XIV NOTES BY THE EDITOK 



the suicides reckon one in 15,900; France, one in 12,489. The 

 north of France is the most prolific in suicides, that district yielding 

 nearly half of the whole number in the entire empire. 



The following is an abstract of a paper recently presented to the 

 Berlin Academy by M. Dieterici on the population of the earth : The 

 author estimates the actual population of the earth at 1,283 millions, 

 viz., Europe, 272 ; Asia, 750 ; America, 59 ; Africa, 200 ; and Aus- 

 tralia, 2. The average of the valuations made by geographers gave, 

 he says, the number of the inhabitants of Europe at 258 millions; but 

 as most of them, owing to the period when their works were published, 

 had not the advantage of the several census taken within the last 

 fifteen years, the number of 272,000,000 was that which came nearest 

 to the truth. The progressive increase in the population of Europe 

 was, moreover, enormous. In 1787, according to a calculation made by 

 order of Louis XVI., it amounted to 150 millions ; and in 1805, it had 

 reached 200 millions. It was more difficult to estimate the population of 

 Asia, for geographers who had written during the last twenty-five years 

 on the subject, had shown extraordinary differences of opinion. Some 

 had given to that part of the world only 390 millions of inhabitants, 

 whereas China alone contained a greater number. The figure of 750 

 millions might be considered as near as possible to the truth, when the 

 difficulties of getting at any exact estimate was looked to. As far as 

 regards Africa, still greater uncertainty prevailed. The author, how- 

 ever, has carefully availed himself of the works of the last explorers 

 of the central portion of that country, as well as of the official returns 

 from Algeria, Senegal, and the Cape of Good Hope. The estimate 

 made by him may be, perhaps, about one-quarter or one-fifth too high. 



At the last meeting of the British Association (Leeds, 1858), Mr- 

 William Fairbairn, in an address, thus briefly reviewed the prospects 

 and recent progress of Mechanical Science in Great Britain : Malleable 

 iron, now applied to the construction of bridges, was capable of great 

 development, and there was no span between the limit of one thousand 

 feet which might not be compassed by the hollow girder bridge. With 

 respect to steam navigation much remained to be done, with the object 

 of giving uniformity of strength and security of construction. The 

 Leviathan , with all her misfortunes, was a magnificent specimen of 

 naval architecture, the cellular system, so judiciously introduced by Mr. 

 Brunei, being her great source of strength. He was so persuaded of 

 the security of the principle upon which she had been constructed, that 

 he had no doubt she would stand the test of being suspended upon the 

 two extreme points of stem and stern, with all her machinery on board ; 

 or she might be poised upon a point in the middle, like a scale-beam, 

 without fracture or injury to the material of which she is composed. 

 He expressed the hope that the necessary funds would be forthcoming 

 to complete her equipment, and that we should then see her dash- 

 ing aside the surge of the Atlantic at a speed of eighteen to twenty 



