Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster.

  • Webster, John.
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TOttfj tfje ^utfjav’s compliments. STATISTICS OF GRAVE-YARDS IN SCOTLAND. By John Webster, M.D., F.R.S., and F.R.C.P., Physician to the Scottish Hospital. When making a holiday tour through different counties of Scot¬ land, during last autumn, I carefully observed the ages recorded on the tombstones of various urban and rural churchyards and cemeteries, in order to carry out more fully an inquiry originated by me in the last number of the Journal of Public Health. I now therefore enter again upon the question; believing that the facts obtained, while they verify the conclusions already enun¬ ciated, may induce other observers to pursue this inquiry through¬ out Great Britain, and to communicate the results of their in¬ vestigations. In discussing the question of graveyard statistics, I shall give, for the sake of arrangement, and likewise to facilitate subsequent comparisons, first, the data obtained from monumental and other records in six chief towns, situated south of the river Tay, and comprising the central portion of Scotland; secondly, similar facts procured from six towns north of the Tay, which are situated, com¬ paratively, in equally populous districts; and thirdly, six rural lo¬ calities, all belonging to the county of Forfar; in order to contrast the ages thus ascertained with parallel mortuary annals belonging to urban populations. When investigating these varied subjects, it ought always to be kept in remembrance, that the inferences deduced should not be too strictly received as absolutely correct, but simply considered as approximations to general truths, obtained by the method now suggested. I. TOWNS SOUTH OF THE RIVER TAY. 1. Edinburgh. Throughout the numerous graveyards and ceme¬ teries of the capital of Scotland, containing as it does about 161,000 inhabitans, extremily old age was rarely observed on the monu¬ ments erected in these depositories, compared with the aggregate numbers. From sevent-five to eighty appeared by no means un¬ common ; from that to eighty-five, the instances were numerous ; whilst ninety occurred in various examples, and some reached even beyond that period; of which the following statement maybe given as a summary :—In the West Kirk burying-ground, many varied from 80 to 90 ; and 2 females were reported, on their respective gravestones, 97 and 98. In th Grey Friars churchyard, whilst numbers ranged from 80 to 89, 3 were 90 ; 1 being a male and 2 females. In the Canongate burying-ground, I only observed one monument which reported the deceased person at 90, that of a