~NOTWITHSTANDING a]l that has been written of late upon physieal degeneration of the population, and the necessity ior remedies, ir will scarcely be eredited that there are in tkis Kingdom absolutely no statistics whatever relating to the physieal state of its inhabitants. We know the birth-rate and the death-rate, and the average length of life of the individual, but whether the average man nowadays is at any given age physica]]y inferior or physically superior to the average man of the same

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... e one or two generations ago eannot be ascertained by direct evidence in Great Britain and Ireland. In every other civilised country, except the United Stat› there is ample evidenee to determine Whether the population is physically deteriorating or the reverse. Although no direct evidence is forthcomhlg there is a. good dea] of indireet evidente to show that our people are degenerating. Statisties show that there is a steady though gradual inerease in the proportion that our urban bears to our rural population, and that urbanisation tends to the physical deterioration of the race is admitted by all authorities. The relative inerease Of the urban population is, of eourse, not so marked in Ireland as in Great Britain, but ir exists, and must have the same effeets more or less here that ir has elsewhere. By Ma. J. B. STOaY. 361 Sir Robert Matheson has kindly written the foIlowing letter relating to this matter :--" l~eferring to your query to Dr. Falkiner in your letter of the 10th Deeember ..... i.e., Is the urban population inereasing relatively to the rur~l?--it appe~rs th~t the percentage of decrease between the Census of 18zll and that of 1901 in the civie unions of Ireland~(~;.e., unions containing towns which in 1901 had a populgtion of 10,000 or upwards) was .4.3 per cent., and that the decrease in the remaining xmions of Ireland between the aforementioned Censuses, 18~1 and 1901, w~s 55.5 per eent. Ir woª appe~r from these figures that nei~her the cirio nor rural distriets of Irelancl show an inerease in population (in the aggrega~e), bu~ that in ~he rural unions the percentage of decrease is mueh higher than in the eivie unions."