Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/483

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probably decreased even more rapidly than the statistics show, as births and deaths, as a rule, tend to be more accurately recorded now than formerly. Thus it is by no means certain that the birth rate in England increased from the period 1841-50 to 1871-80. Even now when an infant dies at an early age, the registration of both birth and death is sometimes not recorded, and this custom was doubtless formerly more prevalent than it is at present.

The first bulletin of the Carnegie Foundation, which is concerned with the admission of the officers of state universities to retiring allowances, contains a good deal of interesting information in regard to the growth of these institutions, part of which is summarized in the accompanying table. The first column gives the date of founding, and some may be surprised to find that the first state universities were established in the south, Michigan, often looked upon as the oldest state university, being in fact the tenth in order. Another circumstance perhaps not generally known is the fact that two state universities were established in Ohio at the early dates of 1804 and 1824, and that the Ohio State