Abstract
IN a recent thesis (Thèse de Paris 1940, No. 311) Dr. H. Birnbaum remarks that for more than a century the population of France has shown only a very slight increase; from 34 millions in 1840 it has risen to only 42 millions in 1940. At the same time there has been a very pronounced fall in the annual number of births, namely, from about a million in 1840 to a little more than half that number in 1939. During the same period owing to the progress of medicine and hygiene as well as of certain technical acquisitions the average duration of human life has increased by about twenty years, so that the average span of life in 1940 is about 60 years as compared with 40 in 1840. According to Dr. Birnbaum, depopulation in France is due to individual and voluntary limitation of births, whether this limitation is due to anticonceptional measures or to criminal abortions, of which latter more than 300,000 are carried out on married women in France every year.
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