OCR Text |
Show im DECREASING BIRTH RATE IN EUROPE. The seventy-eighth annual meeting of the British Medical association In London discussed the recent falling off of the birth rate In Great Britain The figures are most alarming ai first sight. Thirty years ago 35.4 births were registered: for every 1,000 of the population; In tho last three years Hie average went down to 2G.G. That Is Btlll a better showing than that of France, with only 20.1 births per 1,-000 1,-000 Inhabitants, but Is left just aa much behind by Germany with an average of 32.4. We ought not to forget that the same change is observed ob-served In all European countries, though not to the same alarming extent ex-tent as in England. It Is, of course, an exaggeration if snmo English papers pa-pers comparo this symptom of "decline" "de-cline" to tho later centuries of tho Roman republic, but the deep impression im-pression caused by these statistics Induced In-duced tho medical association to Inquire In-quire thoroughly Into the true causes of this development It Is admitted on all sidos that the NcoMalthnslan notions no-tions and the voluntary limitations of the number of children have already spread to the lower classes, and thnt there Is no possibility of fighting by lcglslaUvo measures against a widespread wide-spread evil. Tho only consolation Is the fact that under the better salutary salu-tary conditions of our' times tho mortality mor-tality of Hie Infants has been reduced re-duced considerably. As in Germany, the decrease Is somehow connected with the conflux of larger parts of tho population In the big towns. In fact, there Is hardly a difference Jn tho open country if we compare Its returns separately with those of the general average from 1S71 to 1SS0. It Is Hie modern life In tho cities that Is accountable for the low figures, and It has been shown that the higher classes and the factory laborers are least productive of offspring. As a surprise it was noted, that the manufacturing man-ufacturing towns of Ireland show the largest percentage of losses hi this respecL Continental Correspondence. Correspond-ence. oo |