which has since been held to be the 263rd in the series. It is
not proposed to deal here with incidents appertaining to the
“ ante-natal gloom, ” and we are concerned only with human
beings when once they have been born. In regard to the division
of these into male and female, the first point to be noted is that,
in all communities of western civilization, more boys are born
than girls. The excess ranges from 20 to 60 per thousand.
In Greece and Rumania it is exceptionally high, and in some
Oriental or semi-Oriental countries it is said to give place to a
deficit, though in the latter case the returns are probably not
trustworthy. From the more accurate statistics available it
appears that the excess of male births varies amongst different
races and also at different times in the same community. It
is high in new colonies and amongst the Latin races, with the
exception of the French. These, with the English, show a
much smaller excess of boy-births than the average of western
Europe, and the proportion, moreover, seems to be somewhat
declining in both these countries and in Belgium, from causes
which have not yet been ascertained. As the mortality amongst
boys, especially during the first year, is considerably above that
of the other sex, numerical equilibrium between the two is established
in early youth, and in most cases girls outnumber boys,
except for a few years between twelve and sixteen. Then follows
the chequered period of the prime of life and middle age, during
which the liability of men to industrial accidents, war and other
causes of special mortality, irrespective of their greater inclination
to emigrate, is generally sufficient to outweigh the dangers
of childbirth or premature decay among the women, who tend,
accordingly, to predominate in number at this stage. In old
age, again, their vitality rises superior to that of the men, and
they continue to form the majority of the community. The
general results are an excess of females over males throughout
western Europe: but though the relative proportions vary from
time to time, remaining always in favour of what is conventionally
called the weaker sex, it is impossible, owing to disturbing factors
like war and migration, to ascertain whether there is any general
tendency for the proportion of females to increase or not. In
comparatively new settlements, largely fed by immigration, the
number of males is obviously likely to be greater than that of
females, but in the case of countries in Asia and eastern Europe
in which also a considerable deficiency of the latter sex is indicated
by the returns, it is probable that the strict seclusion
imposed by convention on women and the consequent reticence
regarding them on the part of the householders answering
the official inquiry tend towards a short count. On the other
hand, the lower position there assigned to women and the very
considerable amount of hard work exacted from them, may
cause them to wear out earlier than under higher conditions,
though not to the extent implied in the statistics. In the
TABLE Il.
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Country.: 3 'g 3 Country. 4 f 8 '53 3
9 2 'B 2 9 3 3 2
2 fa Q 2 2 2 Q 2
Sweden 1049 946 Galicia 1019 941
Norway 1064 944 Hungary 1009 949
Finland 1022 948 Rumania 964 902
Denmark 1053 950 Greece 921 879
England 1069 966 Servia . 946 945
Scotland 1057 956 Bulgaria 959 927
Ireland 1028 946 Russia
Holland 102 5 950 (Europe) 1 o 1 1 948
Belgium 1013 956 Russia (Asia) 893
Germany 1029 9 50 japan '98 3-Austria 1042 947 lndia 963
France 1033 960 Egypt 967
ltaly 1011 947 United States 958
Spam 1049 938 Canada 952
Portugal 1093 S99 Argentine 893
Cape Colony 977
Australia 906 950
L New Zealand 900
following table the latest available information on this head is given for representative countries of western and eastern Europe, the East and the New World.
Distribution by A ge. F ew facts are more uncertain about an individual than the number of years he will live. Few, on the contrary, as was pointed out by C. Babbage, are less subject to fluctuation than the duration of life amongst people taken in large aggregates. The age-constitution of a community does indeed vary, and to a considerable extent, in course of time, but the changes are usually gradual, and often spread over a generation or more. At the same time, it must be admitted that those which have recently taken place amongst most of the communities of western Europe are remarkable for both their rapidity and their extent; and are probably attributable, in part at least, to influences which were almost inoperative at the time when Babbage wrote. The distribution of a population amongst the different periods of life is regulated, in normal circumstances, by the birth-rate, and, as the mortality at some of the periods is far greater than at others, the death-rate falls indirectly under the same influence. The statistics of age, therefore, may be said to form a link between those of the population, considered as a fixed quantity, as at a census, and those which record its movement from year to year. To the correct interpretation of the latter, indeed, they are essential, as will appear below. Unfortunately, the return of age is amongst the less satisfactory results of a general enumeration, though its inaccuracy, when spread over millions of persons, is susceptible of correction mathematically, to an extent to make it serve its purpose in the directions above indicated. The error in the original return generally arises from ignorance. An illiterate population is very prone to state its age in even multiples of Eve, and even where education is widely spread this tendency is not altogether absent, as may be seen from the examples given in TABLE III.
Number returned at each age per 10,000 of Population. United States, Russia, 1 897. 1
Age. Germany, 1900. India,
V 1900. 1 1891
Native Asia, Females
Whites. Negroes. Europe. Females.
I9 180 196 204 166 1 12 64
20 182 200 252 223 385 505
2I 181 191 204 143 113 54
29 130 146 1 19 92 60 42
30 149 170 218 269 456 624
31 145 125 75 74 74 30
49 88 72 62 45 38 I2
50 | 94 84 156 196 257 386
51 89 61 38 35 34 I2
59 62 43 30 25 18 I0
60 1 70 49 105 163 179 281
61 60 33 15 22 25 1 1
Table III. Deliberate mis-statements, too, are not unknown, especially amongst women. This has been repeatedly illustrated in the English census reports. Irrespective of the wish of women between 2 5 and 40 to return themselves as under 2 5, there appears to be the more practical motive of obtaining better terms in industrial insurance, whilst an overstatement of age often has, it is said, the object of getting better wages in domestic service, or better dietary in the workhouse! In all countries, moreover, there seems to be an inclination to exaggerate longevity after the three score years and ten have been passed. In order to minimize the results of such inaccuracy, the return of ages is compiled in aggregates of five or ten years and then redistributed over single years by the method of differences. The present purpose being merely to illustrate the variation of distribution amongst a few representative countries, it is unnecessary to enter into more detail than such as will serve to distinguish the proportions of the population in main divisions of life. Thus it may be said that in the west of Europe about one-third of the people, roughly speaking, are under fifteen; about one-half, between that age and fifty, and the remaining sixth older than fifty. The middle period
