the
lowest place, so far as Europe is concerned. In 1908 out of a total of
over 11,000,000 French families, in nearly 2,000,000 there were no
children, and in nearly 3,000,000 there was only one child.[91] The
general decline in the European birth-rate, during the years 1901-1905,
was only slight in Switzerland, Ireland and Spain, while it was large
not only in France, but in Italy, Servia, England and Wales, and
especially in Hungary (while, outside Europe, it was largest of all in
South Australia). Since 1905 there has been a further general decline
throughout Europe, only excepting Ireland, Bulgaria, and Roumania. In
Prussia in 1881-1885 the birth-rate was 37.4; in 1909 it was only 31.8;
while in the German Empire as a whole it is throughout lower than in
Prussia, though somewhat higher than in England. In Austria and Spain
alone of European countries during the twenty years between 1881 and
1901 was there any tendency for the fertility of wives to increase. In
all other countries there was a decrease, greatest in Belgium, next
greatest in France, then in England.[92]

If we consider the question, not on the basis of the crude birth-rate,
but of the "corrected" birth-rate, with more exact reference to the
child-producing elements in the population, as is done by Newsholme and
Stevenson,[93] we find that the greatest decline has taken place in New
South Wales, then in Victoria, Belgium, and Saxony, followed by New
Zealand. But France, the German Empire generally, England, and Denmark
all show a considerable fall; while Sweden and Norway show a fall,
which, especially in Norway, is slight. Norway illustrates the
difference between the "crude" and the "corrected" birth-rate; the crude
birth-rate is lower than that of Saxony, but the corrected birth-rate is
higher. Ireland, again, has a very low crude birth-rate, but the
population of child-bearing age has a high birth-rate, considerably
higher than that of England.

Thus while forty years ago it was usual for both the English and the
Germans to contemplate, perhaps with some complacency, the spectacle of
the falling birth-rate in France as compared with the high birth-rate in
England and Germany, we are now seen to be all marching along the same
road. In 1876 the English birth-rate reached its maximum of 36.3 per
thousand; while in France the birth-rate now appears almost to have
reached its lowest level. Germany, like England, now also has a falling
birth-rate, thou