more common. There were 12,847 divorces in 1909, against 11,515 in 1908; 10,938 in 1907; 10,573 in 1906, and 7,157 in 1900. Thus in eight years divorces have increased at the rate of 80 per cent. Taking into consideration the facility with which a divorce may be obtained from the courts, the number of those who ask for and gain this release is sure to increase rapidly. After a short time divorce will be common in rural districts, which so far have rebelled against it, and doubtless the number will grow to 20,000 or 30,000, if not more, per annum.
GROWTH OF DIVORCE IN FRANCE
7,157
1900+
|
| 10,573
1906+
|
| 10,938
1907+
|
| 11,515
1908+-
|
| 12,847
1909+
Mr. Leroy-Beaulieu observes that divorces might lead to remarrying and so far be in the interest of a larger population. This, however, is not the case. The great sore of France is the dwindling birth-rate. He tells us:
When we come to the birth-rate of France
here we find the hurt, the deadly hurt, from
which our country suffers. The birth-rate in
France has been declining for a century.
This decline has become so accelerated during
the past ten or fifteen years that, as I feel
bound to repeat, we stand confronted by
an impending suicide of the nation.
He gives the following figures to confirm
his deduction:
1835-1869
30
+
| 26
+-
| 1876-1900
| 26
+-
| 22
+
| AT PRESENT
| 20
+
During the first thirty years of the nineteenth
century France recorded more than
30 births per thousand inhabitants; from 1835
to 1869 the birth-rate oscillated between 30
and 26 per thousand. Leaving out the depopulating
years of the Franco-Prussian
War, 1870-71, and years succeeding, which
suffered from this scourge, we find that from
1876 to 1900 the birth-rate was on the decline
and ranged from 26 to 22 per thousand.
In 1900 it had sunk to 21, and by the latest
statistics it is at present only 20 per thousand
inhabitants.
This writer tells us that while in 1801
the birth-rate in France exceeded the
death-rate by 5.1 per thousand inhabitants,
the excess last year was merely
0.3 per thousand. He admits that
hygienic improvements and decreasing
deaths among children have lowered
the death-rate, but this can not remedy
the decrease of the birth-rate:
If ten homes do not contain among them
more than fifteen children to take the place
of twenty parents, there is no reduction in
the death-rate which can prevent the final
diminution of the national population.
(250)
BLACK, TURNING
Character can be made black as easily, but not as easily restored, as the skin of the lady mentioned in the extract below:
A celebrated Parisian belle, says the Popular Science News, who had acquired the
habit of whitewashing herself, so to speak,
from the soles of her feet to the roots of
her hair, with chemically-prepared cosmetics,
one day took a medicated bath, and on
emerging from it she was horrified to find
herself as black as an Ethiopian. The transformation
was complete; not a vestige of the
"supreme Caucasian race" was left. Her
physician was sent for in alarm and haste.
On his arrival he laughed immoderately and
said, "Madame, you are not ill, you are a
chemical product. You are no longer a woman,
but you are a 'sulfid.' It is not now
a question of medical treatment, but a simple
chemical reaction. I shall subject you to a
bath of sulfuric acid diluted with water.
The acid will have the honor of combining
with you; it will take up the sulfur, the metal
will produce a 'sulfurate,' and we shall find
