XXII.—On the Laws of the Fertility of Women

J. Matthews Duncan

doi:10.1017/S0080456800018561

XXII.—On the Laws of the Fertility of Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013

J. Matthews Duncan

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In a former paper I described the variation of the fecundity of women according to age, and arrived at the conclusion that the climax of fecundity in women was at or near the age of 25 years. Researches, completed since that paper was read, regarding the variations of length and weight of children according to the mother's age, and regarding the mortality of childbed as influenced by the mother's age, have been published in the “Edinburgh Medical Journal.” The results of these investigations seem to illustrate and confirm the statement made as to the age of the climax of fecundity, for I have found that, about that age, women produce the bulkiest children, as measured by length and weight; and about the same age of the mother there is the smallest mortality in childbed. As still further adorning the age of 25, I may add, that several sets of observations, including some made in St George's-in-the-East, London, and published in the eleventh volume of the “Journal of the Statistical Society,” show a greater amount of survival and rearing among children born of women about that age than at any other; and recently Dr Arthur Mitchell has published a collection of cases of idiocy, with the respective ages of the mothers at the time of the idiots' births, and these also show a smaller proportion born of women about the age of 25 years than at greater and lesser ages.

Type: Research Article
Information: Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 1866 , pp. 287 - 314

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080456800018561 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1866

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^{page 287 note *} Trans. Roy. Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. xxiii, p. 475, &c.

^{page 287 note †} Edinburgh Medical Journal, January 1866.

^{page 288 note *} Registrar-General's Report for 1845, p. 14. (England).

^{page 288 note †} Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tome ix. 1826.

^{page 288 note ‡} Seventh Detailed Annual Report for 1861, published in 1865, p. xviii. (Scotland).

^{page 289 note *} Essay on the Principle of Population, vol. ii. p, 6.

^{page 289 note †} On Organic Diseases of the Uterus, p. 5.

^{page 289 note ‡} Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. xi., 1848.

^{page 289 note §} Some interesting facts regarding the fertility of Esquimaux women are to be found in Roberton's “Essays and Notes on Physiology and Diseases of Women,” p. 53.

^{page 290 note *} Sadler, . Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 495.Google Scholar

^{page 292 note *} Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society, August 1848, vol. xi.

^{page 292 note †} Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 276.

^{page 293 note *} Todd's Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p. 478.

^{page 298 note *} The Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 30.

^{page 298 note †} On Abortion and Sterility, p. 242.

^{page 298 note ‡} Treatise on Man, p. 15.

^{page 298 note §} This is not a correct statement of the contents of this Table. 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.

^{page 299 note *} Edinburgh Medical Journal, September 1865, p. 209.

^{page 300 note *} On Abortion and Sterility, p. 245.

^{page 300 note †} An Essay on the Principle of Population, vol. ii. p. 3.

^{page 300 note ‡} See also Roberton's Essays and Notes on the Physiology and Diseases of Women, p. 185.

^{page 300 note §} Vol. ii. p. 30.

^{page 301 note *} On this subject the work of Roberton already cited may be consulted; also a paper by Professor Laycock, quoted by Roberton.

^{page 303 note *} Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. xi. p. 223.

^{page 303 note †} The Table IX. may be easily seen to be made up from the following five Tables, X., XI., XII, XIII., XIV. In these 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 number of wives of different ages is got by estimating, and the Carlisle Table of Mortality is used. The estimate is not made in the exactest way, but the errors will 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 numbers of wives as estimated would be too large were not a very high percentage taken off (1 in 100) for the special mortality of first confinements. (See Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for October 1865, and Dr Stark's Report 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 estimated 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.

^{page 306 note *} Trans. Royal Society, 1864.

^{page 306 note †} Treatise on Man, p. 15.

^{page 308 note *} The following Tables give all the details and calculations from which Table XVI. is constructed:—

^{page 311 note *} Law of Population, vol. ii p. 279.

^{page 312 note *} Edinburgh Medical Journal for March and April 1865.

^{page 312 note †} Ibid., December 1864.

^{page 312 note ‡} Monatsschrift für Geburtskunde und Frauenkrankheiten, November 1865.

^{page 313 note *} The Study of Medicine. 1822. Vol. iv. p. 63.

^{page 313 note †} Principles of Midwifery. Tenth Edition, p. 309.

^{page 313 note ‡} On Abortion and Sterility, p. 247.

^{page 314 note *} For other corroborative evidence, see Roberton, Physiology and Diseases of Women, p. 184.

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