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that their actual expenditure could not be regarded as affording a measure of the comparative wants, or, in other words, the comparative cost of adequate medical relief in the different parishes of this country. While, therefore, the Board was of opinion that the distribution ought to be made on the principle of giving to each parish a share of the Grant, proportioned to the comparative cost of providing adequate medical relief, the data furnished by the returns exhibiting the actual expenditure afforded no means of making even an approximate estimate of the relative expenditure required for this purpose. It accordingly became necessary to devise some other means of arriving at that result.

Having a given sum to distribute, it was unnecessary to determine the actual amount to be expended on medical relief in each parish, an amount to which no limit could be assigned . For the present purpose it was sufficient to ascertain the comparative or proportional amount, and it appeared that this might be deduced, with a near approximation to accuracy, from the population and the area of the parishes . A calculation, founded on the population alone, would not be equitable, for the expense of medical attendance on the poor of a parish will depend not only on the number of persons to be attended, but on the distance to be travelled , and the consequent expenditure of time, labour, and cost of conveyance in attending them. The salary, which might be a sufficient remuneration to a Medical Officer for attending the poor of a population of 2000 persons congregated within a space of one square mile, might be a very inadequate remuneration for attending the poor of an equal population scattered over a rural parish of two or three hundred square miles.

It was therefore necessary to ascertain as nearly as possible the population and area of each parish, with a view to assign to it a share of the Government Grant, proportioned to its comparative wants, as deduced from these elements. The population of Scotland in 1841 having been 2,620,216, the sum of £ 10,000 is equal to ⁠91/100⁠, or about ⁠9/10⁠ ths of a penny for each one of the population—the average amount to be given from the Grant to each parish would, therefore, ⁠9/10⁠ ths of a penny for each one of the population.

The next step was to find the mean or average amount of the population on each square mile for all the parishes in Scotland. To every parish in which the density of the population corresponds absolutely or closely with this average, it is proposed to assign a share of the Grant equal to the average amount of ths of a penny per head—of the population. Where the population is more dense, it is proposed to allow a smaller rate; and where it is less dense, a larger rate per head-making the deductions from the one cover the augmentation in the other class.

Were the Government Grant to be distributed without making any conditions with the parishes that are to receive it, there would be reason to fear that, in many, at least, of the numerous