Show HtA HEAVY VY DEATH J RATE 1 IN III DARK CONTINENT J Conditions in French Colonial Colonial Colo Colo- I nial Possessions Bad I The Journal des Debats Is dIstressed distressed distressed dis dIs- dis- dis over ovel the apparent decline of or orI I the native population In Frances France's black possessions French Equatorial Africa Africa Af Af- rica now has less than limn one inhabitant per square kilometer and the death rate appears to be considerably higher than the birth rate writes the Living Age Doctor Boye Boe chief of the health I service from l 1920 1020 20 to 1922 charn characterizes character character- ter- ter izes the depopulation of these territories territories territories terri terri- tories de cle plus en plus and reports that tribes formerly pros prosperous and und vl vigorous orous are today on the ther ver r verge e of extinction According to a u provincial governor where populous a and 1111 nourishing vIIla villages vII vII- la lages inges es and broad acres of cultivation were numerous 1 15 years ago only skeletons of villages now remain their cabins in disrepair and their f fields els neglected One territory having Inhabitants In which an accurate accurate rate record has been kept reports that the deaths exceeded the births In a single year b by 2425 4 45 5 A larger enumeration enumeration enu enu- shows per natives naU 4 births and G 24 deaths per an an- num Conditions are somewhat better in French F East Africa where the population population population tion Is denser denser about about 35 inhabitants I per Ier square kilometer but meter but unequally distributed Even here the re recruiting oO officers cers report that only one adult male out of at every ery five or six sli of army age I Is fit for military service In the sole district where an actual enumeration tins has out of a population of at there were 1007 births and 1161 1 deaths The rhe two principal scourges of the African native In his own home are social diseases and malaria Malaria appears to be the chief cause of In Infant In in- fant ant mortality Pneumonia and tuber- tuber i are are also devastating de scourges the tithe spread of tuberculosis being close- close by associated with the Increasing use useI I of ot alcoholic liquors One of the most significant and disturbing dis- dis j I I features of this gloomy survey survey sur sur- suri i I IYe Ye vey is the evidence of a rapidly decreasing decreasing de de' creasing birth rate due to the diseases diseases diseases dis dis- dis- dis eases already mentioned the sleeping sickness alcoholism and artificial re re- of births In case of or n ne negro negro ne- ne gro families Impartially selected on the Gold coast were childless and 24 had but a single child At Daker 10 per cent of the Infants born die nt ot birth and 50 GO per cent during the first four tour years I |