250 THEODORE SZEL 



tainted with the various hereditary harmful inclinations has diminished in 

 the rising generation. During the War, among fiances and fathers of legiti- 

 mate offspring, those exceeding thirty years of age were really in higher pro- 

 portion than they were either in the last pre-war year or later, in the new 

 peace years after the conclusion of the War. In 1913, in Hungary, 12.7 per 

 cent of the fiances were between thirty and thirty-nine years of age, while 

 in 1915 they amounted to 22.1 per cent. The proportion of fiances between, 

 forty and forty-nine years of age at the same time rose from 4.4 to 12.0 per 

 cent. From among the fathers of legitimate offspring, for instance, those of 

 forty to forty-nine years rose from 17.3 per cent in 1913 to 25.7 per cent in 

 1916; while at the same time those of fifty to fifty-nine years rose from 2.5 

 to 5.1 per cent, only to fall back again to 1.6 per cent by 1930. 2 Other conse- 

 quences of this war-time age displacement is the increase of the surplus of 

 male-births, which also exists normally, and the increase of the index of male- 

 infant mortality in comparison with that of female. The male birth sur- 

 plus in Hungary in 1913 was expressed by 105.8 newly born boys to 100 

 newly born girls. This index rose to 108.8 by 1918 and from 1926 to 1930 

 was again, from year to year 106.7 only. Putting the mortality of female- 

 infants as equal to one hundred, the mortality of male infants throughout 

 Hungary in 1913 was 117.9 while from 1915 to 1918 it stood between 112.9 

 and 114.8. Against this, after the War, from 1920 onward it once more 

 stood from year to year between 116 and 118 and in 1930 it reached 120.8. 

 By examining the infant mortality of the sexes detailed according to diag- 

 nosis we see the difference between the mortality of the two sexes in infancy 

 is found in congenital weakness and defects of development. In 1927, for 

 instance, 7.35 per cent of the male-infants and only 6.22 per cent of the 

 female-infants died of defects of development. This difference diminished 

 during the War. The fact that the divergence is caused by the difference 

 in the mortality of the youngest infants is also in connection with the tabu- 

 lation of the infants according to age. In the same manner we can perceive 

 also in connection with the offspring of the other belligerent nations the war- 

 time surplus births of males and the war-time reduction of the index of male 

 infant mortality as compared with the female. 3 



2 For further particulars vide "The Effect of the World War upon our Population," 

 page 440, by T. Szel, Saile, Budapest, 1919,— a competition work awarded the Senger 

 prize at the Peter Pazmany University of Budapest in the term 1918/1919. Vide also 

 "The Regularities Apparent Throughout Europe of the Births, Marriages and Deaths 

 of the War-Time Years," by T. Szel, Saile, page 140 of the Hungarian Statistical Review 

 1923, and the continuation of the same theme in Nos. 5-8, 1924, of the same periodical. 



3 For further particulars vide "Infant Mortality," page 303, by T. Szel, in "Egeszsegiigyi 

 Slaliszlika," Hygienic Statistics, published by the Hungarian Medical Book Association. 



