STATISTICAL COMPARISONS. 465 



consumption there may, or may not, be an increased capacity 

 of production. If there is such an increase of the capacity of 

 production, or even a greater proportionate increase than there 

 is of consumption, it might well be that on the area of Bengal 

 there could be planted an even larger population than there now 

 is, yet with the average consuming power of the people of the 

 United States, and not merely the average consuming po\yer of 

 the Hindoo. So greatly different may be the varying units of 

 population which we are so ready to speak of as alike. 



Among other questions of the same kind is that of the strength 

 of different populations for war and industry. The difierences 

 between peoples are really almost infinite, and are r.ot always 

 coincident as regards war and industry. The Hindoo popula- 

 tion, for instance, appears to be difierentiated from a European 

 race in respect of lighting force to a much greater extent than 

 it is difierentiated in respect of industrial force. The Chinese 

 population, on the other hand, though it is weaker at present 

 than European populations in fighting power, as well as indus- 

 trial power, is, perhaps not so much differentiated as the Hindoo 

 is, and presents altogether a more difficult pi-oblem for their 

 possible or probable antagonists. Negro populations, again, are 

 differentiated in a different v/ay, having a capacity for great 

 exertion in some directions, but not in others. Such differences 

 among ]:)eoples are so obvious that no one will disptite them 

 when stated. 



Even if units of population were generally alike instead of 

 varying greatly, and in all sorts of directions, another question 

 arises with reference to frequent comparisons of population and 

 areas. The number of inhabitants per square mile is often quoted 

 as denoting conditions adverse or the reverse to the populations 

 concerned. But of course there are areas and areas, originally 

 and as modified by the qualities of the people dwelling upon 

 them. In order to make a comparison of the number of in- 

 habitants per scjuare mile of any practical value at all, the 

 nature of the areas, and of the qualities of the inhabitants, 

 must be studied, and the facts must also be adapted to the dis- 

 cussion of particular questions, such as the relation of area to 

 conditions of health, and the like. To say, for instance, that 

 Belgiimt has so many inhabitants to the square mile, and France 

 so many fewer, does not mean anything, because the size of the 

 communities compared is entirely different, and in point of fact 

 there may be areas included in France more thickly peopled 

 than Belgium. It is the same in the compaiison of a European 

 country with the United States. The conditions are entirely 

 different ; while not a few of the comparisons so readily made 

 would be upset by the consideration that one third of the area 

 of the United States, excluding Alaska, is desert, and is, properly 

 speaking, not inhabitable at all. A similar remark would also 

 apply to the countiies of Australasia treated as a unit. The facts 

 are all useful enough for reference ; that is not disputed ; but 

 the moment they come to be discussed the nature of the 

 quantities nmst be studied, and strict attention given to the 

 point of the comparison attempted. 



Connected with this last is another question of the same kind. 



