163 STUDIES IN STATISTICS CHAP. CHAPTER XL THE POPULATION OF LONDON AND ITS MIGRATIONS. As far back as history extends, we find men living in large cities, some very ancient ones, such as Nineveh and Babylon, large even compared with most of the capitals of modern Europe ; but it may be asserted, with little fear of contradiction, that such an agglomeration of human beings as is now living, toiling, suffering, pleasuring, entering the world and quitting it, to north and south, west, and more especially east of us, making up modern London, is absolutely without precedent in ancient and modern civilization. Numbers fail utterly to give us an idea of its vast size, which can only be grasped by comparison with other populations. The table shows the populations of the four largest cities of the Western World, together with the twelve countries of Hurope that have fewest inhabitants, British North America, and our colonies in Avstralacia. POPULATION IN MILLIONS, 1880—1881 Belgium ee soa ... B58 Australasian Colonics Roumania, ... i ... B'4 Switzerland nh Ireland wos .. ... B92 Paris... Sweden op er . 46 Denmark Canada and Newfoundland £ % Greece Portugal . er ... <3 Norway Holland . A. ... 47 Servia London I. ee. 32 Few You Jeotland » L _. 53% Bera 2:7 2:9 2:3 2:0 2:0 . T.0 i ¢ 1 A paper read at a conference at the International Health Exhibition, T.ondon. June 4, 1884.