Note 246-5 — Chapter II

In Geneva, where there have been almost uninterrupted tables of mortality, giving the age at the time of death, the average duration of life during the 2d half of the 16th century is estimated at 21-1/6 years; during the 17th century, at 25¾ years; from 1701 to 1750, at 32-7/12 years; from 1750 to 1800, at 34½ years; from 1814 to 1833, at 40-2/3 years. Compare Mallet, Recherches historiques et statistiques sur la Population de Genève, 1837, 98 ff., 104 ff., and Bernouilli, Schweiz, Archiv., II, 77; per contra, d'Ivernois, sur la Mortalité proportionelle des peuples considérée comme Mesure de leur Aisance et Civilization, 1833, 12 ff. But little can be inferred from this, on account of the large immigration, of adults for the most part. Geneva is said to have had, in the 16th century, never much more than 13,000 inhabitants; at the end of the 17th century it had 17,000; in 1789, 26,000; between 1695 and 1795 there was an increase of 6,000 at least from abroad. (Bernouilli, Populationistik, 369 seq.) Compare Wappäus in the Götting. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. Bd., VIII, 1860, who, however, as well as Neison, Contributions to Vital Statistics, VI ff., is too skeptical as regards modern progress in vitality.