THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



615 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE STATIONARY POPULATION 

 OF FRANCE 

 Germany and France have happily 

 settled their differences in regard to 

 Morocco; but the German chancellor is 

 charged in his own country with yield- 

 ing not to France, but to Great Britain. 

 France, which a hundred years ago 

 lorded it over the Germanic nations and 

 forty years ago believed that its mili- 

 tary forces were superior to those of 

 the German empire, has now almost lost 

 its place among the great nations of 

 Europe. Paris is nearly the same city 

 it was forty years ago; Berlin is a new 

 city. This alteration in the position of 

 France is due to its stationary popula- 

 tion. At the end of the last century 

 the population of France formed one 

 quarter of that of the civilized powers 

 of the world, while at present it has 

 fallen to seven per cent. 



This state of affairs is causing much 

 anxiety in France; it is discussed in 

 detail in a recent book by Dr. Jacques 

 Bertillon, chief of statistics for the city 

 of Paris. The data which he reviews 

 in detail deserve consideration not so 

 much because, as he claims, they are 

 peculiar to France, but rather because 

 France has been first to exhibit a state 

 of affairs likely soon to be evident 

 everywhere. The charts here repro- 

 duced show the birth rates and death 

 rates of four nations during the second 

 half of the nineteenth century and the 

 birth rates in the different regions of 

 France for the first and last decades of 

 the nineteenth century. It is almost 

 incredible that there should be depart- 

 ments in ,vhich there are three deaths 

 for every two births. In Lot the pop- 

 ulation has in the course of twenty 

 years decreased from 271,514 to 216,- 

 611. 



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Austria 



France Italy 



Birth Rates and Death Rates. 



England 



