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408 Jean Bourgeois-Pichat
tants, strengthens the feeling of belonging to a group. Possibly it is this idea which
is expressed in Article II of the United States’ Constitution.
4. In the survey, the 58 % is found with a margin for error which depends on the size
of the sample. W e know, for instance, that it is situated between 55 and 61 %. By
questioning the entire population, we know the exact percentage. It will be 58.2%,
for example. W e will have gained in precision; will have a better idea of the popula-
tion’s ‘situation’. But opinion will have been affected to such an extent that we
shall no longer know where we are at the end of the total survey. We should no
longer know anything about the population ‘rate’ in relation to the phenomenon
being examined.
5. Of course, the converse is also true.
6. In small populations, even without the differential choice of the marriage partner
or the differential fertility, mortality or migration rates, the mere operation of
chance causes a variation in the proportion of genes - what is known as genetic
deviation. However, the effect of this is only noticeable in very small populations.
7. We assume that first cousins and descendants of first cousins are included in the
inter-marriage area.
8. Furthermore, we know little about the short-term infertility which affects a girl
immediately after puberty.
9. More exactly 75o.000 oocytes, forerunners of the ovules.
IO. At the socio-biological stage, short-term variations are observable in the birth-rate,
even if only for example, seasonal variations.They are then due, seemingly, to
modifications in the intra-uterine mortality rate, whether provoked or unprovoked.
In the former case, to which may be added infanticide, we have already a partial
psycho-sociological determinant of fertility.
I I. It might well be asked in this connexion, if it is not such tensions which have lent
so much prominence to discussions concerning abortion during the last few years.
12. It is known, moreover, that sexual intercourse prior to marriage is by no means a
rarity, and a strong proportion of first-borns are the result of pre-marriage concep-
tions. What is less well known is to what extent such pre-marital relations are the
result or the cause of marriage.
13. The outside environment can also be changed. For instance, malaria has been
banished from vast tracts of country by the use of powerful insecticides. On the
other hand, economic development can also have evil consequences : thus irrigation
has encouraged the spread of diseases such as bilharziasis.
14. It can be conceded that the ancestor who no longer produces anything directly
still participates in production by being, for example, ‘the one who knows the
group’s past’, provided that this past is regarded by the group as useful to its
daily life.
15. The type of hospital depends, for example, on the mortality rate. Diseases that
call for attention differ according to whether the mortalitv rate is high or low.
16. Unless gifts are received from a foreign country.
17. We are referring here to the income of a private citizen. The global capital income
is very much higher, but only a fraction of this is distributed to the owner of the
capital. This fraction normally represents 4 or 5 % on the capital.
18. By resorting to the world capital market it is possible to exceed this percentage.
But, obviously, not all countries can do this.
19. A part of a State’s or collectivity’s financial resources can also be derived from
capital income.
20. Certain countries have exceeded this percentage.
21. Seen from the angle of the developing countries, I % of the national revenue of the
wealthy countries represents IO % of the revenue of the poor countries - which is
far from being a negligeable amount.
22. We mean here a practical possibility, for before electronic computers existed it
was of course already possible to compare two census returns one by one. But this
was a lengthy process and only very rarely undertaken. Now, with the aid of