The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1875-09-25
Prenatal Homicide.

Archbishop Lynch, of Toronto, doe
excellently well to reprove pre-nata
homicide upon all proper occasions, bu
when he ventures to say that "in tn,
New England States an ungodly people
are exterminating themselves from The
face of the earth. and a chaste and God
fearing people are succeeding TO theil
inheritance" the little adjective sun
godly" is likely to go far toward upset
ting the whole OF his argument. Are
the Catholic French an "ungodly peo
pie ?" It is certain that the crime oil
abortion is practiced much more con
stantly IN France than in New England,
and with results which approach much
nearer to the point of arresting increase
of population. Must it for that reason
be assumed that the ungodly" French
are exterminating themselves from the
face of the earth in order to make room
for the chaste, God-fearing Germans 7
Such a conclusion will scarcely suit
Archbishop Lynch, nor yet those to
whom his remarks were addressed. But
the French are seriously concerned
about the decreased growth OF their
country in population and the causes
which have led to this, asking them
selves whether the cold blooded theory
be indeed true, that races, like individ-
uals, have limited existence, and that
there are young races which blot out
the old aad decrepid ones by mere con-
tact with them. M. Sadillot, of the
French institute, has lately been ex-
aiming into the general question of
the vital functions of o nation with
special reference to the resources of
France il these respects, and his Du
ReUeIensent de la France is a pregnant
and instructive work. Omitting refer
ence to all that is embraced in this
valuable book except the subject
touched upon by Archbishop Lynch,
we find that the French marriage bed
is unferGle in comparison with the Eng
lish. Inthe first place, the proportion
of marriages to the total population is
much greater in England than in France;
in the second place, the mean of chill
dren bonn to an English marriage is
four, while that to a French marriage
is only three. Here is a difference,
really startling, of Is per cent against
the French, and the proportion of it
due to abortion must necessarily be
large. One cause of this diminished
naturally is that the French
do not marry SO early in life; the
higher dasses do not marry much
younger than thirty, while the age of
greatest iecundity is between twenty
FIVE and thirty-fve. The large drafts
of youngmen into the army is also
deterrentaRency; but prenatal homi-
eide is after all the chief cause, and
how large part it plays may be gath
cred from the significant fact that, while
the average mortality of infants under
one year old is for all France twenty in
q hundred, in some departments rising
TO thirty'six per cent, the death of
such infalts born out of wedlock range
from double to triple this percentage.
In the regions about Paris the deaths
Of illegitimate children run from fifty
10 seventy per cent. of the births In the
first year. and it is q well known fact
that in Paris the number Of illegitimate
births exceeds the number of legitimate
ones. The New England States show a
much mon healthy condition of things
han this. Taking the whole United
States Though, as compared with the
other countries, we find that in one hun
lred thousand persons the proportion
Of population under one year is, in the
United States 3,212; in England and
Wales, 1929 in Italy, 1919; in Nor
way, 3,O42; in France, 2, 169 ; in Massa-
with its large manufacturing
md town population, 2,419. If Arch |
bishop Lynch will compare these fig
Tres he will discover that Catholic
France is in much greater danger of
BEING depopulated than ungodly New
England but, per contra, that Catholic
italy is more prolific than either the
United States or Protestant England
Ne,D York World.