404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



enter ; the general result is, tliat for tlie continent we are now 

 given an area of 16,021,078 square miles, whicli may be slightly 

 increased or diminished according as the boundary between Asia 

 and Europe is drawn. To this if we add the area of all the Asiatic 

 islands (exclusive of the new Siberian islands and Wrangel Land), 

 we reach a total area of 17,179,490, the conclusion being that the 

 area of Asia has hitherto been overestimated by 167,570 square 

 miles. The total area of Asiatic Russia, according to Trognitz's 

 calculation, is 6,510,810 square miles, not including the arctic 

 islands. The total area of Persia is estimated at 635,165 square 

 miles, and the estimate of population, according to Houtum- 

 Schindler's calculation for 1882, 7,653,000, is still repeated. But 

 taking into account that during the last nine years there have 

 been no wars and no famines, nothing to check the natural in- 

 crease of the population, competent authorities believe that the 

 population of Persia is more likely to be about 9,000,000. Al- 

 though in the body of the work the detailed population of India 

 is only given for 1881, the authors are able, in the appendix, to 

 give that for 1891. 



There is an elaborate discussion on the subject of the popula- 

 tion of China proper (the eighteen provinces), which at one time 

 was greatly exaggerated, some authorities making it out to be 

 500,000,000. After a careful examination of all available data, 

 Drs. Wagner and Supan are inclined to estimate the total popu- 

 lation for China proper at only 350,000,000 in round numbers, or 

 about 68,000,000 more than the estimate reached by Sir Richard 

 Temple. Including Mantchuria, Mongolia, Kansu, and Thibet, the 

 total population of the Chinese Empire is given as 361,500,000, 

 living on an area of 4,674,420 square miles. Corea is credited 

 with a population of 10,500,000. The total population of Arabia 

 is reduced by Dr. Wagner to 3,472,000, very different from the 

 estimate of 10,725,000 given by Rashid Bey in 1875. The area 

 assigned to Arabia by Wagner and Supan is 1,153,430 square 

 miles. 



As might have been expected, considerable space is devoted to 

 Africa, with the result that the population has been reduced to 

 164,000,000, whereas a few years ago a common estimate was 

 220,000,000. Drs. Wagner and Supan evidently consider Raven- 

 stein's estimate of 127,000,000 much too low. They say there 

 have been during the past few years four points of "political 

 crystallization" — the Upper Nile, the Niger, the Congo, and 

 South Africa. Mediterranean Africa has, as a whole, remained 

 passive. Here are problems for the future — the fate of Egypt, 

 the Tripoli question, and the Morocco question. A brief sketch of 

 recent events in the partition of Africa is given, with a useful chro- 

 nology from 1882 to May, 1891. To Africa south of the equator 



