Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/233

 Rh

The proportion of baptisms to the population, is, in the eastern division, as 1 in 32; in the western, as 1 in 35; and in the whole district, as 1 in 33. The proportion of deaths to the population, is, in the eastern division, 1 in 65; and in the western, 1 in 49.

number of very young married persons with large families of little children, who become chargeable upon the several parishes; and, from the above facts, it appears that, in the rural district around the Malvern hills, nearly one-half of such marriages are contracted in the neighbouring large towns—principally (perhaps wholly) in Worcester! An evil, surely, calling for notice and correction, because detrimental to the morals of the parties, by facilitating imprudent and secret matches; and bur then some to the parishes on which their children become chargeable.