Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/498

 SCIENCE.

��as maoy if jou liapiiened to select 10. or even i^ timeB as many (au excess of 126 ^) if 50U selected <>0, as tbe age.

The comparison of this average ' 10 exag- geration ' for the total po])uktioii, wiih that for the native whites, the foi'eign-ljorn, and the colored inhabitants, — making, in each case. the distinction between male and female. — will serve as a good starting-point. Fig. 1 ex- presses the result graphically. The first of each group of three lines shows the ' 10 exag- geration ' of the total number of the class vrbicb it represents ; the second line that of the male, and the third that of the female, [tor- tion of it. The first set of three lines repre- sents these averages for the total population : the second, for the native whitea ; the third, for the foreign-bom ; the fourth, for the colored population.

The enormous exaggeration of the colored ' people is the first striking, appalling fact. Their avei-age ' 10 exaggeration ' is -iS2 % : in other words, there are 5| times as many colored [persons recorded at any age containing a multiple of 10 as at the preceding nge. The native whites, as one would expect, are the most reliable class, their average excess being 2^ %. The average of the foreign-liorn {)03^), while not in all strictness comparable with the others, may yet be considered so for onr pnrposes. It is evident that the negro is the being upon whom all the various causes tending to produce this peculiar falsity of re- turns are the most active. The foreign-born are also very ansceptihle to these tendencies; and doubtless misunderslniidings between the foreigner and the census offlcial, owing to a meagre acquaintance with the language, enter as an additional disturbin" induence. More- over, in both these classes the general illiteracy is decidedly above the average.'

The next consideration is that of sex. The gentler sex in each case exaggerates more than the male sex. and, in the case of the colored people, consicleiably more. For the total pop- ulation, the male average is 01 %, the female 81% ; for the native whites, male 22..) %, female .33.6 % ; for the foreign-born, male 92.1!%, female 113.8%; for the colored, male 352%, fem-ile 536.5%. The average excess of the native white males (22.5 %), and that of the colored females (5:16.0%), serve as a significant contrast. Next to the exaggeration

��at the ages containing multiples of 10. rally comes that at the ages containing i. . pies of 5. This ' 5 exaggeration ' follows t

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����same course wiili reference to race and i the ' 10 exnggeratiun,' and is represented M -mark and the foot of the liae. the total population it is 2i;%, as (
 * . 1. by the part of each line cut off betwa

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