The influence of Nationality is shown in the following table :

Birth-Rates per 1,000 Living in Different Countries.

It will be seen that there is a general tendency to decrease of the birth-rate in the years for which registration is reliable. The decrease is much more marked in some countries than in others. In England and throughout Great Britain the decrease has been steady and uninterrupted. It may be ascribed to a smaller number of marriages (page 46), which doubtless has had some influence, or to diminished fecundity of each marriage, or to postponement of marriage to a later period of life, or to other causes; the relative importance of these different agencies being in fact somewhat doubtful.

The United States furnishes a good example of the difficulty encountered in estimating the true relative fecundity of the "native born" and immigrant population. The former comprises not only true Americans, but also the offspring of foreigners born in the States, and contains an excess of children; while the "foreign" population contains an excess of adults of reproductive ages. It is evident that the comparison of births per 1,000 of each population would not be fair. Such an erroneous method has led to the conclusion that foreigners are three or four times as prolific as the native-born

population; whereas the difference which actually exists is much less marked. Thus the census of the State of Massachusetts for 1875 (quoted by Buck) showed that over 57 per cent. of the native-born women, twenty years of age and upwards, were mothers, and nearly 66 per cent. of foreigners of the same age.

Still-births are not registered in England; but under the new Registration Act no still-born child can be buried without a certificate from a registered practitioner in attendance, or from one who had examined the body, or a declaration from a midwife to the effect that the child was still-born. The proportion of still-births to total births in this country is supposed to be about 4 per cent., but this is uncertain. In France the children dying either before or after birth, if they die before registration, are recorded as still-born. This fact should be remembered in estimating the true death-rate and birth-rate of France. Thus the corrected death-rate of France in 1875 becomes 23-4 instead of 23.1 per 1,000 of population (Reg.General's 38th Annual Report). The proper plan would be to register all still-births in a separate category, distinct from both births and deaths. The males outnumber females in stillbirths, probably owing to greater difficulty in childbirth. Thus in the ten years 1865-1875, they were in France, 144; Italy, 140; Belgium, 135; Sweden, 133; and in Prussia, 129 to every 100 female still-births.

Proportion of Males and Females at Birth.-The following table shows the proportion in successive groups of years in England and Wales:

The proportion borne by male and female births during the ten years 1870-79, in different European countries, is shown in the following table:

It will be seen that the proportion of boys to girls at birth is smaller in England than in any European country; while the preceding table (page 61) shows that for some unexplained reason the excess in the proportional number of boys is steadily decreasing. The proportion of boys to girls at birth in the various counties of England is shown in the table at page 58.

According to the "Upper Class" Table, there are at birth 1,053 boys to every 1,000 girls, and by the English Life Table of Dr. Farr, 1,048 to 1,000. The preponderance of males steadily diminishes with age, the diminution being most rapid in the first year of life. At the age of thirty-four, the two sexes are equal in number; after that, the diminution in the proportion of males goes on, until at the age of seventy, by the Upper Class Table they are 813, and by the English Life Table 925 to 1,000 females. The proportion of males is greater in large than in small families; it is greater also among the earlier born than the later born children in a family.

Illegitimacy has such important bearings on social problems, as well as on the chances of life of infants, that it deserves careful consideration.

It may be stated, (1) like the total death-rate, as a proportion to every 1,000 of the population.

(2) The most accurate method is to state it as a proportion to the number of unmarried women living at child-bearing ages. The number of both married and unmarried women of childbearing years can be estimated from the census returns in the case of counties, and so their true rate of illegitimacy can be estimated.

(3) We may state it as a proportion to the total births, as in the table on page 58. This last method is somewhat fallacious, as the number of legitimate births varies with the marriagerate, and this with the activity of trade; so that if the marriage-rate were low, and the number of illegitimate births remained stationary, the proportion of illegitimate to total births would appear larger than usual. Thus, in the year 1881, there were 4.9 illegitimate births to every hundred children born, a higher proportion than for the six preceding years, which was explained by the Registrar-General to be due, not to increase in the number of illegitimate births, but to diminution in the number of legitimate births, owing to a lower marriage-rate. That this was the true explanation is shown by the fact that the illegitimate birth-rate in 1881 (1.7 per 1,000 of the population) remained the same as in the six preceding years. It is therefore satisfactory that, notwithstanding the continued low marriage-rate, the illegitimato birth-rate was not affected thereby.

The same remarks apply even more for 1886-7, when the illegitimate birth-rate was the lowest on record.

Illegitimate births are more prone than legitimate births to escape registration, especially in populous districts. This deficiency of registration is probably on the decrease; but, spite of this, there is an uninterrupted and satisfactory decrease of total registered illegitimacy.

In different counties the proportion of illegitimate births varies greatly. In the table on pages 58, 59, they were 47 per 1,000 births, varying from 82 in Shropshire to 41 in Surrey, 34 in Essex, and 32 in Middlesex. The differences between various counties as regards the prevalence of illegitimacy remain very constant from year to year. The Registrar-General has pointed out that England and Wales can be not very roughly divided into three zones; a south zone with an illegitimate rate below the general average; a midland zone with illegitimacy somewhat above the average; and a northern zone with an excessively high rate of illegitimacy (see table, pages 58, 59). Shropshire always experiences an unenviable reputation in this respect. Thus, in 1885, while, roughly, 1 in 21 infants born in the whole country were born out of wedlock, in Shropshire the proportion was 1 in 11. It must not be assumed that the exact relative morality of different counties is undoubtedly stated by the figures in the table on pages 58, 59, on account of the fallacies to which we have previously alluded. A considerable proportion of the illegitimate births occur in workhouses. Thus, in 1882, out of every 1,000 illegitimate births in England and Wales, 163 occurred in workhouses, while only 21 out of every 1,000 legitimate births occurred in these institutions. It is curious to note, that the proportion of illegitimate births in workhouses is greatest in thoso counties in which the illegitimate birth-rate is lowest, and conversely the proportion is lowest where there is a high rate of illegitimacy, possibly owing to more extensive and systematic domestic concubinage in the latter case.

Influence of Early Marriage on Illegitimacy.-The increasing number of early marriages during the ten years 1865-74 does not