Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/868

786 this is peculiarly unfortunate, since these are the very peoples who find population pressing most severely upon the soil at home. The Latin nations, of course, are the ones who lay most stress upon this comparative disability of their rivals; but in justice to the French, it must be added that they have generally recognized that the Spaniards and Italians possess as great an advantage over them as they in turn do over the Germans. The experience of Algeria affords a good illustration of this point. The year 1854 marks the first excess of births over deaths in this colony; and the following table shows the relative disabilities of the Europeans for 1855-'56:

Dr. Ricoux gives the following death rates per thousand for children under one year: Spaniards, 180; Maltese, 178; Italians, 194; French, 225·2; and Germans, 273. This disability of the Germans is confessed by all their most able and candid authorities. All writers, even in France, acknowledge that the Mediterranean natives possess a peculiar aptitude in this respect.