Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/701

Rh the United States census which embraces the researches and experiments with American trees. This report, one of the most variable of its kind from the great amount of statistical information contained in it, has been made with specially painstaking care; the distribution of American trees, the determination of their specific weights, their chemical composition in regard to mineral constituents (ashes), their commercial value, their strength, elasticity, and resistance, form the contents of a large volume. Compared with the figures obtained by Professor Sargeant, the wood of European forest-trees appears to be somewhat inferior in quality to that of American trees. The Bavarian Government, which on its 24,000 square miles of territory has over 7,000 square miles of forests, of which over 3,000 square miles are in solid masses, under a model administration of the Government, yielding about four per cent net profit, is wide awake for improvements, and has sent me to this country to investigate as fully as possible the facts about the growth of American forest-trees, their relation to the climate, and their yield of timber in quantity and quality. With their usual liberality and hospitality, the American authorities and learned men have lent a helping hand, truly worthy the spirit of a great nation not influenced by petty considerations of a possible rivalry.



CCORDING to Quetelet, "there die during the first month after birth four times as many children as during the second month, and almost as many as during the two years that follow the first year, although even then the mortality is high. The tables of mortality prove, in fact, that one tenth of children born die before the first month has been completed."

The census has shown that the mortality of infants in cities is twice as great as that in rural districts. In New York, in 1883, 28,973 children were born, and 8,068 died in their first year, thirty-three and one fourth per cent; 2,600 children died in their second year, 1,221 in their third year, 787 in their fourth year, and 525 in their fifth year, a total of 13,865 deaths of infants, almost half of the total number of deaths occurring during that year, which was 31,011.

The question arises, What is it in cities that is so hostile to infant life?

The subject is a complex one, and in its analysis we must consider the varying conditions surrounding the different classes. Distinctions of rank are as definitely marked among infants as among adults. There is none of the democracy which obtains in the country. We 