In a total population, at different periods, of 232,673,000, there were 8,733,000 births; whence an average on the grand scale of one birth to every 26.6 individuals.

In France, however, the ratio has been steadily lessening, as seen by the following table:—

Ratio of births.
1771 to 17751 to 25
1801 to 18101 to 30
1811 to 18251 to 32
1826 to 18361 to 33
1836 to 18401 to 34
1841 to 18451 to 35
1846 to 18501 to 37

The position of France, as compared with the rest of Europe, in respect to the ratio of births to the population at different periods, is made still more manifest by another table:—

Annual ratio
of births.
1 to 23Venetian Provinces, 1827; Tuscany, 1834.
1 to 23.5Kingdom of Naples, 1822 to 1824.
1 to 24Tuscany, 1818; Sicily, 1824; Lombardy, 1827 to 1828; Russia, 1831.
1 to 24.5Prussia, 1825 to 1826.
1 to 25France, 1781; Austria, 1827; Russia, 1835; Prussia, 1836.
1 to 26Sardinia, 1820; Hanover, Wurtemberg and Mecklenburg, 1826; Greece, 1828; Naples, 1830.
1 to 27Spain, 1826; Germany and Switzerland, 1828; Poland, 1830; Ireland, 1831.
1 to 27.5Portugal, 1815 to 1819.
1 to 28Holland, 1813 to 1824; Bavaria and Sweden, 1825; Austria, 1829; Belgium, 1836.
1 to 29Canton Lucerne, 1810; Holland, 1832.
1 to 29.8France, 1801.
1 to 30Sweden and Norway, 1828; Belgium, 1832; Denmark, 1833; Turkey, 1835; States of the Church, 1836.
1 to 31Sicily, 1832; Hanover, 1835.
1 to 31.4France, 1811.
1 to 31.6France, 1821.
1 to 32Austria, 1830; Great Britain and Switzerland, 1831.
1 to 33France, 1828 to 1831.
1 to 34Norway and Holstein, 1826; Scotland, 1831; France, 1834 to 1841.
1 to 35Denmark, 1810; England, 1831; Norway, 1832.
1 to 37France, 1851.

In Paris, strange to say, the decrease in the ratio of births to the population, though decided and steady, has not, in actual proportion, been as great as in the empire at large, showing that the cause, whatever we find it to be, is not one depending on the influence of a metropolis alone for its existence.

From 1817 to 1831 there averaged, in Paris, one birth to 26.87 inhabitants; but from 1846 to 1851, one to 31.98.[17]

Again, as might have been expected, we find that the proportion of still-births, in which we must include abortions, as has hitherto been done, however improperly, in all extensive statistics, is enormous, and is steadily increasing. To show this the more plainly, we first present a table of the ratio of still-births to the living births in the various countries of Europe.[18]

Geneva,[19] 1824 to 18331 to 17
Berlin Hospitals, 1758 to 17741 to 18
Paris Maternité,[20] 1816 to 18351 to 20
Sweden, 1821 to 18251 to 23.5
Denmark, 1825 to 18341 to 24
Belgium,[21] 1841 to 18431 to 24.2
Prussia,[22] 1820 to 18341 to 29
Iceland, 1817 to 18281 to 30
Prague, 18201 to 30
London Hospitals, 1749 to 17811 to 31
Vienna, 18231 to 32
Austria, 18281 to 49
France at large, 18531 to 24
Department of Seine1 to 15
Paris,[23] 1836 to 18441 to 14.3
” 1845 to 1853[24]1 to 13.8