MANIFESTED IN HUMAN SOCIETY 105 



This table shows that the highest birthrates are usually 

 found in the poorest countries. The Russian birthrate 

 (not given in the table) is the highest in Europe, and the 

 Russian peasantry are the poorest and most oppressed. 

 The results are probably powerfully affected by the climate. 

 The inhabitants of all countries having a dry, bright, 

 sunny climate show a marked intellectual vivacity and 

 a tendency to " nerves." On the other hand, the inhabi- 

 tants of countries having a colder, moister climate are, 

 other things equal, of a more stolid disposition. If we 

 take the factors wealth, a bright climate, and a diet rich 

 in proteids as the principal factors making for nervous 

 energy and a low birthrate, we shall be fully borne out by 

 the facts. France, America, and Australia are conspicuous 

 for all these factors, and those are the countries where 

 the birthrate is falling most rapidly. Italy has a some- 

 what lower birthrate than her poverty would lead us to 

 expect, and this may be due to her climate. Those countries 

 which are prosperous industrially, but have a colder and 

 moister climate, have also a somewhat higher birthrate. 

 England, as being more prosperous than Germany, has 

 a lower birthrate, but with the advance of industrial 

 prosperity Germany's birthrate is rapidly falling. The 

 highest birthrates seem to be found where poverty, 

 ignorance, and a moist climate go together. 



With certain doubtful exceptions, all countries where 

 the mass of the population are very poor and have a 

 hard struggle for existence have an enormous birthrate. 

 The poorer classes of Chinese, for instance, live a hand- 

 to-mouth existence on a trifling quantity of rice and such 

 scraps of garbage as their infinitesimal resources will 

 enable them to purchase. For this they have to labour 

 terribly hard. So far as I am aware, no figures are 

 available for the birthrate, but the deathrate is gigantic, 



