220 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 502. 



commenting on this report the London Times 

 says: 



" Attention has been prominently directed, 

 by the report of the Committee on Physical 

 Deterioration, to what is there described as 

 the 'urbanization' of the people; and hence 

 few portions of the volume now issued will 

 be of more general interest than those which 

 set forth the extent to which this process is 

 actually being carried on. We iind, in the 

 first place, that the population has decreased 

 in the five English counties of Huntingdon- 

 shire, Nottinghamshire, Westmoreland, Oxford- 

 shire and Herefordshire, and in the five Welsh 

 counties of Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, 

 Flintshire, Merionethshire and Brecknock- 

 shire; the decrease ranging from 7.04 per 

 cent, in Huntingdonshire to 1.62 per cent, in 

 Herefordshire; and from 5.08 per cent, in 

 Montgomeryshire to 0.17 per cent, in Breck- 

 nockshire. In the remaining forty-five, Eng- 

 lish and Welsh counties there was an increase 

 of population, ranging from 45.11 per cent, 

 in Middlesex to 0.003 per cent, in Cornwall; 

 but the increase in Radnorshire, which was 

 only apparent, and is said to have veiled a 

 real decrease, was due to the presence in the 

 county of a number of men who were tem- 

 porarily engaged in the construction of water- 

 works for the Corporation of Birmingham. 

 Particulars are given for 1,122 urban and for 

 664 rural districts, and it appears that the 

 aggregate population of the former in 1901 

 was 25,058,355, and of the latter, constituting 

 the remainder of the country, 7,469,488; so 

 that the persons enumerated in urban were 

 to those enumerated in rural districts as 335 

 to 100; the proportions in 1881 and in 1891, 

 in the urban and rural districts as constituted 

 at those periods, having been respectively 212 

 and 258 to 100. The increase in the propor- 

 tion resident in urban districts is attributed 

 partly to an actual growth of population with- 

 in those districts as they existed in earlier 

 census years and partly to the growth of the 

 districts themselves through the absorption of 

 areas which were previously rural. It was 

 pointed out in 1891, and is still the case, that 

 a considerable number of the urban districts, 

 although technically urban, are distinctly 



rural in character, being in many cases small 

 towns situated in the midst of agricultural 

 areas on which they are dependent for their 

 maintenance as business centers. At the re- 

 cent census there were 215 urban ' districts 

 with populations below 3,000, 211 with popula- 

 tions between 3,000 and 5,000, and 260 with 

 populations between 5,000 and 10,000; and 

 the report follows the example of its prede- 

 cessor in stating the proportions between 

 urban and rural dwellers from these three 

 points of view. If we class with the rural 

 districts all those urban districts with popula- 

 tions below 10,000, the aggregate population 

 of the remaining urban areas numbered 21,- 

 959,998, the population of the same areas in 

 1891 having been 18,964,882, and the rate of 

 increase in the decennium being 15.8 per cent. 

 In the rural areas, with the added small urban 

 districts, the population increased from 10,- 

 037,643 in 1891 to 10,567,845 in 1901, or an 

 increase of 5.3 per cent. There are, never- 

 theless, many rural parts in which actual de- 

 population has occurred, and these are found 

 in the rural and small urban districts of 

 twenty-thi'ee counties; while, although there 

 has been a small increase of population in 

 rural areas in the aggregate, there has, never- 

 theless, been a very considerable drain on the 

 natural growth of the population of these 

 areas. A table is given showing that, in a 

 rural population of nearly five and a half 

 millions, the natural growth by excess of 

 births over deaths was 565,253 in the ten 

 years preceding the census of 1901, but that 

 the actual increase of poijulation was only 

 64,599, showing a loss by migration of 500,654, 

 equal to 9.1 per cent, of the population of 

 1891." 



THE CARNEGIE TRUST FOR TEE UNIVER- 

 SITIES OF SCOTLAND. 



The Carnegie Trust for the universities of 

 Scotland has made awards for the year 1904-5 

 of twenty-four scholarships, twelve fellowships 

 and thirty-five special grants, the total value 

 of which is somewhat more than $25,000. The 

 fellows are as follows : 



Physical. — (1) Dugald B. McQuistan, M.A., 

 B.Sc, Glasgow. 



