[Footnote 25:  It has greatly changed since this was written.]

By the courteous permission of Dr. Farr, I was enabled to procure extracts from the census returns concerning 1000 “families” of factory hands at Coventry, in which the age of the mother was neither less than 24 nor more than 40 years, and concerning another 1000 families of agricultural labourers in rural parishes of Warwickshire, under the same limitations as to the age of the mother.  When these returns were classified (see Table I., p. 246), I found the figures to run in such regular sequence as to make it certain that the cases were sufficiently numerous to give trustworthy results.  It appeared that: 

(A) The 1000 families of factory hands comprised 2681 children, and the 1000 of agricultural labourers comprised 2911; hence, the children in the urban “families,” the mothers being between the ages of 24 and 40, are on the whole about 8 per cent, less numerous than the rural.  I see no reason why these numbers should not be accepted as relatively correct for families, in the ordinary sense of that word, and for mothers of all ages.  An inspection of the table does indeed show that if the selection had begun at an earlier age than 24, there would have been an increased proportion of sterile and of small families among the factory hands, but not sufficient to introduce any substantial modification of the above results.  It is, however, important to recollect that the small error, whatever its amount may be, is a concession in favour of the towns.

(B) I next make an allowance for the mortality between childhood and maturity, which will diminish the above figures in different proportions, because the conditions of town life are more fatal to children than those of the country.  No life tables exist for Coventry and Warwickshire; I am therefore obliged to use statistics for similarly conditioned localities, to determine the amount of the allowance that should be made.  The life tables of Manchester [26] will afford the data for towns, and those of the “Healthy Districts” [27] will suffice for the country.  By applying these, we could calculate the number of the children of ages specified in the census returns who would attain maturity.  I regret extremely that when I had the copies taken, I did not give instructions to have the ages of all the children inserted; but I did not, and it is too late now to remedy the omission.  I am therefore obliged to make a very rough, but not unfair, estimate.  The average age of the children was about 3 years, and 25 years may be taken as representing the age of maturity.  Now it will be found that 74 per cent. of children in Manchester, of the age of 3, reach the age of 25, while 86 per cent. of children do so in the “Healthy Districts.”  Therefore, if my rough method be accepted as approximately fair, the number of adults who will be derived from the children of the 1000 factory families should be reckoned at (2681 x 74/100) = 1986, and those from the 1000 agricultural at (2911 x 86/100) = 2503.