Paris, "gouffre de l'espece humaine"?

Cet article de dèmographie historique est consacrè a un aspect de la surmortalitè urbaine au dix-neuvième siecle : la surmortalitè couramment attribuèe aux migrants vus vivre dans la capitale. Le rassemblement de quelques donnèes concernant les provinciaux gagnant Paris a la fin du siecle montre que, fruit d'une sorte de Ç sèlection migratoire, ces migrants ètaient des gens robustes dont les taux de dècès tèmoignent en rèalitè d'une plus grande rèsistance aux maladies, en gènèral, que les originaires de la ville. Cela est vèrifiè prècisèment pour la principale maladie de l'èpoque, la tuberculose pulmonaire, dont la statistique est discutèe dans l'article. Cette mortalitè diffèrentielle s'explique elle-même par le fait que les natifs de la ville, eux, n'ètait pas Çsèlectionnès : adultes, ils payaient les dures conditions de vie subies dans leur enfance. Est-ce dans la situation faite a l'enfance que se trouve la clef de la surmortalitè urbaine d'autrefois ?

This article of historical demography deals with an aspect of urban surmortality during the nineteenth century: the higher than average death rates commonly thought to affect the migrant populations coming to live in the French capital. The examination of some of the available data concerning provincials coming to Paris at the end of the century suggests that as a result of a sort of "migratory selection," these migrants were of robust constitution and their death rates, on the contrary, generally indicate better resistance to illness than that shown by people born in the city. This is particularly true for the period's main disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, the statistics on which are discussed in this article. The difference in death rates is to be explained by the fact that the people born in the city had not undergone this "selection" process. When they became adults, the harsh conditions they had suffered as children took their toll. Does the key to understanding urban surmortality in the past not seem to lie then in the situations experienced by children?