THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



617 



of 



educated to the human interest 

 scientific research. 



It may be regarded as a cause for 

 congratulation that the administrators 

 of the Nobel bequest have this year 

 made some of the awards to younger 

 men actively engaged in research — Dr. 

 Carrel is not yet forty years old — 

 rather than to men of distinction whose 

 life work is practically complete, if 

 only because this was the condition | 

 under which Nobel bequeathed his for- : 

 tune. By his will it was specified that 

 the prizes should be awarded to those 

 persons who shall have contributed 

 most materially to benefit mankind 

 during the year immediately preceding; 

 that no preference should be given to 

 Scandinavians in the awards, and that 

 the entire income should be used for 

 five great prizes. The first condition 

 may have been difficult to meet, but its 

 spirit could have been followed, as has 

 been done this year in the case of Dr. 

 Carrel, by conferring the prize for 

 work done recently, rather than for 

 work done a generation ago, or as even 

 this year in conferring the prize for 

 literature on Dr. Hauptmann. It must 

 still be regarded as unsatisfactory that 

 a considerable part of the income has 

 been used to establish Nobel Insti- 

 tutes at Stockholm, and it can scarcely 

 be supposed that Dr. Gustrand, the 

 Swedish oculist, would have received 

 the award in medicine last year, or Mr. 

 Dalen, the head of the Stockholm Gas 

 Company, would have received it this 

 year, had Nobel's intentions been ful- 

 filled. It is ungracious to make criti- 

 cisms when there is no reason to doubt 

 that the administrators of the bequest 

 are doing what they believe to be for 

 the best advantage of science. At the 

 same time, if no criticisms had been 

 made, it is by no means certain that 

 even more of the income might have 

 been diverted to local uses, for in the 

 statutes approved by the Swedish 

 courts it was made possible to award 

 the prizes only once in five years. 

 vol. Lxxxr. — 42. 



VITAL STATISTICS AND THE 

 DECREASING DEATH RATE 



The recently published seventy-third 

 annual report of the registrar general 

 of births, deaths and marriages in Eng- 

 land and Wales gives an excellent 

 summary of the vital statistics of Eng- 

 land with convenient international com- 

 parisons. As is well known both birth 

 rates and death rates have decreased in 

 practically every nation in the course 

 of the past thirty years. A comparison 

 of the quinquennial period 1881-85 

 with 1910 for several countries gives 

 the following rates per thousand pop- 

 ulation: 



Birth Rates Death Rates 

 1881-5 1910 1881-5 1910 



England 33.5 25.1 19.4 13.5 



Prussia 37.4 30.5 25.4 16.0 



France 24.7 19.7 22.2 17.9 



Italy 38.0 32.9 27.3 19.6 



Russia 49.1 — 35.4 — 



Australia 35.2 26.7 15.7 10.4 



United States unknown unknown 



In this table "unknown" is written 

 after the United States to emphasize 

 our lack of vital statistics. Eecent 

 data from Eussia are also lacking, but 

 in that country and in the United 

 States as elsewhere both birth rates and 

 death rates have decreased in such a 

 way as to leave a tolerably constant 

 increment of population. 



This correspondence, however, is by 

 no means complete. Where both birth 

 rates and death rates are high the in- 

 crement of population tends to be 

 larger than where they are low. This 

 holds in general for nations, districts 

 and social classes. The Slavonic na- 

 tions, in spite of their waste of human 

 life, are increasing more rapidly than 

 others. The tenement house districts 

 of New York City have a large infant 

 mortality, but they swarm with chil- 

 dren, whereas in the rich districts, 

 there is less than a child to an apart- 

 ment. The most striking instance on 

 a large scale is France, with a birth 

 rate "some five lower and a death rate 



