324 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1397 



circle of personal friends. Mr. Cliamberlain 

 was instrumental in the bringing to the sur- 

 face many hundreds of strange new mollusks, 

 crustaceans and echinoderms, yet apparently 

 his name has not been bestowed upon a single 

 one. Two fishes and an Alaskan bird, how- 

 ever, have been named for him. 



During the seasons of 1911 and 1912, Mr. 

 Chamberlain filled the position of Alaska sal- 

 mon agent and worked in the northern terri- 

 tory. In 1913 he was appointed naturalist 

 of the Fur-seal Service and reached the Pribi- 

 lof Islands just three days before the severe 

 attack from which he never fully recovered. 

 He was conveyed to the states, desperately ill, 

 and the climate of Arizona again helped to 

 only a partial recovery. 



G. Dallas Hanna 



Museum, 

 Califoknia Academy op Sciences 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



MOVEMENT OF THE POPULATION IN THE 

 GERMAN EMPIRE 



During 1919 and 1920, according to data 



recently published by the government sta- 

 tistical bureau and quoted in the Journal of 

 the American Medical Association, the num- 

 ber of marriages in the German empire ex- 

 ceeded, by a considerable margin, the figures 

 for the prewar period. In the five years from 

 1914 to 1918, inclusive, almost half a million 

 marriages less were contracted than would 

 normally have been the case. However, this 

 notable falling off in marriages during the 

 years of the war was compensated for, in 

 the main, during 1919 and 1920; for in 

 these two years the number of marriages 

 reached the high figures of 842,787 and 851,- 

 508, respectively. Whereas in 1913 there were 

 only 7.7 marriages to 1,000 inhabitants, in 

 1920 there were 14.8. Normally, forty mar- 

 riages to 1,000 inhabitants could have been 

 expected during the five years of the war, but, 

 instead, only 25.1 marriages were entered 

 upon. Eighty-two per cent, of the decrease 

 has been made up during the last two years. 

 In 1914, the number of children born was 

 1,830,892. In 1915 it had fallen to 1,040,209 



and in 1917 to 939,938. In 1918 the number 

 had risen again to 956,251. In place of the 

 normal 8,950,000 births in the period from 

 1914 to 1918, we find only 4,550,000 recorded, 

 which signifies a loss of 4,400,000 due to the 

 war. In 1919 the total number of children 

 born was still about 400,000 below normal. 

 Not until 1920 was the number of births again 

 about normal, the records showing 1,512,- 

 162 births, or 27.1 to every 1,000 inhabitants, 

 as compared with 1,707,834 births, or 28.5 

 per thousand inhabitants in 1913. The num- 

 ber of deaths in 1920 was 888,795, 16.3 deaths 

 to every 1,000 inhabitants, the mortality for 

 1919 having been 16.1 per thousand. The 

 last year before the war (1913) showed a 

 mortality of 924,919, or 15.8 per thousand 

 inhabitants. Especially during the first three 

 months of 1920 the mortality rate was very 

 high. More particularly, diseases of the respi- 

 ratory organs and influenza exacted many 

 victims during this period. In Berlin, more 

 than a third of all deaths, namely, 37.7 per 

 cent., were due to diseases of the respiratory 

 organs, whereas during the first quarter of 

 1913 only one seventh of all deaths in Berlin 

 were ascribable to such causes. During the 

 last three quarters of 1920, the mortality rate 

 fell considerably, having been 14.9, 14.5 and 

 15.4 per thousand inhabitants, as against mor- 

 tality rates of 19.9, 22.0, 19.7, 20.8 and 25.1 

 for the five-year period from 1914 to 1918, 

 inclusive. The year 1919 showed a slight ex- 

 cess of births over deaths and the year 1920 

 a still greater excess. 



ACCIDENTS DUE TO EYE DEFECTS 



The Committee on Elimination of Waste 

 in Industry of the American Engineering 

 Council has made public a report on 

 accidents due to eye defects. The total num- 

 ber of industrial blind in the United States 

 is given as 15,000 or 13.5 per cent, of the 

 total blind population, this type of injury 

 being the leading causative factor of blind- 

 ness, according to the report, which was pre- 

 pared by Earle B. Fowler. The eye is in- 

 volved in 10.6 per cent, of all permanently 

 disabling accidents. 



