Laws of Mortality in Europe in the last Half Century, 277 



letin Universel des Sciences, by Baron Ferussac, and the An- 

 nales des Voyages et de la Geographic, by Messrs Eyries and 

 Malte-Brun, &c. 



13. At the period in which we write, 18S5, of a certain num- 

 ber of children born in Europe, there dies, in the first ten 

 years, a httle more than a third (38.3 in 100), in place of the 

 half (49.9) which formerly died. 



14. From birth to fifty years, three-fourths of a generation 

 (74.2) were found to be extinct. At present, the proportion of 

 dead to living, in the same period of time, is not more than 

 three- twentieths, or sixty-six. 



15. Lastly, twenty-three persons in a hundred now arrive 

 at sixty, in place of eighteen who attained that age half a cen- 

 tury ago. 



16. These proportions are mean terms ; taken separately 

 they become still more favourable. Thus in France, the pro- 

 portion of those who survive at sixty years is 24.3 in the hun- 

 dred, while formerly it did not exceed fifteen (14.7). 



These results, sufficiently remarkable of themselves, give rise 

 to others which are not less so. 



17. From the 40th degree of latitude to the 65th, that is to 

 say, upon a line which extends from Lisbon to Stockholm, em- 

 bracing an extent of about a thousand leagues, and in a popula- 

 tion of sixty-five millions of individuals, which is comprehended 

 by Portugal, the kingdom of Naples, France, England, Prus- 

 sia, Denmark, and Sweden, the proportion of deaths is 1 in 

 40.3 ; that of births 1 in 30.1 ; that of marriages 1 in 123.3 ; 

 and the fecundity, four children by each marriage. 



18. On comparing these relations with those of the last cen- 

 tury, we are struck with the difference which exists in the actual 

 mortality of early life at these two periods, a difference which 

 is not less than that between 38 and 150. 



19. This difference would itself suffice to attest the happy 

 effects of vaccination, to which they are partly owing ; but it 

 also proves a great amelioration with respect to the cares be- 

 stowed on childhood ; and those cares themselves indicate a 

 greater prosperity and an improved condition in families. If 

 we now reflect that it was especially in the lower classes that the 

 mortality of children was enormous, we may conclude, that if 



