Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)

high degree of fertility and fecundity, and very little birth restriction, i.e., no celibacy, no prevenception, no infanticide). In 1895 PLOETZ (I.e. footn. 105) believed that the highly civilized French nation is a tragic example of a vanishing race.

—In the later xix. ct. the birth rate of German and Danish Jews dropped; cf. TĤEILHABER, I.e. footn. 123, 97. See also REIBMAYR, I.e. footn 56, 261, on the extinction of ruling noble families. Benoiston de CHATEUNEUF (Mémoire sur la durée des families nobles en France) stated that French noble families did not usually live longer than ca. 300 years, or 10 generations (q. by REIBMAYR, ibid). 417 Spain was alarmed lest the home country would be depopulated by withdrawal of many men to the new colonies. Cf. UZTARIZ (1724): Commercio, etc. After the death of Carl XII, Sweden was also reduced in manpower and territory, and everybody agreed that there is lack of people ("folkbrist"). 418 DUMONT, I.e. footn. 399. 419 VOLTAIRE denied any French depopulation. A large "repopulationist" literature arose in the second half of the 18th cent, in France and England; see SPENGLER, 1c. footn. 233, 77. This was the time when countries felt the need of census. The first census was in 1703 in Iceland, in 1748 iß Sweden, in 1754 in Austria, in 1769 in Norway and Denmark. Local enumerations were held in Germany and Italy. 420 For France, 1890 was the first year when the birth excess was minus 1.1 per 1000. Cf. PLOETZ, I.e. footn. 105. 421 Formerly, the cleverest and the best survived, and wars were carried out by riff-raff mercenaries. Thus, when the army was decimated, mankind had a direct benefit by it. In the 19th cent., however, universal military service became obligatory in many countries. PLOETZ, ibid., 62. 422 According to Alfred de FOVILLE, 794,000 deaths and 774,000 births occurred in that year. The Minister of War declared that if the depopulation continues at this rate, after 20 years five corps of the Army have to be eliminated. Cf. BOSS , L. M. 1917: In difesa della donna e della razza. Milano, 53.—MOLTKE remarked that "France loses a battle every day". Theodor ROOSEVELT judged that "France commits suicide". In 1911, BERTILLON, chief of Statistics of Paris, wrote that the only problem worrying the entire nation was how to keep the French race from deterioration: "Notre nation deviendra-t-elle une de çes nations minuscles qui n'existent que par la charité des autres.

.. ?" Cf. BERTILLON, I.e. footn. 378. 423 Cf. ROSS E. A. (1901): Ann. Amer. Acad. Pol¿t. Soç. Sc., 19: 67-89,—In the U.S. and Canada the rate of population growth fell more or less regularly from 1860 to 1940 (Cf. DAVIS, K. (1958): Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. Sc., 316: 1.)—Before World War One, the German Reichstag heard from BÜLOW that an excess of natality is the best defense against the enemies regardless how powerful they are. This was best proved by the example of Prussian Poland. Inspite of German persecutions, there were more and more Poles in Prussia's Posen, Oppeln, Marienwerder, etc.

—After World War One, the English daily press had a continous outery about falling birth rate, and lack of English foresight in getting sufficient manpower for the next great war. Cf. BARR, J. (1926): Amer. Medicine

, n. ser., 27: 625 etc.

—At the same time, others thought that the opposite was true. 424 Already in 1896, BERTILLON and others (CHEYSSON, A. HONNORAT, Dr. JAVAL, Ch. RICHET) formed an association for French population growth. ("Alliance nationale pour l'accroissement de la population francaise".) Beside a few illusory measures, they found a few effective remedies. Cf. BERTILLON, I.e. footn. 378, 261.; he also lists many other French associations of similar aims. 425 Cf. Émile ZOLA: F¿çonđ¿t¿, pt I. Bk. 1: ".. .the mother is the eternity of life. We should have her as a new culture, a new religion. How can we persuade our Parisian, our French women that motherhood is a woman's beauty, with a baby on her knees?" ("la mere est l'éternité de la vie. II lui faut un culte social, elle devrait étre notre religion.

.. áh! comment done persuader ä nos Parisiennes, ä toųtes nos Francaises que la beaųté de la femme est d'etre mere, avec un enfant sur les genoux?...") 426 MONTESQUIEU C. (1689-1755): Ųesprit des lois (1748), suggested tax exemption. Tax reduction of this kind has been proposed or practiced in many countries: Prussia, Serbia, Norway, Sweden, Swiss cantons, Austria.

—In 1883, M. PIERRE, deputy, submitted in the French Parliament a project of a tax law to remedy depopulation. The 1889 French Finance Law made only families of seven children or more tax-free. In Italy, a commission was estab73