WAR'S HUMAN TOLL.
EXPERT GIVES ESTIMATE. • tl According to Dr. Louis C. Parkes, : J sanitary adviser to the Imperial Board _f of Works, the number of males of mil*.'; {§ tary age who after two years of -war : : I will have died of wounds or disease, or/ ■ 11 who will have become permanently in.. p capacitated and unable to support a r family, may be taken approximately as ■■_'■■. Dead or„a.'. • Jfc. Nation. Population, capacitated;. ■ H German Empire. 66.000,000 2,200,00C1' '■-'_] Austria-Hnnsary. 50.000.000 1,700,000 •■ ■ M •European Russia 123.000.000 3.300,000 fl France 40.000.000 1.300.000 \_\ Uuited Kingdom. 46,000,000 500.0C0'.-■-.'' §1 ~ Total 9,000,000'•-.'J-: B To these 0.000,000 of males in the H countries named, for which approxi-., r'; mately accurate figures were available,, | ' must be added the fighting males lost- &:■ to Belgium. Italy. Turkey, and Bui- j garia, and the losses of both sexes of alt ages among the civilian populations in; Belgium, France, Poland, Russia, Serbia, . i and Austria, which Dr. Parkes esti-. | mated would bring the total destruction | I of life in Europe in two years of warup to nearly 20,000,000 persons. "The only consoling feature about- S this enormous destruction of hwnan • I life," Dr. Parkes said, "is the reflection; that in the past ages of the world's his-! f tory the evolution of higher types in. J animal and vegetable life appears to- I have been the result of catadysmic 1 changes, such as glacial periods, which | have caused great destruction of lifeas" | well as a vastly altered environment';- I and as. in the history of man, great de- i struction by natural causes—plague, 1 pestilence, and famine—led to an ad-' t§ vance in civilisation, so it is possible, ii that Armageddon may be of ultimate 1 I benefit to humanity, and Che losses must J |! not be regarded as pure waste, without | any counter-balance of advantage. |
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Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1916, Page 8
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305WAR'S HUMAN TOLL. Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1916, Page 8
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