LAW OF POPULATION ILLUSTRATED 193 



BELGIUM 



There is only one feature of this table to which I 

 need advert. Observe the continuous increase in the 

 number of marriages in the last two decades. There 

 is nothing abnormal in the birth-rate of the decade 

 1874-83 being almost as high as that of the previous 

 decade, though the fall in the marriage-rate was pro- 

 portionally so much greater, inasmuch as the birth- 

 rate of the second decade was heightened by the 

 higher marriage-rate of the first. 



But the continuous decline of the birth-rate since 

 1874 in face of the continuous elevation of the 

 marriage-rate demands explanation. 



In the last decade of our table the marriage-rate 

 makes an upward bound of 12 '5 per cent., while the 

 birth-rate makes an extraordinary decline, the births 

 to 100 marriages falling from 407 in the previous 

 decade, and from 444 in the decade prior to that, 

 to 354. 



There is only one possible explanation of this 

 remarkable result. The relation between the marriage- 

 rate and the birth-rate has undergone a change through 

 13 



