Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-01-20
REMARKABLE CALCULATIONS
The People That Have Lived In
the Earth and How Much
Standing Room They
Would Require.
Cincinnati Gazette

Cincinnati Gazette .
A curious illustration Of this vastly
expanded province Of the newspaper
has Just been afforded by the New
York journal Of Commerce. 1t takes
up an utterance of the Rev. Adiroa-
dack Murray, who said in a recent lee
ture:
Now the population of the earth is
/ ,00O,000,00O, and a generation dies
every thirty years. In every thirty
years, then, 1000, 0OO, 900 human be-
inns go out of the world and 1000
000, 600 come in. Forty years ago the
church taught that the world was
5000 years old. She doesn't to-day
pretend to guess how old the world is.
Very well. What has been the popu-
lation of the world since the race be-
gan? Who can estimate the number?
| By what arithmetic shall you compute
the swarming millions? Take the
elobc and hatten it into a vast plain,
$4,000 by "a, and would it aceommo-
date but q fraction Of the human be-
ings that have lived upon its surface?
Where is the locality of the judgment
to be then2 Can it have a locality2
70 this the journal replies:
Now make the widest conceivable
estimates. Suppose that the human
race has existed on this earth 100000
years, and that the population has
never from the first day been smaller
than this estimate for the present
time-namely, 1,O00,000,O 600. For the
sake of easy calculation instead Of the
estimate of so years to a generation,
call it three generations to a century.
There will then appear to have been
5000 generations of 1,00,OO0,00O each,
who, being assembled, require stand
ing room. For a crowded meeting
of men, women and children it would
be ample estimate to give each two
square feet of room. A square mile
contains in round numbers, 25,0OO,OO0
square feet, and 12,500,000 persons
could sand on it. Therefore so square
miles would hold a generation and
1000 times hat space would hold the
population Of 100000 years. That is
to say, 100000 square miles would
contain them, and, gathered in a
psrallelogram, they would stand in a
space 600 miles long by 400 broad.
They could be easily accommodated in
one or two of our states.
Dead and buried, side by side, they
would require only FIVE times their
standing space, or (say) l.2OO,0OO
square miles, and the United States of
America has ample wild lands, as yet
unwanted and %unoceupied, to give
them a cemetery. Ifany one wishes
he may estimate how many thousand
years Of generations could find graves
in this country without CT ovding each
other. Whoever will may imagine
the population assembled in a circle,
or in a vast theater with floor above
floor, each floor diminishing the sur
face area of the building. 1t will DO
people Of vivid imaginations good to
reduce such imaginations to the facts
of fgures.and any school girl can do it.
But it is not satisfied with this com
putation, aud proceeds to argue that
there is no evidence hat mar has ex.
listed 10000 years, and that the Mo-
sale records arc correct in ascribing
his first appearance to a period of
about 5000 years ago. It is not neces-
sary to reproduce the grounds adduced
for this belief. We have seen what
the status would be on a calculation
Of the longer period. Here are the
figures for the shorter
In 5000 years there are $50 genera
tions, and as we know something by
historic evidence of the sparse p0pula-
tons of former times in some parts of
the world, and must make allowance
for the deluge (Which all nations be-
lieve to have occurred), we shall be
more than safe in estimating 0na half
of the present population as the aver
age in all past generations. Then $50
generations each OF 500,0 00, O00give US
10000 00,0 900 for the whole human
laEbs uIdNcc VI lcu EludIc ltSb lUI
each would be easily found in each
Of quite a number ofthe states in the
union, and this assembly Of all the
generations of mankind would stand
in a circle around Mount Blanc,
Mount Washington, or Mount Sinai,
so near that every eye could see the
summit so miles distant.
We cannot quite see why the VIC
Tins Of the deluge should be excepted
from the ordinary count, for in the
event Of a general judgment they must
be supposed to rise, as DO all the other
dead, aud we are not vouching for
any of the Journals figures. 1t is
sufficient to remark, however, that it
has made its estimates with every ap-
pearance of sincerity and reverence,
and its action shows that the modern
editor, like Terence's hero, is of the
opinion that everything that concerns
humanity lies within his province.
The oldest friends are to-day the
staunchest friends of DR.. Bulls cough