672 



INQUIRY INTO THE POPULATION OF CHINA. 



thein the population of Pekiiii^ within the walls in 1845 was 1,648,- 

 814, and the number of deaths (exclusive of infants and small chil- 

 dren, say, under 5 years of aire) durinj; the whole year was 30,438, 

 or about 23.9 per 1,000 inhabitants — by no means an excessive rate. 



The death rate among infants, resulting from the highly insani- 

 tary conditions in which the whole population, rich and ]X)()r, 

 throughout the Empire constantly lives, and also from female in- 

 fanticide, must be exceedingly high. This latter cause of infant 

 mortality is accountable for a considerably increased death rate in 

 the provinces of Kuang-tung, Fu-kien, Che-kiang, Shan-hsi, Kiang- 

 hsi, An-hui, and in most of the other provinces of the Empire in a 

 lesser degree." 



Everything considered — especially the fact that in a very large 

 part of China the people live huddled together in towns and villages, 

 and that nowhere is any attenii)t ever made toAvard sanitation or the 

 prevention of the spread of contagious disease — it seems quite safe 

 to put the death rate in China at 30 per 1,000 as a minimum. 



northern province that furnishes any large proportion of emigrants from China. 

 Tlie niuiiber of Chinese outside of China is as follows : 



Country. 



Formosa. 



Slam - 



Malay Peninsula 

 Sunda Islands. .. 



Hongkong.- 



America. 



Indo-Cliina 



Philippines 



N umber. 



2,600,000 

 2,500,000 

 985,000 

 600,000 

 374,543 

 272,829 

 150,000 

 80,000 



Country. 



Macao 



Burma 



Australia 



Asiatic Russia 



Japan 



Korea 



Total 



Number. 



74,5f)8 

 40,000 

 30,000 

 25, (XX) 



7,0(K) 

 3, Till 



r,642,a50 



The following figures show the number of persons that left China and Hong- 

 kong and returned during the last twenty-six years: 



China and Hongkong. 



Amoy (Fu-kien) 



Swatow (Kuang-tung) 

 Kiung-chou ( Hai-nan). 

 Hongkong 



Left. 



1,629,947 



1,794,298 



298,772 



1.130,000 



Returned. 



1,309,787 



1,307,744 



296, 2;« 



1,090,000 



a See Jour. Nor. Ch. Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc, Vol. XX, p. 2."i et seq. Newsholme 

 (Elem. Vital Statistics, 130) says that infant mortality in Europe is lowest 

 in Ireland, with KU.G in every 1,000, and highest in Paissia in lOuroiH'. with 

 422.9 in every 1,000. It must be at least this in China. In Japan, whei-e 

 there exists the same dc>'.ire as in China to liave posterity, the average number 

 of children to a marriage is al)ont :>..! (Newsholme, op. cit., p. 70). I see no rea- 

 son to believe that the ('hinese ai-e more prolilic In the United States, accord- 

 ing to tlie census of 1000, the aiunial death rate of the whites, where accurately 

 recorded, was about 17.8 per 1,000. 



