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France (Paris) 84

ANNALES DE DEMOGRAPHIE HISTORIQUE

1997

Epidemies and Population

99.84.1 - French - Bruce FETTER, History Department, UW-M, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (U.S.A.)

Three hundred years of government policy in favor of public health: First survey (Trois siècles de politiques gouvernementales en faveur de la santé publique : un premier aperçu) (p. 27-46)

State initiatives over the past three hundred years have played an important role in lowering mortality levels from approximately forty per thousand per year to less than ten. These policies have depended on a combination of medical knowledge, political will, and financial resources. This paper examines state initiatives which reduced national crude death rates from famine, smallpox, water-borne diseases, and tuberculosis. Despite divergent national approaches, regimes in Asia, Europe, and North America succeeded in reducing mortality from targeted causes by as much as 15% of preexisting national crude death rates. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, MORTALITY DECLINE, HEALTH POLICY)

99.84.2 - French - Peter SKÖLD, Demographic Data Base, Umeå University, Umeå (Sweden)

Vaccination against smallpox in Sweden: Child protection and new danger for adults (Les effets de la vaccination antivariolique en Suède : protection des enfants et menace nouvelle pour les adultes) (p. 47-87)

Smallpox was one of the great killers during the 18th century. This essay studies the impact of the disease in the mortality decline and provides a demographic structure of smallpox mortality. However, for a better understanding of epidemic diseases we must also consider cultural and social aspects and answer the question how the causes of smallpox were explained and understood by the public. Smallpox did not only concern mortality, it will be concluded that also nuptiality and marriage strategies were affected. The appearance of the disease changed when vaccination was introduced in the beginning of the 19th century. The important factors for the implementation of this preventive measure will be analyzed and in a concluding discussion will stress vaccination as being most important for the decline of smallpox mortality, thereby criticizing theories which prefer to see a changing virulence as the decisive factor. (SWEDEN, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, MORTALITY DECLINE, SMALLPOX, VACCINATION)

99.84.3 - French - Olivier FARON, Centre Roland Mousnier, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor-Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France)

The cholera in Milan in 1836 (Le choléra à Milan en 1836) (p. 89-114)

The cholera epidemic of 1836 was the main mortality crisis in Milano for the whole of the 19th century, even if it was less severe than in other towns and did not profondly affect demographic trends in the city. Original material, such as registers of the dead, makes detailed analysis of the epidemic possible. It reached its unique peak in the summer months (essentially the last two weeks in July and the beginning of August) and struck above all women and elderly people. Relief centers were rapidly set up to deal with the difficult situation. The geography of the cholera epidemic is particularly interesting, with border-areas of Milano being especially affected. It would thus seem possible to attribute a major role to activities such as market-gardening. This kind of work not only meant having contact with water and raw-sewage -clearly dangerous elements- but entailed much moving about. (ITALY, CITIES, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, CHOLERA, EPIDEMICS)

99.84.4 - French - Josep BERNABEU MESTRE and Teresa BALLESTER ARTIGUES, Història de la Ciència, Departament de Salut Pública, Universitat d'Alacant, Campus de Sant Joan, Ap. de Correus, 374, 03080 Alacant (Spain)

Leprosy in contemporary Spain, 1878-1932. Demographic and socio-sanitary aspects (Le retour d'un péril : la lèpre dans l'Espagne contemporaine, 1878-1932. Aspects démographique et socio-sanitaire) (p. 115-134)

This article deals with the demographic and socio-sanitary aspects leprosy of pandemic which touched the Spanish population during the contemporary period. After having explained the difficulty of obtaining reliable statistics on the death rates from leprosy, it describes the geography of the pandemic illness. Similarly, based on testimony of close observers from the period, it analyzes the causes of leprosy's appearance and spread, underlining the influence of migratory movements. Finally, it describes the collective response, public as well as private, given at the time to the threat posed by leprosy to public health. (SPAIN, HISTORY, EPIDEMIOLOGY)

99.84.5 - French - Scarlett BEAUVALET, Centre Roland Mousnier, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor-Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France), and Pierre BOUTOUYRIE, Service de Pharmacologie, Hôpital Broussais, Paris (France)

Epidemics and invasive medical procedures in Paris in the 19th century: An example from Port-Royal maternity hospital (Du geste qui tue au geste qui sauve. Épidémies et procédures médicales invasives à Paris au XIXe siècle : l'exemple de la maternité de Port-Royal) (p. 135-154)

In the 19th century, epidemics of peurperal fever ravaged maternity homes and childbirth wards in hospitals. By mid-century, the search for the causes of these epidemics had become a major subject of debate at the Academy of Medicine, but the the mechanisms were not clearly revealed until the 1880's. In this article we propose to underscore the relationship between the progression of invasive medical procedures and the occurrence of the epidemics. Technical progress (instruments, surgical procedures and anesthesia) brought about a growing recourse to invasive techniques, but this progress coincided with an increase in the fever epidemics, which were particularly lethal between 1850 and 1870. We have attempted to show the reactions of the medical corps confronting this scourge as well as the repercussions on the understanding of the phenomenon of contagion prior to the antiseptic revolution. (FRANCE, HISTORY, EPIDEMICS, PUERPERAL FEVER, HOSPITAL BIRTHS, MEDICINE)

99.84.6 - French - Frans VAN POPPEL, NIDI, P.O. Box 11650, 2502 AR The Hague (Netherlands), and Cor VAN DER HEIJDEN, Lycée de Tilburg, Tilburg (Netherlands)

Debated effects of water conveyance on population health. Research and experimentation results in Tilburg, The Netherlands (Les effets controversés de l'adduction d'eau sur la santé des populations. Bilan des recherches et expérimentation sur une ville des Pays-Bas (Tilburg)) (p. 157-204)

The provision of clean water is mentioned as an important factor in many studies dealing with the decline of mortality in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In developing countries too, improved water supply is assumed to have a strong impact on mortality. The methodological problems with which researchers are confronted when studying the impact of water supply on public health are manifold. Most of these also apply to historical studies of the subject. In our paper, we review the evidence from this historical research, taking into account the methodological problems observed in contemporary impact evaluation studies, and we use more refined data from the Dutch city of Tilburg, enabling us to overcome many of these shortcomings. Finally, we discuss some factors which may explain why we failed to discover an effect of the availability of piped water on the level of childhood mortality. (NETHERLANDS, CITIES, HISTORY, WATER SUPPLY, MORTALITY DECLINE, METHODOLOGY)

1998

Marriage, Rules and Practices

99.84.7 - French - Agnès WALCH, Centre Roland Mousnier, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor-Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France)

Ideal mate selection in the Catholic married life handbook in France during the modern period (Le choix du conjoint idéal dans les manuels catholiques de vie conjugale en France à l'époque moderne) (p. 7-23)

Since the 17th century, the Catholic clergy, anxious about the married life, explained it the rules and adressed some advises to the laics. The corpus gets together twenty-one married life's handbooks, writen during the modern period, especially 1643-1737. The first generation's authors, often Jesuits, are optimistic. But, after 1680, they become pessimistic about secular behaviours. All talk yet about the choice of the married with the aim of converting the profane attitudes. They reprove marriages for the money, ambition, passion or those which are forced by the parents. They wish for love-match, because marriage is thinking as a religious union. Husband and wife pray together, help one another to find salvation, and this requires affection and charity. Therefore, the ideal bride and bridegroom are those who have the same faith. These handbooks are more than books of morality. They advise a confessional endogamy for a conjugal spirituality. (FRANCE, HISTORY, MATE SELECTION, CATHOLICISM, MARRIAGE EDUCATION)

99.84.8 - French - Flora MADIC, 4 rue du Bois Mally, 1205 Geneva (Switzerland)

A complex system of alliance, example from Masse, Switzerland (Un système complexe d'alliance, l'exemple de Masse (Suisse)) (p. 25-58)

The present study challenges the commonly held opinion that egalitarian inheritance could only lead partition after partition to the break up of family patrimony. A precise observation of marriages over several generation in the Swiss village of Masse shows that egalitarian partitions allowed above all to divide and transfer lots of land among members of the community as a whole. Thus, the point of redoublements d'alliance to a group (through blood ties) or to several groups (renchaînement d'alliance), over one or more generations, was not in order to reconstitute a viable family enterprise, especially since the acquests of a couple composed an important part of the new property. In a society without apparent sub-groups and without explicit rules for alliance, the questions arises as to what the alliance system was based on. The author seeks to analyze kidship through the prism of relations, in particular by following the family and political dualism which had repurcussions on the family, the network of matrimonial and political alliances, social division and cohesion within the community. Splitting partitions into two within a village sometimes favored matrimonial exchange since through a succession of break-ups and reajustments the distribution and circulation of individuals throughout society was assured, in conformity with the logics of inheritance. Through open endogamy, this dual division within a village meant that it was possible to link up and have exchanges with members of the other group, while remaining amongst one's own. (SWITZERLAND, HISTORY, RURAL SOCIOLOGY, MARRIAGE CUSTOMS, INHERITANCE, OWNERSHIP)

99.84.9 - French - Edith SAURER, European University Institute, Badia Fiesolana, Via dei Roccettini 9, I-50016 San Domenico di Foespme (Italy)

Mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Mate selection in Austria towards 1800 (Belles-mères et beaux-fils. Au sujet du choix du partenaire en Autriche vers 1800) (p. 59-71)

This article explores the ban placed on endogamy and the increase in numbers of marriages between close kin in Austria. It seeks to analyze possible motivations for step parents and step children in their desire to form sentimental and matrimonial relationships. With Joseph II's law on marriage, the ban against 4th and 3rd degrees of blood relation and collateral alliance was lifted. This led not only to an increase in numbers of marriages between kin, but also a new frequence of configurations which had been deemed unacceptable up to then. Thus, for example, marriages took place between step brothers and sisters and especially between step parents and children. The convergence of economic difficulties and amorous relations formed on a daily basis would seem to explain such choices. (AUSTRIA, HISTORY, MATE SELECTION, ENDOGAMY, LEGISLATION)

99.84.10 - French - Frans VAN POPPEL, Aart C. LIEFBROER and Wendy J. POST, NIDI, P.O. Box 11650, 2502 AR The Hague (Netherlands)

An increase in age homogamy between spouses: Differences between social classes and regions in the Netherlands, 1812-1912 (Vers une plus grande homogamie d'âge entre conjoints : différences entre les classes sociales et différences régionales aux Pays-Bas, 1812-1912) (p. 73-110)

Comtemporaries as well as historians have considered the age differences between spouses as an excellent indicator of the character of the spousal relationship. In this article we discuss three potential mechanisms which might determine the choice of a spouse of a given age: the age preferences of the potential spouses; the role which third parties play and the structure of the interaction opportunities. We argue that during the 19th century, all three mechanisms have changed in such a way that smaller age differences between spouses have been the result. We tested this idea making use of data on more than 60 000 first marriages contrated in a large number of municipalities in the Netherlands between 1812 and 1912, making use of log-linear analysis of age differences. It turned out that the age similarity between spouses has been constantly increasing from the second decade of the 19th century on. Until 1870 this increase in age homogamy was slow. The increase started in the coastal regions of the Netherlands. After 1870, a relatively strong increase in age similarity between spouses can be observed among the lower social classes, particularly among those who lived in the West and North of the country. The upper class and the learned professionnals followed with a delay of seceral decades. Finally, we argue how and why the observed pattern of changing age homogamy fits in with the developed explanatory scheme. (NETHERLANDS, HISTORY, AGE AT MARRIAGE, MATE SELECTION, HOMOGAMY)

99.84.11 - French - Maurice GARDEN, École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, 61 avenue du Président Wilson, 94235 Cachan Cedex (France)

Marriages between Parisians at the end of the 19th century: A quantitative micro-analysis (Mariages parisiens à la fin du XIXe siècle : une micro-analyse quantitative) (p. 111-133)

A sample of a thousand marriage registers found in the mairies of the twenty arrondissements of Paris and in some towns of the department of Seine in January 1885 leads to an analysis of demographic and socio-professional caracteristics of a small population defined by assembling individuals who experienced the same event - marriage - in the same geographic area - Paris and the suburbs - at the same time. Although the demographic caracteristics of this population only confirms the data furnished by the publications of the Statistique Générale de la France - the mean age of grooms being much higher than that of brides, the importance of immigration - a finer study of sources reveals that they still have more to reveal. The relations between young couples and their parens, the survival of parents at the time of their children's marriage, the presence or absence of living parents at the time of marriage underline the differences between Parisians by birth and other newly weds. Numerous details illustrate the strength of family links as well as the blows they underwent (separation and divorces between parents). The compared analysis of spouses' professions, of that of their parents and of their four obligatory witnesses for every act of marriage performed, is also of great interest when approaching forms of neighboring, sociability and solidarity in large cities at the end of the 19th century. (FRANCE, CAPITAL CITY, MARRIAGE RECORDS, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, URBAN SOCIOLOGY)

99.84.12 - French - François-Joseph RUGGIU, Centre Roland Mousnier, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor-Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France)

Households and families in Laon at the beginning of the 18th century (les mots pour le dire : ménages et familles à Laon au début du XVIIIe siècle) (p. 135-162)

A census of the corns onwed by the inhabitants of Laon in May 1709 provided a unique opportunity to make a detailed analysis of a significant proportion of households in a provincial town. The large households were numerous and a proportion unusually high of them was extended to a relative. A systematic study of words and expressions employed by the parishioners showed futhermore a slow shift from the concept of the household-family to the concept of family as a circle of kin. (FRANCE, CITIES, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD SIZE, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, TERMINOLOGY)

99.84.13 - French - Isabelle CAUBET, 138 avenue des Minimes, Bât. 32, 31200 Toulouse (France)

Demographic and social approaches of households in Toulouse in 1695 (Approches démographiques et sociales des ménages toulousains en 1695) (p. 163-193)

The 1695 Toulouse capitation census reveals that repartition of households structures is similar to northern model, with high proportions of simple family households and households of solitary. Thus, although customs are those of southern areas, extended family households and multiple family households are very few. In fact, urban environment seems to differ from north-south cleavage, because of many specific criteria which don't allow the cohabitation of several generations under the same roof. Size and structure of households vary according to social belonging of its head. In fact, each social rank goes with specific conditions of living. They entail differential mortality and fertility which have an influence upon the composition and the size of families. The frequence of remarriage and the presence of domestics can modulate ponctual observations given by the census. As for domestics, very numerous in Toulouse, they are an integral part of households. They don't only have an ostentatious function. They generally have a real utility next to family members. Thus, it appears that the presence of domestics is often bound to households composition and size. (FRANCE, CITIES, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD SIZE, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION)

99.84.14 - French - Lars-Göran TEDEBRAND, Department of Historical Demography, Umeå (Sweden)

Studies on the history of Swedish population: Important stage and recent trends (Les recherches sur l'histoire de la population suédoise : grandes étapes et tendances récentes) (p. 195-214)

Larts-Göran Tedebrand gives an overview of the history of Swedish demographic statistics: the creation of the Tabellverket and the work carried out by Wargentin as early as the 18th century, followed by the development of the Central Bureau of Statistics as of 1857 and the works undertaken by the eminent Swedish demographic statistician Gustav Sundbärg and his successors. In the second part of the article, the author examines the main areas which were developed in the 1960's and 1970's: studies on migrations (Uppsala project) and on the family. The final part of the paper presents research being carried out today: epidemiological transition, public health and decrease in mortality, the development of a demographic data base in Umeå which facilitates micro-demographic and numerous pluridisciplinary studies (especially with geneticians and gynecologists). Research on numerous aspects of mortality are also being carried out, whether it concern studies on child-bearing women or young children, relations among various caracteristics of mortality and social and economic change, the role of hospitals or more ideological aspects of demographic transition. (SWEDEN, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH)

99.84.15 - English - David HENIGE, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (U.S.A.)

E-mail : henige@macc.wisc.edu

He came, he saw, we counted: The historiography and demography of Caesar's gallic numbers (p. 215-242)

In his account of his Gallic campaigns, Julius Caesar frequently provided numbers for his opponents. These ranged as high as 430,000 and often exceeded 100,000. In modern times, Caesar's figures have been widely used to suggest, and even to calculate, population levels for ancient Gaul. In this paper, I take issue with the notion that it is expedient to treat Caesar's numbers seriously, and even more inappropriate to use them to infer overall population levels. To do this, I use logistical and textual arguments, pointing out, for instance, that Caesar's matter-of-fact discursive style is hardly warrant to take his itherwise uncorroborated numbers at face value. Rather, they should be considered as typical examples of the genre of exaggerated wartime numbers, a genre with a history reaching back as far as Old Kingdom Egypt and as far forward as the Vietnam war and beyond. (FRANCE, HISTORY, POPULATION ESTIMATES, QUALITY OF DATA)

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