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MÜLHAUSEN  IN  ALSACE.

Mülhausen  is  the  second  town  in  size  in  the  Reichsland,  as  the  provinces
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  annexed  by  Germany  in  1871,  are  called,  and  is  an
important  centre  of  the  cotton  industry.  It  is  emphatically  a  town  of  working
people.  The  handicrafts  which  elsewhere  occupy  great  prominence  are  here
comparatively  insignificant  ;  there  is  no  large  leisured  class  ;  industry  and,  in  a
secondary  degree,  the  wholesale  handling  of  merchandise  are  the  distinguishing
marks  of  its  economic  life.  The  population  in  1905  was  94,498.

Owing  partly  to  its  geographical  position,  and  also  to  its  dependence  upon  a
single  industry,  Mülhausen’s  growth  has  for  a  long  time  been  very  equable.
The  movement  of  population  since  1875  has  been  as  follows  :—

Year  of  Census.

Population.

1875
1880
1885
1890
1895
1900
1905

58,463
63,629
69,759
76,892
82,986
89,118
94,498

Increase.

5,166
6,130
7,133
6,094
6,132
5,380

Increase  per  cent.

8-8
9-6
10-2
7-9
74
6-0

The  birth-rate  and  the  death-rate  have  declined  equally  during  the  past
twenty  years.  The  average  birth-rate  during  the  period  1881-1885  was
36  per  l’OOO  of  the  population,  and  during  the  years  1901-1905  it  was  28-5,
showing  a  fall  of  7  5  per  1,000  ;  while  the  average  death-rates  at  the  same
periods  were  27  3  and  19*8  respectively,  showing  a  decline  of  7'5  per  1,000.
These  rates  and  the  infant  mortality  rate  have  been  as  follows  during  the
five  years  1901-1905  :—

Year.

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905

Birth-rate  per  1,000
of  Population.

31-8
28-7
27-  6
28-  4
26-0

Death-rate  per  1,000
of  Population.

19-7
191
201
19-  9
20-  4

Infantile  Mortality
per  1,000  Births.

181
212
211
205
200

The  deaths  from  tuberculosis  in  1905  were  equal  to  2'74  per  1,000  of  the
population,  comparing  with  2'28  in  1904  and  2’0<  in  1903.
The  general  aspect  of  the  streets  of  Mülhausen  is  unpretentious  and  in  no
way  suggestive  of  a  large  town  or  in  keeping  with  its  industrial  impoitance.
There  are  spacious  private  gardens,  still  withheld  from  the  builder’s  hand,  yet
little  public  planting  has  been  done  The  villa  residences  in  which  the  well  -todo
  families  live  form  a  colony  apart,  lying  beyond  the  railway  and  the  canal  to
the  South,  R  quarter  from  which  factories  are  excluded.  01  the  factories  some