Note 249-6 — Chapter II

The relative number of illegitimate births in many nations of to-day is unfortunately an increasing one. In France, in 1801, only 4.6 per cent. of all live births were illegitimate; in 1811, 6.09; in 1821, 7.07; in 1830, 7.2; in 1857, 7.5; 1861-65, 7.56 per cent. The German especially must confess with deep shame that the southern half of the fatherland presents a very unfavorable picture in this respect. Can a nation be free when its capital, Vienna (1853-56), counts on an average 10,330 illegitimate and 11,099 legitimate births? Compare Stein-Wappäus, Handbuch der Geogr., IV, 1, 193. According to observations made between 1850 and 1860, in England between 1845 and 1860, there were in Holland for every 1,000 legitimate births 44 illegitimate, in Spain 59, in England and Wales 71, in France 80, in Belgium 86, in Prussia 91, in Norway 96, in Sweden 96, in Austria 98, in Hanover 114, in Saxony 182, in Bavaria 279. (Statist. Journ., 1868, 153.) Compare Wappäus, A. Bevölk. Stat., II, 387. In Russia, according to v. Lengefeld, 36.9; in the electorate of Mark, 1724-31, 1 in 18. (Süssmilch, I, § 239.) During the 17th century it is estimated that the ratio of illegitimate to legitimate births in Merseburg was as 1:22-30, in Quedlinburg as 1:23-24, in Erfurt as 1:13½. (From the Kirchenbücher in Tholuck's Kircliches Leben, etc., I, 315 seq.) In Berlin in 1640, only 1-2 per cent. of illegitimate births. (König, Berlin, I, 235.) In Leipzig, 1696-1700, 3 per cent.; 1861-65, 20 per cent. Knapp, Mitth. des. Leipz. Statist. Bureaus, VI, p. X.