must be 
 admitted that this accordance is not very exact, the 
 regularity of the results being disturbed by the great 
 mortality in third pregnancies, and the absence of 
 
240 MORTALITY FROM PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 mortality in eighth pregnancies. There can be no 
 doubt that the value of the table is not very great ; 
 yet it evidently points towards confirmation of-Hugen- 
 berger. Larger and better data are required to pro- 
 duce a satisfactory assurance. 
 
MOETALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTUEITION. 241 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE NUMBER OF THE LABOUR TO THE 
 MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 
 
 In pursuing this topic I shall follow the same course 
 as I observed in describing the mortality from puer- 
 peral fever, beginning by a comparison of the mortality 
 of first labours with that of all subsequent labours. 
 
 The first data which I adduce are Johnston and 
 Siaclair's 11,874 cases of purely natural labour. These 
 are specially valuable for the purpose, for nearly the 
 very reasons which enhanced their value when puer- 
 peral fever was the only cause of mortality under 
 consideration — reasons which, therefore, need not be 
 repeated here. Of 11,874 purely natural cases, 3699 
 were first labours, and 8175 subsequent labours. Of 
 the primiparse 33 died, and of the multiparse 34, or 
 1 in 112 of the former, or '89 per cent, and only 1 
 in 240 of the latter, or "41 per cent. 
 
 These purely natural cases form part of a total 
 of 13,748 labours described by Drs. Johnston and 
 Sinclair. Of these, 4535 were primiparse, and 9213 
 multiparse. Among the former 83 died, or 1 in 54, 
 or 1"8 per cent, and among the latter 80 died, or 1 in 
 
242 RELATION OF NUMBER OF LABOUR 
 
 115, or -86 per cent, a mortality, it is to be remarked, 
 relatively almost the same as among the purely- 
 natural labours. 
 
 We may now take those labours alone wHcli were 
 not purely natural. Of these, 836 were in primiparse, 
 and of these 50 died, being 1 in 17, or 5 '9 8 per cent; 
 while 1037 were among multiparse, and of these 46 
 died, being 1 in 22, or 4"43 per cent. Here it is at 
 once observed that the relative mortalities are nearly 
 alike, forming a striking contrast to the relative 
 mortalities under any other circumstances. It is un- 
 fortunate that this striking observation is founded on 
 so few data. It cannot fail to excite reflections in 
 the practical obstetrician. Such would be out of place 
 in this book, and I shall only diverge so far as to re- 
 mark that here the primiparae evidently hold such a 
 greatly improved position, that while in natural labour 
 puerperal fever carries off" proportionally twice as many 
 primiparae as multiparse, and that while in labours 
 generaEy, twice as many of primiparae die as of mul- 
 tiparse ; yet in unnatural labours the balance is re- 
 stored, the primiparse escaping the special danger 
 conjoined to all the evUs connected with primiparity, 
 nearly as often as multiparse escape the special dan- 
 ger alone, without the evils which all the statistics 
 hitherto adduced show to attend primiparity. 
 
 In Dr. CoUins' Practical Treatise the deliveries 
 of 16,414 women are described. Of these, 4969 were 
 primiparse, and 11,445 were multiparse. Among the 
 whole there occurred 164 deaths, but the number of 
 
TO MOKTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTUKITION. 243 
 
 the pregnancy is given only in 160 cases. Of these 
 160 deaths, 80 occurred among the primiparee, being 
 1 in 62, or 1'61 per cent; and 74 occurred among 
 the multiparse, being 1 in 155, or "64 per cent. 
 
 In the work of Messrs. Hardy and M'Clintock 
 on Midwifery and Puerperal Diseases, 6635 cases of 
 delivery are described. Of these, 5852 are described 
 as natural deliveries. Among them were 1752 first 
 labours, and 4100 subsequent labours. In the former 
 the deaths were 7, being 1 in 250, or '4 per cent; in 
 the latter 9, being 1 in 455, or '22 per cent. 
 
 The whole cases in the work of M'Cliiitock and 
 Hardy are, as already said, 6635. Of these 2125 were 
 in primiparous women, and 35 died, being 1 in 60, or 
 1'65 per cent. Among multiparee were 4510 deliveries 
 and 30 deaths, being 1 in 150, or '66 per cent. 
 
 In Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 there were 
 16,393 deliveries of married women. Of these, 3722 
 were in first labours, and 50 died within six weeks 
 after delivery, being 1 in 74, or 1'34 per cent. The 
 multiparse numbered 12,671, and of these 103 died, 
 being 1 in 123, or '81 per cent. 
 
 Having thus compared the mortality of primiparae 
 with that of aU other parturient women, I proceed to 
 Id quire into the mortality of each successive pregnancy. 
 
 The accompanying table is made from the Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow registers for 1855. It exhibits 
 the number of wives delivered in each successive 
 pregnancy, their mortality, and the percentage of 
 mortality to deliveries. Casting the eye along the 
 
244 
 
 KELATION OF NUMBER OP LABOUK 
 
 percentage column of this table, one does not dis- 
 cover any marked indication of a regular variation 
 after the great mortality of primiparse is passed. 
 
 TAELE XCV. — Showing the Mortality among Wives 
 delivered in edinburgh and glasgow in 1855, in each 
 Successive Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Percentage. 
 
 Orlin 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 50 
 
 1-343 
 
 74 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 24 
 
 •829 
 
 120 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 25 
 
 •986 
 
 101 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 13 
 
 •655 
 
 152 
 
 5 
 
 1543 
 
 13 
 
 ■842 
 
 119 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 7 
 
 •573 
 
 174 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 7 
 
 •826 
 
 121 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 8 
 
 1^248 
 
 80 
 
 9 
 
 425 
 
 3 
 
 •706 
 
 142 
 
 10 
 
 222 
 
 1 
 
 •450 
 
 , 222 
 
 11 
 
 152 
 
 1 
 
 •658 
 
 152 
 
 12 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 16-666 
 
 6 
 
 I have no other similar exact data to add to what is 
 given in the last table (XCV.) The authors from whom 
 I derive the following data as to the pregnancies of 
 women dying after delivery do not give the num- 
 bers of the pregnancies of all their cases -with which 
 to compare the pregnancies of those that died. But 
 I here make the data regarding deaths available by 
 comparing them with the pregnancies of the whole 
 
TO MOKTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTUKITION. 245 
 
 TABLE XCVI. — Showing a CoMPARATnni; Percentage of 
 Deaths m Successive Pregnancies. 
 
 No. of 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 Mothers. 
 
 No. of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Percentage. 
 
 Or 1 in 
 
 1 
 
 3722 
 
 254 
 
 6-82 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 2893 
 
 60 
 
 2-07 
 
 48 
 
 3 
 
 2534 
 
 64 
 
 2-52 
 
 39 
 
 4 
 
 1982 
 
 39 
 
 1-97 
 
 51 
 
 5 
 
 1543 
 
 31 
 
 2-01 
 
 49 
 
 6 
 
 1221 
 
 28 
 
 2'29 
 
 43 
 
 7 
 
 848 
 
 16 
 
 1-88 
 
 63 
 
 8 
 
 641 
 
 15 
 
 2-34 
 
 42 
 
 9 
 
 425 
 
 13 
 
 3-06 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 222 
 
 9 
 
 4-05 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 152 
 
 5 
 
 3-28 
 
 30 
 
 12 
 
 6] 
 
 1 
 
 1-64 
 
 61 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 11-77 
 
 8 
 
 U 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 16-66 
 
 6 
 
 wives delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855. 
 This composite table will thus not give results or per- 
 centages representing actual values, but only results 
 for mutual comparison, and I venture to think they 
 are valuable. The table is prepared as follows : — 
 The first column states the number of the preg- 
 nancy ; the second gives the number of wives 
 delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, ia each 
 successive pregnancy; the third column gives the 
 number in each successive pregnancy of a collected 
 mass of cases of childbirth deaths ; the fourth column 
 gives the percentages of these deaths in the deliveries 
 in each successive pregnancy. In the third column 
 
246 RELATION OF NUMBER OF LABOUR 
 
 are given 540 deaths gathered with care from the 
 following sources : — 153 from the Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow registers above referred to ; 160 from a table 
 in page 364 of the Practical Treatise of Dr. Collins ; 
 162 from the Practical Midwifery of Drs. Johnston 
 and Sinclair; and 65 from the work on Midwifery 
 and Puerperal Diseases of Drs. M'Clintock and 
 Hardy. 
 
 This last table appears to me to show with con- 
 siderable force that, after a woman has passed her 
 ninth pregnancy or thereabout, she comes gradually 
 into more perilous child-bearing, danger increasing 
 with every unit added to the number of her children. 
 To collate with this, it is interesting to the obstetrician 
 to note what has been already shown, that, after the 
 ninth, pregnancies recur with greater rapidity than 
 before it. 
 
 Having now led all the evidence I intend to 
 adduce, I shall, in conclusion, add a few general and 
 recapitulatory remarks. 
 
 First of all, it must be noted that I have, hitherto 
 at least, said nothing regarding the nature of the 
 relation between the number of the delivery and the 
 mortality attending it. It is true the data recorded 
 demonstrate more or less completely certain coiaci- 
 dences, which may be called laws. But they establish 
 nothing further. These laws are as follows : — 
 
 1. The mortality of first labours is about twice the 
 mortality of all subsequent labours taken together. 
 
 2. The mortality from puerperal fever following 
 
TO MOETALITY ACCOMPANYING PABTUKITION. 247 
 
 first labours is about twice the mortality from puer- 
 peral fever following all subsequent labours taken 
 together. 
 
 3. As the number of a woman's labour increases 
 above nine, the risk of death following labour increases 
 with the number. 
 
 4. As the number of a woman's labour increases 
 above nine, the risk of death from puerperal fever 
 following labour increases with the number. 
 
 5. If a woman have a large family, she escapes 
 extraordinary risk in surviving her first labour, to 
 come again into extraordinary and increasing risk as 
 she bears her ninth and subsequent children. 
 
 These laws, although they merely state coinci- 
 dences, have very important practical bearings, which 
 are too self-evident to require description. They have 
 also important pathological bearings, which were 
 alluded to in the commencement of this part. The 
 most important, perhaps, of these relate to puerperal 
 fever. These also I shall not enter upon further than 
 to say that the occurrence of puerperal fever specially 
 among primipar-as, and women who have borne large 
 families, — its pretty close correspondence in relative 
 amount to the general mortality of parturition after 
 different pregnancies, — its subjection also to the law 
 of the duration of labour, — do not appear to me to 
 lend support to the views hitherto generally enter- 
 tained regarding it, and expressed in the words ac- 
 cidental, fever, contagious, epidemic. Another point 
 under this head I shall merely mention. Authors, 
 
248 RELATION OF NUMBER OF LABOUR 
 
 comparing the mortalities of lying-in institutions, 
 whether from puerperal fever or from other causes, are 
 frequently found neglecting to begin by ascertainuig 
 whether or not they are fit objects of comparison, and 
 under this head, inter alia, neglecting to ascertain the 
 comparative amount of primiparity in each institution. 
 It is plain that, unless there be nearly the same com- 
 parative amount of primiparity in the institutions, 
 their respective gross mortalities cannot be justly con- 
 trasted with one another. 
 
 The well-known protraction of labour in primiparse 
 may to some appear a sufficient cause of the increased 
 mortality of first child-bearing. But mere prolonga- 
 tion of labour for a few hours cannot, in my opinion, 
 be regarded as any satisfactory explanation of the 
 causation of this increased mortality. In one set of 
 Johnston and Sinclair's cases the labours of primiparse 
 are called purely natural, and they are compared with 
 similar purely natural cases in multiparse ; and the 
 mere addition of a few hours to the length of labour 
 in such primipar£B is not a sufficient cause of their 
 mortality being twice as great as that of similar 
 multiparee. Denman alludes to " a vulgar and perni- 
 cious error which makes no distinction between the 
 slowness and the danger of a labour." It would be to 
 fall into this error to explain the increase of mortality 
 merely by increased length of labour. 
 
 It must be held as proved, that according as labour 
 increases in length, so the mortality accompanying it 
 increases ; and that this is true not only of the whole 
 
TO MOETALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 249 
 
 mortality, but also of tlie special mortality from puer- 
 peral fever. This law, although, it must have weighty 
 beariQgs on the mortality of primiparae with their long 
 labours, cannot be regarded as to any great degree 
 throwing light on it ; for we find new increments of 
 mortality after the ninth labour, when we have no 
 reason to believe that labour is more prolonged than 
 in labours preceding the ninth, in which the mor- 
 tality is less. In other words, we have the number of 
 the labour denoting increase of mortality where there is 
 no evidence of accompanying increase of its duration. 
 The law of duration, then, does not enable us to explain 
 the variations of mortality in different labours. 
 
 To completely exclude the influence of the law of 
 duration would be very desirable ; but we see no pre- 
 sent prospect of doing this, except by processes of 
 reasoning. Without such, it could only be done by 
 comparing a series of labours of different number, but 
 in all which the duration was the same. 
 
 It must be remarked that the law of duration cer- 
 tainly has important bearings on the data and argu- 
 ments herein adduced to show the influence of the 
 number of the labour, and that the extent of these 
 bearings is undecided. At the same time is is equally 
 sure that the law of the number of the pregnancy 
 has important bearings on the data and arguments 
 adduced to show the influence of the duration of 
 labour, and the extent of these bearings is un- 
 decided. The mutual influence of the data and argu- 
 ments in these demonstrations must be great, and it 
 
250 RELATION OF NUMBER OF LABOUR 
 
 remains for future observers to accumulate materials 
 for either showing the amount of these influences, or 
 for a separate demonstration of the laws by data 
 which do not intermingle them in their conditions. 
 
 It is worth while to remark that, restricting for a 
 moment our regard to the great mortality of primi- 
 parse (exceeding as it does that of multiparge, taken 
 together), we have a set of cases — those of Johnston 
 and Sinclair — where the deaths were from puerperal 
 fever, and in which the average excess of duration of 
 labour in primiparee above that observed in multiparas 
 was 4 hours. In multiparse the average duration was 
 8 hours; in primiparse 12 hours. Looking at this 
 increased duration, and the correspondingly increased 
 mortality in primiparse, with the light thrown on it 
 by tables published by various authors to demonstrate 
 the law of duration, it appears to me that the increase 
 of mortality in primiparas is above that which these 
 tables appear to give as the increase corresponding to 
 a rise in duration from an 8 -hours' labour to a 12-hours' 
 labour. 
 
 These various remarks I have made with a view 
 to keeping the demonstration of the influence of the 
 number of labour on childbed mortality in its proper 
 light, to keep it separate from other laws or supposed 
 laws with which it may be confounded. I have alluded, 
 with this view, to the causation of the variations of 
 mortality according to the number of the pregnancy. 
 It is no main part of this paper to enter on this 
 subject, but a few words may not be out of place. 
 
TO MOETALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 251 
 
 It would be foolisli to imagine that any injurious 
 influence or the reverse could spring from the mere 
 number of the pregnancy. A woman in a first may, 
 and often does, have as fortunate a delivery as in any 
 other. To ascribe to the number of pregnancy any 
 potency would be to fall into the error of those 
 students of the duration of labour who ascribe great 
 potency to the mere addition of length to a labour. 
 In the case of the law demonstrated in this part, and 
 in the case also of the law of the duration of labour, 
 it appears to me that the source of the variations of 
 mortality is to be looked for in the introduction of 
 complications. I here use the word complications in 
 a much wider sense than is generally ascribed to it, 
 wishing it to imply injuries or injurious tendencies 
 far slighter than those ordinarily classed as compli- 
 cations of labour. I have no doubt that aU of these, 
 however minute or slight, have their weight in giving 
 proclivity to a fatal termination of the childbed. 
 Puerperal fever may have its root in an otherwise 
 insignificant perineal laceration as well as ia a phlebitis 
 or endometritis. 
 
 In primiparse, as labour goes on, complications 
 occur which are not nearly so liable to attack a 
 woman in her next subsequent labours. These have 
 their origin in various sources, chiefly in mechanical 
 difficulties, and these often so slight as not to take the 
 case from the category of purely natural, in an arrange- 
 ment where the labour is alone taken into considera- 
 tion, to the exclusion of the childbed. 
 
252 MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 
 
 Multiparae are specially and increasingly liable to 
 complications of a different kind connected with con- 
 stitutional diseases, and with local infirmities of the 
 uterus. 
 
 This introduction of complications forms also the 
 main explanation of the law of the duration of labour. 
 Indeed, in a rough way, it may be held that the state- 
 ment of duration is a statement of the increase of 
 complications ; for it is known that as labour lengthens 
 out, so complications increase in frequency. Without 
 these complications duration would be of small im- 
 portance, as the profession has generally held. Their 
 introduction is present evil and the seed of future 
 disasters. Tables have been framed to show the ia- 
 creasing introduction of complications as labour is 
 prolonged, but I only refer to them. They are ut- 
 terly useless, so far as I know them, because they are 
 founded only on an enumeration of those of the graver 
 sort. Further, the introduction of complications is 
 not ruled exclusively by the duration of labour. 
 Many are rather connected with precipitate parturi- 
 tion. The complications which probably contribute 
 largely to produce the increased fatality of labours 
 after the ninth are not all included, or capable of 
 inclusion, in any statement of duration, being present 
 before and after the process. 
 
MORTALITY AT CHILD-BEARING AGES. 253 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDBED MORTALITY, AND SPE- 
 CIALLY OF THE MORTALITY CONSEQUENT ON PRIMI- 
 PARITY, ON THE WHOLE MORTALITY OF WOMEN AT 
 THE CHILD-BEARING AGES. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of the great danger of 
 primiparity, I have pleasure in referring to and quoting 
 Dr. Stark's remarks on the reciprocal influence of the 
 mortality of primiparse on the whole mortality of 
 married women, as compared with unmarried women. 
 In the part quoted it will also be noticed that Dr. 
 Stark arrives, by a method of his own, at the conclu- 
 sion that primiparity is specially a cause of death in 
 lytag-in women. He also devotes some remarks to 
 the influence of immaturity of the female (15 to 20 
 years of age) in increasing the mortality of childbed. 
 
 " When," says the author, " the proportional death- 
 rates at the quinquennial periods of life are compared, 
 it is seen that the high death-rate of the married female 
 appears to be confined to the ages under 30 years; but 
 that from 30 to 35, and again from 35 to 40 years, 
 the death-rate of the married female falls below that 
 of the unmarried. 
 
254 INFLUENCE OF CHILDBED MORTALITY ON 
 
 " But the striking fact is, that the mortality of the 
 married females between the ages of 15 and 20 years 
 is higher than that of the married females even duriag 
 the next three quinquennial ages — viz. it is higher 
 than the married females at the ages of 20 to 25, 25 
 to 30, and 30 to 35 years. This is very remarkable, 
 seeing that the mortality, as a general rule, increases 
 with age ; and the fact brought to light by the table, 
 that the mortality of the married women between 15 
 and 20 years of age is much greater than at the three 
 immediately higher quinquennial ages, seems to indi- 
 cate that marrying before the frame has acquired its 
 full development causes the woman to run greater 
 risk of her life than if marriage had been delayed tiU 
 the full growth was completed. 
 
 " But it is between 15 and 20 years of age that the 
 greatest difference occurs between the mortality of the 
 married and that of the unmarried female. Thus, 
 according to the table, it would appear that in every 
 100,000 married women at that age 983 deaths 
 occurred ; while in an equal number of unmarried 
 women at the same ages only 691 deaths occurred. 
 In other words, supposing married and unmarried were 
 in equal numbers between 15 and 20 years of age, 10 
 married would die for every 7 unmarried. 
 
 " At the next quinquennial period of life — viz. 
 between the ages of 20 and 25 years, it appears that 
 in every 100,000 married women 910 deaths occurred; 
 while in an equal number of unmarried women only 
 783 deaths took place. In other words, in equal num- 
 
MORTALITY AT CHILD-BEARING AGES. 255 
 
 bers of each class from 20 to 25 years of age, 9 married 
 women would die for every 8 unmarried women : so 
 that the difference was much less between the death- 
 rates of the married and the unmarried at that age than 
 at the previous or junior age. 
 
 " From the 25th to the 30th year of life the differ- 
 ence in the death-rates of the married and the un- 
 married is slight, inasmuch as 928 deaths occurred in 
 every 100,000 married women, while 903 deaths 
 occurred in a like number of unmarried. 
 
 "From the 30th year of life, the chances appear to 
 be in favour of married life, inasmuch as the table 
 shows that between 30 and 35 years of age only 927 
 deaths occurred in every 100,000 married women ; 
 whereas 941 deaths occurred in a like number of un- 
 married women at the same ages. 
 
 " The same is seen at the next age — viz. from 35 
 to 40 years of age ; for while only 1116 deaths occurred 
 among every 100,000 married women, there were 1181 
 deaths in a like number of unmarried women at the 
 same ages. 
 
 " It seems to be unnecessary to compare the rela- 
 tive death-rates of the married and unmarried females 
 above this age. Speaking generally, it may be said 
 that at every age above 30 years, the mortality of the 
 married female is lower than that of the unmarried, so 
 that the higher mortality of the married female is con- 
 fined to the ages under 30 years. 
 
 " The important question for solution, therefore, is, 
 What is the cause of the mortality of the married 
 
256 INFLUENCE OF CHILDBED MORTALITY ON 
 
 female being so much higher than that of the un- 
 married at the three quinquennial ages, 15-20, 20-25, 
 and 25-30 ? To aid us in such an inquiry some addi- 
 tional facts are required ; and they are so far supplied 
 by tables which were published for Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow in our Second Detailed Annual Eeport. From 
 these tables it appears that in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 in 1855, of 16,573 mothers 9274 were under 30 years 
 of age, and 7299 above that age. That is to say, that, 
 speaking in a very general way, nearly as many 
 women above 30 years as under that age bore children 
 in these towns during 1855. Now, it may be assumed 
 that the relative proportions of women under and 
 above 30 years of age who annually bear children in 
 Scotland are much the same ; let us therefore apply 
 this knowledge to the solution of the above problem. 
 
 " If nearly an equal number of women above and 
 under 30 years of age bear children, and if it be found, 
 as Table XXV. proves, that the mortality of the 
 married female is only greater than that of the un- 
 married female below 30 years, while above that age 
 fewer married females die than unmarried, the con- 
 clusion seems irresistible that the greater mortality of 
 the married female under 30 years of age cannot be 
 owing simply to child-bearing, because it does not 
 increase the mortality of the married female above 30 
 years of age. But that table just as distinctly proves 
 that it is some danger connected with married life, 
 because the unmarried females under 30 years of age 
 are not subject to it ; and that it is a danger which is 
 
MORTALITY AT CHILD-BEARING AGES. 257 
 
 greatest during the earlier years of marriage, and which 
 disappears as life advances. Every medical practi- 
 tioner seeing these facts would at once suggest, as the 
 explanation, that this additional danger during the 
 earlier years of marriage is the birth of the first child. 
 It is a well-known fact that the risk to the mother is 
 far greater at the birth of her first child than at any 
 subsequent delivery ; and it is extremely probable that 
 the whole extra mortality of the married female under 
 30 years of age, over that of the unmarried at the 
 same ages may be caused by the greater dangers which 
 attend the delivery of the first child. This can almost 
 be demonstrated to be the true explanation. 
 
 " If we throw the tables above referred to, having 
 reference to the ages of the mothers in Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow in 1855, into another form, as here given, 
 they wUl show us the number of mothers in these 
 towns at each quinquennial period of life, the numbers 
 who at each age bore their first chUd, and the propor- 
 tion of mothers bearing their first child to every 100 
 mothers at each age. We have then the following 
 interesting result : — 
 
258 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHILDBED MORTALITY ON 
 
 TABLE XOVII. 
 
 Ages of Mothers. 
 
 Total Niimber 
 of 
 
 Number of 
 Mothers hearing 
 
 Proportion of Mothers 
 
 hearing their First 
 
 Child to every 100 
 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 their First Child. 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 15-20 years 
 
 403 
 
 354 
 
 87-8 
 
 20-25 „ 
 
 3814 
 
 1921 
 
 50-3 
 
 25-30 „ 
 
 6057 
 
 1019 
 
 20-1 
 
 30-35 „ 
 
 3943 
 
 331 
 
 8-3 
 
 35-40 „ 
 
 2395 
 
 124 
 
 5-1 
 
 40 and above 
 
 961 
 
 32 
 
 3-3 
 
 "Between tlie ages of 15 and 20 years, 87 percent 
 of the mothers were confined with, their first chUd. 
 Between the ages of 20 and 25 years, 50 per cent of 
 the mothers were confined with their first child. Be- 
 tween 25 and 30 years, only 20 per cent of the mothers 
 were confined with their first child ; and the propor- 
 tion diminished to 8, 5, and 3 per cent at the three 
 succeeding quinquennial periods of life. 
 
 " Assuming, therefore, that in all Scotland the pro- 
 portion of mothers bearing their first child is at each 
 age the same as in these towns, and comparing these 
 proportions with those of the married women who died 
 at each quinquennial period of life, we are almost 
 driven to the conclusion that the excessive mortality 
 in the married female, as compared with that of the 
 unmarried at the same ages, is almost solely due to 
 the superadded dangers which attend the birth of the 
 first child. That, in fact, after the birth of her first 
 child, the married female, even during the rest of her 
 
MORTALITY AT CHILD-BEARING AGES. 259 
 
 child-bearing life, has an equal chance of life with the 
 Tuunarried, and has a better life than the unmarried 
 after she has passed her 30th year."* 
 
 * Seventh Detailed Annual Report, p. xxxi. Consult also Bou- 
 din, OeograpMe et Statistigue Medicales, torn. ii. p. 77. 
 
260 RELATION OF AGE TO 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE RELATION OF AGE TO THE MORTALITY FROM 
 PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 On this subject important information is to be found 
 in a letter addressed by Dr. Farr to the English Eegis- 
 trar-General, and published in the appendix to that 
 officer's seventeenth annual report : — 
 
 " What (says Dr. Farr) is the danger of death by 
 childbirth among women of different ages who bear 
 children during the year ? This is a different question, 
 which is of practical importance both in medical science 
 and in the business of life-insurance. The defect in the 
 English schedule, which, as yet, contains no column 
 for the ages of the parents of the children registered, 
 renders it impossible to answer this question with pre- 
 cision. It wUl, however, be iiseful to obtain an ap- 
 proximate answer ; and this we have been able to give 
 by determining the probable proportion of women who 
 bear children at each age, from the Swedish returns, 
 and by applying the fraction expressive of this propor- 
 tion to the English women living in 1851 at the cor- 
 responding age, the probable number of them who 
 became mothers every year is determined. The total 
 
MORTALITY FROM PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 261 
 
 number tlitis determined for the year 1851 is 60 9, 845; 
 while the actual average number of the births in the 
 seven years by the returns was 603,045. It is thus 
 evident that the estimate dififers to no great extent 
 from the facts, and it may be assumed that the births 
 corrected for twins, triplets, and still-born children 
 in England, would represent nearly 609,845 child- 
 bearings."* 
 
 The following table, extracted from the data sup- 
 plied by Dr. Farr, shows the mortality from puerperal 
 fever in four decenniads : — 
 
 TABLE XCVIII. — Showing the Mortality of Child-beae- 
 iNG Women erom Puerperal Fever, in England, at 
 Four different Ages. (Fare.) 
 
 Ages 
 
 15-24 
 
 25-34 
 
 35-44 
 
 45-54 
 
 Childbearing women . . 
 Deaths from puerperal fever 
 
 107,440 
 298 
 
 328,720 
 486 
 
 166,140 
 256 
 
 7545 
 12 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Or 1 in every 
 
 •277 
 360 
 
 ■148 
 676 
 
 •154 
 649 
 
 •163 
 628 
 
 The large figures in this table give great value to 
 the result, that whUe childbearing women aged from 
 15 to 25 do die of puerperal fever in a proportion far 
 
 * I have been repeatedly consulted by the medical officers of 
 insurance offices as to the proper conduct of cases of application of 
 women for insurance who were childbearing or had the prospect of 
 childbearing in future. Any advice I have hitherto given has been 
 in very general terms. In this volume, however, there is now given 
 a basis from which the actuary may calculate the answers to the 
 
262 RELATION OF AGE TO 
 
 exceeding that of women at any other age, the child- 
 bearing women aged from 25 to 35 are carried off by 
 the same disease in the lowest proportion compared 
 with all others. Puerperal fever mortality at its lowest 
 among the lying-in aged from 25 to 35, rises on either 
 side of this age, but it rises far more quickly and highly 
 as age decreases than as age advances. 
 
 It would be unphUosophical to draw from this table 
 even a presumption as to the influence of age on puer- 
 peral mortality, until careful consideration has been 
 made of all the influences besides age which may have 
 a bearing on it. Now, as far as I know, the paramount 
 influence interfering with deductions from this table 
 as to the influence of age is that of the number of the 
 labour. Of the influence of primiparity. Dr. Farr, Dr. 
 Tyler Smith {Manual of Obstetrics, chap, xlviii.), and 
 Dr. Stark, have had some degree of appreciation. But 
 Dr. Hugenberger has, in some data he has published, 
 actually separated the primiparous from the midti- 
 parous, with the view of eliminating this great influ- 
 ence. I here produce the tables of Hugenberger, 
 re-arranged for uniformity's sake (XCIX. and C.) 
 
 These tables are interesting, and seem to show that 
 Hugenberger felt the necessity, in the study of the 
 bearing of age on puerperal fever mortality, of separat- 
 
 most important questions in this topic. He can determine the 
 fecundity of the female, or her chance of having offspring ; the 
 fertility, or the number she is likely to have ; the time when she 
 ■mil probably become relatively sterile ; the risk of death in bearing 
 her first child ; and, if she survives the birth of her first chUd, the 
 risk of death in her subsequent confinements. 
 
MORTALITY FROM PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 263 
 
 TABLE XCIX. — Showing the Mortality of Pkimipar^, 
 OF Different Ages, from Puerperal Fever, in the 
 MiDwiVEs' Institute of St. Petersburg. (Hugenberger.) 
 
 Ages 
 
 15-18 
 
 19-22 
 
 23-26 
 
 27-35 
 
 36-45 
 
 Childbearing women . . 
 Deaths from puerperal fever 
 
 147 
 
 7 
 
 859 
 25 
 
 711 
 
 22 
 
 495 
 39 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Or 1 in every 
 
 4-76 
 21 
 
 2-91 
 34 
 
 3-09 
 32 
 
 7-88 
 13 
 
 9-75 
 10 
 
 TAELE C. — Showing the Mortality of Multipara of Dif- 
 ferent Ages, from Puerperal Fever, in the Midwives' 
 Institute of St. Petersburg. (Hugenberger.) 
 
 Ages 
 
 18-22 
 
 23-26 
 
 27-35 
 
 36-53 
 
 Childbearing women . . 
 Deaths from puerperal fever 
 
 503 
 11 
 
 1410 
 29 
 
 2967 
 74 
 
 903 
 27 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Or 1 in every 
 
 2-18 
 46 
 
 2-05 
 48 
 
 2-49 
 40 
 
 2-99 
 33 
 
 ing primiparse from multiparae. Any special results 
 whicli miglit be drawn from them I tliink little worthy 
 of consideration, in deference to the much larger and 
 more valuable data which I adduce, and on account of 
 the extraordinary mortality which the tables reveal. 
 
 It may with truth be said that, to make a perfectly 
 satisfactory comparison of the mortalities of women of 
 different ages, it is necessary to compare with one 
 another masses of women of different ages in each 
 successive pregnancy. I know of no data for this 
 
264 
 
 RELATION OF AGE TO 
 
 purpose. Hugenberger's data of primiparse are a poor 
 instalment, and my own Edinburgh and Glasgow data 
 are equally insufficient, and I do not tbirik it neces- 
 sary to encumber tbese pages with. them. 
 
 I have, however, ventured to increase the value of 
 Farr's data, with a view to the question of the ia- 
 fluence of age, by the following method. In Table 
 CI. the result is given. 
 
 The correction for primiparity is made because the 
 puerperal fever mortality after first labours is at least 
 double the puerperal fever mortality of aU other 
 
 TABLE CI. — Showing the Mortality of Childbearing 
 Women from Puerperal Fever in England, at Four 
 Different Ages, corrected for Primiparity.* 
 
 Ages 
 
 15-24 
 
 25-34 
 
 35-44 
 
 45-54 
 
 Childbearing women 
 Deatlis from puer- ] 
 peral fever cor- , 
 rected for primi- 
 parity . 
 
 107,440 
 194J 
 
 328,720 
 339J 
 
 166,140 
 256 
 
 7545 
 12 
 
 Percentage . . . 
 Or 1 in every . 
 
 •181 
 
 552 
 
 •121 
 823 
 
 •154 
 649 
 
 •159 
 629 
 
 * It is to be remarked tbat this and the following tables cor- 
 rected from Farr's data give results for diflferent decenniads that 
 may be compared only with one another. The table would not 
 give actual values even were Farr's data actual values, which they 
 are not. Correction has been made only in the line of deaths by 
 
MORTALITY FKOM PUERPERAL FEVER. 
 
 265 
 
 labours taken together. In order to remove entirely, 
 or almost entirely, the disturbing influence of primi- 
 parity, then, it is necessary to turn out of the data 
 one-half of the deaths of primiparse. The number of 
 puerperal fever deaths of primiparse at different ages 
 is got by determiaiag their probable proportion from 
 the Edinburgh and Glasgow mortality of 1855.* The 
 preponderance of primiparse at the earlier ages renders 
 this correction necessary, and I only regret that the 
 smallness of the data prevents us from ascribiag to 
 the correction a high value. 
 
 It may with truth and with some cogency be said 
 that Farr's table should be further corrected for the 
 uicreased mortality accompanying ninth and subse- 
 quent pregnancies which faU into the more advanced 
 ages. I do not attempt this correction, because it 
 
 taking away one-half of the deaths of primiparse. This makes 
 the tahle read as if a tahle of multiparae. This proceeding, 
 being simpler, has been preferred to another, which might have 
 been followed — namely, to extract from the mothers the whole 
 primiparous by estimate, and to extract from the deaths those of 
 primiparee, and compare the remaining multiparse and deaths of 
 multiparae. 
 
 * TABLE CII. — Showing the Moetalitt feom PoBEPEEAii Fbves ot 
 PEnnPABiE m Edinbuegh akd Glasgow in 1855. 
 
 Ages 
 
 16-19 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 No. of primiparffi .... 
 Deaths "by puerperal fever . 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Or 1 ia 
 
 331 
 
 2 
 •604 
 165 
 
 1859 
 
 14 
 
 •753 
 
 133 
 
 1007 
 
 7 
 
 •695 
 
 144 
 
 354 
 3 
 
 ■847 
 118 
 
 134 
 
 33 
 
266 
 
 RELATION OF AGE TO 
 
 cannot, with the means at my disposal, be done 
 satisfactorily. But the omission of this correction 
 will, comparatively, cause little inaccuracy in the 
 results drawn from the table ; for births in ninth and 
 subsequent pregnancies are proportionally few, and 
 the average age of women in niath and subsequent 
 pregnancies is above thirty-seven years, an age before 
 which the injurious influence of elderHness appears to 
 have already shown itself.* 
 
 * TABLE cm. — Showing the Number op Children Born in 
 
 First and Subsequent Pregnancies in Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow IN 1855, and the Average Ages op the Mothers in bach 
 Successive Pregnancy. 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Average Age 
 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 Children. 
 
 of Mother. . 
 
 1st 
 
 3722 
 
 24-6 
 
 2d 
 
 2893 
 
 26-2 
 
 3d 
 
 2534 
 
 27-6 
 
 4th 
 
 1982 
 
 29-9 
 
 5th 
 
 1543 
 
 31-5 
 
 6th 
 
 1221 
 
 32-9 
 
 7th 
 
 848 
 
 34-9 
 
 8th 
 
 641 
 
 36-1 
 
 9th 
 
 425 
 
 37-5 
 
 10th 
 
 222 
 
 38-8 
 
 nth 
 
 152 
 
 39-2 
 
 12th 
 
 61 
 
 40-0 
 
 13th 
 
 34 
 
 41-7 
 
 14th 
 
 11 
 
 42-4 
 
 15th 
 
 6 
 
 42-7 
 
 16th 
 
 2 
 
 48-6 
 
 17th 
 
 2 
 
 41-5 
 
 18th 
 
 1 
 
 40-0 
 
 19th 
 
 1 
 
 48-0 
 
MOETALITY FEOM PUEEPERAL FEVER. 267 
 
 It has, lastly, only to be remarked tliat reference 
 to Table CL, corrected, as it is, for primiparity, shows 
 results still closely resembling ia general features 
 those derived from the uncorrected table. Though 
 similar in general features, there is evidently great 
 difference in the numerical variations in the two 
 Tables (XCVIII. and CI.), and I think there can be 
 no doubt that the last table (CI.) gives an approxima- 
 tion to a view of the influence of age far more faithful 
 than the first (XCVIII.)' 
 
268 RELATION OP AGE OF MOTHER TO 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RELATION OP THE AGE OP THE MOTHER TO THE 
 MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 
 
 The first table whicli I shall adduce under this head 
 is extracted from the data of Dr. Farr, already referred 
 to. The calculations, as made by Dr. Farr, give the 
 mortality according to age, but, since primiparous 
 females are included in the lists, they are of little 
 value as indicating the influence of age. T have, as 
 in the table of puerperal fever deaths, corrected Dr. 
 Farr's data for primiparity, and in the penultimate 
 line given the percentages; which may be held as 
 showing, when compared one with another, an ap- 
 proximate estimate of the influence of age on the 
 mortality of parturition. 
 
MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTUEITION. 
 
 269 
 
 TABLE CIV. — Showing the Mortality of Childbeaeing 
 Women in England at Four Dipfekent Ages, and the 
 
 SAME corrected FOR PRIMIPARITY. 
 
 Ages 
 
 15-24 
 
 25-34 
 
 35-44 
 
 45-54 
 
 Ohildbearing women 
 Deaths .... 
 Percentage . . . 
 
 107,440 
 718 
 •668 
 
 328,720 
 1397 
 •425 
 
 166,140 
 1051 
 •633 
 
 7545 
 66 
 
 •883 
 
 Deaths corrected for ) 
 primiparity . j 
 Percentage . . . 
 Or 1 in every . . 
 
 473 
 
 •440 
 
 227 
 
 1216 
 
 •369 
 
 270 
 
 1033 
 
 •621 
 160 
 
 66 
 
 •875 
 114 
 
 Here tlie large figures give a proportionate value to 
 tlie results. The women aged from 25 to 34 have the 
 fewest deaths among them — namely, "369 per cent. 
 They are more fortunate than the very young women 
 aged from 15 to 24 by •0'7 per cent. But the seeming 
 influence of this youthfulness in aggravating the danger 
 of women is slight when compared with that of ad- 
 vancing years, the decenniads following that from 25 
 to 34 showing a mortality increasing in a far higher 
 ratio. 
 
 The next table which I adduce is made from data 
 furnished by Dr. Collins' Practical Treatise. 
 
270 
 
 RELATION OF AGE OF MOTHER TO 
 
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MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 
 
 271 
 
 It is not corrected for primiparity, and I bring it 
 forward for its own value, and because it gives tlie 
 data for periods of five years. It will be observed that 
 its results agree ia the maia with those derived from 
 the data of Dr. Farr. But a further step is attained 
 by the five-year divisions showing that youthfulness is 
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 which follow. 
 
 The next table (CVII.) contains only multiparas. Pri- 
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 values shows a minimum of mortality at the age of 
 from 25 to 29 years. 
 
 The last table (CVIII.) to be given is a composite one, 
 but appears to me to be of value with reference to the 
 present question. It is made up as foUows : — 
 
 * To complete the view of the mortality of child-hearing women 
 in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, I here give the mortality of 
 the primiparse. It is not placed in the text because of the small- 
 ness of the figures compared with those of multiparse, and because 
 the table of multiparse is more like the others in the text. 
 
 TABLE CVI. — SHOWiua the Moetalitt op Peimipae^ at Different Ages, 
 
 IN EllINBtrEGH AND GLASGOW IN 1855. 
 
 Ages .... 
 
 15-19 
 
 20-2i 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 Total. 
 
 No. of Primiparae 
 Deaths of ditto . 
 Percentage . . 
 Or 1 in every . . 
 
 331 
 
 4 
 
 1-208 
 
 83 
 
 1859 
 
 24 
 
 1-291 
 
 77 
 
 1007 
 
 13 
 
 1-291 
 
 77 
 
 354 
 
 8 
 
 2-260 
 
 44 
 
 134 
 
 1 
 
 •746 
 
 134 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 ... 
 
 3722 
 50 
 
 1-343 
 74 
 
272 
 
 EELATION OF AGE OF MOTHEE TO 
 
 
 
 
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MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 
 
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274 EELATIOK OF AGE OF MOTHER TO 
 
 With the number of women confined at different 
 ages in the Dublin Hospital under Dr. Collins, are 
 compared the deaths at different ages recorded by 
 Drs. CoUins, M'Clintock and Hardy, and Johnston and 
 Sinclair. These deaths have been collected with con- 
 siderable care to insure a close approach to their true 
 number. All the deaths were among women delivered 
 in the same hospital, and these are compared with an- 
 other set of cases also delivered in it. The deaths are 
 corrected, as in former tables, for primiparity. The 
 resulting percentages are of course of value only when 
 compared with one another, and in this respect they 
 appear to me to be very valuable. The smallest mor- 
 tality is seen to be in the age 20-24 ; and the increased 
 mortality from greater youthfulness is in the next 
 quinquennial period less than the corresponding ia- 
 crease on the other side from greater age. 
 
 Looking over these tables, one cannot doubt that 
 the result of Farr's data, showing 25 to 35 as the age 
 of smallest mortality, may be considered as justly sup- 
 planted by the results of the tables showing quin- 
 quennial periods. In all of these the smallest mortality 
 is found to be under 30 years of age. Of the tables 
 showing quinquennial periods, given in the text, No. 
 CVni. gives 20-24 as the safest age for parturition, 
 while the CVIIth gives it as 25 to 29 ; and we may 
 guess with considerable assurance that the age of 
 minimum mortality from parturition is at or near 25 
 years. 
 
MORTALITY ACCOMPANYING PARTURITION. 275 
 
 The following are the chief conclusions deducible 
 from the whole exposition : — 
 
 1st, Youthfulness has less influence in producing 
 mortality from parturition than elderliness. 
 
 2d, From the earliest age of child-bearing there is 
 a climax of diminishing puerperal mortality, succeeded 
 by an anti-climax of puerperal mortality increasiag till 
 the end of child-bearing life. 
 
 3d, The age of least mortality is near 25 years, 
 and on either side of this age mortality gradually 
 increases with the diminution or increase of age. 
 
 ith, Above 25 years puerperal mortality increases 
 at a much higher rate than it increases at correspond- 
 ing periods below 25 years, a circumstance which de- 
 cidedly throws thp greater safety to the side of the 
 quiuquenniad 20-25. 
 
 5 th, Though it is not deducible from anything in 
 this part, it is too interesting to escape notice that the 
 age of greatest safety in parturition coincides with the 
 age of greatest fecundity, and that during the whole of 
 chUd-bearing life safety in parturition appears to be 
 directly as fecundity, and vice versa. " To the female 
 sex," says Aristotle, " premature wedlock ds peculiarly 
 dangerous, since, in consequence of anticipating the 
 demands of nature, many of them suffer greatly in 
 childbirth, and many of them die."''" 
 
 * Sadler, Law of Population, vol. ii p. 272. 
 
PAET VIII. 
 
 ON THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 In this discussion I have nothing to say that is appli- 
 cable to individual women. Such may, by peculiarities 
 of constitution, be to a greater or less extent removed 
 from subjection to the laws which govern the sex 
 generally. Individuals may, with propriety, be advised 
 to marry earlier than general laws would sanction, 
 or later. My object is to point out the ages within 
 which women generally should enter the married 
 state, if they are to be guided by physiological laws. 
 I shall hold it to be the object of marriage, as it is 
 its natural result, to "multiply and replenish the 
 earth." And I shall omit entirely from consideration 
 at present those moral considerations bearing on this 
 topic which may, in an important sense, be justly in- 
 cluded under the designation of physiological laws. 
 
 It is, I believe, a common notion that the occur- 
 rence of menstruation indicates the arrival of the 
 nubile age. Authors occasionally use such expressions 
 as advent of nubility and commencement of menstru- 
 ation as synonymous. The age of puberty may be 
 contemporaneous with the age of nubility; but it 
 
278 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 cannot be assumed to be so without proof, for very 
 little reflection will suggest to the physiologist many 
 reasons for supposing that the marriageable age is 
 generally delayed for several years after the arrival of 
 the age of puberty. And it is my object now to show 
 at what age it is wisest for women to enter the married 
 state. 
 
 M. Joulin* makes some remarks which appear to 
 me so just as to demand quotation here: "Nubility," 
 says he, " is the complement of puberty. These two 
 states should not be confounded ; it is rarely that they 
 are developed simultaneously, and their appearance is 
 ordinarily separated by an interval of several years. 
 Puberty is the age when the young girl becomes a 
 woman ; nubUity the epoch when she may fulfil all 
 the duties of maternity. It is frequent in our latitude 
 to see the menses appear at eleven or twelve years ; 
 parturition will be, strictly speaking, possible, but after 
 the young mother has escaped the dangers of a labour 
 very painful to her, will she be able to nurse her child, 
 to lavish on it the necessary attentions ? will she be 
 able to comprehend the whole extent of her task and 
 to fulfil its laborious duties ? No. For nubility is not 
 arrived, and it is only then that the complete develop- 
 ment of the organs, the powers, and the intelligence 
 -w^Ul permit her to be sufiicient for the undertaking. 
 The ci'^dl code authorises matrimonial union when the 
 woman is fifteen years and the man eighteen ; but 
 civil law is not in accordance with physiological law, 
 '' Traite Gomplet d'AcconcJi. i. partie, p. 105. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 279 
 
 and the race which would spring from unions so 
 premature would soon proceed to degenerate. No 
 general limit should be fixed, as is done, for nubUity ; 
 were this term 18, 20, or 22 years, numerous devia- 
 tions from the common level would occur." 
 
 " When I am consulted," he adds, " as to the oppor- 
 tuneness of a marriage for subjects who are too young, 
 I am accustomed to respond to the parents, that they 
 should not marry their daughter — that is to say, expose 
 her to the chance of becoming a mother — until for a 
 year at least her stature has ceased to increase. This 
 is the epoch that I fix for nubility ; embonpoint may 
 add to the volume of the organs, but nature will add 
 nothing to their development." 
 
 It is generally supposed, especially by cattle- 
 breeders, and I believe justly, that incomplete develop- 
 ment of the body indicates a certain unfitness for 
 bearing young ; the too early performance of the func- 
 tion having an injurious influence upon the young 
 mother, and resulting in ofispring that is not generally 
 excellent. In women the question of development is 
 susceptible of more intimate examination than in any 
 animal. For we have, recorded, careful inquiries into 
 the growth of her physical frame that can be turned 
 to account. I have already indicated that I do not 
 here enter upon the important considerations of moral 
 development in the female ; and in physical develop- 
 ment I shall only condescend on the stature, the ossi- 
 fication of the pelvis, its development in shape, and the 
 development of the genital organs. 
 
280 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 The development of the genital organs seems to 
 be one of completed growth in size and form, as 
 early ia life as marriage is ever contemplated in 
 European countries, and therefore no restriction 
 of the nubile age can be based on their state. I 
 say " seems to be," for I know of no refined investiga- 
 tion of the anatomical details bearing on the subject. 
 The statements of A. Farre,* and of Kussmaul,t are not 
 quite to the point ; and it can only be said that they 
 imply completed growth at the age of puberty. But 
 I may assume that few will maintain that the age of 
 puberty and of nubility are identical ; and the mature 
 state of the genital organs at early ages, even if de- 
 monstrated, therefore leaves the scope of this inquiry 
 unrestricted. 
 
 " The full growth of man," says Quetelet, " does 
 not appear to be attained at his twenty-fifth year."J 
 Elsewhere the same author remarks that " the limits 
 of growth in the two sexes are unequal : first, because 
 woman is born smaller than man ; second, because 
 she sooner finishes her complete development; third, 
 because the annual increase which she receives is 
 smaller than that of man." These conclusions of 
 Quetelet regarding the stature of woman are founded 
 on a large collection of data of different kinds, and 
 may be accepted as proof that women generally are 
 
 * Article "Uterus," in Todd's Gydopcedia of Anatomy and 
 Physiology. 
 
 t Von dem Mangel, etc., der Gelarmutter. 
 t A Tvatise on Man, p. 61. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 281 
 
 increasing m stature till at least about their twenty- 
 fifth year of age, that till this age they are im- 
 mature inasmuch as they are not fuU-gTown in 
 height. 
 
 The tardy ossification of the bones of the pelvis 
 naturally attracts attention from their locality and 
 inseparable connection with the function of repro- 
 duction. With the full details of the osseous growth 
 and perfectioning of the pelvic bones I shall not 
 encumber this discussion. I shall merely refer the 
 inquirer to anatomical works on the subject, and here 
 make two quotations* from the article "Pelvis," by 
 John Wood, published in the Cyclopcedia of Anatomy 
 and Physiology : — " About the time of puberty, as 
 first pointed out by M. Serres, a distinct comple- 
 mentary point of ossification appears in the cartilage 
 
 dividing the bones in the cotyloid cavity 
 
 According to Meckel, the pubis and ischium join first 
 with each other, and the ilium becomes united to 
 them afterwards. At the same time appear the four 
 remaining complementary points as epiphyses. . . . 
 All these are soldered to the bone about the twenty- 
 fourth or twenty-fifth year, the epiphysis of the iliac 
 crest betag the last to join." Speaking of the sacrum, 
 the same author remarks : — " At the age of sixteen 
 years, the epiphysial or complementary ossific points 
 begin to form — viz. on each articulating surface of the 
 bodies of the sacral vertebrae is developed, as in the 
 true vertebra, a horizontal plate of^ bone, which, after 
 *Vol. V. p. 120. 
 
282 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 coalescing with the bodies to which they respectively 
 belong, finally (except the first and last) become 
 soldered to each other from below upwards, com- 
 mencing with the two last vertebrae, at from the 
 sixteenth to the eighteenth years, and completing the 
 formation of the sacral bone by the union of the two 
 first vertebrae, at from the twenty-fifth to the thirtieth 
 years. Between the eighteenth and the twentieth 
 years begins the formation, by scattered granules, of 
 four lateral plates of bone — one on each side, forming 
 the Uiac articular surfaces, opposite to the three first 
 vertebrae — and one on each side, opposite the two last. 
 These unite with the sacral bone about the same time 
 that its upper vertebrae coalesce." * 
 
 Having thus shown the lateness of the completion 
 of the structural development of the pelvis as a bony 
 skeleton, I advance to the stUl more important topic 
 of the time of the complete construction in shape or 
 form of the same part. It would be tedious and out 
 of place here to show the obstetrical advantage and 
 use of the special shape of the fully-grown female 
 pelvis. I assume this. 
 
 " According to Dupuytren," says Mr. Wood, in the 
 article from which I have just been quoting, "the 
 female pelvis differs very little from that of the male 
 till puberty, at which period it has a general triangular 
 form in both sexes, but after that period it becomes 
 rapidly developed, and soon assumes its distinctive 
 sexual character. The transverse diameters begin to 
 * See also Litzmann, Die Formen des Beckens, s. 16. 
 
THE AGE OF KUBILITY. 283 
 
 exceed the conjugate, and, in the female, attain a great 
 preponderance, constituting one of the great charac- 
 teristics of the fully -formed human pelvis, as dis- 
 tinguished from that of the lower animals." 
 
 Burns offers us statements which are more apposite 
 and in distinct words gives them a bearing upon the 
 question of nubility. The grand feature of his re- 
 marks, for our present purpose, is his proving that the 
 female pelvis just before puberty, and perhaps so late 
 as eighteen, is far from having assumed the form 
 best suited for the difficulties implied in commencing 
 maternity. " The shape," he says,* " is different in the 
 child and the adult. The dimensions of the brim are 
 reversed in these two states ; the long diameter of the 
 foetal pelvis extending from the pubis to the sacrum. 
 By slow degrees the shape changes. These changes, 
 however, must be affected by the general growth of 
 the body and the term of puberty. At nine years the 
 conjugate diameter is two inches and seven-eighths, 
 the lateral an eighth less ; at ten years of age the 
 antero-posterior diameter is three inches and a quarter, 
 the lateral is an eighth more ; at thirteen the former 
 is still the same, but the latter has increased to three 
 inches and three-quarters ; at fourteen the former is 
 three and three-quarters, the latter four inches. Just 
 before puberty, perhaps so late as eighteen, the antero- 
 posterior diameter is three inches and seven-eighths, 
 the lateral four and a half. These measurements I 
 give, however, from individual pelvises. If a girl 
 * Principles of Midxvifery, tenth edition, p. 23. 
 
284 THE AGE OP NUBILITY. 
 
 should very early become a mother, the shape of the 
 pelvis may occasion a painful and tedious labour." 
 " To the female sex," says Aristotle, " premature wed- 
 lock is peculiarly dangerous, since, in consequence of 
 anticipating the demands of nature, many of them 
 suffer greatly in childbirth, and many of them die."* 
 Litzmannt has gone into this question with greater 
 fulness than Burns, but I shall only extract from his 
 work the observation that he has given the dimensions 
 of two pelves of young women of nineteen years 
 of age, and that in both the measurements dis- 
 tinctly indicate that they have not yet arrived at 
 the average size and shape. They therefore confiim 
 the statements of Burns on this point in every 
 respect. 
 
 It is known that a first confinement is much more 
 dangerous than any of those which follow, at least 
 untU the confinement reaches a number above that 
 ordinarily attained to by fertile women. I have else- 
 where shown that this extraordinary mortality accom- 
 panying first labours is about twice that accompanying 
 all subsequent labours taken together.^ It evidently, 
 then, becomes of extreme importance for the young 
 woman entering on the risk of a first confinement to 
 do so at the most favourable age. The age of smallest 
 mortality after a first confinement should be chosen for 
 
 * De Repub. 1. vii. c. 16. See Sadler, Law of Population, 
 vol. ii. p. 272. 
 
 + Die Forraen des Beckens. 
 t P. 241. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 285 
 
 encountering its risks. It has been long known that 
 age has considerable influence on this mortality. But 
 I know of no satisfactory data for deciding at what 
 age a woman most safely bears a first child. In an- 
 other place.* I have entered upon the subject, and 
 shown that the quinquermiad 20 to 24 years inclusive 
 is the safest for parturition generally, and I think it a 
 natural inference that that age is the safest for a first 
 parturition; an inference, too, which appears to me to 
 have the support of the general tenor of the argument 
 to which I have made reference. If a woman is to 
 multiply and replenish the earth, as married women 
 ordinarily do, she must survive her first confinement. 
 To have the best chance of this survival she should 
 marry between 20 and 25 years of age. 
 
 There is scarcely any condition of a married woman 
 which more surely causes unhappiness than sterility ; 
 its avoidance is therefore a great object. If a married 
 woman is sterile, she fails to secure the great end of 
 the union. It is evident that the age of nubility 
 should be fixed with a view to the securing of fecundity. 
 I have elsewhere t shown that age at marriage has 
 considerable influence upon the occurrence of sterility; 
 and the age at marriage found to be most secure of 
 fecundity is the quinquenniad 20 to 24 years inclusive. 
 So far, then, as the avoidance of sterility has any bear- 
 
 * Tatle CVIII. p. 273. 
 
 + Transactions of Royal Society of Edinburgh for 1866. " On 
 some Laws of the Sterility of Wives," chap. iv. See also p. 193. 
 
286 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 ing upon tlie age of nubility, the quinquenniad 20 
 to 24 years inclusive is to be selected. 
 
 " Premature conjunctions," says Aristotle, "produce 
 imperfect offspring, females rather than males, and 
 these feeble in make and short in stature. That this 
 happens in the human race as well as in other animals, 
 is visible in the puny inhabitants of countries where 
 early marriages prevail." ''" These opinions of Aristotle 
 are confirmed, so far as stature is concerned, by my 
 own researches and those of Professor Hecker, regarding 
 the length and weight of children born of mothers of 
 different ages.t And the statistics of Dr. A. Mitchell 
 seem to show that immature mothers and old mothers 
 are specially liable to bear idiot children.^ 
 
 If, in the foregoing paragraph, it is established or 
 rendered probable that the children of very early mar- 
 riages are less strong and healthy than other children, 
 it may be considered a work of supererogation to show 
 that such children die in a higher proportion in early 
 life than others. But the demonstration of both of 
 these points is not perfect, and the proof of the one 
 goes far to confirm the other, and is therefore de- 
 manded. 
 
 Sadler, in his work on the Law of Population, 
 enters upon the mortality of children as influenced by 
 the age of the mother at marriage. His enthusiasm 
 
 * De Repuh. c. iv. p. 246, Gillies' translation. [ See Sadler, 1. 
 c. p. 273. 
 
 t Edinburgh Medical Journal, December 1864. See also p. 62. 
 + Ihid. January 1866. See also page 290. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 28^ 
 
 for a preconceived theory diminishes the value of his 
 remarks on the point ; and the circumstance, that his 
 data do not give the results of marriages after 32 
 years of age of the woman, renders the whole of less 
 value than a more extended series of data and calcula- 
 tions would possess* So far as they go, however, they 
 show a diminishing mortality among the children in 
 proportion as the age at marriage increases. 
 
 A more valuable collection of data is to be found 
 in the report of an investigation into the state of the 
 poorer classes of St. George's-in-the-East.t The follow- 
 ing table, extracted from that document, gives the 
 
 TABLE CIX. 
 
 Years elapsed 
 
 since birth of 
 
 iirst child. 
 
 Mortality per cent of the Children horn to 
 Marriages formed at Ages 
 
 16-20 
 
 21-25 
 
 25-30 
 
 31-35 
 
 10 
 20 
 30 
 40 
 
 36-87 
 47-44 
 53-03 
 63-12 
 
 37-09 
 43-10 
 43-89 
 57-14 
 
 37-89 
 44-36 
 48-53 
 68-00 
 
 35-48 
 16-67 
 64-29 
 60-00 
 
 foundation of the conclusions arrived at, which I now 
 give in the words of the report. " From this abstract 
 it is obvious that, of the three first periods, the children 
 born of marriages formed in the quinquennial term of 
 fife 21-25, are subject to a less rate of mortality than 
 those of the period immediately preceding or imme- 
 
 * Law of Population, vol. ii. Tables xliv. and xlvi. 
 t Journal of Statistical Society, xi. p. 223. 
 
288 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 diately following ; the rate of mortality in the most 
 advanced period, 31-35, is very irregular, and no doubt 
 arises from the very small number of families included 
 in that group." 
 
 This interesting table, then, of the report cited, 
 shows a greater survival of children born of women 
 married at from 20 to 25 years of age than at any 
 other ; and as the rearing of children is assumed to be 
 one of the chief objects of marriage, the age to be 
 selected for marriage with a view to this object is 20 
 to 25 years. 
 
 Before leaving this point I must add the eAddence 
 of two gentlemen skilled in the breeding of lambs and 
 of calves. They say that the mortality of the young 
 of these animals, when the mothers are immature, is 
 much greater than when they are well-grown. One of 
 them says — " Taking the first lamb from ewes at one 
 year old has in almost every case failed to be remunera- 
 tive, owing to the frequent deaths of the lambs. The 
 same may be said of young heifers, though the mor- 
 tality of the offspring may not be so marked as in that 
 of sheep." 
 
 Considering the argument drawn. in this paper from 
 the avoidance of sterility, it may appear to some to be 
 unfair to found any argument upon the avoidance of 
 an excessive family. And I admit that what I have to 
 adduce on this subject may partake in some degree of 
 the nature of an arbitrary assumption. Having, how- 
 ever, shown some grounds for believing that ten is the 
 ordinary limit of fertility in women living in wedlock 
 
THE AGE OF KUBILITY. 289 
 
 during the whole child-bearing period,* and having 
 shown the very great mortality attendant upon confine- 
 ments numbering the tenth, or higher,t I venture to 
 express my belief that a family rising above ten begins 
 to be excessive. Now it appears to me that all the 
 knowledge we possess of the laws of fertility refers the 
 excessively numerous families in a population to fertile 
 women who have been prematurely married. Such 
 women certainly go on longer bearing children than 
 any others, counting up to the end of the child-bearing 
 period in the women compared. 
 
 Another class of women is liable to have children 
 with dangerous rapidity, and often a family that is ex- 
 cessive, at least when the duration of married life is 
 taken into account — namely, those who are fertUe when 
 married comparatively late in life.| 
 
 * Transactions of the Royal Society, 1866, p. 292. See also 
 p. 117. 
 
 t Edinburgh Medical Journal, September 1865. See also 
 p. 247. 
 
 J I miglit have introduced into tlie text what I here subjoin in a 
 note, had I regarded the opinions suggested in connection with 
 twinning as very well ascertained. If the connection of twin- 
 bearing with primiparity be, for the time, left out of view, there 
 would remain little doubt upon the conclusions now to be suggested : 
 Primiparity, involving, as it does, special danger to mother and to 
 child, as well as to the latter liability to idiocy and other evils, 
 demands study as a peculiar parturition distinguished from those 
 which follow it. I have shown (see page 90) that twins increase 
 in frequency as the number of the pregnancy increases : twin-bearing, 
 then, is, in some sense, an indication of an excessive family. They 
 specially often come to overburden a mother already overwhelmed 
 
 U 
 
290 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 Child-bearing by an immature mother is popularly 
 held to be dangerous to the continued general health 
 of the mother, and to prevent her complete develop- 
 
 ■with progeny. The children of advanced life and of pregnancies 
 of high number Dr. A. Mitchell has shown to be more frequently 
 idiots than other children. Twins (see page 66) are also specially 
 liable to idiocy. The accumulated evils of an excessive famUy are 
 thus apparent. 
 
 As the conclusions of Dr. A. Mitchell have a weighty bearing on 
 this point, I here quote the relative part of his paper from the 
 Edinburgh Medical Journal, January 1866 : — 
 
 " Comparative Frequency of Births of Idiots in First and 
 Subsequent Pregnancies. 
 
 "Among 443 idiots and imbeciles consecutively examined, I 
 found 138 first-born, or 3ri per cent ; and 89 last-born, or 20"1 
 per cent. 
 
 " When it was known, however, that almost every sixth idiot 
 in Scotland was illegitimate (663 idiots and imbeciles giving 108 
 illegitimate, or 17'1 per cent), it was thought that an element of 
 disturbance was probably thus introduced into the foregoing figures, 
 which might affect their value. The great majority of illegitimate 
 children are known to be first-born and only children ; while not 
 a few of them are last-born, though the last of a small number of 
 pregnancies— say of two or three. It was therefore thought de- 
 sirable that a fresh series of observations should be made, excluding 
 the illegitimate, and dealing only with those born in marriage. It 
 was also thought well to confine these observations to those cases 
 in which not more than one idiot occurred in a family, and in 
 which the idiocy was noticed very soon after birth — that is, in 
 which it was probably congenital. Further, no cases were accepted 
 but those in which the mothers at the time of the inquiry had 
 passed the age of child-bearing, though some of them I think were 
 widows before that age was reached. All these restrictions made 
 it difficult to obtaiu a large series of observations, and account for 
 their number not exceeding 85 — 44 males and 41 females. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 291 
 
 ment in size and beauty. I have no positive evi- 
 dence to adduce in favour of this generally-enter- 
 tained notion, which my own experience appears to me 
 
 " I sent my results in detail to Dr. Matthews Duncan, wlio 
 kindly drew up for me the two tables (CX. and CXI.) embodying 
 the facts in a way which makes their teaching apparent. 
 
 "TABLE CX. — Showing the Compabatite Pbequenct of Ediths of Idiots 
 
 AND OW ALL BiKTHS IN FlEST AND SUBSEQUENT PeEGNANOIES. 
 
 No. of 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Pregnancy. 
 
 of all Birtlis. 
 
 of Idiot Births. 
 
 1st 
 
 22-8 
 
 33-0 
 
 2d 
 
 177 
 
 18-8 
 
 3d 
 
 16-5 
 
 17-6 
 
 4th 
 
 12-1 
 
 2-4 
 
 5th 
 
 9-4 
 
 2-4 
 
 6th 
 
 7-4 
 
 2-4 
 
 7th 
 
 6-2 
 
 7-0 
 
 8th 
 
 3-9 
 
 3-5 
 
 9th 
 
 2-6 
 
 2-4 
 
 10th 
 
 1-3 
 
 7-0 
 
 11th 
 
 ■9 
 
 3-5 
 
 " This table is read in this way : — Of all the children born ia 
 Edinbui'gh and Glasgow iu 1855, 32 '8 per cent were first preg- 
 nancies, while of the 85 idiots 33 per cent were first pregnancies, 
 and so on. 
 
 " What the table appears to teach is briefly this : — That idiocy 
 is more likely to occur among first and latest (7th to 11th) preg- 
 nancies than among others. This is substantially the same thing 
 as was taught by the first inquiry, which included 443 cases, and 
 in which all that was asked was whether the patient was first-bom 
 or last-born. 
 
 " Age of Mother of Idiot at time of Birth of Idiot. 
 
 " The same 85 cases are used in the following table which were 
 used in Table CX. 
 
292 
 
 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 to confirm* In its corroboration, however, I can ad- 
 duce the ample experience of eminent breeders of the 
 lower animals. I have had this opinion expressed to 
 me, especially in regard to mares, cows, ewes, and 
 bitches. "Experience," says Sussmilch, "shows this 
 in animals ; as, for example, among great cattle, the 
 cow which has a calf too young never comes to the 
 size and strength which she otherwise would have 
 done." To this Sadler adds — " Of this priuciple VirgU 
 was fully aware ; hence he says, — 
 
 ' Sed non ulla magis vires industria firmat, 
 Quam venerem et coeci stimulos avertere amoris, 
 Sive bourn, sive est cui gratior usus equorum.' 
 
 ' TABLE CXI. — Showing a Compabative Peecentage op the Chudeen boen 
 
 AT DiFFEEENT AGES OE MOTHEES TO ALL ChILDEEN BOEN, AND OE THE 
 
 Idiots eoen at Different Ages of Mothees to all Idiots boen. 
 
 Age 
 
 20-24 
 
 25-29 
 
 30-34 
 
 35-39 
 
 40-44 
 
 45-49 
 
 P. C. of all Children ■-1. 
 P. C. of Idiots . . . 
 
 22-62 
 25-88 
 
 39-99 
 
 25-88 
 
 23-61 
 10-58 
 
 14-76 
 10-58 
 
 5-15 
 23-53 
 
 0-58 
 3-63 
 
 " Tkis table is read thus : — Of all children bom in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow in 1855, 22-6 per cent -were born of mothers whose 
 ages were from 20 to 24 years ; while of the 85 idiots 25-8 per 
 cent were born of mothers of corresponding ages ; and so on. 
 
 " What we learn from the table is this : — That mothers under 
 24 years of age and above 35 are those more specially liable to 
 have idiocy in their children." 
 
 * I wished at this poiat to make use of a valuable paper by Dr. 
 Tuke of the Fife County Asylum, on Puerperal Insanity; but I 
 find it is not easily adapted to my purpose, though it contains many 
 details which, especially if further elaborated, may be turned to 
 account on questions like that discussed in this part. 
 
THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 293 
 
 I miglit again appeal to the very same principle in the 
 vegetable kingdom ; for instance, there is not a horti- 
 culturist who is not fully aware that premature fruition 
 is injurious to the growth and future prolificness of all 
 the fructiferous tribes in existence."* 
 
 In conclusion it is almost useless to add that I con- 
 sider the age of about from 20 to 25 the nubile age of 
 woman. The numerous facts and arguments I have ad- 
 duced appear to me to bear out distinctly this conclusion. 
 Below 20 years of age woman is immature ; she runs 
 considerable risk of proving sterde ; and if she does bear 
 a child, she runs a comparatively high risk of dying in 
 childbed; besides, her early marriage brings other 
 disadvantages which need not be again enumerated. 
 The woman above 25 years of age is mature, but to 
 counterbalance this she encounters some greater risks 
 than the very young wife's, though of a similar naturcf 
 
 * Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 275. 
 
 + " Without the sanction (says Major Graham) of the laws of 
 physiology, or of common sense, a girl may — hut in the present day 
 rarely does — marry at the age of 12, a hoy at the age of 14, under 
 the existing laws of England ; hut the consent of parents and 
 guardians is required in certain cases when either party has not 
 attained the age of 21 ; and the porportional numher of either boys 
 or girls who marry under the age of 20 is happily small." 
 
 "The 26th year (he adds in another place) is the mean 
 age at which men marry, and the 25th year the mean age at which 
 women marry in England and Wales. About this period of life 
 the growth of man is completed. Half of the husbands and of the 
 wives are married at the years of age 21 and under 25 ; the higher 
 average is the result of later marriages, which occur in great num- 
 bers at the age of 25-30. 
 
 " Plato laid it down in his Bepublic that the men should he 
 
294 THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 
 
 united about the age 30-55, tlie women at the age of 20-40. Aris- 
 totle, who possessed a greater knowledge of natural history than any 
 author of antiquity, remarks that the young of very old or very 
 young animals are imperfect, and that the children also of very 
 young or very old people are imperfect in mind and body. He 
 asserts, too, that people should, for reasons that he alleges, marry 
 at such ages that when the wife is in her 50th the husband should be 
 near his 70th year, or that men should marry about the age of 37, 
 women about the age of 18. In particular cases, as has been seen, 
 to meet the infinite variety of social circumstances, greater dispari- 
 ties of age than these occur in Great Britain ; but the rule of Aris- 
 totle, if acted on universally, would work mischievously in various 
 ways. Thirty-three women attain the age of 18 to every twenty- 
 eight men who attain the age of 37 ; and the women of the age of 
 18 and upwards are to the men of 37 and upwards as 1402 to 804 ; 
 so that a disproportionate number of the women would be unmarried. 
 The proportion of widows would be increased, and fathers would 
 less frequently live to see their children attain maturity. The 
 object which Aristotle had in view is obtained by the re-marriage of 
 widowers. 
 
 " The age of marriage cannot be directly fixed by laws ; but 
 legislation, by prescribing the minimum age of marriage, and the 
 age of majority, does exercise a considerable influence on good num- 
 bers of the people directly, and on all indirectly. It becomes the 
 custom or the fashion not to marry below the age of majority. Thus 
 in England about 9000 young persons of the age of 20 and under 
 21 married in the year 1851 ; while about 139,000 married in the 
 four years after they were of age, as it is called, or in the years of 
 age 21-25. The age of majority is 25 years in France ; and the age 
 of 25 divided the minores from the majores in Eoman law. This 
 advanced age of majority, or of what becomes practically the lowest 
 age of marriage, retards marriage indefinitely in many cases, and 
 will probably be found, on investigation, to account, at least parti- 
 ally, for the comparatively small number of children to a marriage 
 in France. 
 
 " By raising or depressing the age of majority, the legislature then 
 has the power to exercise considerable control over the population." 
 ■ — Census of Great Britain, 1851, vol. i. pp. xxxi. and xlvi. 
 
PAKT IX. 
 
 THE DOCTRINii OF THE DUEATION OF LABOUR. 
 
 The progress of obstetrics is not characterised, as is that 
 of some of the more exact sciences, by a secure and 
 gradual advance with unassailable step, always con- 
 quering some part of the region of the unknown. Our 
 science, seeking to enlarge the boundaries of what is 
 certain and fixed, makes its conquests from the un- 
 known in a field, wide iadeed, and surrounding it on 
 every side, composed, in its nearer parts, of doctrines 
 more or less nearly approaching in stability to those 
 admitted within the true boundaries of the science, 
 but, in its more distant regions, of mere shadowy 
 hypotheses, that have not yet acquired any roots, and 
 of ephemeral conjectures, often the ofispring of shallow- 
 ness, of special pleadings, and of vanity. 
 
 It is my object to claim a place in the science of 
 Midwifery for the doctrine of the Duration of Labour 
 — a doctrine exceeded in importance by none within the 
 limits of obstetrics, and having the most extensive 
 bearings upon that invaluable art or practice of the 
 accoucheur of which the science is the chief expositor. 
 It and similar doctrines have been deprived of their 
 real features and importance, and hid from general 
 
296 DOCTEINE OF THE 
 
 appreciation by the violent and not always seemly 
 struggles which have taken place upon them, and which 
 have uniformly ended, like many battles with more 
 sanguinary weapons, either in absence of real result, 
 or in the more or less complete discomfiture of aU the 
 contending parties. But perhaps the medical philo- 
 sophers of another age will have wisdom to regard, 
 without pity or shame, these squabbles of our day as 
 necessary episodes in the story of the progress of im- 
 perfect beings towards perfect truth — in the progress 
 of human intellects towards real science. 
 
 The doctrine of the duration of labour has been the 
 real centre of many discussions which have been in- 
 vested with other names, derived from some therapeu- 
 tical principle which has been supposed to receive 
 confirmation or confutation from its bearings upon it. 
 In these discussions the obstetric schools of Edinburgh 
 and of Dublin have more than once been found on 
 opposite sides, as if truth were indicated by difi"erent 
 symbols in the two countries. A dispassionate in- 
 quirer, perusing these interesting discussions, will not 
 fail to discover that, while each party had much truth 
 as well as error in its arguments, each, with a blind 
 zeal, attacked indiscriminately both truth and error in 
 its opponents. 
 
 The chief practical questions which have been in- 
 vestigated in connection with the doctrine of the 
 duration of labour are the artificial dilatation of the 
 OS uteri, certain other points in the management of 
 protracted labour, turning as a substitute for cranio- 
 
DURATION OF LABOUE, 297 
 
 tomy, and the use of ansestliesia in midwifery. With 
 these questions I shall not at present interfere ; only I 
 may cite them occasionally to illustrate and facilitate 
 the development of the great doctrine of the duration 
 of labour, which is now my object. The names of 
 Harvey, Denman, Osbom, Breen, Hamilton, Burns, 
 Murphy, Collins, Simpson, and Busch, will always be 
 honorably associated with the history of this doctrine. 
 If in the sequel I do not frequently refer to all these 
 writers, it is not because I lightly appreciate their 
 labours, but because the subject appears to me to have 
 now arrived at a stage at which it may with advantage 
 be as far as possible dissociated fi-om those various 
 • questions, which have been its parents, but would at 
 present only injuriously encumber it. It is necessary 
 to add that the two names preceding the last of those 
 given, are involved in the latest dispute on this sub- 
 ject. In its various stages much talent was shown, 
 and much truth elicited on both sides. With this last 
 discussion I am best acquainted, and will naturally, 
 therefore, refer to it more than to the views of the other 
 authors distinguished in connection with the subject. 
 
 Into the questions we shall have to discuss the 
 use of statistics has been introduced ; and it would be 
 difficult to decide whether their application has tended 
 more to elucidate or to confuse. It is evident that 
 accurate statistics can never yield false results ; but 
 false results are easily made to appear as if yielded by 
 them. In other words, if a disputant resorts to 
 statistics, without the most careful use of logic, he 
 
298 DOCTRINE OF THE DURATION OP LABOUR. 
 
 easily flatters himself that they really supply the 
 results he wishes from them. Against this fatal 
 seduction into error many beacons have been erected, 
 but they have not produced the safeguard desired by 
 their sanguine authors. The present discussion, like 
 many others in obstetrics, will afford clear examples 
 of this abuse of a means of research which is among 
 the most valuable on points where it is really 
 available. If, in the preceding portions of this book, 
 errors in statistical reasoning are to be found, they are 
 not explained by the temptations of disputation, or 
 by the allurements of a preconceived theory to be 
 supported. 
 
DURATION OF LABOUR. 299 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO THE MOR- 
 TALITY OF THE MOTHER IN PARTURITION AND 
 CHILDBED. 
 
 In this chapter we have to propound and prove two 
 propositions. 
 
 1st Proposition. — The mortality of women in par- 
 turition and childbed increases with the increasing 
 duration of labour (in an undetermined ratio). 
 
 2d Proposition. — The duration of labour is only an 
 inconsiderable item among the many causes (single or 
 combined) of the mortality of women in parturition 
 and childbed. 
 
 These two propositions have hitherto been either 
 confounded together, or made to conflict with one an- 
 other. They really stand side by side, declaring 
 separate truths, between which no collision can justly 
 be made to arise. 
 
 Ist Proposition — The mortality of women in par- 
 turition and childbed increases with the increasing 
 duration of labour {in an undetermined ratio). 
 
 This proposition is one which easily gains credence, 
 
300 DURATION OP LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 "when the obstetrician reflects on the abstract nature of 
 it. It is one whose practical bearings are most re- 
 mote and indefinite. But although this is the case, 
 it enunciates a solid truth, and can never be with 
 justice either neglected or depreciated. The proposi- 
 tion does not afiirm anything whatever in regard to 
 the influence of prolongation of labour upon the 
 consequent maternal mortality; nor does it afiirm 
 anything whatever as to the dangerousness of the 
 pains of labour. It affirms nothing in regard to any 
 individual case. It merely asserts the general law, 
 that as labours increase in duration, or become pro- 
 tracted, they are also accompanied or followed by a 
 greater maternal mortality. 
 
 A proposition such as this scarcely requires proof 
 As labour becomes protracted, so does life; and we 
 know that every hour of life added in adult age 
 increases the mortality of mankind. But in the human 
 female many dangers accompany the function of child- 
 bearing, and combine to raise, for the childbed month 
 at least, the mortality of females very far above what 
 can be accounted for by the mere general law appli- 
 cable to all mankind. The dangers of childbearing are, 
 for the most part, concentrated into the period of 
 labour, or derive from it their origin. The longer the 
 labour, there will be the more opportunities for such 
 dangers to intervene ; and hence it naturally follows, 
 that the mortality of women in parturition and child- 
 bed increases with the increasing duration of labour. 
 
 But this proposition has been confirmed by nume- 
 
MORTALITY XN PARTUEITION AND CHILDBED. 
 
 301 
 
 rical investigations. I shall avaU myself of Simpson's 
 careful calculations,* made from the data contained in 
 Dr. Collins' admirable report of the Dublin Lying-in 
 Hospital for a like purpose. Dr. CoUins has in his 
 report stated the duration of labour in 15,850 cases, 
 of which 138 proved fatal. Table CXII. exhibits 
 these cases, arranged so as to show that the maternal 
 mortality increases as the duration of the process of 
 labour is augmented. It requires no explanation or 
 commentary. 
 
 TABLE CXII. 
 
 Duration of Labour. 
 
 Number of 
 Deliveries. 
 
 Number of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Proportion of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Within 1 hour 
 From 2 to 3 hours 
 From 4 to 6 hours 
 From 7 to 12 hours 
 From 13 to 24 hours 
 From 25 to 36 hours 
 Above 36 hours 
 
 3537 
 
 6000 
 
 3875 
 
 1672 
 
 502 
 
 134 
 
 130 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 29 
 21 
 19 
 8 
 24 
 
 1 IQ 322 
 1 in 231 
 1 in 134 
 1 in 80 
 1 in 26 
 1 ia 17 
 1 in 6 
 
 Such, then, is the statement and demonstration of this 
 proposition. 
 
 It will be observed that the table of Dr. Collins' 
 data gives us no information as to the special mortality 
 of labours of extremely short duration, finished at 
 various periods less than one hour. It is a very 
 general opinion, and I believe a very correct one, that 
 very rapid labours are, comparatively speaking, in- 
 
 * Provincial Med. and Surg. Journal, 1848, p. 602. 
 
302 DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 jurious and dangerous. And more minute investiga- 
 tion, as to the relations of very brief labours to maternal 
 mortality, will probably sbow tbat there is a limit, at 
 some point within an hour, beneath which, if labours 
 go on diminishing in brevity, they increase in mortality. 
 
 It must also be kept in mind that the peculiar 
 case of primiparous women is included in the data. 
 These have such peculiar conditions and dangers as 
 must manifestly render their admixture with others 
 prejudicial to the value of the data as demonstrating 
 the proposition under consideration. It is desirable 
 to have tables like that cited, composed of labours 
 following pregnancies all of the same number. 
 
 It is not my purpose here to trace further than in 
 a single author the history of this proposition. It has 
 been stated, in terms almost identical with those I 
 have used, by Professor Simpson, and confirmed by the 
 table which I have adduced. To him, therefore, belongs 
 the merit of formally enunciating it.* This we admit, 
 although it would be scarcely a stretch of literary 
 justice to refuse him any credit whatever in connection 
 with it ; for it wUl afterwards appear that he has so 
 misunderstood and so used the principle, and the table 
 on which alone he founds it, that his merit in the 
 matter can be established only by separating the two 
 or three sentences containing the bare principle and 
 table from the mass of writing and argument in which 
 he has enveloped them. 
 
 * Provincial Med. and Surg. Journal, loc. cit. ; Obstetric 
 Works, vol. i. p. 527. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 303 
 
 We find this author first using the statistics of 
 Table CXII. to show that " the mortality accompany- 
 ing labour is regulated principally by the previous 
 length and degree of the patient's sufferings and 
 struggles. In the Dublin Lying-in Hospital (he says), 
 when under Dr. Collins' able care, out of all the 
 women, 7050 in number, who were delivered within a 
 period of two hours from the commencement of labour, 
 twenty-two died, or one in every 320. In 452 of his 
 cases, the labour was prolonged above twenty hours ; 
 and of these 452, forty-two died, or one in every 
 eleven, — a difference enormous in its amount, and one 
 surely calculated to force us all to think seriously and 
 dispassionately of the eff"ects of severe suffering upon 
 the maternal constitution."* Now, it is evident that 
 these statistics afford no ground whatever for such re- 
 flections. No doubt, sufferings and struggles are im- 
 portant elements in the history of any labour or set of 
 labours; but nothing in regard to the influence of 
 sufferings and struggles upon the mortality of parturi- 
 tion can be wrested from the statistics adduced. These 
 statistics support only the general proposition (the 
 first) as to the relation of duration to mortality of 
 labour. This relation is determined by a thousand 
 circumstances, known and unknown, besides sufferings 
 and struggles, in regard to the special baneful influence 
 of which last it affords scarcely the slightest presump- 
 tion. 
 
 * Monthly Journal of Medical Science, October 1848 ; and 
 Obstetric WorJcs, vol. ii. p. 689. 
 
304 DURATION OF LABOUR IK RELATION TO 
 
 When tlius using Dr. Collins' data, Sir J. T. Simp- 
 son was simultaneously engaged in his defence of 
 ansestliesia in midwifery. In this cause, searching 
 everywhere for arguments to convince Professor Meigs, 
 he may be to a great extent excused, even when again 
 falling into his former error in the use of these statis- 
 tics. Addressing his transatlantic friend, and speaking 
 of the pain of labour, he says, " It is safe in proportion 
 to its shortness, and dangerous in proportion to its 
 length. In the Dublin Hospital, the tables of which 
 afford the only data on this point that I know to refer 
 to, when the women were four hours in labour, more 
 subsequently died than when their pain did not exceed 
 two hours ; of those that were eight hours in labour, 
 more subsequently died than of those that were four 
 hours ill ; of those that were twelve hours in suffering, 
 more died than of those that were eight : and so on, in 
 a regular progression. The longer this supposed salu- 
 tary and conservative manifestation of life-force (as 
 Dr. Meigs terms it), the greater became the mortality. 
 .... etc."* It is not to be wondered at that this 
 argument did not convince Dr. Meigs, since it is as 
 illogical in its use as it is ■WT^ong in its essence. What 
 accoucheur could for a moment resist the argument, if 
 true ? It is not our object here to discuss the influence 
 of painfulness, or sufferings and struggles, or, in short, 
 of whatever anaesthesia could annul, upon the maternal 
 mortality of labours ; we shall only say, that all ac- 
 
 * Association Medical Journal, July 1853, p. 582. Obstetric 
 Works, vol. ii. p. 710. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 305 
 
 coucheurs must recognise it as a great exaggeration, to 
 imply that pain, etc., has any such immense influence 
 as Dr. Meigs is asked to believe. Were it so, then 
 anaesthesia should deprive parturition of its most 
 formidable sources of mortality. 
 
 In defending his views with regard to turning in 
 cases of deformed pelvis, we find the same author 
 reverting to the same statistics of Dr. Collins for 
 assistance. Here he supplies evidence against his own 
 former use of these data, or vice versd. For he now 
 interprets them as aflfording "ample evidence that, 
 contrary to the general opinion of the obstetric pro- 
 fession, the mere length of the labour is a most serious 
 and important element in reference to the degree of 
 danger and fatality accompanying the process."* But 
 again, it will be evident, that these statistics afford no 
 ground for attributing the maternal mortality to length 
 or duration of labour as a cause, just as they afforded 
 no ground for attributing the same mortality to the 
 pain, etc., of the process. The proposition, that the 
 increasing length of labour is accompanied by an in- 
 creasing mortality, is a proposition at once true and 
 proved by the statistics in question ; while the pro- 
 position, that the " mere length of the labour is a most 
 serious and important element in reference to the 
 degree of danger and fatality accompanying the pro- 
 cess," is one, to say the least, very questionable, and 
 one to which the statistics afibrd no countenance. It 
 
 * Provincial Med. and Surg. Journal, Feb. 9, 1848, p. 58 ; and 
 Obstetric Works, vol. i. p. 527. 
 
 X 
 
306 DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 is not necessary further to point out that, if the statis- 
 tics so often referred to show that pain, etc., is the 
 cause of the mortality, the same statistics cannot show 
 that the mere duration is the cause of it; and if 
 they prove either of these two points, they cannot be 
 fairly extended so as to demonstrate our first propo- 
 sition. 
 
 Dr. Collins justly objected to Dr. Simpson's uses of 
 his data. The truth that was in them Collins rejected 
 along with the error. A man of practical sagacity and 
 immense experience, he at once repelled Dr. Simpson's 
 erroneous conclusions, from the data in his Practical 
 Treatise, in regard to the influence of pain and of 
 length of labour upon maternal mortality. The inward 
 testimony of his experience was so strong as to lead 
 him instantly, and without analysing the statistical 
 reasoning, to denounce these conclusions as visionary 
 and extravagant. The truth of our first proposition he 
 never grappled with. It had no apparent practical 
 bearings ; and therefore he refused to consider it. 
 
 Dr. Collins might have gone a little further. It 
 would have been quite a legitimate use of Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson's argument, as to the influence of length of 
 labour upon the maternal mortality, to turn it against 
 the whole practice of anaesthesia in midwifery. For 
 it is a very general belief that anaesthetics, by dimin- 
 ishing the force of the uterine contractions, increase the 
 duration of labour, at least in many cases. Hence it 
 follows, if Dr. Simpson is right in regard to the bane- 
 ful influence of mere length of labour, that anaesthesia 
 
MORTALITY IN PAETURITION AND CHILDBED. 307 
 
 must tend to increase the maternal mortality. But 
 as we have shown that the statistics do not demon- 
 strate this baneful influence of mere length of labour, 
 the opponents of anaesthesia are deprived of this 
 otherwise strong argument provided for them by the 
 greatest promoter of the practice. 
 
 Before advancing to the second proposition, I shall 
 illustrate the errors fallen into with regard to the first 
 by a reference to a subject long withiu the recognised 
 domain of statistics. 
 
 TABLE CXIII. 
 
 Period of Life. 
 
 Proportion of Deaths . 
 
 At the age of 20 years 
 )i » 30 „ 
 „ 40 „ 
 „ „ 50 „ 
 
 1 in every 141 
 1 „ 99 
 
 1 „ 77 
 1 „ 74 
 
 This one hundred and thirteenth table may be as- 
 sumed to be a correct statement of the mortality of man- 
 kind at different periods of life. An intelligent actuary 
 will at once say, that it proves that the mortality of man- 
 kind increases with the iacreasiag duration of life, just 
 as he would recognise our former table as bearing direct 
 testimony to the truth of our first proposition. But 
 such an actuary will never say or admit that the ad- 
 joining table proves anything with regard to the sufier- 
 ings and struggles, or pain, endured by mankind, or in 
 regard to the efiects of advancing life. It cannot be 
 proved by our former table that the mortality accom- 
 
308 DUKATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 panying labour is regulated principally by tbe previous 
 length and degree of the patient's sufferings and 
 struggles (nor is it true) ; so it cannot be proved by 
 this table tbat tbe mortality of mankind is regulated 
 principally by the previous length and degree of the 
 individual's sufferings and struggles (nor is it true). 
 It cannot be proved by our former table that the suffer- 
 ings of labour are safe in proportion to their shortness, 
 and dangerous in proportion to their length (nor is it 
 true) ; so it cannot be proved by this table that the 
 pains occurring during life are safe in proportion to their 
 shortness, and dangerous in proportion to their length 
 (nor is it true). It cannot be proved by our former 
 table that, contrary to the general opinion of the ob- 
 stetric profession, the mere length of labour is a most 
 serious and important element in reference to the degree 
 of danger and fatality accompanying the process (nor 
 is it true) ; so it cannot be proved by this table that, 
 contrary to the general opinion of mankind, and of the 
 medical profession, the mere length of life is a most 
 serious and important element . in reference to the 
 degree of danger and fatality accompanying life (nor 
 is it true). 
 
 2cZ Proposition. — The duration of labour is only 
 an inconsiderable part of the many causes {single or 
 combined) of the mortality of ivoinen in parturition 
 and the subsequent childbed. 
 
 As we have, under our first proposition, cleared 
 away many of the incumbrances of the whole subject, 
 the treatment of this second will be much more brief. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 309 
 
 There is no obstetrical doctrine more deeply im- 
 pressed on all the valuable literature of our profession 
 than this, that the mere duration of labour, considered 
 ia itself and apart from other causes of danger likely 
 to spring up as the process becomes protracted, is of 
 little importance, so far, at least, as recovery of the 
 mother is concerned. This doctriue is embodied ir 
 the ever-recurriug inculcation of patience, as the highest 
 virtue of both mother and attendant, in many and 
 various circumstances of distress during labour. Some- 
 times it is expressed in an apophthegm, " Meddlesome 
 midwifery is bad;" at all times it is diligently in- 
 stilled into the minds of young midwives and ac- 
 coucheurs. Unlike our first proposition, a compara- 
 tively barren theorem, this is one of the best recognised 
 and most valuable doctrines in obstetrics. It is, there- 
 fore, of the utmost consequence to defend and con- 
 firm it. 
 
 The proposition does not affirm that the mere 
 duration of labour is of no importance, — quite the 
 reverse. Far less does it affirm that the duration of 
 labour, with the accompanying pain and struggles, is 
 not a very considerable element in the history of every 
 case. It says nothing in regard to the very important 
 effects of the duration of labour after bad symptoms 
 or dangerous complications have supervened. It asserts 
 that the duration of labour is in itself (per se) only an 
 iaconsiderable part (probably a very inconsiderable 
 
 * See Harvey's Works, Sydenham, edition, p. 534, for his 
 opinion of the influence of duration of labour. 
 
310 DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 part) of the many causes of the mortality of women 
 from parturition and its consequences. 
 
 Perhaps the strongest evidence in favour of this 
 proposition is the fact, that it is the ancient and gener- 
 ally received opinion of the profession.* It rests upon 
 what may be called the instincts of all experienced 
 accoucheurs. In a science like medicine, where so 
 little is capable of absolute demonstration, ancient 
 traditions, especially if supported by the opinions of 
 the great and wise, are among the most valuable and 
 trustworthy guides of practice. 
 
 * In attempting tlie defence of the opposite view. Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson says — " I am fully aware that when I state my con- 
 viction, that the mere degree of duration and continuance of a 
 labour is per se dangerous both to the mother and child, and very 
 often fatal even in its influence, I venture to broach a doctrine 
 which stands up alike against the opinion and the practice of some 
 of the highest authorities in the, obstetric profession. 
 
 " About half-a-century ago, when treating of the influence of 
 the duration of labour in difficult and instrumental deliveries, Dr. 
 Osborn observed — ' I believe it is confirmed by general observa- 
 tion, that women recover at least as well after long, hngering, and 
 laborious labours, the duration of which may have been extended 
 to several days, as after the easiest, quickest, and most natural de- 
 livery.' In making this remark, Dr. Osborn stated, not his own 
 opinion only, but, I believe, the general opinion of the accoucheura 
 of his time ; and the same doctrine, little or not at all modified, 
 still continues to be taught and acted upon, down to the present 
 day, in the great English and Irish schools of midwifery, as the able 
 and excellent writings of (for example) Professors Davis and 
 Murphy, in London, and Drs. Collins and Beatty, in Dublin, etc., 
 fully testify." — Proviiicial Medical and Surgical Journal, Feb. 9, 
 1848, p. 57. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 311 
 
 But the proposition may be supported most satis- 
 factorily, both by direct and indirect evidence. Were 
 it true that, " contrary to the general opinion of the 
 obstetric profession, the mere length of the labour is a 
 most serious and important element in reference to the 
 degree of danger and fatality accompanying the pro- 
 cess," then a well-established rule of philosophising 
 must be declared to be at fault. It was a maxim of 
 Newton's, that no more causes are to be admitted than 
 are true and sufficient to explain the effects. Few 
 indeed wlU ever be found to assert that any obstetric 
 patient dies without a very evident, true, and sufficient 
 cause. The causes of such deaths are very various 
 no doubt ; but the mere length of labour is, by New- 
 ton's maxim, excluded from the number, as the truth 
 of its influence is in question, and it is not required to 
 explain the phenomena. 
 
 Moreover, it is always true in nature that uniformity 
 of cause insures uniformity of effect. This axiom 
 also is at variance with the belief that mere duration 
 of labour is an important cause of fatality in the pro- 
 cess. For it is a common observation, that after long 
 labours, even after the longest uncomplicated labours, 
 there is often unusually rapid recovery. In the great 
 mass of very long cases there is generally present some 
 distinct and dangerous complication, which obscures 
 the influence of the mere length of the labour, and 
 destroys their value as arguments with regard to the 
 effects of mere protraction. Again, in short and easy 
 labours, where duration as a cause of fatality, supposed 
 
312 DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 by some to be supremely important, is absent, there is 
 still a considerable mortality. 
 
 Dr. Collins has distinguished himself by his zealous 
 defence of the doctrine embodied in our second propo- 
 sition, maintaining, as he does, that the mortality from 
 protraction of labour, apart from other causes, is com- 
 paratively small. His elaborate Practical Treatise 
 contains no record of any patient dying from the mere 
 length of the labour ; and his experience, founded on 
 his wide field of observation, leads him to consider mere 
 protraction of labour an inconsiderable cause of mater- 
 nal mortality. It would be difficult to adduce statistics, 
 at least from Dr. Collins' work, to prove our second 
 proposition. We have already shown how erroneously 
 statistics framed from the data in his work have been 
 used, and pushed forward as if proving that our second 
 proposition is false. But some of Dr. Collins' data are 
 almost as valuable as if they were positive proofs, from 
 the light which they throw on the real causes of death 
 in protracted cases. 
 
 To take one aspect of Dr. Collins' cases, as he has 
 himself given it.* Of 16,414 parturient women under 
 his care in the Dublin Lying-in Hospital, forty-two 
 died whose labours were longer than twenty hours. 
 " Of the forty-two, three died of typhus fever ; nine of 
 puerperal fever ; one of stricture of the intestine, with 
 effusion into the thorax ; three where the placenta was 
 retained; two of convulsions; one of abdominal in- 
 
 * Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, Oct. 18, 1848, 
 p. 573. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTDEITION AND CHILDBED. 313 
 
 flammation previous to labour ; nine of rupture of the 
 uterus ; one of inflammation of tlie intestines, with pus 
 in the uterine sinuses ; three of anomalous disease ; one 
 of diflfuse cellular inflammation ] six of inflammation, 
 etc., subsequent to diflicult labour ; one of ulceration 
 and sloughing of the vagina; one of disease of the 
 lungs and hemorrhage ; and one of abdominal abscess." 
 Here it is evident that we have a list of causes of death, 
 apart from mere duration of labour, in all the cases 
 where the length of the process exceeded twenty hours. 
 No doubt the mere length of the labour may have been 
 an aggravation in all these cases, but of this there is no 
 evidence whatever in Dr. CoUins' data, however ar- 
 ranged ; and we must accept the opinion of Dr. Collins, 
 who took care of all the cases — an opinion sanctioned 
 by previous general acceptation for ages, that protrac- 
 tion of labour was an inconsiderable part of the many 
 causes of this maternal mortality in chUdbed. 
 
 The true bearing upon the great question before us, 
 of the statement just quoted from Dr. Collins, has been 
 altogether misconceived in some quarters. Dr. CoUins' 
 statement has been represented as "a list merely of 
 such injuries and diseases as tedious labour does pro- 
 duce ;" and it is added, as if it were an apt illustration, 
 that " long ago surgeons always used to argue, ia regard 
 to their lithotomy and other cases, that the deaths were 
 from inflammation of the bladder, or inflammation of 
 the intestines, or disease of the kidneys, or of the liver, 
 or— anything, in fact, but the operation itself. Modern 
 surgery (it is said) does not admit of such pathological 
 
314 DUKATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 casuistry. Nor does modern midwifery."* It is scarcely 
 worth while to stop to contradict the indiscreet reproach 
 so easily cast upon old surgery and surgeons. Let us 
 submit for a moment, and for argument's sake, to con- 
 sider it true — and only for a moment, as its irrelevancy 
 will be easily made apparent. These old surgeons argued 
 that their patients did not die of lithotomy, or of its 
 consequences. Dr. Collins does not argue that his 
 patients did not die of labour and its consequences ; 
 on the contrary he admits it. Dr. Collins argues, 
 in opposition to Dr. Simpson, that the " mere length 
 of labour was not a cause of death. To make a just 
 use of the analogy above given, Dr. Simpson should 
 have condemned the old surgeons for not considering 
 the mere duration of the operation of lithotomy as a 
 chief cause of the mortality of the operation. Dr. 
 Simpson wishes us to condemn the old surgeons for not 
 admitting inflammation of the bladder and intestines, 
 etc., as causes of death in connection with lithotomy. 
 In his zeal to prove the importance of mere duration of 
 labour in reference to the fatality of the process, he 
 censures Dr. Collins for admitting exactly analogous 
 diseases as causes of death in connection with labour. 
 Moreover, when Dr. Simpson speaks of " tedious " 
 labour, he uses a weU-known term, implying a great 
 deal more than mere length of labour. When he says 
 that tedious labour produces such diseases as Dr. CoUins 
 enumerates, then he and Dr. CoUias are at one, and he 
 
 * Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, Nov. 1, 1848, p. 
 506. 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 315 
 
 had no right to address him as if committing a very 
 great error. When he says that tedious labour pro- 
 duces these effects, he is not differing from, but agree- 
 ing with, the whole profession ; only, he is deserting 
 the position which Dr. Collins attacked, and which he 
 would fain appear still to hold. For his statement is, 
 not that tedious labour leads to these causes of death — 
 a true one ; but " that the mere degree of duration and 
 continuance of labour is, per se, dangerous both to the 
 mother and child, and very often fatal even in its in- 
 fluence ;" — a doctrine without foundation. 
 
 The element of mere duration of labour is, in fatal 
 cases, so mixed up with other circumstances, that I 
 despair of medical philosophers being ever able so to 
 handle obstetric statistics as to make them yield any- 
 thing like an approximation to a proper estimate of 
 its baneful influence. In protracted cases, with no 
 other evident dangerous complication, it is a common 
 remark that the patients appear to make unusually 
 rapid recoveries. 
 
 In tedious cases it is not the protraction which 
 causes the complications and danger, but the complica- 
 tions which cause the protraction and danger, leaving 
 the mere protraction as a negation destitute of any 
 presiding influence. 
 
 Such is the statement of, and evidence for, our 
 second proposition. 
 
 In the discussion between Dr. Collins and Dr. 
 Simpson as to the influence of mere duration of labour 
 
316 DURATION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO 
 
 upon maternal mortality, we have seen that the latter, 
 by his use of Table CXII., tried to prove that Dr. 
 Collins was wrong in asserting that the mortality of 
 mothers from protracted labour was strikingly small. 
 Although Dr. Collins was not very happy in his state- 
 ment of his views, and sometimes not to be justified 
 in his arguments, yet there can be no doubt that the 
 essence of the truth of our second proposition, as 
 bearing on practice, was contained in his defence of 
 his views. 
 
 Dr. Collins was personally engaged in watching 
 and managing the great mass of cases reported in his 
 valuable Practical Treatise. This circumstance wOl 
 always give his views a peculiar force and value, even 
 were his reputation as an author and observer not so 
 high as it deservedly is. It was at least rash ia any 
 author, addressing Dr. Collins, to say — " Against the 
 truth of your own recorded opinions 1 appeal to the 
 truth of your own recorded facts. Against your own 
 doctrines I appeal merely to your own data." Such are 
 indeed very tame expressions compared with others 
 that appeared in this controversy. And yet we think 
 we have made it evident that Collins, in common with 
 the general mass of the profession, was right in regard 
 to the main question, and his opponent wrong. Any 
 one who reads the controversy will find in it an ad- 
 mirable illustration of the fable of the two knights 
 looking at opposite sides of the same shield. But, 
 although to a careful perusal this becomes evident, it 
 is only just to add that with Dr. Collins rested the 
 
MORTALITY IN PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. 317 
 
 practical truth, fairly founded on experience, while 
 some theoretical truth was fitfully maintained by his 
 opponent, yet so as almost to be concealed by 
 error. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment what such reasoning 
 as Sir J. Y. Simpson adopts in this controversy would 
 lead to. It appears to us that, if he had looked 
 whither his arguments might lead, he would have him- 
 self been probably deterred from urging them. If 
 mere length of labour be an important element in 
 the causation of deaths from labour, then certainly 
 patience is no virtue in an accoucheur. If mere 
 length of labour be as he describes it, then meddle- 
 some midwifery must, I fear, be declared good instead 
 of bad. If mere length of labour be as important as 
 he represents it, then any treatment which wiU. 
 accelerate delivery may be easily defended. If it be 
 right to disregard all the real causes of danger and 
 death in labours, as this author does, in order to make 
 prominent the danger of protraction, with the ulterior 
 view of supporting an artificial interference which 
 accelerates the process, then a like reasoniag may be 
 used to support the most absurd and unjustifiable 
 measures, and the art of midwifery wUl be at the 
 mercy of any specious reasoner, however ill-founded 
 his arguments may be. 
 
 It would be a waste of words to enter further on 
 this discussion of the iofluence of the doctrine of the 
 duration of labour. This doctrine •has important re- 
 lations to the mortality of children, in parturition, and 
 
318 DURATION OF LABOUE. 
 
 to other matters. It is enough here to point out that 
 in connection with these questions the same errors in 
 reasoning have been committed as have been made in 
 tracing the bearing of the doctrine on the mortality of 
 mothers. 
 
PAET X. 
 
 ON THE DURATION OP PEEGNANCY. 
 
 In many of the elaborate essays wHcli have been 
 written on the subject of the duration of pregnancy 
 in women and in the inferior animals, it has ap- 
 peared to me that an important source of error lies 
 concealed.* The exposition of it will, I trust, throw 
 some light on this interesting subject ; and I am sure 
 that, when it comes to be completely investigated, our 
 notions as to the duration of pregnancy will be much 
 more definite and satisfactory than they now are. I 
 proceed to make a few remarks on this particular point, 
 and then briefly to discuss the general question. 
 
 * In the foUowing passage Montgomery (Signs of Pregnancy, 
 p. 503) evidently confuses insemination and conception. "It is, 
 I tlunk (says he), universally admitted that a woman may conceive 
 on any day of the interval between one menstruation and another." 
 Writing after the original publication of my remarks in the text, 
 and probably referring to them, Montgomery admits the source of 
 error pointed out, but illogically refuses it any place in his calcula- 
 tions. He says (p. 509) — " It has been suggested that pregnancy 
 should be dated, not from the single fruitful intercourse, or insemi- 
 nation, which has produced it, but from the time when the ovum 
 comes into contact with the semen masculinum, which union should 
 be considered as constituting conception. Now, this may be true ; 
 but supposing it so, how are we to make it available in practice ?" 
 (Dr. Montgomery refuses to maJce it available even in reasoning.) 
 " Is not our attempting to do so more likely to engender confusion 
 than to lead to satisfactory results ?" . . . "If this view were 
 adopted," he most erroneously believes and says, " we should have no 
 means of calculating the period of gestation with anything like an 
 approximation to accuracy in any case." 
 
320 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN INSEMINATION AND 
 CONCEPTION. 
 
 In commencing it will be useful to define the meaning 
 to be attacbed to some important terms frequently 
 recurring in tbis discussion — viz. insemination, con- 
 ception, and impregnation. By tbe word insemiaation 
 is to be understood simply tbe injection of semen into 
 tbe genital passages, tbe result of sexual conjunction. 
 By conception is to be understood tbe more bidden 
 and mysterious union of tbe semen and ovum ; wbUe 
 tbe word impregnation implies botb of tbese processes. 
 Tbe confusion of tbe two former of tbese different 
 processes is so general among obstetric writers that it 
 is needless to quote authorities for tbe assertion. Tbat 
 tbey should always be kept distinct in studying tbis 
 subject wUl, I hope, be made apparent. For, in fixing 
 the commencement of pregnancy, it is necessary to 
 date from tbe period of conception.* Authors, in 
 discussing this subject, have delighted to quote as 
 
 * Joulin (Traite Gomplet d'Aeeouch. 1866, p. 449) points out 
 this source of error. My remarks were first published ia the 
 Edinburgh Medical Journal for March 1854. 
 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 321 
 
 crucial examples those cases where the date of an 
 only connection, or of connections within a short and 
 Hmited time, could be satisfactorily decided. But it 
 is evident that such a date only fixes the time of in- 
 semination, and not the time of the commencement of 
 pregnancy ; for a woman cannot be said to be preg- 
 nant whose body merely contains seminal matter. 
 Pregnancy is a state of fertility, of breeding, which, as 
 Leeuwenhoek long ago pointed out,* cannot be said to 
 commence until such time has elapsed as may inter- 
 vene between insemination and the union of the ovum 
 or ova and semen. This period of time, whatever may 
 be its possible length, must be subtracted from all 
 these supposed crucial cases of the duration of preg- 
 nancy. The interval described as the duration of 
 pregnancy — that is, between successful insemination 
 and parturition — must be considered as, in strict lan- 
 guage, a false period ; and it is so because it contains 
 the period between insemination and conception, dur- 
 iag which a woman is not pregnant. Of this interval, 
 then, all such cases must be curtailed. 
 
 Very little has as yet been ascertained as to the 
 
 * Hinc, I188C animalcula diutius in tuba sive matrice posse 
 vivere, ammo praBsumelDam meo, ac quoque nostra mulieres non 
 proecise eo die sive tempore, quo cum Tiro rem habuerunt, feoondas 
 sive gravidas fieri ; sed easdem post octo, aut decem, imo plures 
 quidem dies, postquam coiverunt, gravidas posse fieri, quia post 
 aliquot coitus dies ex multis saltem animalculis, unum animalculum 
 eousque pervenire potest, ut punctum sive punctulum istud, animal- 
 culum fovendo aptum, attingat. — Arcana Natures, etc., torn. ii. p. 
 150, edit, in 4to. Lugd. 1708. 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 possible length of this interval. It was my intention 
 to have attempted to make it out in regard to some of 
 the lower animals ; but my inexperience in such ia- 
 vestigations, and the pressure of other avocations, have 
 hitherto deterred me from the pursuit of this object 
 There is, then, at present no resource in this question 
 but to facts already known. Now, it has been ascer- 
 tained by physiologists that for impregnation it is not 
 necessary that the semen should be newly expeUed by 
 the male.* Animals have been frequently impregnated, 
 by Spallanzani and others, with semen, which has not 
 only been kept for some time, but has even been 
 variously altered, in certain properties at least, in 
 experiments. And there seems to be no limit to the 
 time during which the semen may be kept without 
 losing its virtues, except the term of the life of the 
 spermatozoa. 
 
 That this period is not insignificant, and cannot be 
 passed over without risk of important error — in fact, 
 that it may extend to many days or weeks — wiU appear 
 
 * " On opening the body of a female mammal, one or more 
 days after it kas received the male, semen may be found not only 
 in the body and horns of the uterus, but also in the oviducts, and 
 on the surface of the ovary. The spermatozoa are in vigorous 
 movement. These may retain their activity for a week or more in 
 the female organs. And in many iasects this period of time is 
 much greater. Here the ova are only expelled long after copula- 
 tion. The females, therefore, possess a special receptacle ia which 
 the moving spermatozoa are preserved untU the ova finally reach 
 them. In this receptacle their activity remains uninjured for many 
 months." — Valentin, Text-Booh of Physiol. Eng. tr. p. 641. 
 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 323 
 
 from the following observations. We omit the facts 
 in regard to animals so low in the scale as insects, in 
 some of the females of which the semen is laid up in: 
 cavities where it retains its power for months. In 
 regard to the dog, Leeuwenhoek* pointed out that 
 the spermatozoa might live for more than seven days 
 preserved in a glass tube, and if such be the case in a 
 rude experiment, it may be expected that they would 
 retain vitality considerably longer in the passages of 
 the bitch, where they have heat and moisture supplied 
 under favourable circumstances. That they do live for 
 some days in the genital passages has been proved by 
 abundant observations, although the possible length of 
 this period is not certain. The decision, indeed, of this 
 point by microscopic observations would be a very 
 difficult matter, as it would involve the almost impos- 
 sible search for spermatozoa over every part of a long 
 tract of mucous membrane. And this search would be 
 necessary, with a view to deciding the question of the 
 iaterval between iasemination and conception, for we 
 know by the experiments of Spallanzard that semen 
 highly diluted, or, in other words, the smallest quantity 
 of semen, is sufficient for impregnation.! 
 
 * " Si enim animalcula plures quam septem integros dies in tuba 
 vitrea vivere possint, quantum temporis ilia in matrice, Hs animal- 
 culis recipiendis ac fovendis unice constituta, vivere quidem pos- 
 sent." — Arcana Naturce, etc., torn. ii. p. 150. 
 
 t These observations of Spallanzani have been considerably- 
 modified and corrected by the researches of Mr. Newport upon 
 the quantity or number of spermatozoa required to fecundate an 
 
324 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 The elaborate experiments of Haighton * long ago 
 performed, show that in the rabbit conception generally 
 does not take place till about fifty hours, or more than 
 two days, after insemination. He found that division 
 of the fallopian tube earlier than this time prevented 
 conception, and that after waiting longer the conception 
 was not prevented by the mutilation. It thus appeared 
 that the conjunction of the ova and semen in the 
 rabbit generally did not take place till more than two 
 days after insemination. In the rabbit, then, there 
 was found, in Haighton's experiments, this long 
 interval between insemination and conception ; and in 
 some cases it is possibly much longer. In the rabbit 
 the interval between insemination and parturition is 
 ordinarily thirty days. The observations of Tessier 
 upon 161 rabbits give five days as the extreme limit 
 of the protraction of this term, a period of time which 
 may be accounted for without any stretch of the space 
 during which the semen may retain its fructifying 
 power. And in this way it may have happened that 
 the real period of gestation — that is, from conception to 
 parturition — may not have been at aU protracted in 
 these cases. The cases also in which the period was 
 less than thirty days may be explained by supposing 
 the ova to have been further matured or even advanced 
 into the uterine horns before impregnation took place, 
 so that conception may have happened very soon after 
 
 ovum in tlie frog, etc. See his paper in the London Phil. Trans. 
 for 1853, part ii. 
 
 * Philosophical Transactions, 1797. 
 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 325 
 
 msendnation. And in Tessier's observations it is re- 
 markable that in none of the rabbits did labour 
 anticipate the usual time more than two days, the 
 period which Haighton's experiments seem to show to 
 be the usual interval between insemination and con- 
 ception in that animal. In the present state of our 
 knowledge, however, these explanations cannot be con- 
 sidered as absolutely established. 
 
 Experiments of Cruikshank upon the rabbit and 
 doe, experiments of Wharton Jones, Martin Barry, and 
 others, might be adduced as throwing light on this 
 poiut. 
 
 For reasons which do not require to be stated, there 
 is great deficiency of evidence in regard to the 
 analogous subject in the human female. But there is 
 every reason to believe that the circumstances of con- 
 ception in her closely resemble those in. the higher 
 animals. -^It has of late years been shown that, in 
 woman, at every menstrual period an ovum is matured 
 and expelled from its graafian vesicle, and that she is 
 liable to conceive during its progress along the fallo- 
 pian tube. How long after its maturation the ovum 
 can retaiu its vitality and susceptibility to the semiual 
 influence is not known, but probably the time is short. 
 Nevertheless, cases might be easily adduced from the 
 works of eminent obstetricians to prove that a single 
 insemination at any period of the interval between 
 two menstrual periods may result in the fertilisation 
 of the female. Of such cases those only are important 
 from our present point of view where conception has 
 
326 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 resulted from insemination shortly before the return of 
 a period. They admit of explanation in three different 
 ways* Either the ovum has remained up till this time 
 entire and susceptible of being influenced by the semen; 
 a supposition which is very improbable as regards 
 the ovum,t and is at variance with what we know of 
 the history of the decidua or nidus prepared for the 
 egg's further development. Or the excitement of 
 connection may have hastened the maturation and 
 rupture of a graafian vesicle ; a view which is in itself im- 
 probable and inconsistent with what we know to result 
 from similar circumstances in the lower animals. But 
 it may also happen, and I believe it does not unfre- 
 quently happen, that the seminal animalcules remain 
 in the passages till the ovum is prepared and dis- 
 charged from its vesicle. An objection at once ap- 
 pears to this explanation — namely, that these sperma- 
 tozoa would be removed by the menstruation con- 
 
 * As a good example we may refer to a case of Dr. Montgomery's 
 {Signs, etc., of Pregnancy, p. 258). The last menstruation was on 
 the 18th October. Insemination took place on the 10th ITovemher; 
 parturition on the 17th August. The interval between insemination 
 and parturition was thus 280 days ; between last menstruation and 
 parturition it was about three weeks more. 
 
 t " The passage of the ovum from the ovary to the uterus 
 occupies, M. Bischoff says, three days in the rabbit, and four or 
 five days in ruminants, and therefore probably eight or ten days 
 in the human female. M. Bischoff believes that the ovum escapes 
 from the graafian follicle at the time when the menstrual discharge 
 is about to cease, and he is of opinion that in order to be fecundated 
 it must be acted on by the semen while it is in the fallopian tube." 
 — Baly and Kirkes' Suppl. to the 2d vol. of Mailer's Physiol, p. 58. 
 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 327 
 
 temporaneous with the discharge of the ovum. When 
 menstruation does supervene on a single recent coitus, 
 this wUl probably happen, unless the semen have per- 
 meated the fallopian tubes, and thus advanced beyond 
 the scope of the menstrual flux. But the study of such 
 
 * Several authors have stated their hehef that the mucous mem- 
 hrane of the tuhes yields a contribution to the hloody menstrual 
 flow. I have seen the mucus of the tubes tinged with blood in the 
 autopsy of a woman dying during menstruation, and in some other 
 cases. Cases of occlusion at the uterine extremities of the tubes, 
 in which they have been found distended with bloody fluid (see 
 Bernutz et Goupil, Maladies des Femmes, vol. L), are upon record. 
 Numerous other instances of repletion of the tubes with blood or 
 bloody fluid are to be found, but in these last there is generally no 
 good evidence that the blood was derived from the tubes themselves. 
 It is, however, sufficiently well demonstrated that in some oases 
 blood is excreted from the mucous membrane of the tubes in small 
 quantity. It may be regarded, I think, as nearly certain that, in 
 natural menstruation and in menorrhagia, blood is not excreted 
 from the tubes in considerable quantity. The statement by Tuck- 
 weU (see his thesis On Effusions of Blood in the neighbourhood of 
 the Uterus, p. 7) of his opinion to an opposite effect, is unsupported 
 by any adduced evidence. Were the uterine ends of the tubes as 
 they are generally described, and did the mucous membrane of the 
 tubes supply, as Dr. Tuckwell believes, no inconsiderable part of 
 the blood that escapes in what is called an attack of menorrhagia, 
 then great hsematoceles would be frequent to a very much greater 
 degree than any one at present supposes them to be. Further, the 
 anatomical demonstrations of Eouget are hostile to the tubal source 
 of menstrual blood. I have already said that I have seen the mucus 
 of the tubes tinged with blood : I have also seen the mucous mem- 
 brane of the uterine extremities of the tubes detached — hornlike — 
 with the proper decidua uterina in abortion ; the hornlike tubal 
 projections from the uterine decidua measuring three lines in length. 
 
328 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 cases as recorded by various authors * reveals this in- 
 teresting fact, that under such circumstances menstrua- 
 tion often does not take place at all, or only very 
 scantily ; the uterine system, as it were, anticipating 
 the conception, and preventing the failure which might 
 result from a free discharge of blood. It is evident that 
 such cases occurring in married women would be very 
 liable to be considered cases of gestation protracted a 
 month. 
 
 Some actual observations on women, bearing on 
 these points, have recently been published by Dr, 
 Marion Sims.t They demand quotation. " It would 
 be important (says he) to determine how long sperma- 
 tozoa can live in the matrix. On this point we need 
 more extended experiments, for I do not think that 
 their duration of life has yet been fully established. 
 Dr. S. E. Percy (American Medical Times, March 9, 
 1861), of New York, reports a case in which he found 
 ' living spermatozoa, and many dead ones,' issuing from 
 the OS uteri eight and a half days after the last sexual 
 
 TMs detachment from the tutes appears to be analogous to that oc- 
 casionally observed from the cervix uteri : in both situations some 
 little blood may, no doubt, be excreted iu natural menstruation, 
 but neither does afford the haemorrhage in menstruation or menor- 
 ihagia. 
 
 * Mauriceau (Maladies des Femmes Ghvsses, obs. 676) mentions a 
 case interesting in this point of view, in which a woman was im- 
 pregnated during the flow of menses. 
 
 + Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery, p. 384. For a similar 
 statement see Joulin, Traite Complet d'Accouoh. p. 449. 
 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 329 
 
 connection. During this time tlie husband of the 
 patient had been from home. 
 
 " I have examined the semen many times with the 
 view of determiaing this point, and think I can safely 
 say that spermatozoa never live more than twelve hours 
 in the vaginal mucus. But ia the mucus of the cervix 
 they live much longer. At the end of twelve hours, 
 whUe all are dead ia the vagina, there are but few dead 
 ones to be found in the cervix. When the cervical 
 mucus is examined from thirty-seven to forty hours 
 after coition, we shall ordinarily find as many sperma- 
 tozoa dead as alive. But my observations on this 
 point coiild not, under the nature of things, be accepted 
 as the rule, for they were aU made upon those who 
 were, or had been, the subjects of uterine disease in 
 some form or other. 
 
 " Here is the report of an observation made upon a 
 patient who is perfectly reliable : ' Sexual intercourse 
 at eleven p.m. on Saturday. A microscopic examina- 
 tion of the secretions was made on Monday at three 
 P.M., just forty hours afterwards. The vaginal mucus 
 contained a few dead spermatozoa — none alive ; the 
 cervical mucus contained great numbers very active — 
 a few dead.' 
 
 " The above is copied from notes made at the time. 
 I saw no reason why many of these active spermatozoa 
 should not have lived for a still longer time. Many of 
 them lived six hours after their removal. This was in 
 July." 
 
330 INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION. 
 
 I refer my readers to the same author * for some 
 interesting cases of impregnation shortly before an 
 expected menstruation which did not make its appear- 
 ance. 
 
 * Clinical Notes on Uteriiie Surgery, p. 381. 
 
INSEMINATION AND PAETUKITION. 331 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN INSEMINATION AND 
 PARTURITION. 
 
 This is a period of the greatest importance in a medico- 
 legal point of view. It is discussed by obstetric authors 
 as the period of gestation, or as the term of the dura- 
 tion of pregnancy". We have already shown that the 
 present state of our knowledge requires us to make a 
 distinction between the date of insemination and that 
 of conception, and it strongly appears to us that the 
 full comprehension of the bearings of this distinction 
 win go far to equalise the discordant views as to the 
 term of pregnancy in the human female, and to account 
 for many of the so-called cases of prolonged gestation. 
 But with our present ignorance of the possible interval 
 between insemination and conception the exact attain- 
 ment of this result is impracticable. 
 
 In attempting to settle this point, authors have 
 resorted to numerous sources of evidence, the fallacy 
 of which they themselves well knew. For instance, 
 we find Dr. Montgomery in his classical essay on the 
 period of human gestation, and many other authors, 
 
332 THE INTEEVAL BETWEEN 
 
 quoting examples based upon the evidence of peculiar 
 sensations felt at the moment of conception, on the 
 last appearance of the menses, and on the time of 
 quickening —phenomena which, however important in 
 aiding the accoucheur to make a good guess of the day 
 of confinement in single cases, can never be for a 
 moment relied upon in deciding such an exact question 
 as that before us. An excellent story, illustrating the 
 fallaciousness of such evidence, is related by Dr. Eeid, 
 of an expert midwife who, when examined in the 
 celebrated Gardner peerage case, "deposed that she 
 had once gone ten months with chUd, that she was 
 always right in her calculations, that she always fainted 
 away at quickening, etc., so that she could not be 
 deceived."* Some time after the trial she applied to 
 Dr. Eeid, convinced on such grounds that she was 
 seven months pregnant. But on examination there 
 was found no pregnancy at all. 
 
 No reliance can be placed but upon accurately- 
 ascertained dates of parturition and of fruitful connec- 
 tion. In regard to the latter of these dates no con- 
 fidence can be placed in the statements of women 
 living habitually with males, however truthful they 
 may be, or whatever additional evidences they adduce. 
 We are therefore reduced to a limited class of observa- 
 tions — namely, those where the pregnancy resulted 
 from a single coitus, including those where. this never 
 took place but on a single day, and those where it was 
 removed on both sides from other similar occasions by 
 * Lancet, vol. ii, p. 78, 1850. 
 
INSEMINATION AND PARTURITION. 333 
 
 months, or such other period as would render it absurd 
 to refer the parturition of a fully-developed foetus to 
 them. With those dating from a single day we have 
 included some dating from one of two days, but in 
 such cases our calculations commence from the coitus 
 of the first day only. These statistics (for the detaUs of 
 which we refer to the note)'^ contain 46 cases, which 
 yield the period of 275 days as the average interval 
 
 * Eaciborski (De la Puberte, etc., p. 460, etc.) relates five cases 
 whicli come -within this category. The intervals were 275, 270, 
 268, 273, and 274 days respectively. Montgomery ia his work on 
 the Signs, etc., of Eregnancy, quotes or relates seven cases. The 
 intervals were 281, 280, 287, 289, 288, 284, and 291 days respect- 
 ively. These cases dififer manifestly from those of Eaciborski, but 
 this is accounted for by observing that, like some of those yet to 
 be quoted, they are selected by Montgomery as proofs of the pro- 
 longation of pregnancy in some cases. Eigby, in his System of 
 Midwifery (p. 84), mentions three cases. The intervals were 260, 
 264, and 276 days respectively. Eeid, in his elaborate essay on 
 the " Duration of Pregnancy" {Lancet, vol. ii. 1850), notices twenty- 
 five cases. The intervals were 276, 274, 274, 275, 273, 271, 274, 
 274, 278, 263, 280, 264, 274, 276, 274, 276, 280, 266, 265, 266, 
 272, 275,271, 287, and 293 days respectively. Besides many of those 
 already mentioned, he adds five cases from the Ameriaan Journal of 
 Medical Sciences, which were 270, 272, 276, 284, 272 days respect- 
 ively, and Mr. Skey's case of 293 days. AU the above are care- 
 fully-selected cases, where the date of coitus taking place only 
 during a single day, and the date of parturition, were accurately 
 ascertained. They are in all 46 cases. The average interval is 
 
 275 days. More than two-thirds of the cases have an interval of 
 
 276 days or less. Other collections of cases have been made with 
 great care. I may especially refer to those of Yeit ( Verhandlungen , 
 der Gesellschaft fur Gehurtshiilfe in Berlin, Mt. 7, 1853, S. 122) 
 and Hecker (Klinik der Gehurtskunde, S. 35). These make this 
 interval about 273 and 277 days. 
 
334 INSEMINATION AND PARTURITION. 
 
 between insemination and parturition* While 275 
 days was the average interval, it may be remarked 
 that the largest number of cases at any particular day 
 was 7 at the 274 th day. 
 
 * In ^France, 270 days is the ordinarily-accepted duration of 
 pregnancy. See tlie works of Jacquemier, Velpeau, etc. 
 
MENSTRUATION AND PARTURITION. 335 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE LAST MENSTRUATION 
 AND PARTURITION. 
 
 This is a period which, for obvious reasons, can be 
 much more easily and frequently ascertained than that 
 last under discussion. It is one the knowledge of 
 which is of the greatest practical importance in the 
 every-day life of the married female, and of the ob- 
 stetric practitioner, seeing that by aid of it he attempts 
 to predict the date of the expected confinement. In 
 the vast majority of cases it is the only fixed point 
 fi:om which the calculation can be made, and hence 
 the necessity of accurately ascertaining it, if possible. 
 
 Authors have frequently neglected the discussion 
 of this important period, the only one available in 
 most cases of pregnancy. They generally decide the 
 term of pregnancy theoretically, and upon insufficient 
 grounds, and direct that, in calculating for the day of 
 confinement, this term should be told off from some 
 day after the last menses, which day they conceive to 
 be that on which conception most frequently or most 
 probably takes place. For instance, Montgomery 
 
336 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 
 states, upon the evidence of a very few cases only, 
 that the natural period of human gestation is 280 
 days, and in calculating the date of parturition, recom- 
 mends this to be added to any day within a week 
 after the last menstruation. He thus includes between 
 the last menses and the date of parturition a period 
 varying from 281 to 287 days — a period which, we 
 shall show, considerably overpasses the mark. Other 
 authors and teachers, considering that a woman is 
 equally liable to conceive on any day between two 
 menstrual periods, direct that the middle day of that 
 interval be taken, and the supposed period of gestation, 
 280 days, added thereto — thus including the exag- 
 gerated space of 290 to 295 days between the last 
 menstruation and parturition. 
 
 The exact determination of this interval, as of that 
 last under discussion, can be obtained only by a reference 
 to actual observations. Modern researches have shown 
 that it is at the menstrual period that the ovum quits 
 its graafian vesicle, and traverses the fallopian tube on 
 its way to the uterus. It is in the course of this pas- 
 sage that it encounters the semen, and conception 
 results. This passage occupies about three days in the 
 rabbit, and in M. Bischoff's opinion it occupies eight 
 or ten days in woman. During all this time, then, the 
 woman will be liable to conceive. It will, therefore, 
 be expected that the interval of which we are at pre- 
 sent speaking wUl be some days, at least, longer than 
 the last. 
 
 The statistical calculations on this subject (for de- 
 
LAST MENSTRUATION AND PARTtJBITION. 337 
 
 tails see foot-note),* give on an average 278 days as 
 the interval between the last menstruation and partu- 
 rition — a period less even than the 280 days -which we 
 have generally been taught in this country to be the 
 interval between impregnation and parturition, or the 
 duration of pregnancy.t 
 
 The largest numbers of cases on particular days 
 conglomerate about the 280th. Among Dr. Eeid's 500 
 instances, 283 were within the 280 days, and 217 
 beyond it. So far is it, then, from 280 days being the 
 ordinary duration of pregnancy, that a woman gener- 
 ally does not go more than 278 days after the last 
 menstruation is over. This period exceeds the average 
 interval between insemination and parturition by three 
 
 * The valuable statistics from which these results have been 
 derived, by a tedious calculation, are published by Drs. Merriman 
 and Eeid. The observations of the former were originally published 
 in the 13th volume of the Medico-Chirurgieal Transactions, and 
 subsequently extended in the edition in 1838 of his work on Diffi- 
 cult Parturition. The observations of Dr. Eeid are to be found in 
 the 2d volume of the Lancet for 1850. In Simpson's paper on 
 the " Duration of Human Pregnancy," these and other allied statis- 
 tics win be found carefully elaborated. See Monthly Journal for 
 July 1853. In a statistic which I have made of the cases having 
 sufficient details, recorded in the books of the Eoyal Maternity 
 Hospital, a result comes out similar to that derived from the far 
 more extensive records above mentioned. 
 
 t "The common term of pregnancy (says SmelUe) is limited 
 to nine solar months, reckoning from the last discharge of the 
 catamenia." — Treatise on Midwifery, fifth edition, vol. i. p. 
 127. 
 
338 INTERVAL FROM MENSTRUATION TO PARTURITION. 
 
 days ; and we may argue from this, with some little 
 probability, that conception takes place generally a few 
 days after menstruation is finished — a view which is 
 confirmed by numerous other physiological obser- 
 vations. Sexual connection in the days immediately 
 ■^fy£ollowiD.g menstruation is generally believed to be 
 ^ especially likely to produce impregnation. 
 
PREDICTION OF DAY OF CONFINEMENT. 339 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE PEEDICTION OF THE DAY OF CONFINEMENT. 
 
 This is one of the functions ascribed to the accoucheur ; 
 and apart from the comfort and convenience which the 
 mother experiences from the foreknowledge of it, she 
 often makes its failure or success a test of the more 
 subtle acquirements of the physician. The foregoing 
 statistics, however, will always justify the physician in 
 never giving a decided prognosis of the day of con- 
 finement; and if he have been guarded and careful, 
 will afford him an asylum, showing, as they do, that 
 with the most certain knowledge of the termination 
 of the last menstruation, or even of the date of a 
 single coitus, no safe prediction can be made unless 
 within limits so extended as to deprive it of much of 
 its value. At the same time there is no doubt it wiU 
 always be desirable to know the most probable day 
 of confinement, and this can generally be settled with 
 some exactness. 
 
 If the date of a single connection is ascertained, 
 which is, of course, very rarely the case, then the pro- 
 cess of deciding the probable day of confinement simply 
 consists in telling off 275 days (the average interval 
 
340 PREDICTION OF 
 
 between msemination and parturition) from that date. 
 Now, any nine consecutive calendar months include 
 275 days, if February is not in the number. If Feb- 
 ruary is in the number, the nine calendar months ia- 
 clude only 273 days (leap-years excepted), and the 
 correction necessary is apparent. The whole process 
 of calculation, then, consists in attaching the number 
 of the day of connection to the name of the ninth suc- 
 ceeding month, and adding two additional days if Feb- 
 ruary is included in the interval.* 
 
 In the vast majority of cases the day of confinement 
 is predicted from the date of the termination of the 
 last menstrual period. In many cases the calculation 
 can be aided and corrected by comparison with former 
 pregnancies in the same female. But when this source 
 of information is wanting, the nearest approach to truth 
 wUl be made by adding to the day of the disappearance 
 of the menses 278 days (the average interval between 
 the end of menstruation and parturition) . The predic- 
 tion will, of course, prove erroneous in a great number, 
 nay, in the majority of cases, but it forms the nearest 
 approximation which the mother can obtain to guide 
 her. If a woman, then, knows the last day of her last 
 period, she has only to teU the same day for the ninth 
 month following (most mothers do so on their fingers, 
 which thus form an admirable periodoscope), and add 
 
 * Nine months do not always contain 275 or 273 days. Dating 
 from December and July, nine months contain 274 days, and from 
 May 276. The statements in the text, although sufficiently correct 
 for general use, require this correction to be exact. 
 
DAY OF CONFINEMENT. 341 
 
 three days, or, if February is in the interval, five days. 
 She thus has the most likely day of her confinement ; 
 or, perhaps better, she has the middle day of the week 
 in which she will probably be laid up. 
 
 I have already casually shown how this varies from 
 the calculations ordinarily recommended by most 
 British authors and teachers. It would be tedious to 
 enter further on this subject. I may merely remark 
 that a more correct plan prevails on the continent. 
 And from some iaquiries and observations I have 
 made in Scotland and England, I find that, popularly, 
 a more correct calculation is extensively in use than 
 that recommended in the schools. For instance, in 
 Edinburgh, and some parts of Scotland, it is common to 
 find women calculate in this way. They find the last 
 day of being menstruated, and they hold that the same 
 day nine months after will be the day of confinement. 
 The celebrated Harvey's opinion on this subject was 
 also very correct. His remarks tally with Dr. Tyler 
 Smith's ingenious views on the question, and are de- 
 serving of quotation : — " Unquestionably," says he, 
 " the ordinary term of utero -gestation is that which we 
 believe was kept in the womb of his mother by our 
 Saviour Christ, of men the most perfect; counting, 
 viz., from the festival of the Annunciation, in the 
 month of March, to the day of the blessed Nativity, 
 which we celebrate in December. Prudent matrons, 
 calculating after this rule, as long as they note the 
 day of the month in which the catamenia usually 
 appear, are rarely out of their reckoning ; but after 
 
342 PKEDICTION OF DAY OF CONFINEMENT. 
 
 ten lunar months have elapsed, fall in labour, and 
 reap the fruit of their womb the very day on which 
 the catamenia would have appeared had impregnation 
 not taken place." * 
 
 * Harvey's Wo7-lts. Willis's trans, p. 529. 
 
PROTRACTION OF PERIOD OF PREGNANCY. 343 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROTRACTION OF THE PERIOD OF PREGNANCY. 
 
 Protraction beyond the common or natural term is 
 a phenomenon wMcli most obstetricians are now 
 willing to admit. Protraction beyond the average 
 term is a matter of course : it is only extraordinary 
 lengthening of pregnancy, the chUd being alive, that 
 is here spokon of. Although believing in its possi- 
 bility, I am at the same time convinced that it is not 
 so frequent an occurrence as late writers on this 
 subject seem to think, and that many of the cases of 
 this kind which are recorded have not sufhcient 
 evidence to support them. They are mostly based 
 upon such signs as the disappearance of the menses, 
 the sympathetic phenomena of pregnancy, and a 
 physical examination of the uterus; all of which, it 
 is needless to say, are abundantly liable to create mis- 
 apprehensions and fallacious reasonings, and, singly 
 or combined, can justify no absolute conclusion from 
 them. The kind of evidence desiderated is that based 
 on pregnancies produced by a single coitus : but, as 
 protracted pregnancies are rare, such evidence must 
 be very difficult of attainment. One great reason for 
 
344 PROTKACTION OF THE 
 
 discrediting tlie evidence of most of the cases recorded 
 by authors is, that we hear nothing of great develop- 
 ment of the uterus, or of large size of the child or of 
 the placenta, in such cases — results which, to say the 
 least, might be expected. On the contrary, we find 
 authors stating that in these so-called cases of pro- 
 tracted pregnancy the child is no bigger than usual, 
 or is even smaller than ordinary. " Although in some 
 of the cases of protracted gestation," says Dr. Mont- 
 gomery,® "the child was of enormous size, it by no 
 means follows that it should be so in aU such in- 
 stances ; and, in point of fact, we find it expressly 
 mentioned in some of them that the child was 
 smaller than usual, as happened in one of Dr. 
 Hamilton's cases; and Fodere says, that in three 
 instances in which gestation was evidently prolonged 
 the children were under-sized and ill-thriven ; while, 
 on the other hand, the largest children are often pro- 
 duced where no extension of the term could have 
 taken place." Dr. Burns also sayst that "some 
 causes which we cannot explain nor discover have the 
 power of retarding the process (of gestation), the 
 woman carrying the child longer than niae months ; 
 and the child when born being not larger than the 
 average size." In further corroboration of these views 
 the valuable observations on cows by Tessier have 
 been cited as showing that there was no marked 
 coincidence of increase of size and weight of the 
 
 * Signs atid Symptoms of Pregnancy, p. 282. 
 t Principles of Midwifery, p. 199. 
 
PERIOD OF PREGNANCY. 345 
 
 foetus "witli protraction of gestation. But this rea- 
 soning from analogy between the cow and woman 
 appears to be very much overstretched, and there 
 are evident reasons for expecting, d, priori, that the 
 period of gestation in woman should be limited on 
 the side of protraction more than in the lower animals. 
 Of these the strongest is based on a consideration of 
 the adaptation of the well-developed nine-month 
 foetal head to the maternal passages, and the evils 
 that are so weU known to result from even slight 
 disproportion between them. And, unless it be sup- 
 posed that pregnancy is protracted for the special 
 behoof of small and Ul-developed children, it must be 
 admitted that an extraordinary development of the 
 foetus is to be looked for in such cases. The ac- 
 knowledged absence, then, of this extraordinary iutra- 
 uterine development is, for me, a strong evidence 
 against the reality of many so-called cases of pro- 
 longation. On the other hand, the presence of this 
 sign in addition to others is, in my opinion, power- 
 fully corroborative of the supposed protraction in any 
 instance. In illustration of this I may state that the 
 best example I have met with of probable protraction 
 occurred in a female who had borne several children, 
 and who had previously always been correct in the 
 calculation of the period of confinement from the 
 cessation of menstruation. On the occasion iu ques- 
 tion she passed her calculated time four weeks, and 
 before confinement expressed her conviction all the 
 more strongly in consequence of my incredulity, that 
 
346 PEOTEACTION OF THE 
 
 she had passed her time a month. The labour was 
 more tedious than usual in consequence of the great 
 size of the foetal head. The child proved of very- 
 large size and advanced development. It weighed 
 10 lbs. 4 oz. The placenta was 2 lbs. in weight. 
 Other cases simdar to the above have come under my 
 observation, some have been communicated to me by 
 professional friends, and some are to be found recorded. 
 Among these last I may cite the observation of 
 Smellie, in which he says it was reasonable to suppose 
 that the patient actually exceeded the usual term of 
 gestation by four or five weeks at least. " Her labour 
 was very tedious, though the pelvis was of a large 
 size ; but the child was very lusty, and the head 
 squeezed into a longitudinal form. It was," he adds, 
 " the largest child I ever brought into the world." 
 
 In these cases the ordinary sources of evidence 
 were confirmed by the evidently exaggerated develop- 
 ment of the ova, the results of these protracted preg- 
 nancies. I have lately had under my care two cases 
 in which gestation was, not without some reason, 
 supposed to be prolonged, but which I reject from this 
 category, because, although the ladies were in good 
 health at the time of falling in the family way, yet the 
 infants born were not at all larger than their former 
 children. The ladies were sisters, and in each of them 
 their calculation and mine was passed by nearly a 
 month. The data founded upon were the cessation of 
 menstruation and the occurrence of morning sickness. 
 In both cases the respective nurses were residing with 
 
PERIOD OF PEEGNANOY. 347 
 
 them for about a month before the supervention of 
 labour. 
 
 Such cases as those of the two sisters just men- 
 tioned, and numerous other so-called cases of protrac- 
 tion, are easily explained by supposing simply that 
 the menstrual flux which should have occurred about 
 the probable time of the fruitful intercourse was sup- 
 pressed ; or, in other words, that the decidua prepared 
 for the ovum destined to be impregnated did not as 
 usual throw off the bloody fluid. In these cases we 
 must suppose either that the suppression for this one 
 period arose from some ordinary constitutional cause, 
 or, what is more likely, that the fruitful intercourse 
 occurring shortly before the ordinary menstrual period 
 anticipated and prevented it. This phenomenon we 
 believe to be not very rare, and to be sufficient to 
 explaia away many cases of protracted gestation. In 
 further illustration of this circumstance, we must be 
 satisfied with referring to those cases of pregnancy 
 after a single coitus taking place shortly before men- 
 struation, the coitus producing, firstly, the partial or 
 complete suppression of the menses at the approaching 
 period, and secondly, the fertilisation of the ovum 
 discharged in coincidence with the suppressed period. 
 Some careful observations of this sort are recorded by 
 Eaciborski, Montgomery, Marion Sims, and others. 
 
 Till the question is brought near to a settlement 
 by the accumulation of instances of protraction, in 
 which only a single coitus could have fertilised the 
 ovum, we must rely on individual opinions and indi- 
 
348 PEOTEACTION OF THE 
 
 vidual instances. I have already expressed my opinion, 
 and may add that I do not know of an individual 
 instance of certainly protracted gestation in which, the 
 production was small and light in weight. Before 
 authors, as Hamilton, Fodere, and Montgomery, can 
 justly ask the assent of the profession to their opinion, 
 they must give the evidences or proof of protraction 
 in the individual examples relied on. It is not suffi- 
 cient that they express their opinion that they were 
 evidently prolonged, in a case where their opinion 
 regarding the resulting small children is contrary to 
 what might naturally be expected. I have already 
 cited cases, equally well ascertained, opposing the 
 view of Hamilton, Foder4 and Montgomery. The 
 opinion of Tessier, and his observations on cows' and 
 mares can, only by analogy, be brought to bear on the 
 physiology of woman. But, their value being admitted, 
 it is to be remembered that his facts number only 
 eleven, and that no average weight of calves and foals 
 is adduced for comparison with the special instances. 
 Tessier 's examples, besides, are not all quite pertinent, 
 for they include two classes of cases — namely, when a 
 small foetus was produced after a prolonged gestation, 
 and when a large foetus was produced after a short 
 gestation.* 
 
 As such opinions and examples have interest in 
 
 * Mem. de VAcad. Roy. des Sc, 1817, p. 18. In liis work, 
 Von dem Mangel, etc., der Geharmutter, p. 308, I find a passage 
 indicating that Kussmaul admits the possibility of a small foetus 
 resulting from a prolonged pregnancy. 
 
PERIOD OF PREGNANCY. 349 
 
 the present state of the question, I shall add some 
 more. And first I shall refer to a paper by Mr. 
 Annan * who in his turn cites an example of a large 
 chUd following a long pregnancy, recorded by Dr. 
 Collins of Liverpool. Mr. Annan gives three good 
 iastances, and expresses himself decidedly in favour of 
 the view which I defend. Discussing difficult labours. 
 Dr. Tyler Smith remarks, " The largest children I have 
 met with in practice have been in cases where, from 
 pendulous abdomen, the foetus had been retained 
 beyond the full term."t From JoulinJ I make the 
 following quotation: — "Manvie, vlteriuaire h, Epe, 
 observa une vache qui porta pr^s de 16 mois. Le 
 volume du veau, qui pesait 61 kHog., rendit le part 
 impossible; on abattit la bete. En 1831, on re9ut k 
 I'Ecole Veterinaire d'Utrecht, une vache qui porta 15 
 mois moius 2 jours. Numan constate une gestation 
 de 11 mois ^ chez une vache. Le veau qu'on fut 
 oblige d'extraire par morceaux pesait 80 kilog. Enfin, 
 Gronier k observ^ une vache qui porta 12 mois. Le 
 petit, extrait vivant, avait acquis le volume d'un 
 veau ^ge de deux mois. Ces faits peuvent paraitre 
 etranges, insolites; mais, je le r^p^te, on n'a v^ritable- 
 ment aucune raison pour en nier la realite. Louis, et 
 les autres adversaires des naissances tardives, invo- 
 quaient k I'appui de leur opiuion, I'ordre immuable des 
 ph^nomenes de la nature. Ce sont la des phrases 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1857, p. 712. 
 
 t Manual of Obstetrics, p. 449. 
 
 J Traite Complet d! Accouchements, p. 456. 
 
350 PROTRACTION OF THE 
 
 vides de sens ; car on constate a chaque instant que la 
 nature s'ecarte de cet ordre pretendu immuable. On 
 k dit que la cause des grossesses prolongees, dependait 
 du developpement imparfait du foetus qui sejournerait 
 dans I'organisme maternel jusqu'a ce qu'il ait acquis 
 toutes ses aptitudes a la vie extrauterine. II est 
 possible que cette opinion soit parfois justifiee, mais 
 I'obstetrique comparee nous prouve qu'il est loin d'en 
 etre toujours ainsi. Et je crois que dans un cas de 
 grossesse prolongee bien averse, il ne faudrait pas 
 s'exposer a subir les consequences d'un developpement 
 exagere du foetus, surtout chez une femme dont le 
 bassin aurait des proportions mediocres. Dans ces 
 circonstances on pourrait poser avec Silbert (d'Aix), 
 la question de raccouchement provoque. C'est un 
 point pratique qui merite I'attention." 
 
 There is a large field here open for research, not 
 only as to the connection of protracted pregnancy 
 with development of the chUd, but on the connection 
 of age of the mother and of the number of the preg- 
 nancy with the duration of the process and the 
 developement of the resulting progeny, topics on 
 which I have made some remarks in an earlier part 
 of this volume (see page 63). 
 
 The evidence of highest value which we possess 
 in regard to the subject of the extraordinary prolonga- 
 tion of pregnancy is founded upon cases where preg- 
 nancy resulted from a single connection. The results 
 of these cases go far to establish the w^ell-founded 
 opinion of Dr. Montgomery, that the cases most de- 
 
PERIOD OF PREGNANCY. 351 
 
 serving of confidence are those in wMch tlie usual 
 term was not exceeded by more than three or four 
 weeks. But the cases referred to give us the interval 
 between insemination and parturition, a period which 
 I have elsewhere remarked requires a correction, which 
 physiology has not yet enabled us to decide, for the 
 possible interval between insemination and conception. 
 In a practical and medico-legal point of view, however, 
 the interval obtained is of great importance. In the 
 collection of cases of this kind (see p. 333), the longest 
 duration found is in one case where the period was 
 293 days. The other cases of protraction wiQ be ob- 
 served by a reference to the table. 
 
 The theory of the duration of pregnancy is still 
 unknown. Some authors, believing that labour comes 
 on at the tenth menstrual period, explain the protrac- 
 tion by the female's having a longer menstrual interval 
 than usual, ten of which wUl make up a period exceed- 
 ing the usual term of pregnancy. Others have sup- 
 posed that from some cause a female might miss the 
 usual period and go on to what would have been the 
 next menstrual period, had she not been impregnated. 
 Others have connected it with tardy development of 
 the foetus, with the influence of depressing emotions, 
 etc. But all these are as yet mere hypotheses. 
 
352 DR. MONTGOMERY S OPINIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 DR. Montgomery's opinions. 
 
 In tlie British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Re- 
 view for July 1854 there appeared an abstract of a 
 paper, by Dr. Gustav Veit, professor of midwifery at 
 Eostock, on the duration of -pregnancy and other sub- 
 jects. I have bad no opportunity of seeing more of 
 tbis essay tban is contained in the midwifery report of 
 tbe above journal. Dr. Veit bas tabulated forty-five 
 cases from Eeid, Montgomery, Grirdwood, Eigby, Lock- 
 wood, Lee,Desormeaux, Dewees, Beatty, Skey,M'Ilwain, 
 AsbweU, Cederscbjold, and others, in which the date of 
 impregnation appeared to be fixed by a single coitus. 
 From this table it is found that the average interval 
 between insemination and parturition (commonly called 
 the dm-ation of pregnancy) is 276"93 days. 
 
 Dr. Veit also collected a mass of observations in 
 regard to the interval between the end of menstruation 
 and partiirition. From this collection he ascertained 
 "that the average extent of this period is 278"5 days. 
 
 These and like conclusions, though widely pub- 
 lished, had been subjected to nothing that could be 
 called adverse criticism till the recent republication of 
 
DR. Montgomery's opinions. 353 
 
 Dr. Montgomery's great work on the Signs and Symp- 
 toms of Pregnancy. This contains an essay on the 
 period of human gestation, in which it is assumed, we 
 shall see on what authority, that the natural period of 
 gestation is forty weeks, or 280 days; and in which 
 the following statement of the immortal Harvey is 
 pronounced to be erroneous. We quote from Mont- 
 gomery. 
 
 " The words of this illustrious man are thescT— ' TJn- 
 questiondbly the ordinary term of utero-gestation is 
 that which we believe was kept, in the womb of his 
 mother, by our Saviour Christ, of men the most per- 
 fect ; counting, viz., from the festival of the Annun- 
 ciation, in the month of March, to the day of the 
 blessed Nativity, which we celebrate in December! 
 This is a period of 275 days only : he then goes on to 
 state, what does not appear to have any very obvious 
 connection with the fact referred to, but is indeed 
 rather at variance with it." 
 
 "'Prudent matrons^ he says, 'calculating after 
 this rule, as long as they note the day of the month in 
 which the catamenia usually appear, are rarely out 
 of their reckoning ; but after ten lunar ononths have 
 elapsed, fall into labour, and reap the fruit of their 
 womb the very day on which the catamenia ivould 
 have appeared had impregnation not taken place.' " 
 
 I defend the opinion of Harvey on the ground of 
 the data afforded by Dr. Montgomery, and shall show 
 that his assumption of 280 days as the natural period 
 of human gestation, is, to say the least, unfounded. 
 
354 DR. Montgomery's opinions. 
 
 The period generally recognised under this name, 
 and discussed by Dr. Montgomery, does not measure 
 the real duration which extends from conception to 
 parturition, but that other period extending from 
 fruitful connection to parturition. It is this latter of 
 "which we now discourse. 
 
 Dr. Montgomery describes the natural period of 
 human gestation as 280 days. Now, there is no such 
 thing known to obstetricians to exist in nature as a 
 natural period of pregnancy, measuring a certain, 
 number of days. This may be considered absolutely 
 demonstrated. The interval between fruitful coitus and 
 parturition is known to us only as a variable period, of 
 uncertain length, not merely in different individuals, but 
 even in the same individual on different occasions. So 
 far is Dr. Montgomery from having any authority for 
 fixing 280 days as the natural period, that, in his own 
 laborious collection of fifty-six cases, in which, he says, 
 the day of fruitful intercourse was known, there are 
 only four in which parturition certainly occurred on 
 the 280th day. Obstetricians can only speak with 
 propriety of an average duration. This is attainable 
 by striking it from the largest collection of well-ascer- 
 tained cases. This average is the nearest approxima- 
 tion that can be made to what may be called the 
 natural period of gestation. The data afforded by Dr. 
 Montgomery for arriving at this mean or average, or 
 nearest accurate general statement of the interval be- 
 tween fruitful connection and parturition, the duration 
 of pregnancy, are of different degrees of value. 
 
DE. MONTGOMERY S OPINIONS. 355 
 
 The most trustworthy and valuable are undoubtedly 
 those cases of pregnancy which date from a single coitus. 
 They number twenty-five, and their respective durations 
 are as follows :— 263, 264, 265, 265, 267, 270, 271, 
 272, 273, 274, 274, 274, 274, 274, 275, 275, 276, 276, 
 275 or 277, 277, 278, 280, 280, 287, 291 to 293. Of 
 these twenty-five cases the mean is 274 days. The best 
 data accessible to Dr. Montgomery, then, give 274 days 
 as the duration of pregnancy, not 280. 
 
 It appears to me that the next most valuable data 
 for settling this point are to be found in his table of 
 thirteen cases dating from the day of marriage. The 
 intervals between marriage and parturition in these 
 cases were as follows :— 261, 265, 268, 269, 270, 271, 
 271, 271, 272, 273, 274, 279, 291. In regard to 
 these Dr. Montgomery himself says : — " The average 
 interval between the day of marriage and that of labour 
 was 272 days q. p., or thirty-nine weeks, minus one 
 day; or, if we deduct the last case, which went to 
 291 days, the average interval would be 270^ days." 
 Where, then, one naturally exclaims, are the grounds 
 for sayiog that the natural duration of pregnancy is 
 280 days ? This group of cases is interesting as 
 including only primiparEe, a circumstance which pro- 
 bably accounts for the special shortness of pregnancy 
 in them. 
 
 Dr. Montgomery's work presents us with another 
 table of data. It consists of fifty-six cases, in which, 
 he says, the day of fruitful intercourse was known. 
 Now, to us, this table, at first sight, and before esti- 
 
356 DR. Montgomery's opinions. 
 
 mating the results of it, appears to be of less value than 
 either of the two former. Every case, almost, is in- 
 validated because we do not know the authority or 
 grounds upon which it is said that the day of fruitful 
 intercourse was known. We do not know even the 
 observers' names. Dr. Montgomery has laboriously 
 collected cases of protracted pregnancy, all of which, so 
 far as available for this table, find place in it. The 
 whole weight and importance of it is contributed by 
 the distinguished obstetrician's name that publishes it. 
 That authority is undoubtedly of the very highest, but 
 can scarcely be communicable to cases derived from a 
 promiscuous set of observers, whose reasons for de- 
 cidedly fixing on a single day are not given. In an 
 exact investigation like this all cases should be rejected 
 except those dating from a single coitus on a single 
 day. But let us examine and see what this table 
 affords towards the solution of the question. Omitting 
 six cases where a single day is not given, we have fifty 
 where the interval between fruitful intercourse and 
 parturition is said to be as follows : — 242, 258, 258, 
 263, 265, 267, 267, 267, 267, 268, 269, 269, 272, 273, 
 273, 274, 274, 275, 275, 276, 277, 277, 278, 278, 279, 
 279, 279, 279, 279, 280, 280, 280, 280, 281, 283, 283, 
 284, 285, 286, 287, 287, 287, 288, 290, 291, 291,292, 
 293, 293, 297. Of these fifty cases, all those satis- 
 factorily known to Dr. Montgomery, the mean duration 
 is 277 days. This table, framed under the conditions 
 above described, yields a result opposed to the dogma 
 of its author. Where, then, is the authority for stating 
 
DR. Montgomery's opinions. 357 
 
 280 days as the natural period of gestation ? It is 
 nowhere. 
 
 We agree with Dr. Montgomery in his opinion that 
 there is no other satisfactory method of arriving at the 
 solution of this question but the one we have just fol- 
 lowed — viz. the collection of well-ascertained facts and 
 their analysis. " Independently (says he) of the very 
 few cases in which we have satisfactory evidence of 
 conception following casual intercourse, or perhaps a 
 single coitus, we have no certain means of knowing 
 exactly the commencement of gestation, and are obliged 
 to form our calculation on one or other of three very 
 fallacious grounds;" which he then proceeds to con- 
 sider. 
 
 In the vast majority of cases the calculation of the 
 day of confinement must be made from the termination 
 of the last menstruation, for reasons which are well 
 known. The average time to which a woman goes, 
 after the last appearance of the menses, is 278 days 
 (a period shorter than Dr. Montgomery's duration of 
 pregnancy). This average is obtained by the collec- 
 tion, of single observations and their subsequept analysis. 
 If, then, we wish to ascertain the most probable day of 
 a woman's confinement, we add 278 days to the last 
 day of the last menstruation. The method of doing 
 this, without a periodoscope, I have already shown. 
 
 Dr. Montgomery gives no specific directions for 
 making this important calculation. But it appears from 
 some passages occurring incidentally in his essay, that 
 he adopts the following plan. Some day is selected 
 
358 DR. MONTGOMERY S OPINIONS. 
 
 after last menstruation as the most probable day of 
 fruitful intercourse, and 280 days are added thereto. 
 As the selection of this day must be, in almost every 
 case, made on the most worthless and insufficient 
 grounds, the resulting calculation must be similarly 
 characterised. Besides, if there be any truth in the 
 statistical data of Dr. Montgomery, and their analysis 
 given above, which is partly his own, then this plan of 
 his must lead to a putting off of the probable day of 
 confinement to far too distant a time. For instance, we 
 have in the table of observations dated from the day 
 of marriage, thirteen cases on Dr. Montgomery's OAvn 
 authority. Now, in these, as already stated, the women 
 went on an average only 272 days from the day of the 
 nuptials. If a probable day of fruitful intercourse after 
 marriage had been selected, and 280 days added thereto, 
 in these cases, such a plan would have evidently led to 
 a mass of errors in the way of putting off the predicted 
 day of confinement far too long. 
 
 I may here mention that with the subject of this 
 important calculation or prediction Dr. Montgomery 
 has confounded the question of the interval between 
 insemination and conception. If such an interval 
 existed, he says, "we should have no means of cal- 
 culating the period of gestation with anything like 
 an approximation to accuracy in any case." Now, if 
 there be an interval in nature between insemination 
 and conception we must adopt it, whatever results it 
 may lead to. If it truly exist, it can lead only to true 
 and good results. It is not considered probable by Dr. 
 
DR. Montgomery's opinions. 359 
 
 Montgomery that any interval, or an interval of any 
 in^portance, does exist. The highest authorities, how- 
 ever, on such a point are unquestionably very strongly 
 ia favour of the belief in its existence and its being 
 of considerable extent, say several days. But in truth 
 this question of a possible interval between insemina- 
 tion and conception has nought to do with the cal- 
 culation of the date of confinement. Its truth or 
 untruth does not affect such calculations, and no 
 author but Dr. Montgomery has, so far as I know, 
 discussed the two points as connected with one 
 another in any way tending to modify practical 
 precepts. 
 
360 Harvey's opinions. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 haevey's opinions. 
 
 Great men often seem to arrive at the truth, even in 
 circumstances of complication and difi&culty, by some 
 process so simple that it appears like an operation of 
 instinct. The immortal Harvey's expressed opinions 
 in regard to the duration of pregnancy, and the cal- 
 culation of the day of confinement, bear this character, 
 for we cannot discover the grounds on which he 
 arrived at results so nearly identical with those of 
 modem science. 
 
 The interval between the festival of the Annuncia- 
 tion and the day of the blessed Nativity is that 
 adopted by Harvey as unquestionably the ordinary 
 term of utero-gestation. This is a period of 275 days. 
 Lady-day, or the festival of the Annunciation being 
 on the 25th of March, or 84th day of the year, while 
 the day of the Nativity is the 25th December, or 
 360th day of the year. It is remarkable that the 
 largest recent collection of cases made on certain or on 
 the best grounds give also an average result of 275 
 days. Harvey, it will be observed, does not speak of 
 any natural term, but only of the ordinary term, his 
 correct appreciation of which is clearly indicated. 
 
Harvey's opinions. 361 
 
 Harvey guards also his rule for calculating the 
 day of confinement from being considered exact by 
 saying that those prudent matrons who follow it 
 " are rarely out of their reckoning." His statement is 
 that after ten lunar months have elapsed from the 
 commencement or appearance- of last menstruation, 
 they fall in labour the very day the catamenia would 
 have appeared had impregnation not taken place. If 
 the usual or average computation of the menstrual 
 periods and intervals is adopted, the period of Harvey 
 is 280 days, including the number of days of the last 
 period. Ten times the usual interval and period of 
 discharge — that is, ten times 28 — gives 280 days ; but 
 as this includes the last period, of course the three, 
 four, or five days of that period have to be taken from 
 the 280 days, if we wish to find the interval he 
 allowed between the end of last menses and par- 
 turition. Thus Harvey gives prudent matrons only 
 an approximative calculation. The interval between 
 last menstruation and parturition, according to him, 
 is something a few days less than 280. The average 
 time found by modern calculations, as stated in a 
 former chapter of this part, is 278 days, with which 
 Harvey's rules are as nearly in accordance as can be 
 expected in a subject altogether incapable of any 
 exact statement. 
 
 Dr. Montgomery's objections to Harvey's opinions 
 are founded on the assumed accuracy of his own 
 natural period of pregnancy — namely, 280 days after 
 conception. We have already shown that this period 
 
362 haevey's opinions. 
 
 is assumed on io sufficient grounds, and that as the 
 day of conception is never known, we must seek some 
 other method of calculating the day of confinement 
 than any founded on the supposed day of such an 
 occurrence. Without seeking to disparage the very 
 high value and authority of Dr. Montgomery's 
 writings, we publish these comments, believing that 
 they demand modification of the views enunciated in 
 his essay on the period of human gestation. 
 
 In conclusion, we venture to state the following 
 propositions : — 
 
 1. That the interval between conception and par- 
 turition (the real duration of pregnancy) has not been 
 exactly ascertained in any case. 
 
 2. That the average interval between insemination 
 and parturition (commonly called the duration of preg- 
 nancy) is 275 days. 
 
 3. That the average interval between the end of 
 menstruation and parturition is 278 days. 
 
 4. That the intervals between insemination and 
 parturition, and between menstruation and parturition, 
 have no standard length, but vary within certain 
 limits. 
 
 5. That while absolute proof of the prolongation of 
 real pregnancy beyond its usual limits is still deficient, 
 yet there is evidence to establish the probability that 
 it may be protracted beyond such limits to the ex- 
 tent of three or four weeks, or even longer. 
 
APPENDIX OF EEFEKENCES 
 
 TO 
 
 PAPEES by the Author, on the same Subjects as are 
 discussed in this Volume. 
 
 On the Variations of the Fertility and. Fecundity of Women 
 according to Age. — Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
 Vol. XXIII. Part III. 
 
 On the Weight and Length of the Newly-Born Child in rela- 
 tion to the Mother's Age. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, December 
 1864. 
 
 On some Laws of the Production of Twins. — Edinburgh Medical 
 Journal, March 1865. 
 
 On the Comparative Frequency of Twin-bearing in Different 
 Pregnancies. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, April 1865. 
 
 On the Laws of the Fertility of Women. — Transactions of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. XXIV. 
 
 On some Laws of the Sterility of Women. — Transactions of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. XXIV. 
 
 On the Mortality of Childbed, as affected by the number of 
 the Labour. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, September 1865. 
 
 On the Mortality of Childbed, as affected by the Age of the 
 Mother. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, October 1865. 
 
364 " APPENDIX OP REFEEBNCES. 
 
 On the Age of Nubility. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, Sep- 
 tember 1866. 
 
 The Doctrine of the Duration of Labour. — Edinburgh Medical 
 Journal, July 1857. 
 
 Reflections on the Duration of Pregnancy, with Eemarks on 
 the Calculation of the Day of Confinement. — Monthly Journal of 
 Medical Science, March 1854. 
 
 The Duration of Pregnancy, and the Calculation of the Date 
 of Confinement. Is Dr. William Harvey or Dr. WUliam Mont- 
 gomery in the right 1 — Edinburgh Medical Journal, November 
 1856. 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 AiJNAN, 349 
 
 Aristotle, 147, 275, 286, 294 
 
 AsliweU, 352 
 
 Balt, 326 
 
 Barry, 325 
 
 Beatty, 310, 352 
 
 Benoiston, 103 
 
 Bemutz, 327 
 
 Bisclioff, 326 
 
 Boudin, 67, 157, 190, 259 
 
 Braun, 68, 72, 75, 89 
 
 Breen, 297 
 
 BuU, 234 
 
 Burdach, 37, 42, 68, 187 
 
 Burke, 189 
 
 Burns, 163, 283, 297, 344 
 
 Busch, 297 
 
 Cbdeeschjold, 352 
 
 Chiari, 68, 72, 75, 89 
 
 aay, 63 
 
 CoUins, 6, 10, 67, 68, 72, 74, 113, 
 
 235, 242, 270, 297 
 CoHins, 349 
 Condoroet, 64 
 Cruikshank, 325 
 
 Davis, 310 
 Denman, 297 
 Desormeaux, 352 
 Dewees, 352 
 Dupuytren, 282 
 
 Fare, 182, 260, 262 
 
 Farre, 280 
 Finlayson, 41, 157 
 Foderd, 348 
 Frank, 187 
 Franklin, 109 
 
 Geyelin, 36 
 
 Girdwood, 352 
 
 Good, 162 
 
 Goupil, 327 
 
 Graliam, 101, 105, 112, 169, 174, 
 
 177, 182, 293 
 Granville, 5, 6, 11, 41, 42, 157 
 Graunt, 105, 190 
 Gronier, 349 
 
 Haighton, 324 
 
 Hamilton, 297 
 
 Hardy, 6, 68, 72, 113, 243 
 
 Harvey, 297, 309, 341, 360 
 
 Hecker, 46, 61, 161, 234, 333 
 
 Hedin, 187 
 
 Hugenberger, 68, 89, 234, 262 
 
 Jacqdemier, 190, 334 
 Johnston, 233, 238, 241 
 Jones, 325 
 
 JouILq, 63, 278, 320, 349 
 Jurine, 68 
 
 KiRKES, 326 
 Kussmaul, 280, 348 
 
 Laycock, 137 
 
366 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Lee, 352 
 
 Leeuwenlioek, 321 
 Legoyt, 190 
 Lever, 186 
 Litzmann, 282, 284 
 Lookwood, 352 
 Louis, 349 
 
 Maithus, 41, 104, 105, 134 
 
 Mann, 182 
 
 Manvie, 349 
 
 Mauriceau, 328 
 
 M'Clintock, 6, 68, 72, 113, 243 
 
 M'llwam, 352 
 
 Meckel, 281 
 
 Meigs, 304 
 
 Merriman, 337 
 
 MUne, 14, 41 
 
 MitcheU, 66, 163, 286, 290 
 
 Montgomery, 63, 326, 344, 352 
 
 Murphy, 297, 310 
 
 Newport, 323 
 Nicander, 14, 15 
 Numan, 349 
 
 Oesterlen, 67 
 Osborn, 297, 310 
 
 Percy, 328 
 Petty, 134, 137 
 Plato, 147, 293 
 Plutarck, 147 
 
 QuBTELET, 40, 42, 129, 149, 280 
 
 Eaciborski, 333 
 Eeid, 332, 337, 352 
 Eigby, 333, 352 
 
 EolDerton, 40, 109, 134, 137, 165, 
 189 
 
 Sadler, 38, 41, 42, 69, 105, 117, 
 
 129, 135, 147, 156, 286, 
 
 292 
 Senior, 105 
 Serres, 281 
 Sharpe, 188 
 Short, 105, 147, 190 
 Silbert, 350 
 
 Simpson, 186, 231, 297 
 Sims, 328 
 
 Sinclair, 233, 238, 241 
 Skey, 333, 352 
 Smellie, 337 
 Smith, 262 
 Sp»th, 68, 72, 75, 89 
 Spallanzani, 322 
 Stark, 40, 104, 110, 142, 175, 
 
 179, 182, 253, 262 
 Statistical Society, 108, 116, 122, 
 
 139, 170 
 Sussmilch, 147, 292 
 
 Tait, 179, 198, 207 
 Tessier, 64, 324 
 Thomson, 119, 187 
 Tuckwell, 327 
 Tuke, 292 
 
 Valentin, 322 
 Veit, 333, 352 
 Velpeau, 334 
 VirgU, 147, 292 
 
 West, 189, 190 
 
 Whitehead, 32, 117, 129, 134, 
 
 163, 190 
 Wood, 281 
 
LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 Table Page 
 
 I. Showing the Age of each of 16,385 Women de- 
 livered in the Dublin Lying-in Hospital . 7 
 
 II. Showing the Ages of 16,385 Women delivered 
 in the Dublin Lying-in Hospital, arranged in 
 Periods of Five Years ..... 7 
 
 III. Showing the Age of each of 16,301 Wives whose 
 
 Children were Registered in Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow in 1855 ..... 9 
 
 IV. Showing the Ages of 16,301 Wives-Mothers in 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, arranged in 
 Periods of Five Years . ... 9 
 
 V. Showing the Comparative FertUity at Different 
 Ages of the Whole Female Population of Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow ... .13 
 
 VI. Showing the Comparative Fertility at Different 
 
 Ages of the Female Population of Sweden and « 
 Finland 15 
 
 VII. Showing the Comparative Fecundity at Different 
 Ages of the Whole Wives in Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow in 1855 19 
 
 • VIII. Showing the Comparative Fecundity of Wives at 
 Ages of 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow in 1855 22 
 
 IX. Showing the Initial Fecundity of Women of Dif- 
 ferent Ages in the First Year of Marriage 26 
 
 X. Showing the Initial Fecundity of Women of Dif- 
 ferent Ages within the First Two Years of 
 Marriaare ... .28 
 
368 LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 Table Page 
 
 XI. Showing the Initial Fecundity of Women under 
 Twenty Years of Age ia the First Year of 
 Marriage ....... 30 
 
 XII. Showing the Initial Fecundity of Women under 
 Twenty Years of Age within the First Two 
 Years of Marriage . . . . .31 
 
 XIII. Showing the Age at which Puberty was accom- 
 plished in Four Thousand Individuals . . 32 
 
 I XIV. Showing the Fecundity of Women Married at 
 
 Different Ages CI35 
 
 XV. Showing the Fertility of the Domestic Fowl at 
 
 Different Ages . . . . . .37 
 
 XVI. Showing the Average Weight of Children bom 
 
 in First and Subsequent Pregnancies . . 49 
 
 XVII. Showing the Average Weight of Children born 
 
 of Mothers of Different Ages . . .52 
 
 XVIII. Showing the Average Length of Children born 
 
 in First and Subsequent Pregnancies . . 55 
 
 XIX. Showing the Average Length of Children born 
 
 of Mothers of Different Ages . . .57 
 
 XX. Showing the Average Weight of Children bom 
 
 at various Ages and Pregnancies of Mothers . 59 
 
 XXI. Showing the Average Length of Children born 
 
 at various Ages and Pregnancies of Mothers . 60 
 
 XXIJ. Table of Ten Cases of Triplets . . . .69 
 
 XXIII. Showing the Ages of 756 Mothers of Twins . 73 
 
 XXIV. Showing the Actual Fertility in Twins of Mothers 
 
 of Various Ages . . . . . .77 
 
 XXV. Showing the Actual and Comparative Fertility 
 
 in Twins of Wives-Mothers of Various Ages . 77 
 
 XXVI. Showing the Fertility in Twins of Wives of 
 
 Various Ages ...... 80 
 
 XXVII. Showing Comparison between Wives newly Mar- 
 ried, and Mothers of Twins within Two Years 
 of Marriage ...... 82 
 
LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 36.9 
 
 Table Paqe 
 
 XXVIII. Showing Comparison between Mothers within 
 Two Years of Marriage, and Mothers of 
 Twins within Two Years of Marriage . 84 
 
 XXIX. Showing Comparison between Mothers Two 
 Years Married and Upwards, and Mothers 
 of Twins Two Years Married and Upwards 85 
 
 XXX. Showing the Actual and Comparative Num- 
 ber of Twins born in First and Subsequent 
 Pregnancies . . . . . .88 
 
 XXXI. Showing the Comparative Frequency of Twins 
 in Different Sets of Pregnancies of Wives 
 of the Same Age ..... 90 
 
 XXXII. Showing the Frequency of Twin Births and 
 of all Births in First and Subsequent 
 Pregnancies . . . . . .92 
 
 XXXIII. Showing the Average Size of Families after 
 
 different Durations of Marriage in Mothers 
 generally, and in Mothers bearing Twins . 96 
 
 XXXIV. Showing the Number and Percentage of 
 
 Mothers Bearing respectively 1st, 2d, and 
 3d Children, and so on ; also Percentage 
 of Children in stUl growing Families of 
 Different Numbers . . . .115 
 
 XXXV. Showing the Average Number of Children 
 that have been Bom at the Completion of 
 each Year of Persistently Fertile Marriage 121 
 
 XXXVI. Showing, from the data of St. George's-in- 
 the-East, the Fertility of Fertile Wives 
 aged from 15 to 45 Years . . .123 
 
 XXXVII. Showing a Comparison of the Fertility of 
 Mothers and of Persistently Fertile Mo- 
 thers 125 
 
 XXXVIII. Showing the Interval between Marriage and 
 the Birth of a First Child in Wives Mar- 
 ried at Different Ages . . . .128 
 
 XXXIX. Showing the Average Duration of Marriage 
 
 at Birth of each Successive Child ; and the 
 
 Average Interval between the Births of 
 
 the Successive Children 
 
 2 B 
 
 1.30 
 
370 LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 Table Paoi! 
 
 XL. Showing the Fertility of Wives-Mothers Mar- 
 ried at Different Ages, from the data of St. 
 George's-in-the-East . . . . .138 
 
 XLI. Showing the Average Number of Children to 
 
 Fertile Marriages formed at Different Ages . 139 
 
 XLII. Showing the Amount of Continuance in Fer- 
 tility of Wives Married at Various Ages (as 
 shown within Twelve Months) . . .141 
 
 XLIII. Fertility of Wives in the Fifth Year of Mar- 
 ried Life 142 
 
 XLIV. Fertility of Wives in the Tenth Year of Mar- 
 ried Life 143 
 
 XLV. Fertility of Wives in the Fifteenth Year of 
 
 Married Life 143 
 
 XL VI. Fertility of Wives in the Twentieth Year of 
 
 Married Life 143 
 
 XLVII. Fertility of Wives in the Twenty-fifth Year 
 
 of Married Life 143 
 
 XL VIII. Showing the Duration of Fertility in FertUe 
 Wives Married at Various Ages (as shown 
 withia Twelve Months) . . . .144 
 
 XLIX. Fertility of Fertile Wives in Fifth Year of 
 
 Married Life . . . . . .145 
 
 L. Fertility of Fertile Wives in Tenth Year of 
 
 Married Life . . . . . .145 
 
 LI. Fertility of Fertile Wives in Fifteenth Year 
 
 of Married Life 145 
 
 LII. Fertility of Fertile Wives in Twentieth Year 
 
 of Married Life 146 
 
 LIII. Fertility of Fertile Wives in Twenty-fifth 
 
 Year of Married Life . . . .146 
 
 LIV. Showing the Probable Amount of Continu- 
 ance in Fertility, at Different Epochs, of 
 a Mass of Wives Married at Various Ages . 148 
 
 LV. Showing the Probable Amount of Continu- 
 ance in Fertility, at Different Epochs, of 
 Fertile Wives Mari-ied at Various Ages . 149 
 
LIST OP TABLES. 371 
 
 Table Page 
 
 LVI. Showing the Intensity of Fertility in Wives- 
 Mothers of Different Ages . . .153 
 
 LVII. Of Women under 5 Years Married . .154 
 
 LVIII. Of Women 5 Years Married and less than 10 . 154 
 
 LIX. Of Women 10 Years Married and less than 15 155 
 
 LX. Of Women 15 Years Married and less than 20 155 
 
 LXI. Of Women 20 Years Married and less than 26 156 
 
 LXII. Of Women 25 Years Married and less than 30 156 
 
 LXIII. Of Women 30 Years Married . . .156 
 
 LXIV. Showing the Effect the Postponement of the 
 Marriages of Females has upon their Annual 
 Prohficness (Sadler) . . . . .158 
 
 LXV. Showing the Effect of the Postponement of 
 the Marriages of the Peeresses on their 
 Prolificness (Sadler) . . . . .159 
 
 LXVI. Showing the Mortality of Children born to 
 
 Marriages formed at Different Ages . . 170 
 
 LXVII. Showing the Survival of Children by Mar- 
 riages formed at Different Ages . . .171 
 
 LXVIII. Showing the Variations of Sterility according 
 
 to the Ages of the Wives . . . .193 
 
 LXIX. Showing the Fertility of Mothers, of Different 
 Ages at Marriage, commencing after Three 
 Years of Married Life . . . .195 
 
 LXX. Showing the Eelative Sterility of a Mass of 
 Wives Married at Different Ages at suc- 
 ceeding Epochs in Married Life . . .197 
 
 LXXI. Showing the Eelative Sterility of a Mass of 
 Fertile Wives Married at Different Ages, at 
 Successive Periods in Married Life . .199 
 
 LXXIL Fifth Year of Married Life . . . .201 
 LXXIII. Tenth Year of Married Life .... 203 
 LXXIV. Fifteenth Year of Married Life . . . 204 
 
 LXXV. Twentieth Year of Married Life . . . 205 
 LXXVL Twenty-fifth Year of Married Life . . 206 
 
372 LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 Table P^""^ 
 
 LXXVII. Showing Fecundity of Wives taken as a 
 
 whole at Different Ages . . • .209 
 LXXVIII. Showing Fertility calculated from Table 
 
 LXXVII. 210 
 
 LXXIX. Showing Fertility at Different Ages . .211 
 
 LXXX. Showing a Comparison of Tables LXXVIII. 
 
 and LXXIX 211 
 
 LXXXI. Showing Comparison of Observed Fecundity 
 
 with Statement in Section 7 . . .214 
 
 LXXXII. Showing Comparison of Observed Fertility 
 with Statement in Section 7, and with the 
 Process of Section 3 . . . .214 
 
 LXXXIII. Showing the Modification produced by Age 
 at Marriage upon the Formula repre- 
 senting Fecundity . . . .215 
 
 IjXXXIV. Showing the Age at Marriage, and of the 
 
 Advent of Sterility . . . .216 
 
 LXXXV. Showing the Influence of the Advent of 
 Sterility upon the whole Fertility of 
 Marriage . . ... 217 
 
 LXXXVI. Showing the Percentage of Sterility in 
 
 Women Married at Different Ages . . 218 
 
 LXXXVII. Showing Comparison of Fecundity as derived 
 from Sterility, with the Statement in 
 Section 7 220 
 
 LXXXVIII. Showing Comparison of Eesults respecting 
 Fertility derived by applying the Process 
 of Section 3 to Table LXXXVI. with the 
 
 Statement in Section 7 . . 221 
 
 LXXXIX. Showing the Number of Marriages and 
 Number of Legitimate Children in Eng- 
 land and Scotland in One Year . . 224 
 
 XC. Showing Percentage for each Quinquenniad 
 of Women Married in One Year in Eng- 
 land and Scotland, and the Correspondmg 
 Fertility from Table LXXXVIII. . . 224 
 XCI. Showing Comparative Fertility of a Mass of 
 Wives in England and Scotland, taking 
 account of the Age at Marriage . .226 
 
LIST OF TABLES. 373 
 
 Table Paoe 
 
 XCII. Showing the MortaUty from Puerperal Fever 
 in Different Pregnancies (from Hugenber- 
 ger) 236 
 
 XCIII. Showing the Puerperal Fever Deaths of 
 Wives delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 in 1855 238 
 
 XCIV. Showing a Comparison of Puerperal Fever 
 Deaths in the Dublin Hospital with the 
 Number of Parturient Wives iu Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow in 1855 .... 239 
 
 XCV. Showing the Mortality among Wives delivered 
 in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855, in each 
 Sucfcessive Pregnancy . . . .244 
 
 XCVI. Showing a Comparative Percentage of Deaths 
 
 in Successive Pregnancies . . . . .245 
 
 XCVII. Showing Proportion of Mothers bearing their 
 
 First Child to every 100 Mothers . .258 
 
 XCVIII. Showing the Mortality of Child-bearing 
 Women from Puerperal Fever in England, 
 at Four Different Ages (Farr) . . .261 
 
 XCIX. Showing the Mortality of Primiparse, of Dif- 
 ferent Ages, from Puerperal Fever, in the 
 Midvidves' Institute of St. Petersburg (Hugen^ 
 berger) ...... 263 
 
 C. Showing the Mortality of Multiparse of Dif- 
 ferent Ages, from Puerperal Fever, in the 
 Midwives' Institute of St. Petersburg (Hugen- 
 berger) . . . . . . .263 
 
 CI. Showing the Mortality of Child-bearing 
 Women from Puerperal Fever in England, 
 at Four Different Ages, corrected for Primi- 
 parity ....... 264 
 
 CII. Showing the Mortality from Puerperal Fever 
 of Primiparse in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 
 1855 265 
 
 GUI. Showing the Number of Children Born in First 
 and Subsequent Pregnancies in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow m 1855, and the Average Ages 
 of the Mothers in each Successive Pregnancy 266 
 
374 LIST OF TABLES. 
 
 Table ' P^e^ 
 
 CIV. Showing the Mortality of Childbearing Women in 
 England at Four Different Ages, and the same 
 corrected for Primiparity . . ■ .269 
 
 CV. Showing the Mortality of Child-bearing "Women 
 in the Dublin Hospital during Dr. Collins' 
 Mastership ....... 270 
 
 CVI. Showing the Mortality of Primiparse at Different 
 
 Ages in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 . 271 
 
 CVII Showing the Mortality of Multiparse at Different 
 
 Ages in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1855 . 272 
 
 CVIII. Showing the Comparative Mortality of Child- 
 bearing Women at Different Ages . . .273 
 
 CIX. Showing the Mortality of Children born to Mar- 
 riages formed at Different Ages . . .287 
 
 ex. Showing the Comparative Frequency of Births of 
 Idiots, and of all Births in First and Sub- 
 sequent Pregnancies . . . . .291 
 
 CXI. Showing a Comparative Percentage of the 
 Children born at Different Ages of Mothers 
 to all Children born, and of the Idiots bom 
 at Different Ages of Mothers to all Idiots born 292 
 
 CXII. Showing the Relation of Length of Labour to 
 
 the Fatality attending it . . . . -301 
 
 CXIII. Showing the Eelation of Length of Life to the 
 
 Fatality attending it . . . . .307 
 
INDEX OF MATTERS. 
 
 Abortion, fertility ending in, 163 
 Acceleration of labour, 317 
 Advent of sterility, 196, 198, 216 
 Age at marriage, influencing fer- 
 tility, 152 
 influence of, on twin-bearing, 
 
 78 
 mean, of twin-bearers, 74 
 of marriage in England, 293 
 of motber, relation of, to mor- 
 tality from puerperal fever, 
 260 
 of motber, relation of, to mor- 
 tality from parturition, 268 
 of nubility, 277 
 sterility according to, 192 
 
 Birth, first, 129 
 
 Births, intervals between successive, 
 
 131 
 Bitch, number of puppies of, 69 
 
 Calculation of day of confinement, 
 339 
 
 Calves, large, 349 
 
 Childbed mortality, 229 
 
 Children, survival of, of marriages 
 at different ages, 170 
 
 Cold, influence of, on fecundity, 
 39, 107 
 
 Comparison of fecundity and fer- 
 tility of races, 174 
 
 Complications of labour, introduc- 
 tion of, 251 
 
 Conception, interval between, and 
 insemination, 320 
 
 ordiuary time of, 338 
 Confinement, prediction of day of, 
 
 339 
 Cows prematurely breeding, 288 
 
 Death-eates of married and un- 
 married, 254 
 
 Deaths at different ages, 307 
 
 Definitions of sterility, 181 
 of Tait, 208 
 
 Diagram of fertility and fecundity, 
 212 
 
 Development of form of pelvis, 282 
 of the body in relation to nu- 
 bility, 279 
 
 Doctrine of duration of labour, 295 
 
 Dog, puppies of, 69 
 
 Duration of fertility, 146 
 
 of labour, doctrine of, 295 
 of labour, influence of, 248 
 of pregnancy, 319 
 
 Eldeelt women, fertility of, 162 
 English and Scotch wives compared, 
 
 175, 225 
 Expectation of sterility, 194 
 
 of relative sterility, 200 
 Ewes, premature breeding by, 288 
 Excessive family, 288 
 
 Families, size of, 112 
 in peers, 38 
 
376 
 
 INDEX OF MATTERS. 
 
 Families, size of, having twins, 94 
 Fecundity at different ages, 34 
 
 comparative, of mass at dif- 
 ferent ages, 18 
 conclusions regarding, 36 
 conclusions regarding compa- 
 rative, 22 
 conclusions regarding initial, 
 
 33 
 defined, 3 
 
 initial, at different ages, 24 
 initial, in twins, 81 
 of average individual, 218 
 of mass of wives, 209 
 of races compared, 174 
 propositions regarding, 213 
 Fertility, actual, 5 
 
 climax of actual, 6 
 comparative, of population at 
 
 ages, 12 
 conclusions regarding actual, 
 
 10 
 conclusions regarding compa- 
 rative, 17 
 defined, 3 
 intensity of, 152 
 of average individual, 218 
 I of elderly women, 162 
 of mass of wives, 209 
 of mothers married at ages, 138 
 of races compared, 174, 222 
 perseverance in, 146 
 propositions regarding, 213 
 variations of, in families of 
 different numbers, 127 
 Fever, puerperal, 230 
 Form of pelvis, 282 
 Formulae representiag fecundity and 
 fertility, 207 
 
 Hamster, fertility of, 38 
 
 Heifers prematurely breeding, 288 
 
 Hen, fertility of, 37 
 
 Idiocy at different ages of mothers, 
 291 
 
 Idiocy in different pregnancies, 290 
 Idiot children, 286 
 Idiots and imbeciles among twins, 
 66 
 the last-born, 164 
 Immaturity, of female, influence of 
 Impregnation before menstruation, 
 326, 330 
 definition of, 320 
 possible at any time, 326 
 Initial fertility in twins, 81 
 
 fecundity, 33 
 Insemination and parturition, in- 
 terval between, 331 
 interval between, and concep- 
 tion, 320 
 
 Lactation, influence of, on fertility, 
 
 135 
 Labour, acceleration of, 317 
 
 difficulty of, at different ages, 
 
 50 
 doctrine of duration of, 265 
 Labours, successive, mortality of, 
 
 244 
 Laws of mortality of childbed, 246 
 
 Length of newly-born child, 53 
 
 variations of, 57 
 Life of spermatazoa, 323 
 Lithotomy, argument from, 313 
 
 Mabkiagb, age at, influencing fer- 
 tility, 152 
 Marriages, contribution of, to adult 
 population, 166 
 
 fertility of, 101 
 
 fertility of, in a population, 
 103 
 
 fertility of whole fertile, 108 
 
 fertility of whole, at a given 
 time, 113 
 
 fertility of, in whole child- 
 bearing life, 116 
 
 fertility of persistently fertile, 
 lis' 
 
INDEX OF MATTERS. 
 
 377 
 
 Marriages, fertility of persistently 
 fertile, at different years, 102 
 Marriageable age, 277 
 Married and unmarried, death-rates 
 of, 254 
 women, fertility of, 110 
 Menstrual blood, source of, 327 
 Menstruation, age of commence- 
 ment of, 32 
 and parturition, interval be- 
 tween, 335 
 Mortality of all women at cMld- 
 bearing ages, 253 
 of childbed, 229 
 of parturition influenced by 
 duration of labour, 299 
 Mothers, age of, at marriage, influ- 
 encing fertility, 152 
 fertility of, married at ages, 
 138 
 
 Note by Professor Tait, 207 
 Number of labour, relation of, to 
 
 childbed mortality, 232 
 Nubility, age of, 277 
 
 Ossification of pelvis, 281 
 Ovum, discharge of, from graafian 
 vesicle, 326 
 
 Paeturition and insemination, in- 
 terval between, 331 
 and menstruation, interval be- 
 tween, 335 
 mortality of, 241 
 relation of age of mother to 
 mortality from, 268 
 Pelvis, development of the struc- 
 ture of, 281 
 Perseverance in. fertility, 146 
 Periodoscope, 340 
 Pheasant, eggs of, 70 
 Pig, fertility of, 38 
 Population, adult, contribution of 
 marriages to, 166 
 
 2 
 
 Population, contribution of mar- 
 riages to, 103 
 Pregnancy, duration of, 319 
 
 duration of, according to age, 
 63 
 
 influence of duration of, on 
 size of child, 63 
 
 number of, in twin-bearing, 87 
 Premature conjunctions, 286 
 Primiparae and puerperal fever, 233 
 
 mortality of, in childbed, 242 
 Primiparity, dangers of, 258 
 
 twins ia relation to, 87 
 
 Primogeniture, influence of, on 
 
 length of child, 53 
 
 influence of, on weight of 
 cMld, 46 
 Pluriparity in woman, 39 
 ProbabDity of sterility, 194 
 Protracted gestation, some cases of, 
 
 explained, 328 
 Protraction of pregnancy, 343 
 Puerperal fever, 230 
 
 in primiparae, 233 
 
 nature of, 247 
 
 relation of age of mother to 
 deaths from, 260 
 
 QUADEUPLEIS, 38 
 
 Eabbit, insemination and concep- 
 tion in, 324 
 Races, relative fertility of, 222 
 
 Schedule for registration of births 
 
 in Scotland, 1 
 Scotch and English wives compared, 
 
 175, 222 
 Shape of pelvis, development of, 282 
 Sheep prematurely breeding, 288 
 Size, large, of newly-born child, 
 
 344 
 Sow, brood of, 70 
 
 influence of overfeeding on, 70 
 Spermatozoa in the passages, 322 
 
 in passages of woman, 328 
 
378 
 
 INDEX OF MATTERS. 
 
 Spermatozoa, life of, 323 
 
 number of, required for con- 
 ception, 323 
 Stature of woman, 280 
 Sterility, absolute, defined, 181 
 absolute, of wives, 190 
 according to age at marriage, 
 
 192 
 advent of, 216 
 defined, 181 
 expectation of, 194 
 of marriages generally, 182 
 of wives, 185 
 probability of, 194 
 relative, 196 
 
 relative, arrival of, 196, 198 
 relative, defined, 181 
 relative, expectation of, 200 
 Suckling, influence of, on fertility, 
 
 135 
 Survival of twins, 94 
 
 of cMdren of marriages at 
 different ages, 170 
 
 Tables. See Catalogue of, 367 
 Triplets, in relation to age of 
 mother, 38 
 according to mother's age, 69 
 Turning in deformed pelvis, argu- 
 ment for, 305 
 
 Twinning in Ireland, 67 
 
 according to mother's age, 69 
 indicative of an excessive 
 family, 289 
 
 Twins, actual number of, according 
 to mother's age, 72 
 an abnormal birth, 66, 78 
 frequency of, 65 
 idiots and imbeciles among, 66 
 influence of age on bearing, 78 
 initial fecundity in, 81 
 size of families having, 94 
 survival of, 94 
 
 Unmaeried and married, death- 
 rates of, 254 
 Uterus, development of, 280 
 
 Weight of newly-born child, 46,344 
 variations of, 51 
 and length of newly-bom 
 child, Hecker on, 62 
 
 Wives, fecundity of, 34 
 fertility of, 103, 116 
 persistent fertility of, 118 
 perseverance in fertility of, 138 
 absolute sterility of, 190 
 sterility of, 185 
 relative sterility, 200 
 
 Woman, stature of, 280 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by R. Clark, Edinburgh. 
 
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