In the twentieth century, in the civilised countries of Europe, the premature births vary between 5 and 9 per cent., and the still-births between 3 and 4 per cent., of all births. For every 100 still-born girls there are approximately 130 still-born boys. Among the lower classes of the population, still-births are more frequent than among the upper classes. Within the same class, such births are more frequent among those living in unfavourable conditions than among those more favourably7 situated8; and in manufacturing towns they are more frequent than in agricultural districts. The proportion is affected9 by the age of the mother, and still-births are at a minimum among mothers at ages from 20 to 25 years. In the course of time, notwithstanding the gigantic development of manufacturing industry, and in spite of the more accurate registration10 of still-births, the proportion of such births has diminished; the principal reason for this is the advance in medical science.
Mortality.—In the civilised countries of Europe the death-rate[12] in the twentieth century varies between 15 and 32 per mille. Among the chief causes of transient variations in the death-rate are: war, civil disorders11, and rise in prices. A rise in the price of the necessaries of life affects the lower classes of the population more especially, but its influence upon the general death-rate is trifling12. Death-rate varies in accordance with occupation. The lower classes have a higher death-rate than the upper; the weekly wage-earners have a higher death-rate than the rest of the population; and mortality is greater in the towns than it is in the country. Of late years, there has been a gradual decline in the death-rate, the decline in the towns being proportionately greater than the decline in the country districts; in this case also the decline must be attributed mainly to the advance in medical science.
The Productive Age and the Unproductive Age.—The distinction of the productive age from the unproductive age is a matter of great importance. The former extends from the age of 15 to the age of 65; the latter, the unproductive age, comprises the years before the age of 15 and those after the age of 65. Certain other classifications of the population, such as the distinction of those of an age for school-attendance from those at other ages (those of the former age comprising about one-sixth of the population), and the distinction between youthful and adult criminals, are of no interest in relation to our special inquiry13.
Classification of the Population according to Age.—In the civilised countries of modern Europe, persons at ages of 0 to 10 comprise about 24 per cent. of the population; those at ages 10 to 20 comprise about 20 per cent.; and those at ages 20 to 30 comprise about 16 per cent. of the population. Those under the age of 15 years comprise about 30 per cent. of the population, each year of life corresponding to from 2 to 3 per cent.; infants (those under 1 year) making up 3 per cent., and each year of life after that only a little more than 2 per cent. At all ages under 15 the boys are more numerous than the girls.
The age-pyramid of the population has a form which depends upon the birth-rate. When the birth-rate is higher, or the excess of births over deaths greater, the base of the[13] pyramid is comparatively wide. Thus, in the majority of the civilised states of Europe, about 30 per cent. of the population consists of those under 15 years of age; but in France, where the birth-rate is exceptionally low, those under 15 years of age comprise a much smaller proportion of the total population.
In the country districts, the age-class of the children and the age-class of the old both contain proportionately larger numbers than the same age-classes in the towns. In the large towns and the manufacturing districts, there is an especially large proportion of persons of about 20 years of age. There are three reasons for this: first, the birth-rate is higher in the country districts; secondly14, there is a drift from the country to the towns of persons of an age to earn a living; and, thirdly, a proportion of those who have grown old in the towns find their way back to the country.
The Excess of Women.—All the civilised countries of twentieth-century Europe contain more women than men. For every 1000 males there are invariably more than 1000 females. The excess of females is not usually greater than 5 per cent. Only in certain uncivilised countries of Europe do we find no excess of females. Whether we compare the total female population with the total male population, or compare only males and females of a marriageable age, the result is the same; the females are always in excess. Even in those countries in which women are comparatively less numerous, we still find an excess of women of a marriageable age.
This excess of women depends upon the following causes:—In civilised countries more boys are born than girls. The average excess of male births over females is 106:100. (In the case of illegitimate children, the excess of male births is not so great as in the case of legitimate15 children.) But in males the death-rate is much higher than it is in females. Especially high is the death-rate among male infants (in the first year of life), and among males during the ages at which they are competent to earn a livelihood16. The reason given for the higher mortality of male infants is that their powers of resistance are inferior to those of female infants; during the productive years of life the death-rate of males is higher[14] because, on the one hand, they have a far greater mortality than women from diseases of occupation, and, on the other hand, during this period of life males suffer far more than females from the effects of alcoholism, of criminality, and of various other factors exercising an unfavourable influence upon their death-rate.
Thus the excess of women is closely associated with that peculiarity17 of the modern system of production in virtue18 of which far more men than women are engaged in the work of production. This is obvious from the consideration that the death-rate of wage-earning women is higher than that of other women, and from the consideration that in great towns the ratio between the death-rates of the respective sexes is very different from what it is in the country districts. The excess of women is one of the causes of the failure of so many women to marry, of the birth of so many illegitimate children, of the wide diffusion19 of prostitution, &c. But it would be quite erroneous to attribute these various phenomena20 of our sexual life exclusively to the prevalent excess of women.
If in any country we desire to diminish the excess of women, it is necessary not merely to lessen21 the emigration of males, but also to diminish the death-rate of male children. This may be effected by reducing infant and child mortality in general, for measures that accomplish this reduction will lower the death-rate of boys to a greater extent than the death-rate of girls; for the higher the death-rate the greater the effect we can produce by measures effecting its diminution22. Hence child-protection, the principal means for the diminution of infant and child mortality, is not only an important part of our campaign against the excessive mortality of male children, but will tend to redress23 the existing numerical inequality between the sexes, and thus to ameliorate the conditions of our social life.
The regulation of the birth of boys and girls (the determination of sex) would be an important means for the restoration of a proper numerical balance between the sexes, and would therefore be of value, not merely to interested individuals, but also to society at large. Unfortunately, contemporary science is not even in a position to ascertain24 the[15] sex of the infant before birth; and still less are we in possession of such a knowledge of the determinants of sex as might enable us to procreate boys or girls at will. Should the astounding25 advance in medical science eventuate in the solution of this problem, it will then be in our power to restore the proper numerical balance of the sexes.
Marriage.—In the civilised countries of modern Europe the number of marriages per 1000 inhabitants of all ages is from 6 to 8; whilst for every 1000 inhabitants of a marriageable age the annual marriage rate is 50. Of 1000 men over 15 years of age from 400 to 700 are married, whilst of 1000 women over 15 years of age from 440 to 640 are married. A high marriage-rate is not per se either a favourable6 or an unfavourable manifestation26; it is dependent upon economic conditions, and transient variations in the marriage-rate arise from the favourable or unfavourable economic conditions of the year in which these variations occur.
In consequence of the enormous development of the manufacturing industries, there has been a great increase in the numbers of those engaged in these industries; a large proportion of farm servants has been transformed into wage-earners of the towns. Since men of this latter class commonly marry young, whereas a comparatively small proportion of farm-servants marries, an increase in the marriage-rate has been noticeable during the latter half of the nineteenth century. But since the beginning of the present century a decline in the marriage-rate has become perceptible, and the causes of this decline are more difficult to ascertain. During the nineteenth century the divorce-rate underwent a continuous increase. The divorce-rate is higher in towns than in the country, and higher in thickly populated than in thinly populated countries.
Illegitimate Sexual Relations.—Except as regards the birth of illegitimate children, the only statistical data available regarding illegitimate sexual relations are those which have been obtained by private inquiries27. The following are the most important statistics bearing on this question. The annual number of illegitimate births in Europe exceeds 600,000. In most European countries the illegitimate births constitute[16] from 8 to 9 per cent. of the total births, and in every large country in Europe the illegitimate number several millions. From privately28 collected statistics we learn that in all civilised countries the great majority of unmarried mothers belong to the working classes and to the class of domestic servants; in many countries more than 80 per cent. of unmarried mothers may be thus classified. If from the number of illegitimate children we wish to deduce the probable number of unmarried mothers, we have always to bear in mind the fact that an unmarried mother commonly has one child only, whilst married women have on the average from three to four children. We learn from private statistics that of the fathers of illegitimate children not more than about 45 per cent. belong to the proletariat.
The relationship between the number of illegitimate births, on the one hand, and the number of legitimate births and the number of marriages, on the other, is, on one view, the following. The greater the number of marriages, the smaller will be the number of illegitimate births; the greater the average age at marriage, the greater also will be the number of illegitimate births. It is, indeed, extremely probable that a high marriage-rate leads to a low illegitimate birth-rate, and conversely; but we are not justified29 in regarding such a causal sequence as unquestionable. Variations in the marriage-rate and in the illegitimate birth-rate may be the joint30 consequences of other common factors.
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1
miscarriages
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| 流产( miscarriage的名词复数 ) | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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statistical
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| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
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practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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registrars
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| n.主管注册者( registrar的名词复数 )；记录者；登记员；注册主任 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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8
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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registration
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| n.登记，注册，挂号 | |
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11
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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12
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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13
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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14
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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15
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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16
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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17
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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19
diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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20
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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21
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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22
diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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23
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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24
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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25
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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26
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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28
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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29
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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