in various Countries in Europe. 261 



lose ISjSOOj whilst the mortality is almost double in the coun- 

 tries washed by the Mediterranean. 



Life, next to these, is most certain in Norway and Sweden. 

 Cceteris paribus, three people die in the south of Europe, two 

 only and hardly that, die in ancient Scandinavia. Denmark and 

 Germany enjoy, as it were, similar advantages. 



Russia and Poland, where nature and fortune have not been 

 lavish of the necessaries of life, enjoy, however, an astonishing 

 longevity. The population, comprising a mass of nearly sixty 

 millions, spin out their existence almost one half longer than 

 that which is enjoyed by the inhabitants of Italy, and exactly 

 twice the length of time which any one can expect to live in 

 the capital of Austria. 



The average time of life which only cuts off one victim in 40 

 annually, is to be found in the Cantons of Switzerland, the 

 Austrian Provinces, and in the Spanish Peninsula, in conse- 

 quence of the sun and the dryness of the air. 



France^ the Netherlands, and Prussia, nearly reach the same 

 term, and will soon get beyond it, unless war or some other 

 scourge arrests the progress of their social amelioration. 



In the rest of Europe, the mortality amounts to one-thirtieth 

 of the population, and is even frequently increased by acci- 

 dental causes, which have for a long time endangered the pros- 

 perity of the shores of the Mediterranean. 



On the whole, we reckon, one year with another, 5,256,000 

 deaths in 210 millions of people, by a mortality of one fortieth 

 part, which is unequally distributed among the northern and 

 southern states. The former have only one death in 44, the 

 latter, one in 36 persons. Of one million of inhabitants in dis- 

 tricts situated in the north of France, 22,700 die ; 27,000 die 

 in those which lie towards the south. This is a difference of more 

 than 5000 deaths, equivalent to a two-hundredth part of the 

 population. 



If we carefully examine these numbers and those of the 

 tables of details from which they are extracted, we will dis- 

 cover that two great causes which predominate over all the 

 others, determine the ratio of mortality to the population, or, 

 in other words, regulate the number of the chances of human 

 life. These are the influence of chmate and civilization. 



