ground up and mixed with meal; the gum secreted by the buds was employed by the old herbalists for various medicinal purposes, but is probably nearly inert; the cotton-like down of the seed has been converted into a kind of vegetable felt, and has also been used in paper-making. A closely related form is the well-known Lombardy poplar, P. fastigiata, remarkable for its tall, cypress-like shape, caused by the nearly vertical growth of the branches. Probably a mere variety of the black poplar, its native land appears to have been Persia or some, neighbouring country; it was unknown in Italy in the days of Pliny, while from remote times it has been an inhabitant of Kashmir, the Punjab, and Persia, where it is often planted along roadsides for the purpose of shade; it was probably brought from these countries to southern Europe, and derives its popular name from its abundance along the banks of the Po and other rivers of Lombardy, where it is said now to spring up naturally from seed, like the indigenous black poplar. It was introduced into France in 1749, and appears to have been grown in Germany and Britain soon after the middle of the last century, if not earlier. The Lombardy poplar is valuable chiefly as an ornamental tree, its timber being of very inferior quality; its tall, erect growth renders it useful to the landscape-gardener as a relief to the rounded forms of other trees, or in contrast to the horizontal lines of the lake or river-bank where it delights to grow. In Lombardy and France tall hedges are sometimes formed of this poplar for shelter or shade, while in the suburban parks of Britain it is serviceable as a screen for hiding buildings or other unsightly objects from view; its growth is extremely rapid, and it often attains a height of 100 ft. and upwards, while from 70 to 80 ft. is an ordinary size in favourable situations. P. canadensis, the "cotton-wood" of the western prairies, and its varieties are perhaps the most useful trees of the genus, often forming almost the only arborescent vegetation on the great American plains. It is a tree of rather large growth, sometimes 100 ft. high, with rugged grey trunk 7 or 8 ft. in diameter, and with the shoots or young branches more or less angular; the glossy deltoid leaves are sharply pointed, somewhat cordate at the base, and with flattened petioles; the fertile catkins ripen about the middle of June, when their opening capsules discharge the cottony seeds which have given the tree its common western name; in New England it is sometimes called the "river poplar." The cotton-wood timber, though soft and perishable, is of value in its prairie habitats, where it is frequently the only available wood either for carpentry or fuel; it has been planted to a considerable extent in some parts of Europe, but in England a form of this species known as P. monilifera is generally preferred from its larger and more rapid growth. In this well-known variety the young shoots are but slightly angled, and the branches in the second year become round; the deltoid short-pointed leaves are usually straight or even rounded at the base, but sometimes are slightly cordate; the capsules ripen in Britain about the middle of May. This tree is of extremely rapid growth, and has been known to attain a height of 70 ft. in sixteen years; it succeeds best in deep loamy soil, but will flourish in nearly any moist but well-drained situation. The timber is much used in some rural districts for flooring, and is durable for indoor purposes when protected from dry-rot; it has, like most poplar woods, the property of resisting fire better than other timber. The native country of this form has been much disputed; but, though still known in many British nurseries as the "black Italian poplar," it is now well ascertained to be an indigenous tree in many parts of Canada and the States, and is a mere variety of P. canadensis; it seems to have been first brought to England from Canada in 1772. In America it seldom attains the large size it often acquires in England, and it is there of less rapid growth than the prevailing form of the western plains; the name of "cotton-wood" is locally given to other species. P. macrophylla or candicans, commonly known as the Ontario poplar, is remarkable for its very large heart-shaped leaves, sometimes 10 in. long; it is found in New England and the milder parts of Canada, and is frequently planted in Britain; its growth is extremely rapid in moist land; the buds are covered with a balsamic secretion. The true balsam poplar, or tacamahac, P. balsamifera, abundant in most parts of Canada and the northern States, is a tree of rather large growth, often of somewhat fastigiate habit, with round shoots and oblong-ovate sharp-pointed leaves, the base never cordate, the petioles round, and the disk deep glossy green above but somewhat downy below. This tree, the "liard" of the Canadian voyageur, abounds on many of the river sides of the northwestern plains; it occurs in the neighbourhood of the Great Slave Lake and along the Mackenzie River, and forms much of the driftwood of the Arctic coast. In these northern habitats it attains a large size; the wood is very soft; the buds yield a gum-like balsam, from which the common name is derived; considered valuable as an antiscorbutic, this is said also to have diuretic properties; it was formerly imported into Europe in small quantities under the name of "baume focot," being scraped off in the spring and put into shells. This balsam gives the tree a fragrant odour when the leaves are unfolding. The tree grows well in Britain, and acquires occasionally a considerable size. Its fragrant shoots and the fine yellow green said by Aiton to have been introduced into Britain about the end of the young leaves recommend it to the ornamental planter. It is of the 17th century. P. euphratica, believed to be the weeping willow of the Scriptures, is a large tree remarkable for the variability in the shape of its leaves. which are linear in young trees and vigorous shoots, and broad and ovate on older branches. It is a native of North Africa and Western and Central Asia, including North-West India. With the date palm it is believed to have furnished the rafters for the buildings of Nineveh. POPLIN, or TABINET, a mixed textile fabric consisting of a silk warp with a weft of worsted yarn. As the weft is in the form of a stout cord the fabric has a ridged structure, like rep, which gives depth and softness to the lustre of the silky surface. Poplins are used for dress purposes, and for rich upholstery work. The manufacture is of French origin; but it was brought to England by the Huguenots, and has long been specially associated with Ireland. The French manufacturers distinguish between popelines unics or plain poplins and popelines à dispositions or Écossaises, equivalent to Scotch tartans, in both of which a large trade is done with the United States from Lyons. POPOCATEPETL (Aztec popoca "to smoke," tepell "mountain "), a dormant volcano in Mexico in lat. 18° 59′ 47′′ N., long. 98° 33′ 1′′ W., which with the neighbouring Ixtaccihuatl (Aztec "white woman") forms the south-eastern limit of the great basin known as the "Valley of Mexico." As it lies in the state of Puebla and is the dominating feature in the views from the city of that name, it is sometimes called the Puebla volcano. It is the second highest summit in Mexico, its shapely, snow-covered cone rising to a height of 17,876 ft., or 438 ft. short of that of Orizaba. This elevation was reported by the Mexican geological survey in 1895, and as the Mexican Geographical Society calculated the elevation at 17,888 ft., it may be accepted as nearly correct. The bulk of the mountain consists of andesite, but porphyry, obsidian, trachyte, basalt, and other similar rocks are also represented. It has a stratified cone showing a long period of activity. At the foot of the eastern slope stretches a vast lava field-the "malpays " (mala pais) of Atlachayacatl-which, according to Humboldt, lies 60 to 80 ft. above the plain and extends 18,000 ft. east to west with a breadth of 6000 ft. Its formation must be of great antiquity. The ascent of Popocatepetl is made on the northeastern slope, where rough roads are kept open by sulphur carriers and timber cutters. Describing his ascent in 1904, Hans Gadow states that the forested region begins in the foothills a little above Sooo ft., and continues up the slope to an elevation of over 13,000 ft. On the lower slopes the forest is composed in great part of the long-leaved Pinus liophylla, accompanied by deciduous oaks and a variety of other trees and shrubs. From about 9500 ft. to 11,500 ft. the Mexican "oyamel,” or fir (Abies religiosa) becomes the principal species, interspersed with evergreen oak, arbutus and elder. Above this belt the firs gradually disappear and are succeeded by the shortleaved Pinus montezumae, or Mexican "ocote "one of the largest species of pine in the republic. These continue to the upper tree-line, accompanied by red and purple Penstemon and light blue lupins in the open spaces, some ferns, and occasional masses of alpine flowers. Above the tree line the vegetation continues only a comparatively short distance, consisting chiefly of tussocks of coarse grass, and occasional flowering plants, the highest noted being a little Draba. At about 14,500 ft. horses are left behind, though they could be forced farther up through the loose lava and ashes. On the snow-covered cone the heat of the sun is intense, though the thermometer recorded a temperature of 34° in September. The reflection of light from the snow is blinding. The rim of the crater is reached at an elevation of about 17,500 ft. Another description places the snow-line at 14,268 ft.. and the upper tree-line The a thousand feet lower. A detailed description of the volcano | and is surmounted by a flat or convex rayed disk bearing the was published by the Mexican geological survey in 1895 accord- stigmas. The ovary is incompletely divided into many chambers ing to which the crater is elliptical in form, 2008 by 1312 ft., and by the ingrowth of the placentas which bear numerous ovules has a depth of 1657 ft. below the summit of the highest pinnacle and form in the fruit a many-seeded short capsule opening by and 673 ft. below the lowest part of the rim, which is very small valves below the upper edge. The valves are hydroscopic, irregular in height. The steep, ragged walls of the crater show responding to increase in the amount of moisture in the atmoa great variety of colours, intensified by the light from the deep sphere by closing the apertures. In dry weather the valves blue sky above. Huge patches of sulphur, some still smouldering, open, and the small seeds are ejected through the pores when are everywhere visible, intermingled with the white streaks of the capsule is shaken by the wind on its long stiff slender stalk. snow and ice that fill the crevices and cover the ledges of the The flowers contain no honey and are visited by pollen-seeking black rocks. The water from the melted snow forms a small insects, which alight on the broad stigmatic surface. lake at the bottom of the crater, from which it filters through genus contains about 40 species, mostly natives of central and fissures to the heated rocks below and thence escapes as steam south Europe and temperate Asia. Five species are British; or through other fissures to the mineral springs at the moun- P. Rhoeas is the common scarlet poppy found in cornfields and tain's base. The Indian sulphur miners go down by means waste places. Cultivated forms of this, with exquisite shades of ladders, or are lowered by rope and windlass, and the mineral of colour and without any blotch at the base of the petals, are is sent down the mountain side in a chute 2000 to 3000 ft. Some known as Shirley poppies. P. somniferum, the opium poppy, observers report that steam is to be seen rising from fissures in with large white or blue-purple flowers, is widely cultivated (see the bottom of the crater, and all are united in speaking of the OPIUM). The Oriental poppy (P. orientale) and its several fumes of burning sulphur that rise from its depths. That varieties are fine garden plants, having huge bright crimson volcanic influences are still present may be inferred from the flowers with black blotches at the base. Many hybrid forms of circumstance that the snow cap on Popocatepetl disappeared varying shades of colour have been raised of late years. The just before the remarkable series of earthquakes that shook the Iceland poppy (P. undicaule), is one of the showiest species, whole of central Mexico on the 30th and 31st of July 1909. having grey-green pinnate leaves and flowers varying in colour from pure white to deep orange-yellow, orange-scarlet, &c. Specially fine varieties with stalks 18-24 in. high are cultivated on a large scale by some growers for market. The Welsh poppy belongs to an allied genus, Meconopsis; it is a perennial herb with a yellow juice and pale yellow poppy-like flowers. It is native in the south-west and north of England, and in Wales; also in Ireland. The prickly poppy (Argemone grandiflora) is a fine Mexican perennial with large white flowers. It is believed that Diego de Ordaz was the first European to reach the summit of Popocatepetl, though no proof of this remains further than that Cortés sent a party of ten men in 1519 to ascend a burning mountain. In 1522 Francisco Montaño made the ascent and had himself let down into the crater a depth of 400 or 500 ft. No second ascent is recorded until April and November 1827 (see Brantz Mayer, Mexico, vol. ii.). Other ascents were made in 1834, 1848 and subsequent years, members of the Mexican geological survey spending two days on the summit in 1895. POPPER, DAVID (1846- ), Bohemian violoncellist, was born at Prague, and educated musically at the conservatorium there, adopting the 'cello as his professional instrument. He was soon recognized, largely through von Bülow, as one of the finest soloists of the time, and played on tours throughout the European capitals. In 1872 he married the pianist Sophi Menter, from whom he was separated in 1886. In 1896 he became professor at the Royal Conservatoire at Budapest. He published various works, mainly compositions for the 'cello, together with four volumes of studies arranged as a violoncello school. POPPO, ERNST FRIEDRICH (1794-1866), German classical scholar and schoolmaster, was born at Guben in Brandenburg on the 13th of August, 1794. In 1818 he was appointed director of the gymnasium at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he died on the 6th of November 1866, having resigned his post three years before. Poppo was an extremely successful teacher and organizer, and in a few years doubled the number of pupils at the gymnasium, He is chiefly known, however, for his exhaustive and complete edition of Thucydides in four parts (11 vols., 1821-1840), containing (i.) prolegomena on Thucydides as an historian and on his language and style (Eng. trans. by G. Burges, 1837), accompanied by historical and geographical essays; (ii.) text with scholia and critical notes; (iii.) commentary on the text and scholia; (iv.) indices and appendices. For the ordinary student a smaller edition (1843-1851) was prepared, revised after the author's death by J. M. Stahl (1875-1889). See R. Schwarze in Allgemeine deutsche Biographic and authorities there referred to. To the same family belongs the horned poppy, Glaucium luteum, found in sandy sea-shores and characterized by the waxy bloom of its leaves and large golden-yellow short-stalked flowers. Another member of the family is Eschscholtzia californica, a native of western North America, and well-known in gardens, with orange-coloured flowers and a long two-valved fruit pod. The plume poppy (Bocconia cordate and B. microcarpa) are ornamental foliage plants of great beauty. The cyclamen poppy (Eomecon chionantha) is a pretty Chinese perennial, having roundish slightly lobed leaves and pure white flowers about 2 in. across. The tree poppy (Dendromecon rigidum) is a Californian shrub about 3 ft. high, having golden-yellow flowers about 2 in. across. The Californian poppy (Platystemon californicus) is a pretty annual about a foot high, having yellow flowers with 3 sepals and 6 petals; and the white bush poppy (Romneya Coulteri) is a very attractive perennial and semishrubby plant 2-8 ft. high, with pinnatifid leaves and large sweet scented white flowers often 6 in. across. POPPY HEADS, a term, in architecture, given to the finials or other ornaments which terminate the tops of bench ends, either to pews or stalls. They are sometimes small human heads, sometimes richly carved images, knots of foliages or finials, and sometimes fleurs-de-lis simply cut out of the thickness of the bench end and chamfered. The term is probably derived from the French poupée, doll, puppet, used also in this sense, or from the flower, from a resemblance in shape. POPPY OIL (Oleum papaveris), a vegetable oil obtained by pressure from the minute seeds of the garden or opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. The white-seeded and black-seeded varieties are both used for oil-pressing; but, when the production POPPY, in botany, a genus of plants known botanically as of oil is the principal object of the culture, the black seed is papaver, the type of the family or natural order Papaveraceae. usually preferred. The qualities of the oil yielded by both They are annual and perennial erect herbs containing a milky varieties and the proportion they contain (from 50 to 60%) are juice, with lobed or cut leaves and generally long-stalked regular the same. By cold pressing seeds of fine quality yield from 30 to showy flowers, which are nodding in the bud stage. The 40% of virgin or white oil (huile blanche), a transparent limpid sepals, very rarely three, which are two in number, fall off as fluid with a slight yellowish tinge, bland and pleasant to taste, the flower opens, the four (very rarely five or six) petals, which and with almost no perceptible smell. On second pressure with are crumpled in the bud stage, also fall readily. The numerous the aid of heat an additional 20 to 25% of inferior oil (huile de stamens surround the ovary, which is composed of 4 to 16 carpels fabrique or huile russe) is obtained, reddish in colour, possessed of a biting taste, and a linseed-like smell. The oil belongs to ] and nearly nine-tenths of Africa. In the same category must be the linoleic or drying series, having as its principal constituent linolein; and it possesses greater drying power than raw linseed oil. Its specific gravity at 15° C. is 0.925. Poppy oil is a valuable and much used medium for artistic oil painting. The fine qualities are largely used in the north of France (huile d'œillette) and in Germany as a salad oil, and are less liable than olive oil to rancidity. The absence of taste and characteristic smell in poppy oil also leads to its being much used for adulterating olive oil. The inferior qualities are principally consumed in soapmaking and varnish-making, and for burning in lamps. The oil is very extensively used in the valley of the Ganges and other opium regions for food and domestic purposes. By native methods in India about 30% of oil is extracted, and the remaining oleaginous cake is used as food by the poor. Ordinary poppy-oil cake is a valuable feeding material, rich in nitrogenous constituents, with an ash showing an unusually large proportion of phosphoric acid. The seed of the yellow horned poppy, Glaucium luteum, yields from 30 to 35% of an oil having the same drying and other properties as poppy oil; and from the Mexican poppy, Argemone mexicana, is obtained a non-drying oil used as a lubricant and for burning. POPULATION (Lat. populus, people; populare, to populate), a term used in two different significations, (1) for the total number of human beings existing within certain area at a given time, and (2) for the " peopling " of the area, or the influence of the various forces of which that number is the result. The population of a country, in the former sense of the word, is ascertained by means of a census (q.v.), which periodically records the number of people found in it on a certain date. Where, as is generally the case, detail of sex, age, conjugal condition and birthplace is included in the return, the census results can be co-ordinated with those of the parallel registration of marriages, births, deaths and migration, thus forming the basis of what are summarily termed vital statistics, the source of our information regarding the nature and causes of the process of "peopling," i.e. the movement of the population between one census and another. Neither of these two operations has yet reached perfection, either in scope or accuracy, though the census, being the subject of special and concentrated effort, is generally found the superior in the latter respect, and is in many cases taken in countries where registration has not yet been introduced. The countries where neither is in force are still, unfortunately, very numerous. The Population of the World, and its Geographical Distribution. -Man is the only animal which has proved able to pass from dependence upon its environment to a greater or less control over it. He alone, accordingly, has spread over every quarter of the globe. The area and population of the world, as a whole, have been the subject of many estimates in scientific works for the last three centuries and are still to a considerable extent matters of rough approximation. Every decade, however, brings a diminution of the field of conjecture, as some form of civilized administration is extended over the more backward tracts, and is followed, in due course, by a survey and a census. It is not necessary, therefore, to cite the estimates framed before 1882, when a carefully revised summary was published by Boehm and H. Wagner. Since then the laborious investigations of P. F. Levasseur and L. Bodio have been completed in the case of Europe and America, and, for the rest of the world, the figures annually brought up to date in the Statesman's Year Book may be taken to be the best available. From these sources the abstract at foot of page has been derived. still Continent. Sq. m. in placed a considerable proportion of central, southern and Polar America (see CENSUS). There is little of the world which is entirely uninhabited; still less permanently uninhabitable and unlikely to be required to support a population in the course of the expansion of the race beyond its present abodes. Probably the polar regions alone do not fall within the category of the potentially productive, as even sandy and alkaline desert is rendered habitable where irrigation can be introduced; and vast tracts of fertile soil adapted for immediate exploitation, especially in the temperate zones, both north and south, only remai: unpeopled because they are not yet wanted for colonization. The geographical distribution of the population of the world is therefore extremely irregular, and, omitting from consideration areas but recently colonized, the density is regulated by the means of subsistence within reach. "La population," says G. de Molinari, "a tendance de se proportionner à son débouché." These, in their turn, depend mainly upon the character of the people who inhabit the country. Even amongst savages there are few communities, and those but sparse, which subsist entirely upon what is directly provided by nature. As human intelligence and industry come into play the means of livelihood are proportionately extended; population multiplies, and with this multiplication production increases. Thus, the higher densities are found in the eastern hemisphere, within the zone in which arose the great civilizations of the world, or, roughly speaking, between north parallels 25 and 40 towards the east, and 25 and 55 in the west. Here large areas with a mean density of over 500 to the sq. m. may be found either supported by the food directly produced by themselves, as in the great agricultural plains of the middle kingdom of China and the Ganges valley and delta; or else, as in western Europe, relying largely upon food from abroad, purchased by the products of manufacturing industry. In the one class the density is mainly rural, in the other it is chiefly due to the concentration of the population into large urban aggregates. It is chiefly from the populations of the south-west of Europe that the New World is being colonized; but the territories over which the settlers and their recruits from abroad are able to scatter are so extensive that even the lower densities of the Old World have not yet been attained, except in a few tracts along the eastern coasts of Australia and North America. Details of area and population are given under the headings of the respective countries, and the only general point in connexion with the relation between these two facts which may be mentioned here is the need to bear in mind that the larger the territory the less likely is its mean density-figure to be typical or really representative. Even in the case of small and comparatively homogeneous countries such as Holland, Belgium or Saxony there is considerable deviation from the mean in the density of the respective component subdivisions, a difference which when extended over more numerous aggregates often renders the general mean misleading or of little value. Distribution of Population by Sex.-After geographical dispersion, the most general feature amongst the human race is its division by sex. The number of speculations as to the nature of this distinction has been, it is said, well-nigh doubled since Drelincourt, in the 18th century, brought together 262 " groundless hypotheses," and propounded on his own part a theory TABLE I. Europe 3.828* 15.773 un America 17,208* 50.0 9.1 5,881 The principal tracts measured and unenumerated (in any strict sense) in the Old World are the Turkish Empire, Persia, Afghanistan, China and the Indo-Chinese peninsula 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 Age.-Few 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, thereconsidered 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 five, and even where education is widely spread this tendency is not altogether absent, as may be seen from the examples given in TABLE III. 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 estab-fore, may be said to form a link between those of the population, lished 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 II. Number returned at each age per 10,000 of Population. Age. Germany, Native Whites. Negroes. Europe. Females. Russia, 1897. India, 1891 Asia, Females. 19 180 196 204 166 112 64 20 182 200 252 223 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 25 and 40 to return themselves as under 25, 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 may conveniently be extended to sixty and subdivided at forty, as is done in Table IV. The differences between the several countries in their age-constitution can best be appreciated by reference to some recognized general standard. The one here adopted is the result of the co-ordination of a long series of enumerations taken in Sweden during the last century and a half, prepared by Dr G. Sundbärg of Stockholm. It is true that for practical use in connexion with vital statistics for a given period, the aggregate age-distribution of the countries concerned would be a more accurate basis of comparison, but the wide period covered by the Swedish observations has the advantage of eliminating temporary disturbances of the balance of ages, and may thus be held to compensate for the comparatively narrow geographical extent of the field to which it relates. TABLE IV. Cape Colony 1904 415 409 129 istic in them should be mentioned, viz. the far higher proportion borne in them of the young, as compared with the more recent returns. In England, for instance, those under 15 amounted to 360 per mille in 1841, against 324 sixty years later. In Ireland the corresponding fall has been still more marked, from 382 to 304. The ratio in France was low throughout the 19th century, and during the last half fell only from 273 to 261, raising the proportion of the old above that resulting in northern Europe and Italy from emigration. It is remarkable that the same tendency for the proportion of the young to fall off is perceptible in new countries as well as in the older civilizations, setting aside the influence of immigration at the prime of life in depressing the proportion of children. The possible causes of this widespread tendency of the mean age of a western community to increase appertain to the subject of the movement of the population, which is dealt with below. The Movement of Population.-"The true greatness of a State says Bacon," consisteth essentially in population and breed of men "; and an increasing population is one of the most certain signs of the well-being of a community. Successive accretions, however, being spread over so long a term as that of human life, it does not follow that the population at any given time is necessarily the result of contemporary prosperity. Conversely, the traces left by a casual set-back, such as famine, war, or an epidemic disease, remain long after it has been succeeded by a period of recuperation, and are to be found in the ageconstitution and the current vital statistics. Population is continually in a state of motion, and in large aggregates the direction is invariably towards increase. The forces underlying the movement may differ from time to time in their respective intensity, and, in highly exceptional cases, may approach equilibrium, their natural tendencies being interrupted by special causes, but the instances of general decline are confined to wild and comparatively small communities brought into contact with alien and more civilized races. The factors upon which the growth of a population depend are internal, operating within the community, or external, arising out of the relations of the community with other countries. In the latter case, population already in existence is transferred from one territory to another by migration, a subject which will be referred to later. Far more important is the vegetative, or "natural" increase, through the excess of births over deaths. The principal influences upon this, in civilized life, are the number of the married, the age at which they marry or bear children, the fertility of marriages and the duration of life, each of which is in some way or other connected with the others. Marriage. In every country a small and generally diminishing proportion of the children is born out of wedlock, but the As regards correspondence with the standard distribution, it primary regulator of the native growth of a community is the will be noted that Finland, the next country to Sweden geo- institution of marriage. Wherever, it has been said, there is graphically, comes after Japan, far detached from northern room for two to live up to the conventional standard of comfort, Europe by both race and distance, and is followed by Portugal, a marriage takes place. So close, indeed, up to recent times, where the conditions are also very dissimilar. The other was the connexion held to be between the prosperity of the Scandinavian countries, Norway and Denmark, appear, like country and the number of marriages, that Dr W. Farr used to Sweden itself in the present day, to bear in their age-distribution call the latter the barometer of the former. The experience distinct marks of the emigration of adults, or, at least, the of the present generation, however, both in England and other temporary absence from home of this class at the time of enume- countries, seems to justify some relaxation of that view, as will ration. The same can be said of Italy in its later returns and of appear below. The tendency of a community towards matriGermany in those before 1895. On the contrary, the effect of mony, or its " nuptiality," as it is sometimes termed, is usually the inflow of adult migrants is very marked, as is to be expected, indicated by the ratio to the total population of the persons in the returns for the new countries, such as the United States, married each year. For the purpose of comparing the circumCanada and Australasia. In the case of the Old World, the stances of the same community at successive periods this method divergence from the standard which most deserves notice is the is fairly trustworthy, assuming that there has been no material remarkable preponderance of the young in all the countries of shifting of the age-proportions during the intervals. It is not eastern Europe, as well as in India, accompanied by an equally a safe guide, however, when applied to the comparison of notable deficiency of the older elements in the population. different communities, the age-composition of which is probably Again, there are in the west two well-known instances of deficient by no means identical, but in consideration of its familiarity reinforcement of the young, France and Ireland, in which it has been adopted in the first section of Table V. below, at countries the proportion of those under 15 falls respectively three periods for each of the countries selected as representative, 75 and 32 per mille below the standard; throwing those over One of the features which is prominent throughout the return 60 up to 41 and 26 per mille above it. The table does not in- is that in every country except Belgium the rate per mille clude figures for carlier enumerations, but one general character-attained a maximum in the early seventies, and has since shown |