After that it waxed mightily again.
[Sidenote: Italy] Italy, leader in many ways, was the first to take accurate statistics of population, births and deaths.

These begin by the middle of the fifteenth century, but are rare until the middle of the sixteenth, when they become frequent.

Notwithstanding war and pestilence the numbers of inhabitants seemed to grow steadily, the apparent result in the statistics being perhaps in part due to the increasing rigor of the census.

Herewith follow specimens of the extant figures: The city of Brescia had 65,000 in 1505, and 43,000 in 1548.

During the same period, however, the people in her whole territory of 2200 square miles had increased from 303,000 to 342,000.