430 



BELGIUM. 



first five years live beyond fifty. The rate of births is 30 to every 1,000 

 of the population ; the death-rate only 22. These proportions, however, vary 

 much in different localities, the rural and hilly districts being by far the 

 most salubrious.* A map coloured to show the mortality throughout the 

 country would bear a great resemblance to a hypsographical map, and the plains, 

 being least salubrious, would present a striking contrast to the hilly country 

 almost exclusively inhabited by Wallons. In Flanders, where the population 



Fiff. 239. — CoMPAKATiVE Increase of the Total Population, the Wallons, and the Flemings. 



is densest, people die faster and the increase is slower than in other parts. All 

 the statistics collected in hospitals and elsewhere prove the inferior vitality of 

 the Flemings as compared with the Wallons. Consumption, which carries off 

 nearly a fifth of the Belgians, is more especially rampant amongst the Flemings, 

 who suffer likewise disproportionally from rickets, cancer, mental and other 



» Death rate in towns, IVb, in rural districts 22-3 per 1,000 inhabitants; in West Flanders, 25; 

 in the province of Namur, only 18 per 1,000. 



