EARTH. 



247 



for 100,000 soldiers was instantly made by the 

 Federal cantons, and on October 21, 1847, 

 Dufour was placed at the head of this array. 

 He accepted the command, and by isolating 

 the rebellious cantons, and crushing them 

 separately, he soon brought the rebellion to an 

 end. This rapid and successful overthrow of 

 the rebellion has given him a lasting reputation 

 in the military history of modern times. His 

 country honored him by the presentation of a 

 sword and a donation of 40,000 francs. In 

 1857 the Emperor of France created him grand- 

 officer of the Legion of Honor. In 1867, after 

 having served his country for fifty years, he 

 asked for his discharge, which was granted 



him with the thanks of the nation. He was 

 not a politician, but a true patriot, who placed 

 the interests of his country above those of his 

 party. He was elected to the " Nationalrath " 

 several times, and that body elected him their 

 vice-president in 1849, which honor, however, 

 he declined. His funeral, on July 16th, was 

 attended by all the Federal and cantonal offi- 

 cials, as well as by many officers and private 

 persons, while the streets were lined by a 

 dense mass of people, who had come to do 

 honor to the remains of the dead hero. He 

 has written several hand-books for military 

 instruction, which are considered standard 

 works in their line. 



E 



EARTH, THE AREA AND POPULATION OF THE. 

 Owing to the great progress of statistical 

 science in recent times, it is now possible to 

 estimate the area and population of the five 

 large divisions of the globe with a degree of 

 probability to which former statements had no 

 claim whatever. The estimates of the area 

 may from time to time undergo great changes, 

 not only from a more accurate survey of the 

 various countries, but still more from the dis- 

 covery of new lands in the arctic regions ; but 

 as it is highly improbable that countries or 

 islands, with any notable number of inhabi- 

 tants, are at present unknown, the estimates of 

 the population of the globe can only be affected 

 by a greater accuracy in counting or estimating 

 the population of the countries now known. 

 In all the countries of Europe, with the excep- 

 tion of Turkey, in most of the countries of 

 America, in the European colonies with a 

 number of independent states in the other 

 large divisions of the globe, an official census 

 is taken from time to time which establishes 

 the actual population with a certainty hardly 

 admitting of any improvement. During the 

 time from one census to another, it is now 

 common, in many of these states, to make an- 

 nual estimates of the increase of population, 

 based on the official lists of births and deaths, 

 of immigrants and emigrants. For the coun- 

 tries of Asia and Africa in which no official 

 census has yet been taken, the reports of in- 

 telligent explorers and missionaries now give 

 us figures vastly superior in point of trust- 

 worthiness to those found in geographical 

 works of an earlier date. In 1866 the Geo- 

 graphical Institute of Perthes, in Gotha, Ger- 

 many, established a "Geographical Year-book," 

 with the distinguished geographer E. Behm as 

 editor, in which for the first time the attempt 

 was made to search the entire geographical 

 literature of the world, including travels and 

 missionary reports, for the latest account on 

 the population of every town, island, district, 

 province, and country of the globe, to obtain, 

 in this way, trustworthy figures for the popu- 



lation of the several divisions of the globe as 

 well as of its aggregate population. As the 

 source of information from which every figure 

 is derived is mentioned, it is within the power 

 of every intelligent reader to examine the 

 method pursued by the editor, and to form an 

 opinion as to its accuracy. In the second and 

 third volumes of the "Year-book," which were 

 respectively published in 1868 and 1870, the 

 figures given in the first volume were carefully 

 revised, on the basis of the new geographical 

 literature of the entire world. In 1872, the 

 section of the "Year-book" devoted to the 

 area and population of the earth and its divi- 

 sions was separated from the remainder, and 

 published as an independent periodical, under 

 the title " Die Bevolkerung der Erde " (" The 

 Population of the Earth "), which was to be 

 published annually. Whoever has taken the 

 successive volumes of the " Geographical Year- 

 book" and "The Population of the Earth" 

 with the statements previously given in the 

 geographical text -books and other works, 

 must have been astonished at the utter reck- 

 lessness which formerly prevailed in the ma- 

 jority of school and other books in regard to 

 statistics of population. The merits of the 

 two periodicals just mentioned have been rec- 

 ognized by every one who has seen and exam- 

 ined them, and they are gradually, though still 

 too slowly, acquiring the well-deserved reputa- 

 tion of being the standard authority in this 

 field. The ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, has ever since 

 1866, when the first volume of the "Year- 

 book " was published, made use of the results 

 of the two German periodicals, and adopted 

 them, except in rare cases when later or more 

 accurate information was at hand. From the 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, the new and trust- 

 worthy figures on the population on the earth 

 and its divisions have passed into a number of 

 text-books used in American schools, though 

 many works may still be met with containing 

 statements which are not only unsupported by 

 any good authority, but can now be shown to 

 be utterly false and absurd. In former vol- 



