disgrace, and the time will shortly come, no doubt, when even a death
rate of twenty per thousand of the population will be considered
disgraceful to any community. As we have already seen, the normal death
rate of the most enlightened European and American communities tends to
establish itself around fifteen or sixteen.

Of course the sanitary and hygienic conditions which influence the death
rate are so numerous that we cannot enter into and discuss them. We can
only mention some of the more general social influences which are often
overlooked and are of particular interest to the sociologist.

(1) The effect of war upon the death rate, particularly of the
victorious, is not so great as many people suppose. Considerable wars
are apparently often waged without very greatly increasing the number of
deaths in a given population. This is, however, only true, as has
already been said, of the victorious side. With the defeated it is far
different. The death rate among the defeated in a modern war is
oftentimes very greatly raised, but this is due not so much to the large
number killed in battle as to the fact that the defeated have their
territory invaded, their industries disturbed, and their general
industrial and living conditions depressed. The vital statistics of
France and Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 illustrate
this point. In Germany the death rate in 1869, the year before the war,
was 28.5; in 1870, the first year of the war, 29; and in 1871, the
culminating year of the war, 31. These figures include the armies in the
field. For France, however, the defeated party, the figures were far
different. In 1869 the death rate in France was 23.4; in 1870, 28.3; in
1871, 34.8. Thus, while Germany had its death rate increased by the
Franco-Prussian War merely 2.5 per thousand of the population, France
had its death rate increased 11.4. From this it is plain that it is the