•In countries in which Church and State are united, the Church will insist upon its right to this record, and in those which are like our own, and in which Church and State are sepa rate, the right of the State to keep it should be insisted upon. It is so insisted upon wherever there are boards of health and a license or permission to marry must first be obtained from the local government, while the record of the marriage performance is preserved.
A custom which is increasing in its frequency is the giving and receiving of a certificate of health, after a suitable examination, by those who are about to marry. It is a desirable custom and if it were universally insisted upon like the marriage license it would prevent a great deal of the disease which follows marriage between those who are physically unfit. Tables of vital statistics should, for completeness sake, include the physical condition of those who marry, at the time of their marriage.
Marriage rates, like birth rates, are esti mated at so many per 1,000 of the population, the number of persons who are actually married being double the number of the marnages. A better record would include those who are of marriageable age. The marriage rate vanes and fluctuates in accordance with certain condi tions. It increases in times of commercial prosperity with abundance of labor, and m com munities in which the occupations are healthful and productive of vigor and vitality. It diminishes during hard times, during war and at times when the physical condition of those who axe of marriageable age is lowered by dis ease, especially by epidemic disease or by dis ease which results from unhealthful occupa tions. In many communities there are more marriages during the summer than during the winter. Arr unusually high marriage rate may be followed by one which is correspondingiy low as when great business prosperity is fol lowed by great business depression. This is simply the verification of a well-settled eco nomic law. It has been observed that more women than men marry several times during their lives. This must mean either that the incli nation to marry repeatedly is more common in women than in men, or that women, ntore than men, feel the need of a home and of other things which marriage is supposed to afford, or that marriageable women hve longer than marriage able men.
The age at which marriage is consummated is greater now than formerly. This is perhaps due to the increasing sense of the responsibilities which are cotmected with marriage, which is a hopeful indication, or it may be due and often is due to inability to support a family in early life, in consequence of the increase in the cost of living, according to present standards. The fact that so many women are now working at gainful occupations, and that so many elect a 'career from their own efforts, in preference to the cares of a household, is an ad&tional rea son for the change in the marriage rate. 'The marriage age is an important factor in reference to population. Children who are born of mature parents are much more likely to be vigorous and healthy than those of the imma ture and the aged.
The statistics of divorce are imimately associated with those of marriage. In a country like the United States, in which divorce pre vails to such an alarming extent, it is especially desirable that the records should be made with the greatest care and accuracy. The spreading of such facts before the people ought to act as a deterrent to this great evil and to develop habits of greater thoughtfulness and wisdom before marriage is entered into.
The ratio of divorces to marriages in the different States is a matter of importance for record, and so is the actual number of divorces which are granted in the several States, arid the relation of that number to the population in each State.
Deaths.-- The death record, or the mortal ity statistics, is probably prepared with a greater degree of accuracy than are the other records. For various reasons births and marriages may escape the record, whether intentionally or un intentionally, but the record of a death is not easibr evaded.
Those whose duty it is to report deaths — doctors, midwives and others—are not likely to neglect this duty, and in those cases in which death occurs frosn violence or from unexplained causes, the coroner, who is an official in every county, has a responsibility in making the rec ord which he is unlikely to neglect.