BY
SAMUEL J. HOLMES, PH. D.
PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
1921
COPYRIGHT, IQ2I, BY
HARCOTOT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PREFACE
THE present volume is the outgrowth of a course of lectures
on Eugenics which has been given for several years in the Univer-
sity of California. Its aim is to present an account of the various
forces which are at present modifying the inherited qualities of
civilized mankind. In dealing with so extensive and complex
a subject I have doubtless committed a number of errors and have
probably not altogether escaped from being misled by statistical
fallacies into which I have so often accused others of having
fallen. The more extensively I have delved into the varied
literature on the biological evolution of man, the more I have
become impressed with the necessity of employing extreme cau-
tion in drawing conclusions. Few subjects, in fact, present so
many pitfalls for the unwary. It is with the conviction that it is
especially important in this field to be sure one is right before
going ahead that I have devoted so much effort to critical analysis
at the risk of becoming tedious to the general reader.
I am indebted to my colleagues Professor F. B. Sumner and
Professor F. J. Teggart for reading my original manuscript and
for making a number of valuable suggestions.
The preparation of the present work has involved the compila-
tion of an extensive bibliography which is to be published as an
additional volume so that the references may be rendered avail-
able for other investigators.
S. J HOLMES
Berkeley, Calif.
Jan. 1921.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION i
II. THE HEREDITARY BASIS 1 1
III. THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 27
IV. THE HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 73
V. THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 98
VI. THE DECLINE OF THE BERTH RATE 118
VII. THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINE OF THE BIRTH RATE 143
VIII. NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 181
IX. THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 205
X. SEXUAL SELECTION AND ASSORTATIVE MATING 222
XI. CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES AND MISCEGENATION 238
XII. THE POSSIBLE ROLE OF ALCOHOL AND DISEASE IN CAUSING
HEREDITARY DEFECTS 269
XIII. THE ALLEGED INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH AND AGE OF
PARENTS UPON OFFSPRING 297
XIV. THE RACIAL INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 325
XV. THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 355
XVI. RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 364
THE TREND OF THE RA
CHAPTER I
AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION
"It is the paradox and tragedy of high civilization that, in the
present and in all preceding ages, its tendency has been to destroy or
eliminate just those mental superiorities by which it has been built up
and which are essential for its maintenance and further progress."
Wm. McDougall, Eugenics Rev. 5, 297.
IN any discussion of the biological evolution of man it is essen-
tial to distinguish clearly between changes in the hereditary
qualities of human beings and changes in what human beings
owe to the environment and institutions under which they live.
The latter are matters of what Prof. Baldwin has called social
heredity as distinguished from the heredity which has its physical
basis in the germ plasm. Man's physical and social heredity
while easily distinguished, at least theoretically, have very inti-
mate relations. It is obvious that social heredity is largely
dependent upon the innate qualities of men. No civilization
could possibly be supported by creatures with the inheritance of
the anthropoid apes, and it might happen that civilization would
not long endure among people no higher than the lowest races of
mankind. The innate endowments of races constitute a basic
factor conditioning the nature of every type of civilization and
every historic movement, although we may not be able to trace
the precise way in which their effects are wrought out in the
complex relations of human society.
If the social heredity of man depends largely on his biological
heredity, the latter in turn may be profoundly influenced by the
kind of social environment under which men live. Those who
accept the Lamarckian theory that acquired characteristics may
1
2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
be transmitted to the next generation, naturally hold that man's
inherited traits can be modified through experiences with his
social environment. In the writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer, for
instance, most of the peculiarly social endowments of human
beings are explained as due to the cumulative inherited effects of
the experience of men with their fellows. Human nature through
such a process came to be moulded into conformity with the needs
of social life, and in the course of time the adjustment, it was
supposed, would become more and more nearly complete.
If, however, as most biologists now believe, acquired characters
are not transmitted to offspring, the social environment never-
theless is able to influence human heredity in many ways. It may
determine to a large extent what kinds of variations survive and
propagate, and it may also determine, to some degree at least, the
nature of the heredity variations which arise in the germ plasm.
Whatever forces have been concerned in the evolution of plant
and animal life doubtless continue to operate in the human species.
Much still remains to be learned, however, in regard to the factors
of evolution in the organic world. The subject is still steeped in
controversy. Opinion among biologists remains undecided as to
the potency of natural selection, the Lamarckian factor, ortho-
genesis, isolation and mutation as causes of evolution. And he
who would throw the most light on the problems of human
biological evolution would perhaps labor most effectively by
directing his attention to the lower organisms where it is possible
to apply rigidly controlled experimental methods.
But greatly as problems of human evolution would be illumi-
nated by a knowledge of the way in which evolution has been
brought about in organisms below man, there would remain a
multitude of specifically human evolutionary problems which can
be solved only by the study of human data. The development of
civilization has brought mankind under influences which have
never before come into play. In addition to the natural forces to
which lower organisms are exposed, man has come to live in a
social milieu which constitutes a very large part of what may be
called his effective environment. From this circumstance have
AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION 3
arisen various selective agencies which tend to favor or reduce the
prevalence of certain types of inherited traits according to the
nature of the institutions that occur at any particular time and
place. The first systematic discussion of those agencies forms
the subject-matter of Lapouge's Les Selections Societies (1896), a
work which, although not very critical, has had a considerable
influence in stimulating the study of selection in man. Lapouge
has described the operation of several forms of social selection,
i. e., military, political, religious, moral, legal, economic and sys-
tematic, all of which are brought into play as a consequence of
the development of civilization. Military selection, according to
the author, eliminates the best of the race; political selection,
through the effects of civil war, the prison, the scaffold, and exile,
gets rid of the more independent spirits and tends thereby to
render the population submissive and tractable; religious selec-
tion, through the celibacy of the clergy and by persecution, tends
to effect the elimination of the more intelligent and independent
minds; moral and legal selection in general produce dysgenic
effects; and economic selection, while operating in many different
ways, acts, on the whole, in the most destructive manner upon
the superior elements of the race. As civilization becomes more
advanced the evil effects of the various forms of social selection
become more intense. The racial influence of civilization is there-
fore bad. Progress may be achieved in science, art, literature and
in the development of institutions, but this carries with it the
seeds of its own destruction. The relatively feeble force of natural
selection which still operates on human beings is powerless to stay
the havoc which is being wrought by the selective agencies which
result from the development of civilization.
Such, in brief, is the rather sombre prospect which Lapouge has
held up to our view. There is only one way by which these de-
structive forces may be overcome, and that is by conscious, sys-
tematic selection, or, as we should now call it, eugenics; but
Lapouge is not sanguine over the prospect that human beings will
ever bring themselves to supply this remedy in a really effective
manner.
4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Most readers will instinctively shrink from accepting conclu-
sions of so disquieting a nature. The world has long been familiar
with the doctrine that civilizations, after attaining the flower of
their development, tend to decay and lapse into relative bar-
barism. Nations like individuals have been supposed to have
their periods of birth, growth and natural death. But, although
they have risen and fallen, the torch of progress has been handed
on from one to another. Other nations came to the fore out of
the great sea of humanity to take advantage of the knowledge and
achievements of decadent peoples, and thus humanity has, on
the whole, advanced. It might naturally be supposed that this
process could be continued without assignable limits, and that,
although nations now in the van of progress may lapse into
decay, like the great empires of the past, they will be superseded
by more virile peoples who will carry achievement to still
greater heights.
Were this true, we might be reconciled to national decadence,
reflecting that it formed an incident in the general progressive
development of humanity. But can this process continue? If
the decadence of civilization were merely a social phenomenon,
occurring without reference to the hereditary qualities of men, it
would be of relatively minor significance in regard to our general
biological evolution. If, on the other hand, it means the extinc-
tion of relatively superior types of human inheritance its evolu-
tionary significance is indeed serious. We cannot assume that
the course of progressive evolution will go smoothly on despite
the vicissitudes of our social and political institutions. Degener-
ation in the organic world has taken place with such remarkable
frequency that its occurrence in any group is a contingency to be
looked upon as distinctly possible, if not probable. We have
degenerate Protozoa, degenerate ccelenterates, degenerate worms,
echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans, arachnids, insects and verte-
brates. Whole groups such as the cestodes, nematodes, and
Acanthocephali bear the unmistakable signs of descent from more
highly organized animals. Parallel illustrations are furnished in
abundance among plants. Everywhere the nemesis of degeneracy
AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION 5
hangs threateningly over the organic world. The attainment of
any degree of complexity or perfection of organization is no
guaranty against deterioration. There is not the slightest ground
for believing that man himself is in any degree shielded from its
insidious influence. In fact, it is not improbable that many
existing peoples have descended from ancestors who were more
favored with natural gifts, and we should bear in mind the possi-
bility that our own civilization may become one with Nineveh
and Tyre.
If human progress involves the successive exhaustion of the
best blood of those nations which gain the ascendency in the
development of culture, it can scarcely lead to any other result
than a general deterioration of the human species. If there have
always been races of superior inheritance, such as those of Nordic
stock, which have remained upon a relatively low cultural level,
and which were capable of acquiring the civilization of the
decadent nations which they supplanted, it by no means follows
that the human species will always be so favorably situated. Mr.
Seth Humphrey has recently drawn attention to the "exhaustion
of reserves" which are at present available for carrying on the
work of civilization. Of all our national resources the most
important is our supply of men of superior stock. And we are
approaching a period in which the problem of the conservation of
this resource is becoming more and more pressing.
The biological situation of our race is at present in many
respects unique. In the earlier stages of man's evolution develop-
ment was mainly along divergent lines. The spread of mankind
over the continents and islands of the globe brought about the
formation of more or less completely isolated stocks, subjected to
different conditions of environment. This resulted in breaking up
the human species into a great multitude of divergent groups, in a
manner which closely parallels the diversification of species of
plants and animals subjected to the combined influence of isola-
tion and varied surroundings. Few species of organisms present so
great a variety of hereditarily diverse strains as our own. And
even if we divide Homo sapiens into several distinct species,
6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
the same statement would apply to each of the component
groups.
But now the trend of racial development has changed. Barriers
that formerly kept peoples apart have become broken down.
Races are meeting and amalgamating at a rate which becomes
more rapid as time goes on and facilities for travel and intercom-
munication increase. The diversities which were the product of
the long period of man's earlier evolution are becoming rapidly
submerged. The period of divergence is now superseded by a
period of convergence which, if it does not involve the ultimate
obliteration of our present distinctions of race, will certainly
greatly diminish the number of separate ethnic stocks. Perhaps
the final result, if we can speak of any result as final, will be the
formation of a few races which occupy those climatic zones to
which they are peculiarly adapted and which will form a perma-
nent barrier against successful invasion by their enemies. But,
however the process of racial fusion may work out, it is evident
that the growing amalgamation of races and peoples and the
extension of civilization over the earth will leave no room for the
replacement of decadent products of civilization by superior
stocks which have not yet been overtaken by culture. If civiliza-
tion is really an enemy of racial improvement, it will ultimately
check the course of man's biological evolution unless some effec-
tive means can be instituted for counteracting its insidious effects.
That it has a profound effect upon our biological development is a
conclusion that cannot be escaped. But to discover just how it
acts involves an attack upon a number of problems many of which
are of great difficulty and many incapable of solution with the
data at present available. Civilization influences human heredity
in very diverse ways, some favorable and some the reverse. For
a long time it may be impossible to estimate, with any degree of
accuracy, the potency of the factors which are responsible for
evolutionary changes in man. In an attack upon a complex and
many-sided problem such as this, one has to be continually on
guard against making hasty generalizations and falling into
statistical fallacies. The reader who peruses the following chapters
AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION 7
will become impressed, if he has not been so before, with the
numerous pitfalls into which the student of human evolution is
liable to fall. The literature on the subject is full of conclusions
based on inadequate evidence, yet put forth with a confidence
which in itself should engender a suspicion of their soundness.
But the most disappointing feature of the situation is the dearth
of facts upon which safe deductions can be based. Demographi-
cal statistics have been kept only for a relatively short period of
time; and anthropometric data have not been gathered on a scale
sufficiently extensive, or over a period sufficiently long, to give us
an idea of the trend of development in any considerable group of
men. Data compiled at different times and places are often not
comparable for want of common standards. If we wish to deter-
mine, in what ways the population of any country has been
changed we encounter almost insuperable difficulties. The
Parliamentary Committee appointed a few years ago to investi-
gate the alleged physical deterioration of the people of Great
Britain, after making an exhaustive enquiry, could come to no
conclusion as to whether such deterioration had actually occurred.
Of course this result is of little value in proving the absence of
physical degeneracy in recent times. It is perfectly consistent
with the view that such degeneration has even been rapid. It is
simply a confession that the data are insufficient for the solution
of the problem.
But if we are lacking in records which tell us in what direction
human beings have actually been changed, we can at least ascer-
tain something of the action of the forces which are now at work
in modifying the inherited qualities of the race. We can observe
in a measure how things are actually going on. We can trace the
way in which hereditary traits are transmitted; we can study at
first hand the action .of natural selection in eliminating ill adapted
strains of humanity; we can determine the relative degrees of
rapidity with which different stocks reproduce themselves, and
we can ascertain something of the action of the various selective
forces which have arisen as a result of the development of human
institutions. Where the data which are being accumulated are
8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
insufficient for the solution of particular problems the defects may
often be remedied by collecting additional information. Many
questions of paramount importance are capable of solution by the
use of the biometrical methods employed by Pearson and his
co-workers of the Galton laboratory. What we need above all is
investigation. And it is important that we realize that investiga-
tion of the trend of human development is peculiarly timely. Our
custom of regarding evolution as an exceedingly slow process in
which a few centuries more or less count for relatively little
should not make us unmindful of the fact that important racial
modifications may at times take place in a very few generations.
For an illustration of this fact it is only necessary to allude to the
remarkable results which have been achieved, even within a few
years, by the selective breeding of plants and animals. Many lines
of evidence point to the conclusion that our human inheritance is
changing at a comparatively rapid rate. In a species containing
the great diversity of hereditary qualities which is exhibited by
mankind there are abundant possibilities of rapid transformation.
A person with our present knowledge of human heredity and en-
dowed with the authority which the Great Master in Campanula's
City of the Sun exercised over the matings of men and women,
could produce, in a few generations, a remarkable array of diverse
types. He could, for instance, breed an albino race, a deaf race,
a feeble-minded race, an insane race, a race of dwarfs, a race with
hook-like extremities instead of hands, a race of superior intellec-
tual ability, or a race of high artistic talent. It may be said that
such changes as may occur in a few generations affect merely the
prevalence of characteristics already present, or the making of
different combinations of existing hereditary factors. But from
the standpoint of human welfare the importance even of such
changes is tremendous. They may make all the difference
between a breed of wretched degenerates and a race of physical
vigor and superior mentality. The human species possessing so
great a diversity of hereditary traits and subjected to the in-
fluences of so many changing forces both physical and social can
scarcely fail to undergo more or less rapid modification. If our
AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION 9
race would ayoid the danger of deterioration and realize the best
of its hereditary possibilities we should know first of all what is
trie present trend of our development and what are some of the
more important forces by which our development is guided.
It is to a consideration of the forces which are modifying the
inherited qualities of modern civilized peoples that the present
book is devoted. The undertaking naturally leads us to discuss
the inheritance of those human traits which are of especial signifi-
cance in relation to the progressive or retrogressive development
of mankind. After the first few chapters on this general topic the
rest of the book is mainly concerned with a treatment of the
selective agencies that determine what types of human inheri-
tance tend to prevail over others, and the relation of these selec-
tive agencies to various factors in our social environment.
REFERENCES
The following works of a more or less general character treat of a number of the
topics discussed in the present volume :
Ammon, O. Die Gesellschaftsordnung und ihre natiirlichen Grundlagen. Jena,
1895.
Ellis, H. H. The Task of Social Hygiene. Constable and Co., London, 1912,
Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston.
Galton, F. Essays in Eugenics. Eugenics Education Soc., London, 1909.
Grant, M. The Passing of the Great Race. Scribner's, N. Y., 1916.
Guyer, M. Being Well Born. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 1916.
Headley, F. W. Problems of Evolution. Crowell and Co., N. Y., 1901.
Hill, G. Chatterton. Heredity and Selection in Sociology. A. and C. Black, Lon-
don, 1907.
Humphrey, S. Mankind. Scribner's, N. Y., 1917.
Kellicott, W. E. The Social Direction of Human Evolution. Appleton Co., N. Y.,
and London, 1915.
Kelsey, C. The Physical Basis of Society. Appleton Co., N. Y., and London, 1916.
McKim, W. D. Heredity and Human Progress. Putnam's Sons, N. Y., and Lon-
don, 1900.
Pearson, K. The Grammar of Science, 2d ed. A. and C. Black, London, 1900.
Popenoe, P., and Johnson, R. H. Applied Eugenics. Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1918.
Reid, G. A. The Present Evolution of Man. Chapman and Hall, London, 1896.
Rentoul, R. R. Race Culture or Race Suicide? W. Scott, London, 1906.
Saleeby, C. W. Parenthood and Race Culture. Moffat Yard and Co., London and
N. Y., IQH.
Saleeby, C. W. The Progress of Eugenics. Funk and Wagnalls Co., N. Y. and
London, 1914.
io THE TREND OF THE RACE
Schallmayer, W. Vererbung und Auslese im Lebenslauf der Volker, 2d ed. G.
Fischer, Jena, 1910.
Whetham, W. C. D., and Whetham, C. D. The Family and the Nation. Long-
mans, London, 1909. Heredity and Society, Longmans, London, 1912. An
Introduction to Eugenics. Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge, 1912.
Woltmann, L. Politische Anthropologie. Eisenach and Leipzig, 1903.
In addition to the above general references attention may be called to a few
periodicals such as The Eugenics Review, Eugenique, The Journal of Heredity, the
Archiv fur Rassen-und Gesellschafls-Biologie, Biomelrica, the politisch-anthrop.
Revue (now the politisch-anthrop, Monalschr.), the Zeit. fur Sozialwissenschaft, the
publications of the Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics of the University of
London, and those of the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, Long
Island. A large amount of material on the topics here discussed is contained in the
census reports of different countries and in various statistical periodicals, especially
the Publications of the American Statistical Society, the Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society, and Das allgemeine statistische Archiv. Much of value to the
student of racial development is contained in the works on Vital Statistics by Farr
(1885), Newsholme (1899) and Whipple (1919), Oettingen's Moralstatistik, and
especially v. Mayr's Statistik und Gesellschatfslehre.
CHAPTER II
THE HEREDITARY BASIS
"The experimental study of heredity, development and evolution
in forms of life below man must certainly increase our knowledge of
and our control over these processes in the human race. If human
heredity, development and evolution may be controlled to even a
slight extent we may expect that sooner or later the human race will
be changed for the better." E. G. Conklin, Heredity and Environment
in the Development of Men.
BEFORE entering upon a discussion of the complex biological
problem of the evolution of man, it may be useful to touch briefly
upon some of the main principles which are observed to hold
true for the transmission of hereditary traits. The establishment
of the doctrine of evolution naturally lent a great impetus to
the study of heredity and the complementary topic of variation.
The search for the causes of evolution would be greatly aided by
a knowledge of the principles or laws according to which variations
in organisms arise and are transmitted to subsequent generations.
No one appreciated this fact more than Mr. Darwin as is evinced
not only by several chapters in the Origin of Species, but espe-
cially by his great work on the Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication. It was his conviction that the key to the
method of evolution lay in the close and careful study of variation
that led to the vast amount of observation and experiment which
Darwin devoted to this subject. The ingenious theory of pan-
genesis by which Darwin attempted to give a provisional explana-
tion not only of inheritance, but of many phenomena of variation
as well, shows how thoroughly he appreciated the fundamental
importance of true insight into these processes.
Darwin considered his doctrine of pangenesis as a provisional
hypothesis, a tentative theoretic formulation of a principle which
would introduce some order into what was then a chaos of empiri-
12 THE TREND OF THE RACE
cally collected facts. He postulated that the different organs of
the body gave off into the blood, or other bodily fluids, minute
living particles which he called gemmules, and which he supposed
to be capable of growth and multiplication. The germ cells were
supposed to have a special affinity for these gemmules, their
function being to act as storehouses for these bodies. During
development the gemmules were sorted out, each kind determin-
ing the development of a part of the embryo into the kind of
organ from which it was derived.
This theory gave scientific expression to the traditional concep-
tion of inheritance according to which the parts of the offspring
are derived from corresponding parts of the bodies of their par-
ents. It afforded also a means of explaining how characters
acquired by the parents might be transferred to following genera-
tions. Darwin, like most of his contemporaries, accepted the
doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters which La-
marck had postulated as the chief cause of organic evolution. He
supposed that parts which are developed through exercise would
produce more gemmules and that this would cause the corre-
sponding part to be better developed in following generations.
The hereditary effects of disuse were explained in a similar man-
ner. Granting Darwin's doctrine of pangenesis, the explana-
tion of the transmission of acquired characters followed very
naturally. But the fundamental difficulty of the doctrine lay
in the artificial and improbable nature of its fundamental
assumptions. Although ingeniously worked out and applied,
the theory gained few followers, and as knowledge of the
cellular basis of heredity came to be more minute and
thorough, its incongruity with known facts became more and
more apparent.
Although the doctrine of pangenesis has now been given up,
its influence upon subsequent theories of heredity is unmistakable.
De Vries modified it by eliminating the hypothesis of the cen-
tripetal flow of pangens, thus greatly simplifying it and avoiding
some of its most improbable elements. The pangens were not
supposed to be given off by the cells of the body and stored up in
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 13
the germ cells, but the germ cells were held to receive their store
of pangens from antecedent germ cells. The denial of the flow of
pangens from the body to the germ cells did away with the means
by which Darwin accounted for the transmission of acquired or
somatogenic characters. De Vries did not hesitate to accept the
logical consequence of his hypothesis although he dwelt compara-
tively little on this feature of his doctrine.
It is in the writings of Professor August Weismann that we
find the opposition to Lamarckism taking the form of vigorous
and sustained attacks. Weismann in his early essay On Heredity
set forth a very simple and plausible theory of transmission in his
doctrine of the continuity of the germ plasm. This conception
had been put forth previously by several writers (Owen, Galton,
His, Nussbaum, Jager, Rauber), but it did not attract much
attention until expounded in the lucid and attractive essays of
Weismann who made it the basis of a series of brilliant and elabo-
rate speculations on the mechanism of hereditary transmission.
Weismann taught that the germ plasm is a substance separate
from the soma plasm which forms the organs of the body, and
that it is in no way the product of the body, although it is carried
and nourished by the body. Germ plasm is handed on relatively
unchanged from one generation to the next, part of it being trans-
formed into soma plasm which differentiates in various ways
during embryonic development, but another part of it remaining
undifferentiated in the germ cells to form the starting point of the
next generation. Some germ plasm is, therefore, handed on in a
continuous stream through successive generations, the bodies
of the parents acting as "trustees of the germ plasm." It is the
continuity of the germ plasm that affords the basis for heredity.
Parent and offspring resemble each other not because the off-
spring are, in any sense, the product of the parent's body, but
because both parent and offspring arise from a common substance,
the germ plasm. Poulton has aptly said that Weismann's theory
makes the offspring the younger brothers and sisters of their
parents. We might compare successive generations to a series
of plants arising from an underground runner or root stalk.
i 4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
The plants resemble one another not because one is derived
from the other, but because all are derived from a common
source.
Such a view of heredity, sharply opposed as it was to the older
views that derived the offspring in some way from the various
parts of the body of its parents, made the transmission of acquired
characters improbable a priori. Weismann accordingly sub-
jected the evidence for such transmission to a searching criticism
and came to the conclusion that it was entirely inadequate. His
attacks upon the Lamarckian theory which appeared in a series of
essays, books and lectures nearly up to the period of his death did
much to shake the faith of biologists in this at one time widely
accepted doctrine.
Weismann was not content simply to explain heredity as due
to the continuity of the germ plasm, and to remove obstacles that
seemed to lie in the path of that theory. He attempted to elabo-
rate a theory of the composition of the germ plasm which would
explain development, regeneration and various other phenomena
in addition to heredity. Investigations into the structure of the
cell and especially the peculiar behavior of the sex cells in matura-
tion and fertilization had revealed a wonderful and orderly series
of phenomena of which even the contemporaries of Darwin had
little dreamed. Weismann was among the first to interpret the
significance of these striking phenomena for the theory of heredity
and evolution, and the essential part of his early theory of the
significance of maturation has received a remarkable verification
by recent work. More than any one else Weismann is responsible
for directing attention to the importance of the combination of
the study of heredity with cytology which has lately been produc-
tive of such brilliant results. Many of the features of his elabo-
rate speculative system have been rendered improbable (though
we may not say definitely disproved) by experimental work; others
have proven to be remarkably prophetic; on the whole, the body
of doctrine which may be designated as Weismannism, as it was
by Romanes, has afforded a great stimulus to the study and
interpretation of the facts of heredity, and has left its very
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 15
evident impress on much of recent thinking on the doctrine of
evolution.
The discovery which has meant most for the progress of ge-
netics is unquestionably Mendel's law. The product of years of
research in the garden of the monastery at Briinn, Austria, the
principles enunciated by Mendel, owing to the fact that they were
published in a little-known journal, The Proceedings of the
Natural History Society at Briinn, failed to attract the attention
of the scientific world until they were made known independently
by three investigators, Tschermak, Correns and De Vries in the
year 1900. Thus began, with the beginning of the 2oth century,
a new era in the study of genetics. Progress in this field since 1900
has taken place at a very rapid rate. The amount of literature
devoted to the subject suddenly swelled to several times its
previous volume, and it is probably no exaggeration to say that
since the rediscovery of Mendel's law a greater advance has been
made toward a scientific analysis of the phenomena of heredity
than had been made during all preceding time.
Mendel's law embraces two principles designated commonly
as (i) the law of dominance, and (2) the law of segregation. Ac-
cording to the first, when two related but contrasted characters
are brought together in a cross the one appears to the exclusion of
the other. Mendel found, for instance, that when he crossed tall
and dwarf peas the immediate progeny were all tall instead of
intermediate in height. When he crossed green and yellow peas
the first generation (called the first filial or FI generation) con-
sisted entirely of yellow peas. The characters tall and yellow
are designated dominant in contrast to dwarf and green which
are called recessive.
The recessive characters are not lost, as is shown when the
members of the FI generation are either interbred or self -polli-
nated. They appear in the second or F2 generation along with a
certain proportion of dominants. Numerous experiments have
shown that in typical cases the dominant and recessive characters
are segregated in the second generation in the proportion of three
dominant to one recessive. The separation of the original char-
16 THE TREND OF THE RACE
acters according to definite numerical ratios in the second genera-
tion is the principle of segregation which is the most general and
significant feature of Mendel's great doctrine.
The recessives which come out in the F 2 generation are pure
and hence breed true, but the members of the F 2 generation which
show the dominant character are not all alike, as is shown by
subsequent breeding. One-third of them continue to produce
nothing but dominants during the subsequent generations; but
two-thirds of them continue to produce recessives in the ratio of
one of the latter to three that show the dominant character. We
might write the general formula for the Fz generation, instead of
3D + iR, as iDD + 2DR-f-iRR, or one pure dominant, two
heterozygous or impure forms and one pure recessive.
Complete dominance is by no means a general phenomenon.
Contrasted characters frequently blend in the first filial genera-
tion and many gradations occur between complete dominance
and a strictly intermediate condition. But this in no wise alters
the fact of segregation although it may render segregation more
difficult to establish.
A typical instance is afforded by crossing red and white four
o'clocks. The FI generation consists of flowers of an intermediate
or pink color. The second generation, however, consists of one-
fourth pure red, one-half pink and one-fourth white. The red and
white produce nothing but red and white respectively; they are
hence pure or homozygous for these characters. The pink four
o'clocks produce red, pink, and white in the 1:2:1 ratio.
In Mendelian inheritance pairs of characters such as green and
yellow, tall and dwarf, etc., commonly appear to segregate inde-
pendently, giving us all possible combinations of different pairs.
Crossing a tall yellow with a dwarf green pea gives us in the FI
only tall yellow peas, but in the F 2 we obtain gty+3tg+3dw
-f-igw. This is the expected ratio if the members of the two
pairs of characters were distributed and combined in independ-
ence of each other. As Mendel himself pointed out, characters
are distributed in inheritance as they would be if the germ cells
were pure as regards one or the other member of a pair of con-
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 17
trasted characters. What is now known of the germ cells enables
us to point with great probability to the cellular mechanism by
which this purity of the gametes or mature germ cells is main-
tained. The same mechanism also affords an explanation of the
phenomenon of linkage or the tendency of diverse characters to
maintain a certain association in inheritance. The mechanism
consists of the chromosomes of the nucleus which there are strong
reasons for believing maintain their individuality, as they do their
number, not only through numerous cell generations in the life of
the individual, but through an indefinite number of life cycles of
individual organisms. The behavior of these chromosomes in
maturation and the process of synapsis immediately preceding
maturation is precisely such as would explain the distribution of
characters according to Mendel's law if we grant that individual
chromosomes contain factors for the production of particular
characters. We cannot give an idea of the remarkable success
that has been attained in connecting the phenomena of inheri-
tance with peculiarities of chromosome behavior, and must refer
the reader to special works and papers dealing with this topic. I
can scarcely do more than indicate in a short chapter the various
applications of Mendel's law in interpreting many enigmatical
phenomena of inheritance. The phenomena of reversion, the
results of inbreeding, the heredity of sex and the peculiar phe-
nomena of sex-linked inheritance are seen in a new light since
the discovery of Mendel's law.
Since Mendel's law has been found so widely applicable in
plants and animals, we should expect to find it expressed also in
the inheritance of man. Already numerous human traits are
known which give strong evidence of being transmitted in accord-
ance with this law. Since it is not feasible to treat human beings
as we do plants and animals it is difficult to ascertain in many
cases whether inheritance is in fact strictly Mendelian. A list,
though incomplete, of traits which are probably transmitted
according to Mendel's law is given in the following table:
I ^^* i
Sfiijj
I Normal eyes
18 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Table of Human Hereditary traits
Dominant Characters Recessive or Partly Recessive
Characters
Dark hair Light hair
Lack of hair (hypotrichosis), Beaded hair Normal
Dark skin Light skin
Pigmented skin Albinism
Partial albinism, keratosis, ichthyosis, tylosis, } XT ...
} Normal skin
epidermolysis J
Dark eyes Light eyes
Cataract, pigmentary retinitis, coloboma?
glaucoma, displaced lens, nystagmus
Tall stature (in part) Short statute (in part)
Achondroplastic dwarfism Normal
Polydactylism, brachydactylism, syndactylism, 1 ... .
Fragility of bone, Symphalangy, exostoses J
Normal Deaf mutism, otosclerosis
Hapsburg lip, Hare lip (imperfect dominant?) Normal
Diabetes Normal
Superior mentality Inferior mentality
f Feeble-mindedness, epilepsy,
Normal mentality or nervous condition { insanity, Meniere's disease,
chorea, multiple sclerosis
Huntington's chorea, muscular atrophy Normal
Sex Linked (mostly recessive) Characters
Color blindness, night blindness, haemophilia, neuritis optica, Cower's muscular
atrophy
Certain characters, such as skin color in negro-white crosses,
appear to form permanent blends, but as Davenport has attempted
to show, this may be a complex case of Mendelian transmission
in which a considerable number of determiners for skin color are
involved. The great variability in the skin color of mulattoes
has been appealed to in support of this view. Cases of complex
Mendelian transmission are especially difficult to analyze in man
and we may have to judge them in the light of analogy with what
occurs in the lower animals. With the progress of genetics more
and more success is being attained in the resolution of complex
and apparently irreconcilable cases in terms of Mendelian prin-
ciples. As we learn more of inheritance in man, the more we find
that it falls into line with what is known of inheritance in the
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 19
lower forms of life. It is fortunate for the solution of many of our.
problems that we are so closely affiliated with the brute creation.
This is especially the case in regard to the problems invoking a
knowledge of human heredity, for we may learn more of this subject
by studying heredity in other forms than by studying the heredity
of man himself. Unfortunately, however, for many problems of
the highest importance we cannot directly avail ourselves of our
knowledge of the heredity of lower forms. Many of the qualities
that make human beings socially desirable or the reverse do not
have their strict counterparts in the animal w r orld, and often they
represent complex states influenced greatly in their expression by
environmental agencies and hence presenting almost insuperable
difficulties in the way of resolution into their component heredi-
tary factors. In the following three chapters we shall deal with
the transmission of some of the traits which are of greatest impor-
tance in regard to the progress of the race.
We cannot close this preliminary chapter on inheritance with-
out some discussion of the relative importance of heredity and
environment in the development of man, especially since the
question is one upon which there exists an extraordinary amount
of confusion of thought. The question, Which is the more
important, heredity or environment? has provoked endless dis-
cussion. To argue over the question in its general and unqualified
form is futile, since both heredity and environment are absolutely
essential to every organism. The difficulty is much like asking
which is the more important for the maintenance of life, matter
or energy? Heredity under the same environment makes the
difference between a cow, bird, insect or plant. Environment
may make all the difference between a normal organism and a
monstrosity or between a living organism and no organism at all.
Every organism is a function of both hereditary and environmen-
tal factors. We may express this in the formula O=/(HE). Alter
either H (heredity) or E (environment) and the O is changed.
Without either H or E the organism would not exist. We cannot
say that in general one is more important than the other because
each is all important.
20 THE TREND OF THE RACE
But while it is futile to argue over this question in the abstract,
it may become a very practical problem if it is narrowed down to
particular characteristics of a given breed under a specified range
of conditions. We may illustrate this by considering the effects
of heredity and environment in raising corn. Everyone knows
that corn grown on rich fertile soil produces a much greater yield
than corn grown on poor soil. Everyone knows also that, in a
given soil, the yield depends largely on the variety of corn that
is used for seed. There are varieties which in fair soil will yield
over ico bushels per acre; others under the same condition which
produce only miserable nubbins yielding less than five bushels
per acre; and some, to take an extreme case, which would produce
no seed at all. We get a variation due to heredity between say
150 bushels per acre and o. If we take extreme environmental
conditions we get a variation in a given strain between the
maximum yield (say 200 bushels per acre) and o, for it is obvious
that if we planted our corn in an environment sufficiently unfa-
vorable it would not grow at all. There is no use arguing which is
the more important in raising corn, good seed or good soil and
climate. If, however, we ask whether it is more important to
make the best choice of seed between variety A and variety B
or to make the best choice of one or the other of two pieces of
ground, our question is a sensible one and capable of fairly easy
solution. We may test our varieties under given conditions and
compare our yield. We could then obtain a measure of their
hereditary difference under a given constant environment, and
express it in a ratio such as A:B: 13:4. Similarly we might test
out the yield of each variety in our two fields and we might find
that one field C is so much better than the other that both vari-
eties produce twice as much in the first as they did in the second.
If they continue to do so over a period of years varying with
temperature, rainfall, etc., we might say that for these particular
varieties of corn the relative influence of fields C and D is as 2:1.
Therefore we might conclude that the choice of a proper field is
more important than the choice of the best seed. If, however, it
was a question of the seed of variety B and the seed of variety C
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 21
the case might be different. The latter variety might not yield
more than a fourth of the former in either of the fields. In this
instance the choice of the best seed would be more important than
the choice of the best field.
When we compare the influence of heredity and environment
it is necessary to state what particular hereditary conditions we
are comparing with what given range of environmental conditions.
We then have a soluble problem, at least theoretically. We might
make a rough estimate of the relative importance of the heredi-
tary conditions that are commonly found within the limits of the
species or variety with the conditions that are produced by the
variations of environment to which the species is commonly ex-
posed. Leaving out of account the variations in heredity that
might occur and taking the average of such variations as are
actually met with, and leaving out of account what environmental
conditions might accomplish and considering hi general only what
is actually done, we may obtain results that can be compared.
We might find our species to be remarkably uniform in its heredi-
tary constitution, and that the bulk of the diversity within it
could be attributed to the effect of external conditions. On
the other hand t the species might possess much hereditary
variability like the mixed breeds of many of our domestic plants
and animals in which the differences of innate constitution
are much more conspicuous than those produced by the
environment.
Homo sapiens, the species in which we are particularly inter-
ested in the present connection, contains a high degree of heredi-
tary diversity. Not only does each of the major divisions of the
species (if we may be permitted to group all mankind into one
species) contain numerous minor groups which are commonly
further subdivided, but most peoples, especially among civilized
nations, represent racial mixtures of many different stocks. A
little observation of the multitudes we encounter in going along a
street cannot fail to impress one with the heterogeneity of his
fellow creatures, and it does not require extensive dealings with
our kind to convince one that they are as diverse in mental
22 THE TREND OF THE RACE
aptitudes, disposition and character as they are in their form and
features.
The extent to which our human differences are hereditary
is a matter about which there is much difference of opinion. Con-
cerning the peculiarities of features and complexion which are
characteristic of racial subdivisions and which may be seen very
frequently to run in members of a family there is little oppor-
tunity for disagreement. Stature, strength, endurance, eyesight
and temperament, since they are obviously influenced by the
environment are frequently considered as affected more by the
environment than through variations in hereditary constitution.
We cannot test the matter experimentally as we might in dealing
with characters of corn or wheat, but it is possible to investigate
the subject by statistical methods. Professor Karl Pearson and
several of his associates of the Galton Laboratory of the Univer-
sity of London have tested the relative influence of heredity and
environment in a number of human traits such as eyesight, height,
weight and intelligence. Their method is to ascertain the degree
of similarity existing between certain characteristics occurring in
parent and offspring and among the siblings of the same family.
These similarities may be expressed numerically by a coefficient
of correlation. Coefficients of correlation were worked out also
for various environmental differences. These correlations if based
on a sufficient number of cases will afford a measure of the in-
fluence exerted by the environment. Then the correlations
between relatives may be compared with those correlations which
are the result of environmental influence. In the study of the
relative influence of heredity and environment on defects of vision
Barrington and Pearson ascertained that the coefficient of corre-
lation between parent and offspring and between siblings for
keenness of vision was from .4 to .6 which is much the same value
as that which is found for other hereditary traits. They measured
the correlations of keenness of vision and refraction with environ-
mental conditions in a large number of school children living
under a variety of circumstances, and found that these correla-
tions were very small. In other words, the eyesight of children
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 23
showed very little effect of the different environments to which
the children were exposed. Presumably, therefore, differences in
vision met with among children are the results of differences of
inheritance much more than differences of environment. Whether
differences among human beings are due in greater measure to
heredity depends very largely on the characters studied. Differ-
ences in eye color are due almost entirely to heredity, as the
character shows scarcely any effect of ordinary environmental
changes. In stature and weight environmental influence is more
obvious although heredity is an important factor. In manners
and customs environmental influence is more obvious still, and
whether a person talks English or Chinese may depend entirely
upon the locality in which he is raised. If he had the heredity of
a horse or a cow he would be unable to talk either, but if his
heredity were such that he could talk any human language, en-
vironment would determine what language he would speak or
whether or not he would speak any.
A good illustration of the relative influence of heredity and
environment is afforded by the resemblance of so-called identical
twins compared with that of twins of the usual kind. The recog-
nition of these two classes of twins is due to Francis Galton, who
gave several illustrations of striking similarities between twins
which he termed identical. Ordinary twins are about as different
as other members of the same family. They frequently exhibit
marked di^.rences in physical traits, in intelligence and disposi-
tion, ar.a the almost identical surroundings in which the" are
frequently brought up, fail to overcome their inherited differences
which are often conspicuous even in early life. One of Galton's
correspondents describes his twin offspring by saying "They have
had exactly the same nurture from their birth up to the present
time; they are both perfectly healthy and strong, yet they are
otherwise as dissimilar as two boys could be, physically, mentally
and in their emotional nature." Another correspondent says of a
pair of twins, "They were never alike either in body or mind, and
their dissimilarity increases daily. The external influences have
been identical; they have never been separated."
24 THE TREND OF THE RACE
While ordinary twins show varying degrees of resemblence,
identical twins belong apparently in a class by themselves. It is
a commonly accepted view, having much evidence in its favor
that true identical twins which are always of the same sex, are
developed within the same chorion and arise from the same ferti-
lized egg. They may therefore be regarded as having the same
heredity. Among armadillos, Dasypus novem-cinctus, it is known
that commonly four young are derived from a single ovum, which
develops beyond the gastrula stage before giving rise to four
embryos, and it is not improbable that a similar procedure is
occasionally followed in the development of twins in man. Double
monsters in man are of the same sex and are known in many cases
to have been enclosed in the same chorion, but it is unfortunate
that direct observational evidence that identical twins are in fact
monochorial is lacking although many facts support this conclu-
sion. The cases of remarkably close resemblance between twins
are so numerous that it is not reasonable to suppose that they are
the results of merely chance associations of similar ancestral
characteristics. Galton remarks that, "Among my thirty-five
detailed cases of close similarity, there are no less than seven in
which both twins suffered from some special ailment or had some
exceptional peculiarity. One twin writes that she and her sister
'have both the defect of not being able to come down stairs
quickly, which, however, was not born with them, but came on
at the age of twenty.' Three pairs of twins have peculiarities in
their fingers; in one case it consists in a slight congenital flexure
of one of the joints of the little ringer; it was inherited from a
grandmother, but neither parents, nor brothers, nor sisters show
the least trace of it. In another case the twins have a peculiar
way of bending the fingers, and there was a faint tendency to the
same peculiarity in the mother, but in her alone of all the family.
In a third case, about which I made a few enquiries, which is given
by Mr. Darwin, but is not included in my returns, there was no
known family tendency to the peculiarity which was observed in
the twins of having a crooked little finger. In another pair of
twins, one was born ruptured and the other became so at six
THE HEREDITARY BASIS 25
months old. Two twins at the age of twenty-three were attacked
by toothache, and the same tooth had to be extracted in each case.
There are curious and close correspondences mentioned in the
falling off of the hair. Two cases are mentioned of death from the
same disease; one of which is very affecting. The outline of the
story was that the twins were closely alike and singularly attached ;
. . . they both obtained Government clerkships and kept house
together, when one sickened and died of Blight's disease, and the
other also sickened of the same disease and died seven months
later." The other cases of striking resemblance given by Gal ton
and the additional data afforded by later investigators clearly
indicate the existence of a class of twins characterized either by
identical inheritance, or an inheritance so similar as to be unac-
countable according to the ordinary laws of hereditary transmis-
sion. This very close resemblance in bodily and mental states
commonly persists when the twins have been long separated and
exposed to different environments. 1
The ordinary differences of environment met with in the life of
people of much the same mental status apparently fail to produce
changes in the personality of human beings as great as commonly
met with in the children of the same parents. Whatever may be
said of the differences which either heredity or environment
might produce, there are strong grounds for the statement of
Gal ton's "that nature prevails enormously over nurture when
the differences of nurture do not exceed what is commonly to be
found among persons of the same rank of society and in the same
country. My fear is, that my evidence may seem to prove too
much, and be discredited on that account, as it appears contrary
to all experience that nurture should go for so little. But expe-
rience is often fallacious in ascribing great effects to trifling cir-
cumstances. Many a person has amused himself with throwing
bits of stick into a tiny brook and watching their progress; how
they are arrested, first by one chance obstacle, then by another;
and again, how their onward course is facilitated by a combina-
Additional information on the subject may be found in number 9 of the Journal
of Heredity (Dec., 1909), which is devoted entirely to twins.
26 THE TREND OF THE RACE
tion of circumstances. He might ascribe much importance to
each of these events, and think how largely the destiny of the
stick had been governed by a series of trifling accidents. Never-
theless all the sticks succeed in passing down the current, and in
the long-run, they travel at nearly the same rate. So it is with
life, in respect to the several accidents which seem to have had a
great effect upon our careers. The one element, that varies in
different individuals, but is constant in each of them, is the natu-
ral tendency; it corresponds to the current in the stream, and
inevitably asserts itself."
REFERENCES
The reader who wishes to inform himself on the present status of the science of
genetics will find a number of good recent books among which may be mentioned
Castle's Genetics and Eugenics; Babcock and Clausen's Genetics in Relation to
Agriculture; Bateson's, Mendel's Principles of Heredity; Plate's Vererbungslehre;
Goldschmidt's Einfuhrung in die Vererbungsuvissenschaft; Morgan's Physical Basis
of Heredity; Morgan's et al. Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity; Walter's Genetics
and Punnett's Mendelism. Thomson's Heredity, although not brought up to
date is still a useful general treatise. Of more special connection with the preced-
ing chapter are the following:
Barrington, A., and Pearson, K. A First Study of the Inheritance of Vision and of
the Relative Influence of Heredity and Environment on Sight. Eugen. Lab.
Mems., 5, 1909.
Conklin, E. G. Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men. Prince-
ton Univ. Press, 3d ed., 1919.
Darwin, L. Heredity and Environment. Eugen. Rev. 5, 153-154, 1913. See also
1. c. 8, 93-122, 1916.
Davenport, C. B. Heredity in Relation to Eugenics. Holt and Co., N. Y., 1911.
Elderton, E. M. The Relative Strength of Nurture and Nature. Eugen. Lab.
Lect. Series, 3, 1909.
Galton, F. Natural Inheritance. Macmillan Co., London and N. Y., 1889. In-
quiries into Human Faculty. Macmillan Co., London, 1883, and subsequently
in Everyman's Library.
Pearl, R. Modes of Research in Genetics. Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1915.
Pearson, K. The Grammar of Science, 2d ed. A. and C. Black, London, 1900;
Nature and Nurture. The Problem of the Future. Eugen. Lab. Lect. Series,
6, 1910.
Popenoe, P. Nature or Nurture? Jour. Hered., 6, 227-240, 1915.
Weismann, A. Essays on Heredity, 2 vols., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1891, 1892.
The Germ Plasm, W. Scott, London, 1893. The Evolution Theory, 2 vols.,
Arnold, London, 1904.
CHAPTER III
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND
DISEASE
"Our human civilized stock is far more weakly through congenital
imperfection than that of any other species of animals, whether wild or
domestic." Francis Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty.
THAT many forms of mental deficiency and disorder are capable
of hereditary transmission, has long been recognized, but it is
only recently that attempts have been made to discover the
precise rules according to which such transmission takes place.
Much, however, still remains obscure in regard to this important
topic. The vast literature on the subject contained in works on
medicine and pathology, in numerous medical journals and va-
rious other publications consists mainly in the discussion of iso-
lated cases of transmission, or the compilation of mass statistics
from the records of institutions for the care of the mentally ab-
normal. Institutional records being often gathered in a more or
less perfunctory manner, and by many different persons, are apt
to include numerous inaccuracies and are pretty sure to fall short
of the desired degree of fullness. The relatives of mental defec-
tives from motives of family pride frequently conceal the exist-
ence of defects in other members of the family, and even when
they honestly attempt to give all the information they possess
they often fail to furnish data of any value.
It is not surprising, therefore, to encounter wide differences of
opinion among authorities concerning the extent to which various
forms of defect depend upon a hereditary diathesis. Practically
everyone whose opinion is of any value concedes to heredity a
certain role in the causation of neuropathic traits. A part of the
difference of opinion doubtless depends upon the circumstance
that the relative potency of hereditary and environmental factors
27
28 THE TREND OF THE RACE
is often difficult to estimate; but it requires no great discernment
to perceive that many rather confident expressions of opinion are
based on lack of familiarity with the principles of hereditary
transmission, or a very inadequate acquaintance with the investi-
gations that have been made in this field.
The method of investigation employed by the Eugenics Record
Office at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, is one that is in some
respects considerably superior to those commonly followed.
Instead of collecting mass statistics a more intensive study is
made of special cases. For this purpose trained field workers are
employed who make the acquaintance of the relatives of the
patients investigated, get into friendly relations with them, and
through personal impressions and a knowledge of their history are
enabled to form a tolerably accurate judgment of their mental
status. The full and careful study of several pedigrees of mental
defectives promises to throw more light on the precise method in
which mental defects are inherited than any amount of unana-
lyzed data collected from the loose records of institutions. Field
workers need to be psychologists skilled in the methods of meas-
uring intelligence and of detecting mental aberrations, and en-
dowed with the attributes of tact, patience and an ingratiating
personality. Data secured by field workers have already been
proven of considerable value in throwing light on the probable
mode of transmission of mental defect, although there is room for
considerable refinement of method and thoroughness of enquiry
in much of the investigation which has thus far been carried on.
The intensive study of pedigrees has been the chief method of
those whose aim it has been to show that mental defect is trans-
mitted according to Mendel's law. Whatever may be the issue of
the controversy over whether or not mental defects behave as
mendelizing unit characters, insight into the question can only
come by the thorough, critical and unbiased study of particular
pedigrees.
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 29
INHERITANCE OF FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS
Feeble-mindedness may occur in various degrees from the
lowest grades of idiocy to the condition occurring in those who
are classed as "dull normal." In most of the feeble-minded there
is a general lack of mental power, but exceptional cases occur in
which highly developed special talents go along with marked
deficiency in other respects. Blind Tom who possessed a phenom-
enal aptitude for playing any piece of music he may have heard
was practically an imbecile. Often these ' ' idiots savants ' ' possess
remarkable memory, as in the case of the boy described by Lang-
don Down, who could repeat verbatim pages from a book that he
had once read. Some of the mathematical prodigies are otherwise
mentally defective. Heron reports a boy, nearly an idiot, who
when given a man's age could calculate quickly the number of
minutes he had lived. Another boy could multiply any three
figures with any three others almost as rapidly as they were
written, although he was of a very low grade of mentality.
From a eugenic standpoint the very lowest types of mental
defectives, such as idiots, do not present a very difficult problem
as they cannot care for themselves and are, therefore, usually
kept as institutional charges where they cannot propagate their
kind. Similarly the low grades of the feeble-minded are quite
easily dealt with, so that there is a tendency for the very lowest
types of mentality to disappear of themselves. The death rate of
the lower grades of defectives is relatively high. Barr states that
out of 625 mental defectives the largest number of deaths oc-
curred between the tenth and twentieth years; "comparatively
few passed the twenty-fifth year." Tuberculosis, epilepsy,
pneumonia and diseases of the digestive system were the most
frequent causes of death. Institutional life may have increased
this death rate, as it only too often has done in homes for orphan
children, but the lower grades of mental defect belong to poor
physical stock which has a natural tendency to become extinct.
It is the higher grades of feeble-mindedness which are eugenically
and socially the greatest menace. Apparently normal and even
30 THE TREND OF THE RACE
superficially bright, many of the moron class pass for people
of average intelligence; or at least they do not attract general
attention on account of their inferior intellect. This class con-
stitutes a considerable proportion of human beings who being
unable to support themselves are apt to become a public burden.
It furnishes the criminal class with a considerable proportion . of
its recruits, and it supplies a large number of prostitutes, a class
which recent studies have shown to contain a high percentage of
mentally inferior women.
The feeble-minded tend to marry their own kind, or to produce
children without the ceremony of marriage. In cities they tend
to drift into association with vicious and criminal elements of the
community and are often led into vice and crime more through
inherent weakness of intellect and will than natural depravity of
their own. In the country they frequently segregate into com-
munities, where there is often intermarriage of related stocks
which brings forth the latent defects of both sides. Such rural
communities are characterized by poverty, alcoholism, sexual
immorality and crime. The histories of several notorious feeble-
minded families have been followed in recent years and they have
yielded results of much interest and importance to students of
social problems. One of the most noteworthy of these instances
forms the subject-matter of Goddard's fascinating book, The
Kallikak Family. The starting point of the investigation de-
scribed in this book was made in the effort to trace the ancestry of
a feeble-minded girl, Deborah, who had become an inmate of a
home for the feeble-minded at Vineland, N. J. Deborah had been
born in the almshouse. Her mother was feeble-minded and had
had several other children by various men. The field worker,
Miss E. S. Kite, who worked out the genealogy of the Kallikak
family, succeeded in tracing its ancestry to a Martin Kallikak, a
soldier in the revolutionary war. While at an inn Martin Kalli-
kak made the acquaintance of a feeble-minded girl by whom he
had a son named Martin Kallikak, Jr. Later Martin Kallikak
married a normal woman of good family and raised several chil-
dren. "All of the legitimate children of Martin, Sr., married into
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 31
the best families ip. their state, the descendants of colonial gover-
nors, signers of the Declaration of Independence, soldiers and
even the founders of a great university. Indeed, in this family
and its collateral branches, we find nothing but good representa-
tive citizenship. There are doctors, lawyers, judges, educators,
traders, landholders, in short, respectable citizens, men and
women prominent in every phase of social life. They have
scattered over the United States and are prominent in their
communities wherever they have gone. Half a dozen towns in
New Jersey are named from the families into which Martin's
descendants have married. There have been no feeble-minded
among them: no illegitimate children; no immoral women; only
one man was sexually loose."
In sharp contrast to this branch of the family stand the descend-
ants of the feeble-minded girl. Of these 480 have been traced.
"One hundred and forty-three of these," says Goddard, "we have
conclusive proof were or are feeble-minded, while only forty-six
have been found normal. The rest are unknown or doubtful.
Of these descendants there have been 36 illegitimate, 33 sexually
immoral, mostly prostitutes, 24 confirmed alcoholics, 3 epileptics,
82 died in infancy, 3 criminals, 8 kept houses of ill fame. The
Kallikaks married into other families, usually of their own type,
producing 1,146 individuals. "Of this large group," says God-
dard, "we have discovered that two hundred and sixty- two
were feeble-minded, while one hundred and ninety-seven are con-
sidered normal, the remaining five hundred and eighty-one being
still undetermined."
The history of this family is a long tale of feeble-mindedness,
alcoholism, poverty and prostitution. Children were numerous,
but although infant mortality was high, the family increased
rapidly in successive generations. Wherever the Kallikaks
wandered, whether in the backwoods or in the slums of cities they
retained the same characteristics.
There are several Kallikak families, several of which, such as
the Nams, Pineys, Hill Folk, Tribe of Ishmael, Zeroes, etc.,
show little but a monotonous repetition of the same history
32 THE TREND OF THE RACE
of pauperism, alcoholism, harlotry and frequently graver forms
of crime.
Several investigators have drawn the conclusion that feeble-
mindedness, which is an inherited trait in probably four-fifths of
the cases, is transmitted as a recessive or partially recessive
character, although it is not so evident that it behaves as a single
unit in inheritance. Feeble-minded children sometimes come
from normal parents, both of whom, however, may have been
heterozygous for feeble-mindedness. Such children frequently
result from the mating of a feeble-minded person with a normal
individual, but when both parents are feeble-minded we find that
in nearly all cases all the children are feeble-minded, as we should
expect. The few recorded exceptions to this rule may be due to
illegitimacy which is a not infrequent occurrence among this
class, or to mistaken judgment of the parents' or the child's men-
tal condition, or the fact that one parent may have been feeble-
minded through accident or disease. Out of 41 matings in the
Kallikak family in which both parents were feeble-minded there
were 222 feeble-minded children and only two others that were
considered normal. In his work on Feeble-mindedness Goddard
states that of 482 children both of whose parents were feeble-
minded all but six were reported to be feeble-minded also.
The conclusion of Goddard that only mentally defective
children are to be expected from two mentally defective parents
which was announced by Davenport in 1911 as "the first law of
inheritance of mental ability" was materially modified in a paper
on the Hill Folk published by Danielson and Davenport in 1912.
"The analysis of the data," according to the authors, "gives
statistical support to the conclusion abundantly justified from
numerous other considerations, that feeble-mindedness is no ele-
mentary trait, but is a legal or sociological, rather than a biologi-
cal term. Feeble-mindedness is due to the absence, now of one
set of traits, now of quite a different set. Only when both parents
lack one or more of the same traits do the children all lack the
traits. So, if the traits lacking in both parenrs are socially impor-
tant the children all lack socially important traits, i. e., are feeble-
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 33
minded. If, on the other hand, the two parents lack different
socially significant traits, so that each parent brings into the com-
bination the traits that the other lacks, all of the children may
be without serious lack and all pass for ' normal. ' '
This change of front is due to the discovery of several cases in
which it was alleged that normal individuals were produced by
parents both of whom were mentally defective. In fact the
percentage of such cases was rather high. Considering both low
grade and high grade feeble-mindedness together it was found
that the percentage of defectives resulting from nulliplex matings
(feeble-minded X feeble-minded) was only 77.3 per cent instead of
100 per cent. Matings of normal N N with feeble-minded n n
give 37.5 per cent of defectives instead of none which would be
expected even on Danielson and Davenport's own hypothesis.
No explanation, however, of the latter discrepancy is offered.
Chances for error in the investigation of the mentality of such
communities as the Hill Folk are numerous as the authors seem
to realize. "The problem that a field worker meets is to analyze
each person in the pedigree in respect to his mental and moral
traits from a complete acquaintance and from a comparison of the
description of others. After all the evidence from personal visits,
interviews with relatives, physicians, town officials, and reliable
neighbors, and facts from court and town records have been
collected, it is, even then, difficult to represent these characteris-
tics exactly by the standard symbols which are used for the
biological study of inherited traits. The distinction between an
ignorant person who has normal mental ability and a high-grade
feeble-minded one who has not, is often as impossible to make
as that between medium and low grade feeble-mindedness."
A careful examination of the Hill Folk will show that it exhibits
little internal evidence of critical judgment, which is so necessary
in dealing with the inheritance of mental defect. We find in
examining the alleged matings of feeble-minded with feeble-
minded that m one case all that is said of the mental state of .one
consort is that he was "a wild immoral fellow"; of another, that
he was "a plodding dull drinking fellow"; of another, that he
34 THE TREND OF THE RACE
belonged to an "unintelligent family"; of another, that he was
"a good workman, but very alcoholic," besides being "round-
shouldered, narrow-chested, and in poor physical condition"; of
another, that he was "a wild fellow," who broke into a house with
intent to rape; of another, that he was "a shiftless drinking fel-
low"; who later got into trouble for assaulting an officer; of
another, that she was "shiftless and neurotic" and married a
"shiftless and alcoholic man." When such persons are put down
as feeble-minded our confidence in the proper classification of the
matings becomes rudely shaken. The authors seem to consider
shiftlessness as almost tantamount to feeble-mindedness, and if
this is combined with alcoholism or sexual irregularity the judg-
ment of the mental condition of the offender is apt to be particu-
larly harsh. Estimates made after a "brief acquaintance," or
from "descriptions of others," etc., when we are attempting to
gauge the innate ability of people of little education, raised in a
very unfavorable environment, and often with a constitution
impaired by the use of alcohol, are very apt to be biased. One
cannot take seriously conclusions based on evidence of this sort.
It is of course not improbable a priori that feeble-mindedness may
rest upon different forms of hereditary defect in different individ-
uals. But that offspring of normal mentality may be produced
from two parents who are hereditarily feeble-minded cannot be
considered as established, I think, by the data of Danielson and
Davenport's memoir. 1
Notwithstanding the striking results obtained by Goddard the
complete dominance of normal mentality over feeble-mindedness
cannot be regarded as clearly established. In a very large number
of cases in which characters obey the Mendelian rules of segrega-
tion the organisms which are heterozygous for the characters in
question show a more or less intermediate condition. Frequently,
as in the dominance of polydactylism, there is a large degree of
variation in the extent to which the dominant character is devel-
1 Dr. Tredgold who has carefully traced many pedigrees of feeble-minded families
states that his experience bears out the conclusion " that the mating of two mentally
defective individuals yields offspring who are all defective."
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 35
oped. In the Fi generation of a normal and a polydactylous
person the dominant character varies from complete development
to entire absence of visible somatic expression. In view of the
frequency of such facts as these, and considering also the contin-
uous variability in the manifestation of mental qualities in gen-
eral, it is inadmissible to draw the conclusion that the mating of a
normal person, even of sound stock, with a mental defective will
be productive of mentally normal offspring. The supposition
that matings of this sort are productive of offspring whose mental
characters tend to be more or less intermediate between those of
their parents, is one that is quite in accord with the large body of
facts that has accumulated on the inheritance of mental traits.
There are cases in which the mating of a person of good intelligence
with a person of subnormal mentality has resulted in fairly intelli-
gent offspring, but unions of this kind as a rule are not productive
of happy results. Normal progeny from such matings may repre-
sent cases where for some reason, the dominance of one parent is
unusually complete. But the many cases in which the matings of
normal and defective are productive of a variable degree of mental
defect in the offspring may be to a considerable degree the result
of imperfect and variable dominance.
It has been generally assumed by a number of American work-
ers that where mental defectives arise from such matings the
apparently normal person was heterozygous. To account for the
large number of defectives thus arising it has to be supposed that
people heterozygous for mental defect are very common. In
Goddard's charts (Bull. Eugen. ~R.ec. Off. No. i) out of thirty
matings of feeble-minded with presumably normal individuals all
but two produced some feeble-minded offspring. In one of these
(chart 6) three of the offspring, although they were marked nor-
mal, had feeble-minded children. In the other family the only
recorded mating among the presumably normal children was
between an alcoholic woman and a man marked normal from
another stock. This mating produced three normal and two
feeble-minded children.
It must be borne in mind, however, that the people marked
36 THE TREND OF THE RACE
normal who mate with the feeble-minded are apt to be people of
relatively poor stock. Probably many of them should be classed
as high-grade morons, or at least people below the average grade
of intellect. A considerable proportion of them carry the germs of
other forms of defect and many of them are addicted to alcohol.
The individuals designated in the charts as N, with perhaps more
of courtesy than they really deserve, are scarcely comparable to
the average of the general population. The charts, which are
frequently chosen to illustrate striking cases, may give an exag-
gerated notion of the frequency with which the matings of feeble-
minded and normal produce feeble-minded offspring. However,
when one goes over the matings in the Kallikak family where all
the known matings are recorded, it will be found that feeble-
minded offspring result from over two-thirds of the cases of nor-
mal X feeble-minded matings. As we have seen, the mating of
normal and feeble-minded among the Hill Folk gave 37.5 per
cent of defective offspring.
It is evident that we need not assume that our inheritance
is vitiated to the extent that these studies seem to indicate if
we grant that the dominance of mental normality is imperfect and
variable. A tendency toward defectiveness is not only subject
to various environmental influences both before and after birth,
but it is combined with various other hereditary traits in different
offspring which could scarcely fail to influence its expression. In
the case of the insane diathesis we should expect that such in-
fluences would have a profound effect on the manifestation of
insanity, and in feeble-mindedness they might well produce
differences which would determine whether or not a person were
classed as feeble-minded or as normal.
Both Heron and Pearson have contended with much reason
that mental defect varies continuously. There are all grades from
the lowest forms of idiots to high-grade morons, and there is no
line which can be drawn between the latter and people of normal
intelligence. Mental defectiveness is a matter of degree, varying
like height, weight, physical strength, hair color and a number of
other human qualities, in a manner that permits of no grouping
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 37
into clearly defined classes. This fact does not necessarily indi-
cate, as Pearson and Heron imply, that the various kinds of men-
tal defect are not transmitted according to Mendel's law. It is
not uncommon for segregation to occur in the usual Mendelian
manner, although the character segregated may fluctuate so as to
form a perfectly continuous series. Where the germinal factors
manifest themselves somatically in characters that undergo a
large amount of fluctuating variability, it naturally makes the
demonstration of Mendelian segregation more difficult. Where,
as in human beings, it is not feasible to employ experimental
methods of analysis the difficulty of establishing Mendelian
inheritance beyond cavil is greatly enhanced. One has to be
guided by probabilities. The best that can be done is to select
tentatively that hypothesis which gives the most plausible inter-
pretation of the phenomena to be explained and is best in accord
with what is known of the principles of inheritance followed in
other fields. The very general occurrence of Mendelian inheri-
tance among plants and animals of both primitive and highly
organized types, and the remarkable success attained in explain-
ing apparently non-conformable phenomena in terms of Mendel's
law, creates a very justifiable presumption in favor of the conclu-
sion that mental defects are transmitted according to the same
laws that prevail so widely in the plant and animal world. That
inheritance in man obeys the laws followed by organisms in gen-
eral is also indicated by the undoubted appearance of types of
Mendelian inheritance among human characteristics.
But while the general occurrence of Mendelian inheritance in
the organic world creates a presumption in favor of the conclusion
that mental traits in man are transmitted according to the same
rule, it must be conceded that there are certain characters whose
mode of transmission seems to present a clear exception to this
type of inheritance. It is true that such cases are comparatively
rare. But there is a much larger number of cases which may
follow Mendel's law, but in which it has never been proven that
they actually do follow it. The successful extension of Mendelian
analysis may justify us in shifting the burden of proof from the
38 THE TREND OF THE RACE
shoulders of the Mendelian to those of his opponent. But if it is
granted that a characteristic is transmitted according to Mendel's
law it remains to be determined whether it presents a simple
typical illustration of such transmission or follows a more complex
type of Mendelian inheritance. Where several factors are in-
volved, inheritance, though Mendelian, may present the appear-
ance of the old-fashioned blending type, and should be dealt with
in practice as though it were truly blending.
Let us suppose for instance that feeble-mindedness depends
not upon the loss of a single factor in the germ plasm, as com-
monly assumed, but upon the presence of many such factors
belonging to different allelomorphic pairs. The matings of two
feeble-minded persons, thus bringing together two germ plasms
generally tainted with defectiveness, would be expected to produce
nothing but feeble-minded offspring. The matings of a normal
with a feeble-minded person mightbe expected to produce variable
results. Various factors affecting mentality in the normal individ-
ual would doubtless tend to give rise to various degress of mental
development. There would doubtless be also a considerable
variation in the gametes contributed by the feeble-minded person.
Some of the combinations of germ cells might be expected to
produce a much better mental inheritance than others. Add to
the congenital differences thus arising, other changes due to
intra-uterine influence, circumstances affecting early childhood,
and various other environmental factors, and we would get a
varied group whose individual members would be classed as
feeble-minded or normal, in proportions varying according to the
standard of the person making the classification and the correct-
ness of his judgment of the persons passed upon. Naturally the
categories found could be interpreted as resulting either from the
mating DRXRR or, in case all the offspring were considered
normal, from DD X RR, the normal parent being designated after
the usual fashion as DD or DR according to whatever assumption
is necessary to bring the facts into accord with the theory. It is
practically impossible to determine that a person is a DR unless
one of his immediate parents is an RR. The presence of RR's in
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 39
near relatives may establish a certain presumption in favor of his
being heterozygous, but it does not prove it.
Most of the facts of the inheritance of mental defect are con-
formable to the hypothesis that such defect is dependent upon a
number of factors instead of a single one. If the factors for
heritable qualities are borne by chromosomes, as there is now such
strong evidence for believing, is not every chromosome, or even
every part of a chromosome the bearer of factors that influence
mentality? Is it conceivable that there is a unit factor for mind
located somewhere in a chromosome? There may be specialized
parts of the chromosome complex whose influence on the develop-
ment of the body is such that if they are modified they produce
a heritable mental defect. It is of course possible that a change
even in a small part of a chromosome would produce the defect in
question. It is also possible that the development of superior
ability may require the influence of a special part of an individual
chromosome. But, since in the absence of both these chromosome
regions we have mentioned, some type of mentality would doubt-
less be produced if we should get an organism at all, it seems
improbable a priori that the inheritance of general mental develop-
ment would follow the simple Mendelian formula for the inheri-
tance of two contrasted characters. In general, it may be prob-
able that the lower types of mentality are recessive to the higher
types much as lighter shades of coat color in mammals are usually
recessive (or hypostatic) to the darker shades. While a feeble-
minded person may be one whose infirmity is due to a particular
modified factor he, or at least some feeble-minded persons, may
owe the defect to more widespread damage to the germ plasm. I
very much doubt if the facts concerning the inheritance of defect
are as yet known with sufficient precision to warrant our trying to
force them into simple Mendelian formulae. Of course, if two
stocks differ by a single factor only, their progeny would be ex-
pected to afford an illustration of simple Mendelian inheritance.
But since the inheritance of any human family probably differs in
very numerous ways from that of any other, and since any change
in any part of the germ plasm could scarcely help having a certain
40 THE TREND OF THE RACE
influence on the mentality of the individual concerned, it is a
priori very improbable that the inheritance of mental defect is
adequately describable in simple Mendelian terms. Most of the
charts which group human beings categorically as feeble-minded
or normal, as we class mice as gray or albino, take no account of
the varied manifestations of mentality which really occur. They
are liable to give a false or misleading appearance of simplicity
which in fact has no existence.
Whether the inheritance of mental defect follows simple or
complex Mendelian formulas, or whether, indeed, it may not take
place according to the older conceptions of blending inheritance,
makes comparatively little difference in the practical treatment of
hereditarily defective persons. The fact that defective mentality
is strongly transmitted is established beyond the possibility of
sane objection, and the particularly disastrous results that are
pretty sure to follow from the mating of two mental defectives
have certainly been made sufficiently impressive by the work of
recent investigators.
EPILEPSY
Although Morel questioned its hereditary transmission, there
is now a general consensus of opinion that epilepsy is often
inherited. This dreaded malady occurs in a variety of forms
(petit mal, grand mal, Jacksonian epilepsy, etc.) and is frequently
associated with other forms of defect such as feeble-mindedness
and insanity. Many cases are doubtless to be attributed to
trauma, disease and alcohol, although a part of such cases prob-
ably have a basis in inheritance as well. Concerning the propor-
tion of cases attributable to heredity I can do no better than to
quote from Barr (Mental Defectives, p. 212) "Hammond in a study
of 171 epileptics, finds heredity a cause in 45, 21 of these proving
direct; Echeverria gives 26 per cent of 306 as descendants of
epileptic parents. Delasiauve found the same in 33 out of 300
cases, and Herpin 10 in 68 cases. . . . Hamilton states that fully
50 per cent of his 980 cases are attributable to heredity. Cowers
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 41
gives 35 per cent, and the 56 per cent of my table coincides with
Spratling's record in 1,100 cases."
The gravity of the disease (it is seldom curable) and its not
infrequent connection with some of the worst crimes of violence,
render the subject of its mode of transmission of especial impor-
tance. The first serious attempt to show that epilepsy is inherited
according to Mendel's law was made by Davenport and Weeks
who followed up the pedigrees of many of the inmates of the New
Jersey State Village for Epileptics at Skillman, N. J. The pedi-
grees were obtained mainly by field workers and the data were
analyzed according to the assumption that the matings fell into
the classes which might be expected to occur in simple Mendelian
inheritance. We quote the principal conclusions of the investiga-
tion: "Epilepsy and feeble-mindedness show a great similarity of
behavior in heredity supporting the hypothesis that each is due to
the absence of a protoplasmic factor that determines complete
nervous development."
"When both parents are either epileptic or feeble-minded all
their children are so likewise.
"The conditions named migraine, chorea, paralysis, and ex-
treme nervousness behave as though due to a simplex condition
of the protoplasmic factor that conditions complete nervous
development. . . .
"When such a tainted individual is mated to a defective about
half the offspring are defective.
"When both parents are simplex . . . and 'tainted' about
one-quarter (actually 30 per cent) are defective.
"Normal parents that have epileptic offspring usually show
gross nervous defect in their close relatives.
"While we recognize that 'epilepsy' is a complex, yet there is a
classical type numerically so preponderant that, in the mass,
'epilepsy' acts like a unit defect."
Only one instance is given in which both parents were epileptic
and it happened that both were feeble-minded also. Of their four
children one was feeble-minded and died before 14; but the other
3 all developed epilepsy. In a subsequent paper by Weeks two
42 THE TREND OF THE RACE
additional cases are given. In one of these there were 12 children
who survived infancy (there being 4 stillborn). Of these three
were epileptic, one was feeble-minded, two were migranous and
six were neurotic. In the other case of the four surviving children
(4 being stillborn) two were epileptic, one was feeble-minded and
one " unclassified." In the two latter families nothing is recorded
of the ages of the children except that they were over 14, although
one would expect some explanation of the apparent discrepancy
between the results and the theoretical expectations. If offspring
from two epileptic parents may be simply migranous or neurotic
the "character" that is transmitted must be subject to a remark-
able degree of fluctuation.
As the authors remark, feeble-mindedness and epilepsy appear
to be closely related in their transmission. Nine matings in which
both parents were feeble-minded gave one or more epileptics in
each family, while a larger number of children were simply feeble-
minded. In Week's data which includes all the cases in the paper
by Davenport and Weeks there is given 15 matings in which one
parent is epileptic and the other feeble-minded. Of the 55 off-
spring who lived to be old enough to classify, 28 were epileptic, 26
feeble-minded, and i insane. Of the 27 matings in which both
parents were either feeble-minded or epileptic all of the offspring
above 14 about whose condition anything could be ascertained
were classed as mentally abnormal, 43 being epileptic, 58 feeble-
minded, one insane, 2 migranous, and 8 neurotic, certainly a
fearful harvest of undesirable progeny.
Notwithstanding the hereditary association of epilepsy and
feeble-mindedness, it cannot be maintained that these are heredi-
tarily equivalent neuroses. Epilepsy is much more likely to
appear when one or both of the parents are epileptic than when
they are feeble-minded. When one parent was feeble-minded,
and the other epileptic the proportion of epileptic to feeble-
minded offspring of classifiable age was 28 epileptic to 26 feeble-
minded, whereas when both parents were feeble minded the ratio
was 7 epileptic to 29 feeble-minded. And the latter ratio is
naturally much higher than the average, since only those families
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 43
are considered in which there are some epileptic offspring. In
many feeble minded stocks the proportion of epilepsy that ap-
pears is quite small. On the other hand most pedigrees which
include a considerable number of epileptics contain also more or
less feeble-mindedness.
In many pedigrees epilepsy shows a marked association with
other neuropathic traits. As Weeks observes, "That there are
more than five times as many epileptics as feeble-minded persons
in these fraternities coming from matings where neither parent can
be classed as normal, or called mentally defective, seems to indi-
cate that neurotic or otherwise tainted conditions are more closely
related to epilepsy than to feeble-mindedness."
From the available data it is far from evident that epilepsy
is inherited as a single Mendelian character. "It will be seen
from the present evidence," Weeks admits, "that epilepsy cannot
be considered as a Mendelian factor when considered by itself, but
that epilepsy and feeble-mindedness are Mendelian factors of the
recessive type in that their germ cells lack the determiner for
normality," however we are to imagine such an entity to occur.
The statement of Davenport and Weeks concerning epilepsy and
feeble-mindedness that "each is due to the absence of a proto-
plasmic factor that determines complete nervous development,"
and the further conclusion that "when both parents are either
epileptic or feeble-minded all their offspring are so likewise,"
indicate that both these defects are due to the loss of the same
factor. If so, epilepsy and feeble-mindedness should be heredi-
tarily equivalent, which we have seen they are not. If they
depend on the loss of different factors we should expect them to
behave as independent characters in which case it would be per-
fectly possible for the mating of a feeble-minded and an epileptic
to produce normal children; in fact we should expect most
children to be normal. Neither of the authors mentioned seems
to be sufficiently impressed with the dilemma into which their
interpretations land them. There are indications that epilepsy is
often recessive and that it is frequently inherited in an alternative
manner, but we must be guarded on both these points. Davenport
44 THE TREND OF THE RACE
and Weeks seem to hold that while it is sometimes completely
recessive, it is commonly only partly so, the simplex condition
being indicated by milder forms of nervous disorder. For these
authors almost any condition not quite normal may be indicative
of the simplex type which includes neurotics, criminals, sex
offenders, alcoholics, persons suffering from tuberculosis, migraine
and apoplexy. In fact judging from the variety of so-called
simplex types scarcely anyone would fail to qualify for this dis-
tinction. Inasmuch as epileptics sometimes come from parents
classed as normal the presumption is that in some stocks the
dominance of the normal condition must be variable. It is not
improbable that some strains tend to transmit a more malignant
type of the disorder than others. But we need more data on this
point. Despite the evident labor involved in the work of Daven-
port and Weeks on the inheritance of epilepsy, the general results
serve chiefly to emphasize the fact that very little is known about
the subject. The uncritical way in which some of the work was
done is clearly shown by the severe and somewhat acrimonious
criticism to which it was subjected by Heron who pointed out
numerous inaccuracies and contradictions throughout the original
paper, as well as in the later contribution by Weeks.
The evidence that epilepsy is transmitted as a single unit
character is entirely inadequate; there is only a certain presump-
tion derived more from analogy than the evidence hi hand, that it
obeys Mendel's law; we are not clear how it is related in inheri-
tance to feeble-mindedness, or other forms of defect. The evi-
dence that epilepsy is strongly transmitted, however, is quite
conclusive, whatever opinions may be held as to its precise mode
of transmission.
INSANITY
For a long time it has been known that a proclivity to insanity
may be inherited. At the same time it is universally conceded
that people are often rendered insane through disease, injury or
severe mental shock. Authorities vary remarkably in their
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 45
estimations of the percentage of cases attributable to a hereditary-
diathesis. Toulouse (Les Causes de la Folie) cites a number of
authorities whose estimates vary from 15.5 per cent to 90 per
cent. Some writers have placed the percentage of insanity due to
heredity often as low as 3 per cent. The disagreements are about
as great among recent writers as among the older ones. Tanzi
(Mental Diseases, p. 61) states that, "The percentages of heredity
among the insane are not very high. To succeed in making them
large, it is necessary to take into account metamorphoses from a
nervous disease, or even from any disease, to a nervous disease, to
consider anomalies as morbid processes, and to allow all cases of
dissimilar heredity to pass as true heredity." And after com-
menting on the difficulty of securing data on the remote heredity
of patients, Tanzi concludes: "If all these reservations be taken
into consideration we arrive at the conclusion that, among the
cases of insanity, the external act more widely than the internal."
Paton in his work on Psychiatry tells us: "There is so much glib
talk about the problems of heredity that the uninitiated are led to
believe that a great deal is definitely known regarding the trans-
mission of normal and abnormal mental traits; indeed, many
alienists fail to appreciate our limitations in this respect. At
present we do not possess an accumulation of carefully collected
clinical data from which it is justifiable to draw any really val-
uable deductions, nor can the meagre facts recorded in the aver-
age clinical history be analyzed in such a way as to make clear
their bearing upon the biological problems under discussion."
Dr. Maudsley, who has given the subject particular attention,
says: "The main value of the many doubtful statistics which
have been collected by authors in order to decide how large a part
hereditary taint plays in the production of insanity, is to prove
that with the increase of opportunities of obtaining exact informa-
tion the greater is the proportion of cases in which its influence is
detected; the more careful and exact the researches the fuller is
the stream of hereditary tendency which they disclose. Esquirol
noted it in 150 out of 264 cases of his private patients; Burrows
clearly ascertained that it existed in six-sevenths of the whole of
46 THE TREND OF THE RACE
his patients; on the other hand, there have been some authors who
have brought the proportion down as low as one-tenth. Some
years ago I made a tolerably precise examination of the family
histories of 50 insane persons, taken without any selection; there
was a strongly marked predisposition in 14 cases that is, in i in
3.57, and in 10 more cases there was sufficient evidence of family
degeneration to warrant more than a suspicion of inherited fault
of organization. In about half the cases then was there reason to
suspect morbid predispositions. I have recently inquired into the
histories of 50 more cases, all ladies, the opportunities being such
as could only occur in private medical practice, and with these
results: that in 20 cases there was the distinct history of heredi-
tary predisposition; in 13 cases there was such evidence of it in
the features of the malady as to beget the strongest suspicion of
it; in 17 cases there was no evidence whatever of it." In some
cases insane ancestry was denied, but was subsequently found to
exist. Dr. Maudsley thus expresses his general conclusion as to the
proportion of insanity due to heredity: "Suffice it to say broadly
that the most careful researches agree to fix it as certainly not
lower than one-fourth, probably as high as one-half, possibly as
high even as three-fourths." (The Pathology of the Mind, $d
edition.) Toulouse cites the estimates of various authors on the
frequency of hereditary insanity as follows:
Ellis 15.5 per cent.
Morel 20 " "
Esquirol (Statist, de Charenton) 24.50 " "
Esquirol (Statist, de la maison d'lvry) 56.81 " "
English Asylum Statistics 20 . 5 " "
Prussian Asylum Statistics 27 . 96 " "
Guislaid 45 " "
Moreau 90 " "
The following statements may be added from recent authors:
Mott, "The large majority of the insane are hereditarily dis-
posed." Clouston, "An evil nervous heredity commonly under-
lies all other causes. Without its existence there would be very
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 47
little unsoundness of mind in the world." Mercier (Sanity and
Insanity.} "The stability or instability of a person's nervous
arrangements depend primarily and chiefly upon inheritance."
Bianchi (Textbook of Psychiatry], speaking of epilepsy, says
"Heredity plays the greatest part, and in most cases is direct and
similar."
The great importance of the hereditary factor is emphasized
by Heron who has made an elaborate statistical study of the
inheritance of insanity based on data supplied by Dr. A. R.
Urquhart, Superintendent of the James Murray's Royal Asylum,
at Perth. "The records which have been compiled by Dr.
Urquhart personally," says Heron, "are, therefore, of great value
on account of their completeness, uniformity, and the long period
over which they extend." The data showed that where both
parents of an insane patient were sane, the ratio of the insane in
all the offspring was 314:1179. With one parent insane the off-
spring were 93 insane: 299 sane, and when both parents were
insane there were 4 insane and 4 sane offspring. Since not all the
offspring had reached the age at which latent insanity might be
manifested, it is obvious that the relative proportion of insane
offspring would be considerably higher. Taking account also of
data collected by Pearson, Heron concludes that his results
"indicate that if completed histories are taken 40 per cent of
insane offspring of insane parents is not an over-estimate, and
that in this memoir we have erred on the side of lessening the
intensity of inheritance in taking 25 per cent of the offspring of
insane persons to be insane." Insanity, according to Heron, is
inherited to about the same extent as stature, intelligence, and
a number of other traits.
The way in which insanity is transmitted is rather more difficult
to follow than the mode of inheritance of feeble-mindedness.
Unlike the latter trait, insanity is seldom manifested until after
the period of adolescence, and very frequently appears in middle
life and even in old age. This circumstance creates a difficulty in
the way of tracing the operation of any Mendelian factors which
may be responsible for the insane diathesis, since a considerable
48 THE TREND OF THE RACE
proportion of people fail to reach the age at which their hereditary
taint might become manifest, and since also it is necessary to
know the whole life history of the individuals concerned.
Another difficulty is created by the fact that insanity may be
produced by disease, trauma, alcohol, and various other causes.
As Dr. Mott says, " Acquired syphilis, and in rare cases congeni-
tal syphilis, are now acknowledged to be the cause of the most
terrible form of insanity: general paralysis. This disease is fatal
a few years after the onset of symptoms; heredity plays relatively
an unimportant part in its causation; it affects all classes in pro-
portion to their liability to syphilitic infection."
The same authority states that "the cause of 20 per cent of
the deaths in the London County Asylum is due to general paraly-
sis," and that "we might add another 5 to 10 per cent of cases of
brain disease dying in asylums with softening of the brain due
directly or indirectly to syphilis." Guyer in speaking of general
paresis states that "About twenty-two and five-tenths per cent
of the first admissions to hospitals for the insane from city-
dwelling men, and eight per cent from men living in the country
in the state of New York are cases of this kind of insanity."
Not to mention other diseases and the various other assignable
reasons why people become insane, it is evident that a very con-
siderable percentage of the cases of insanity must be set aside
in studying the role of heredity in the causation of this malady.
Still another difficulty confronts the student of heredity in the
circumstance that a hereditary proclivity to insanity may be
present, but owing to favorable conditions of life and the absence
of events that might upset an unstable nervous constitution,
a person may escape falling a victim to his inherited defect. It
is probable that a fair proportion of the hereditarily insane might
have been saved from their unfortunate fate had they been
properly shielded from adverse influences. According to many
statistics, alcohol ranks high among the causes of insanity, but in
most cases alcohol may have afforded the occasion which led to
the derangement of a naturally unstable constitution. There
has accumulated a great deal of evidence that the worst victims of
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 49
alcohol inherit a weak or neurotic physique. The insanity, there-
fore, which is credited to the effect of alcohol is doubtless due in
many cases to a vitiated inheritance. But it is practically im-
possible to measure the relative potency of the hereditary and
environmental factors in such cases. And the same statement
may be made with respect to the insanity attributed to worry,
shock, childbirth, the menopause and the numerous other circum-
stances that unbalance the mind.
There are many forms of insanity differing greatly in their
symptoms. Melancholia presents a picture very different from
acute mania and dementia praecox. In fact the ills of the mind
are almost as varied as the ills of the body. Like the latter they
vary continuously in their degree of manifestation from the
minor troubles that make people nervous, "a little queer,"
moody, or excitable, to raging mania or complete dementia. The
hereditary forms, while naturally less numerous, present so many
degrees of manifestation and so many variations that a satis-
factory classification is a matter of great difficulty.
Some forms of insanity are closely associated with other
diseases for which there is a strong heredity proclivity. This is
the case with "epileptiform insanity," and to a less degree with
"gouty insanity," "phthisical insanity," etc. To speak of heredi-
tary insanity as a "unit character" due to a defect or loss of a
single character in the germ plasm is about on a par with ascrib-
ing all kinds of heritable physical anomalies to the same cause.
It may be true that a single defect in the germ plasm may mani-
fest itself in a variety of ways and in many degrees. But analogy
with the transmission of the bodily traits should make us very
cautious about considering the insane diathesis as a unit char-
acter of essentially the same kind in the different cases in which it
is manifested. Charts of the inheritance of insanity show that
the afflicted individuals exhibit a great diversity of symptoms in
successive generations. The possibility must, therefore, be borne
in mind that the germ plasm of neurotic stocks may be affected
in a variety of ways, and that the varied exhibitions of disordered
mentality are the result, in part at least, of this circumstance.
50 THE TREND OF THE RACE
The first serious attempt to study the inheritance of insanity
in the light of Mendel's law was made by Cannon and Rosanoff
who carefully collected data from the families of n insane pa-
tients in the Kings Park State Hospital, New York. The authors
employed the method of sending out field workers to study the
families of the patients, and they were thus able to secure much
more reliable data than that which is usually collected by hospi-
tals and asylums. It was concluded that insanity behaves as a
Mendelian recessive character. The expectations of this hypoth-
esis that matings of insane with insane (RRXRR) would give
nothing but insane offspring is quite consistent with the results.
Out of three such matings yielding 16 offspring, 10 were neuro-
pathic, 5 died in infancy, and data concerning the remaining
one were wanting.
The mating of normal persons heterozygous for neuropathic
defect, with neuropathies is represented, according to the authors,
"by 19 matings with a total of 129 offspring. Theoretically
one-half of these should be neuropathic, and one-half normal,
but capable of transmitting the neuropathic make-up to their
progeny. The charts show: 45 neuropathic, 14 normal with
neuropathic offspring, 20 normal without offspring, 27 normal
with normal offspring, 20 died in childhood, and concerning 3
data were uncertain."
This is not a very close approximation to the Mendelian
expectation, under the assumption that we are dealing with
DRXRR matings. Upon what basis is one of the parents con-
sidered heterozygous for the neuropathic taint? Evidently the
authors have counted as heterozygous all those apparently nor-
mal persons who have produced neuropathic offspring when
mated with a neuropathic person. This procedure affords a
perfectly clear case of begging the question, for it assumes the
truth of the conclusions to be established, and entirely overlooks
the possibility previously pointed out, that the dominance of the
normal condition may be variable or imperfect. On the assump-
tion of Mendelian inheritance the only reliable index of the
heterozygous make-up of the normal parent is that one of the
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 51
parents is a neuropathic person (RR). On looking through the
charts I find that only three of the 19 cases fulfill this condition.
If one of the parents has a brother, sister or other near relative
who is neuropathic, the assumption that this parent is heterozy-
gous is only probable. In going over the charts for cases of this
kind I find a record in the alleged DRXRR matings of only five
instances. In all the other cases the conclusion is apparently
based on no evidence at all beyond the fact that it is necessary to
assume it in order to make the facts come out in accordance with
the hypothesis.
The third class of cases discussed, the matings of a homozygous
normal with a double recessive, DD X RR is represented according
to the authors, by "five matings with a total of 18 offspring.
Theoretically all the offspring of such matings should be normal,
but capable of transmitting the neuropathic make-up to their
progeny. The charts show: 8 normal with neuropathic offspring,
7 normal with normal offspring, 2 normal without offspring, and
i died in childhood." The assumption that one parent is a
homozygous dominant is naturally somewhat unsafe. From the
nature of the case we can never know that this is correct, but
from what has just been quoted it may be inferred that this
assumption is made because all the children are normal, and some
of the grandchildren neuropathic. Of course some of these cases
cited may have been DRXRR matings which happened to have
only normal (DR) children. What the authors have done is to
divide up the cases in which normal and neuropathic mate into
DD X RR and DR X RR in such a way as to best make the results
fall into line with the theoretical expectations. That other
interpretations are not improbable is evident from what has
previously been said.
The alleged DRXDR matings turn out more in accordance
with expectations since seven matings with 54 offspring yielded
12 neuropathic, and 34 normal individuals, and 8 who died in
childhood.
A subsequent paper by Rosanoff and Orr deals in much the
same way with a larger amount of data, represented by 73 pedi-
52 THE TREND OF THE RACE
grees including 206 matings and 1097 offspring. The same con-
clusions are expressed as to Mendelian inheritance of insanity.
The authors recognize that while neuropathic traits are recessive,
"various clinical neuropathic manifestations bear to one another
the relationship of traits of various degrees of recessiveness; in a
most marked way recoverable psychoses, though recessive as
compared with the normal condition, are dominant over epilepsy
or allied disorders."
Traits on the same level of recessiveness, but differing greatly
in their clinical manifestations may bear to one another the rela-
tionship of "neuropathic equivalents." This, if true, makes
Mendelian formulae more elastic, but it increases the difficulty of
proving that the inheritance is, in fact, Mendelian.
The authors show a commendable caution about concluding
that the inheritance of insanity follows simple Mendelian rules.
They say, "It seems necessary to assume that the normal devel-
opment and function of the nervous system is dependent not upon
a single unit determinant in the germ plasm, but upon a group of
determinants, and that the number of units lacking from that
group, determines the special type of defect to be observed
clinically. It may be recalled that a similar assumption has been
found necessary for the understanding of the inheritance of other
Mendelian characters, notably various shades of skin pigmenta-
tion."
With commenting on the fact that it is not proven that the
inheritance of skin color is Mendelian, although it is possible
on certain assumptions to show how it might be so, or at least
that it is not certain that it is not so, there seems to be no special
reason for the particular conclusion, "That the number of units
lacking from the germ plasm determines the special type of defect
to be observed clinically." Analogy with Mendelian inheritance
elsewhere would seem to make it more probable that the type of
defect produced would depend upon the particular units of the
germ plasm affected, and not merely upon their number. Perhaps
the authors, who manifest an open-minded and candid attitude
in dealing with the problem, would not object to this interpreta-
53
tion. It certainly seems remarkable that many kinds of germinal
defect would give rise to the same sort of neuropathic disorder.
If so, one person might lack something necessary to normality
and another person might lack something else, and yet the union
of these persons might supply all that was needed to make a
normal product. This would be clearly possible if the defects in
question were completely recessive. One might expect, therefore,
in view of the varied nature of hereditary insanity, that two
insane, or at least two neuropathic persons might occasionally, if
not frequently, produce a normal individual. The probability of
such an occurrence would obviously depend upon the number of
affected units in the germ plasm of the two persons, and the
genetic similarity of the two types of hereditary defect. It would
be of especial interest to compare the matings of similar neuro-
pathic defectives on the one hand and dissimilar types on the
other. Whether or not the latter types especially may not yield
normal offspring we are not at present sufficiently assured. Mat-
ings of neuropathic and neuropathic, it is true, will produce a
large proportion of neuropathic offspring. In the three cases of
this kind given by Cannon and Rosanoff the parents were simply
designated neuropathic, a term used to cover hysteria, feeble-
mindedness, epilepsy, convulsions or other pronounced manifes-
tations, and the children of these matings which were all marked
neuropathic showed insanity, epilepsy, convulsions and neuro-
pathic states not further specified. In a paper by Rosanoff and
Orr 17 such matings are recorded, resulting in 75 children of whom
ii died in infancy, 54 of the remaining 64 are given as "neuro-
pathic," 10 being designated normal. In these 10 the authors
state that in 2 cases " the neuropathic constitution is not insan-
ity," and that the 8 others "have not reached the age of in-
cidence."
There are several cases in which insane parents have been
reported to have produced sane offspring. Pearson's family
records give 66 per cent, insane offspring when both parents are
insane. Only those children were classed as sane who reached an
age of 50 years without developing insanity. Acquired insanity of
54 THE TREND OF THE RACE
the parents was not excluded in the statistics and the "sane"
offspring may have been neuropathic in other ways.
Heron's data on this point are meagre and do not furnish
information as to the age of the sane offspring, so it is not certain
that they reached the period at which insanity would be devel-
oped. Goring gives three matings between insane parents, with
19 offspring, all sane, but we know little of their age beyond the
fact that they were convicts.
Several writers have brought forward evidence that particular
types of insanity tend to run in families. Berze reports a case
of dementia praecox in a father and three sons; a case of a man,
his daughter and her two children and several other instances with
two or more in each family. Dr. Schuster from a statistical
investigation of cases in the London County Asylums concludes
that "a periodically insane son or daughter is more likely to be
associated with a periodically insane mother or father than with
one differently affected," and a similar association occurs between
insane brothers and sisters. In delusional insanity "The tend-
ency for the affliction to run in families is very marked" and "in
the incidence of the primary dementia of adolescence there is a
strong correlation between members of the same co-fraternity."
Strohmayer finds that manic-depressive insanity frequently
reappears in much the same form. "Es gibt kaum ein Krank-
heitsbild, wo so einmutig die Macht des Erbfaktors anerkannt
wird, wie beim manisch-depressiven Irresein. Alle Autoren heben
den auffallend grossen Prozentsatz des durch Geisteskrankheit
direkt oder indirekt belasteten Kranken dieses Schlages hervor.
Die Angaben schwanken zwischen 75 und 85%. Ebenso stim-
men alle Beobachter darin iiberein, das innerhalb des manisch-
depressiven Gebeites die gleichartige verbliiffend iiberweigt."
Many alienists from Morel to the present time have empha-
sized the extreme variability of the manifestations of mental
defect and disease, and have found little tendency for the same
type of insanity to repeat itself in successive generations. That
particular forms of insanity are rarely transmitted as such is a
doctrine which has been rather more frequently espoused in
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 55
France than elsewhere, while in Germany, especially in the last
two decades, the belief in a greater fidelity of transmission has
become somewhat more prevalent. The diverse results obtained
by different investigators on this question are in part due to
different categories of classification adopted. It is generally
recognized that a satisfactory classification of the varied forms of
insanity has not yet been attained. In addition to a few broad
types of insanity that are generally recognized there are so many
cases whose grouping is at present an arbitrary proceeding that a
certain amount of disagreement among different investigators is
inevitable. However, with a closer study of symptoms and a
more careful comparison of the insane who are members of the
same family it is coming to be recognized by an increasing num-
ber of writers of all countries that there are some types of insanity
which show a fair amount of constancy in their mode of trans-
mission. This is in part due to the elimination in such studies of
cases which are caused by external factors, such as syphilis, which
is now known to be responsible for general paresis and a number
of cases of insanity manifested in other ways.
Apparently,* therefore, along with a considerable range in the
manifestation of "neuropathic equivalents" there is a certain
tendency for special types of mental disorder to perpetuate them-
selves. 1 It is a matter of great difficulty to determine how far
different people with the -same inheritance of neuropathic traits
might come to differ in their symptoms. It is unfortunate that
identical twins are not more common, since observation on a
number of such twins with a neuropathic inheritance would
throw much light on this problem.
There are a few cases of very similar types of insanity recorded
in twins who were apparently identical (See Galton's Inquiries
1 Among those who have emphasized the predominance of "similar" heredity are
Griesinger, Ziehen, Albrecht, Sioli, Harbolla, Vorster, Schlub, Damkohler, Forster,
Kreichgauer, Jolly, Pilcz, Berze, Myerson, Frankhauser. Of those holding to the
predominance of "dissimilar" heredity may be mentioned Ribot, Demay,
Urquhart, Schtile, Krafft-Ebing, Kraepelin (in earlier writings), Salgo, Leidesdorff,
Moebius, Jung, Eibe, Grassmann, Krause, Lundborg, Liepmann, Bing, Krause,
Croq, D6j6rine, Bumke.
56 THE TREND OF THE RACE
into Human Faculty). One case of two twin brothers reported by
Dr. Moreau is sufficiently striking to deserve quotation: "Physi-
cally the two young men are so nearly alike that the. one is
easily mistaken for the other. Morally, their resemblance is no
less complete and is most remarkable in its details. Thus, their
dominant ideas are absolutely the same. They both consider
themselves subject to imaginary persecutions; the same enemies
have sworn their destruction, and employ the same means to
effect it. Both have hallucinations of hearing. They are both of
them melancholy and morose; they never address a word to any-
body, and will hardly answer the questions that others address to
them. They always keep apart, and never communicate with one
another. An extremely curious fact which has frequently been
noted by the superintendents of their section of the hospital and
myself is this: From time to time, at very irregular intervals of
two, three, and many months, without appreciable cause, and by
the purely spontaneous effect of their illness, a very marked
change takes place in the condition of the two brothers. Both of
them, at the same time, and often on the same day, rouse them-
selves from their habitual stupor and prostration; they make the
same complaints, and they come of their own accord to the physi-
cian, with an urgent request to be liberated. I have seen this
strange thing occur, even when they were some miles apart, the
one being at Bicetre, and the other living at Saint-Anne." 1
According to Schlub three-fourths of the cases of insanity
occurring in siblings is of the same type. The percentages of like
1 Bajenoff (Quelques r6flections sur les folies g6mellaires et familiales, Arch.
internal, de Neur., n, s. I. 213-218, 1913), cites a number of cases of similar in-
sanity in twins; in one case reported by Harandon de Montyel two twin girls,
apparently identical, were married on the same day and became pregnant at about
the same time. Both were taken with delirium in early pregnancy and were con-
fined separately in the same asylum without either being apprised of the condition
of the other. Their insanities were pronounced "absolutely identical"; their
hallucinations were much the same and their spells occurred at the same time.
They were delivered within 48 hours of each other and soon afterward the insanity
in both subsided. Schultes (Ueber Zwillingspsychosen, Allg. Zelt.f. Psychiat., 1913,
348-364), reports on five cases of insanity in twins; four of these which were very
similar twins showed the same types of insanity.
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 57
forms of insanity was found to be higher (90 per cent) among
brothers than among sisters (70 per cent) or between brother
and sister (68 per cent) . Where insanity occurred in twins it was
of the same type whether the twins were of the same sex or not.
(Zeit.f. Psychiat. 66, 514-541, 1909). Similar findings have been
recorded by H. Krueger (Zeit. f. d. gesamte N enrol, u. Psychiat.
24, 113, 1914).
Is insanity transmitted as a typically recessive trait? In
Huntington's chorea it is generally conceded that we have a
character that usually behaves as a typical dominant. But most
of the writers who have considered insanity from the Mendelian
standpoint conclude, often in a guarded and tentative manner,
that most forms are recessive. One fact that on the face of it
indicates that such is the case is that insanity and other neuroses
frequently arise in families in which the parents are normal or
slightly neuropathic, and that the frequency of such cases is
increased when the presence of insane or neuropathic relatives
points to the heterozygous constitution of the parents. When,
however, we are dealing with a character so protean as the
"neuropathic constitution" is commonly assumed to be, this
evidence becomes somewhat less convincing.
The neuropathic constitution may take a relatively mild form
in the parents in which it escapes being recognized, while in the
offspring it may take the form of insanity. A trait essentially
dominant will, if highly variable in its manifestations and es-
pecially if the degree of its manifestation is largely dependent
upon environmental factors, closely simulate a recessive trait in
its mode of occurrence.
To speak of insanity as a defect and as, therefore, due to the
loss of one or more determiners in the germ plasm is misleading.
Properly, in our view, it is neither the one nor the other. It
is more probable that the hereditary basis of insanity is something
positive, a definite pathological factor or factors working havoc
with the normal development of the organism, and which may be
kept from exercising to the full its deteriorating effects by an
admixture of healthy germ plasm. How far insanity is the prod-
58 THE TREND OF THE RACE
uct of specific neurotoxins, it is at present impossible to say.
There is little in the symptoms of insanity that would lead us to
conclude that it is the expression of mere weakness or lack of
something, any more than is rheumatism or the gout.
It is one of the unfortunate influences of the presence-absence
theory that it leads people to jump to the conclusion that traits
may be due to absences and hence recessive when there is no clear
evidence of this from the facts in hand. Imperfect dominance is
sufficiently plentiful among organisms in general to make us
expect it more or less frequently in the inheritance of neuropathic
traits. Davenport and Weeks, as we have seen, conclude that it
occurs in the transmission of epilepsy and related neuroses. An
examination of the charts in Rosanoff and Orr's paper on the
inheritance of insanity shows that all the facts may plausibly be
interpreted according to the same hypothesis. The frequency
with which the matings of normal and neuropathic parents
produce neuropathic offspring is rather better in accord with this
view. On the assumption of complete recessiveness Rosanoff and
Orr are led to the view that over 31 per cent of apparently normal
people are carriers of neuropathic defect. In most of the cases
given by Rosanoff and Orr where the mating of a normal and a
neuropathic resulted in neuropathic offspring, it was not possible
to show that the normal parent was in fact heterozygous; he was
simply assumed to be so on account of the character of the off-
spring. It is evident that if neuropathic traits are imperfectly
dominant, or not completely recessive (which is the same thing)
it is not necessary to assume that the heterozygous condition is
nearly so prevalent. Matings of apparently normal stock with
one that is neuropathic are so often followed by unfortunate
results that one is naturally led to suspect that a partial blending
or direct contamination, is a phenomen of common occurrence.
THE ALLEGED PRINCIPLE OF "ANTEDATING" OR "ANTICIPATION"
Dr. F. W. Mott has pointed out what he considers to be a
principle of general application in neuropathic inheritance,
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 59
namely, the so-called process of "antedating" or "anticipation."
"I have found," he says, "that there is a signal tendency in the
insane offspring of insane parents for the insanity to occur at
an earlier age and hi a more intense form in a large proportion
of cases; for the form of insanity is usually either congenital
imbecility or the primary dementia of adolescence, which gen-
erally is an incurable disease." The consequence of this alleged
tendency is that, with increasing age, the offspring of insane
parents become less liable to insanity. "Besides the fact,"
continues Dr. Mott, "that this shows Nature's method of elimi-
nating unsound elements of a stock, it has another important
bearing, for it shows that after the age of twenty-five there is a
greatly decreasing liability of the offspring of insane parents to
become insane, and therefore on the question of advising marriage
of the offspring of an insane parent this is of great importance.
Sir George Savage recently said in his presidential address that
this statistical proof of mine accorded with his own experience,
and that if an individual who had such an hereditary taint had
passed the age of twenty-five, and never previously shown any
signs, he would probably be free, and he would offer no objection
to marriage."
If on the basis of the principle of anticipation advice is to be
given on the subject of marriage, it is well to be assured that
the principle rests upon a firm foundation. Dr. Mott arrived at
his conclusion in the following way: He examined the age at the
time of the first attack of insanity of 508 pairs of parents and off-
spring. In 47.8 per cent of the offspring the first attack occurred
before the age of twenty-five. "In 299, or 58.8 per cent, of the
508 pairs of insane parents and offspring, the first attack in the
offspring occurred at an age twenty or more years earlier than
in the parents; of these 299 instances 73 of the offspring were
imbeciles."
Professor Karl Pearson hi a letter written to Nature (Nov. 21,
1912) showed that Mott's principle of anticipation involved a
statistical fallacy. It was pointed out that a man or woman who
develops insanity at an early age is not so likely to become a
60 THE TREND OF THE RACE
parent as one who becomes insane at a later age. The parents,
therefore, would constitute a group selected on the basis of age.
More detailed criticism of "antedating" was made by Heron
(Biometrica, 10, p. 356) who showed that Mott's data made no
allowance for the probability that many of the normal siblings of
the insane offspring of insane parents might subsequently develop
insanity. Also the fact that parents and offspring who happen
to be insane at nearly the same time would be apt to be in the
same asylum introduces a third source of error, because in such a
case we should be apt to find insanity developing late in the par-
ents and early in the offspring. Considering all these statistical
fallacies involved, the principle of anticipation cannot present
much claim to acceptance. It would indeed be unfortunate if
advice concerning marriage should be given on the basis of so
questionable a generalization.
SHOULD STRENGTH MATE WITH WEAKNESS?
In Bulletin No. 9 of the Eugenics Record Office the statement
is made that the "proper mating" of a neuropathic person "is
with a person in whose ancestry there is no trace of neuropathic
ancestry," and that "if only the matings be carefully made so
that the immediate children of the neuropathic person shall avoid
marrying a consort with a neuropathic taint, there will be no
neuropathic children or grandchildren, and hardly a greater
chance of neuropathic great-grandchildren than though the
.marriage in question had not been made." "The case may well
arise," Dr. Davenport continues, . . . "where a mentally vigo-
rous man wishes to marry a socially attractive and beautiful,
though defective, woman. Such a marriage may be, from the
standpoint of Eugenics, as from any social viewpoint, quite per-
missible." And in speaking of the marriage of epileptics, it is
further stated that "there may arise cases where the marriage of
an epileptic to a person of mentally untainted stock would be, on
the whole, desirable."
The advice that strength may mate with weakness has been
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 61
severely criticized, and justly so, by Pearson, Heron, Saleeby,
and others. Granting that mental defect is transmitted as a
single recessive unit character, the mating of a duplex normal
with a defective, while producing normal children, nevertheless
makes them carriers of the defect. Should two such carriers mate,
one-fourth of their offspring would manifest the defect; should the
carriers follow the "eugenic rule" and mate with defectives, half
of their offspring would be defective. Matings of normal and
defective simply sow the seed for future trouble. Should the
estimate of some of the workers of the Eugenics Record Office
prove correct, namely, that over 30 per cent of the population is
heterozygous for mental defect, the direct danger of such matings
is very considerable. Certain defects are distributed widely
enough as it is, without our advising marriages that would simply
make the situation worse. Nothing could be more inconsistent
with everything we know of heredity than the ill-considered
advice that strength may mate with weakness.
And besides we have very little assurance that the normal
condition dominates mental defectiveness to the extent that is
usually assumed. I have been continually surprised in reading
papers on the Mendelian inheritance of mental defect to find how
placidly and uncritically the assumption is made that normal
mentality behaves as a typical dominant. It does not seem to
occur to most of those who have treated the subject that the
children of a mental defective are apt to be severely injured by
the incompletely suppressed traits of that parent, however free
from taint the ancestry of the other parent may have been. And
this in spite of the fact that Mendelian literature is full of cases
of incomplete and variable dominance! Surely from the facts
at our disposal no one is justified in feeling very confident of
the complete dominance of mental normality. The injury result-
ing from the mating of mental soundness with mental weakness
may be very direct, manifesting itself in the production of chil-
dren mentally inferior or suffering from various neuropathic
taints. It is not at all unlikely that many of them would actually
be ranked as mental defectives or be caused by untoward circum-
62 THE TREND OF THE RACE
stances to fall victims to insanity. Not improbably the very
large number of cases in which the mating of normal and
feeble-minded produce children of the latter class are due not so
much to the heterozygous character of the putative normals as to
partial blending, or irregular and incomplete dominance. As our
previous discussion has shown, where one parent is feeble-minded
or insane, and the other normal, it is quite exceptional for all the
children to be free from the mental taint of the afflicted parent.
SYPHILIS AND MENTAL DEFECT
The role of syphilis in the causation of feeble-mindedness,
epilepsy, and other forms of mental defect is still uncertain,
despite a considerable amount of investigation devoted to the
subject. Formerly syphilis was not considered to be accountable
for a large percentage of mental defect, because only a small
proportion of defectives were found to manifest any obvious signs
of the disease. Since the discovery of the Wassermann and other
tests it has been possible to detect syphilitic infection in numerous
cases in which the disease was not revealed by any external
symptoms. The Wassermann test, however, is apt to give very
different results according to the particular way in which it is
carried out. It is agreed that the absence of the positive Wasser-
mann does not necessarily indicate the absence of syphilis, but a
positive test except in the presence of a few other diseases or
unusual conditions is held to constitute a strong proof that
syphilis is present. Applications of the Wassermann tests to
mental defectives have yielded surprisingly discrepant results.
Goddard, in his work on feeble-mindedness, states that less than
i per cent show syphilitic infection. Thomson, Boas, Hjort
and Leschly in studying 2,061 mental defectives found that only
1.5 per cent gave a positive Wassermann reaction. Lippmann
found 9 per cent of positive reactions in one asylum, and 13 per
cent in another. Dean found that out of 330 idiots of various
ages in Potsdam 15 per cent were syphilitic. Krober obtained
positive results in 21.4 per cent of 262 idiots. 1
1 Reference may also be made to the work of Atwood and Brofenbrenner who by
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 63
One of the highest percentages of positive reactions was found
by Fraser and Watson. These workers not only applied the test
in a thorough manner, but they studied the family history of
the patients, and applied the Wassermann test also to other
members of the family. Dr. Fraser examined the blood sera of 99
mentally defective and epileptic children. Excluding 10 cases of
epilepsy where no apparent mental defect existed, and "consider-
ing only the 89 cases where defect was present, it was found that
40 gave a positive reaction, or 44.9 per cent. ; 38 gave a negative
reaction, or 42.4 per cent.; and n gave a doubtful reaction, or
12.3 per cent."
In several cases in which the child gave a negative or doubt-
ful reaction it was found that a positive Wassermann could be
obtained from some other member of the same family, thus
affording evidence that syphilitic infection was or had been
present in the child examined. Considering all the evidence in
hand it is probable that the percentage of syphilitic infection
was over 57 per cent.
An examination by Dr. Watson of the blood serum of 105 cases
of mental deficiency, mainly feeble-mindedness, of varying ages
up to 17 years showed that 51 gave a positive reaction, 45 gave a
negative reaction, and 9 were doubtful. As several of the negative
or doubtful cases had relatives that gave a positive reaction, it
is probable that the percentage of syphilis in Dr. Watson's group
of defectives was over 50 per cent. "On grouping the defective
and epileptic children together, it is found that of the 205 cases
examined syphilitic infection is present in 126 or 60 per cent."
Should syphilis be found to play so large a part in the pro-
using the Noguchi system in the examination of 204 idiots found 14.7 per cent
that gave a positive reaction. Raviart, Breton and Petit in examining various
cases of mental defect aside from parasyphilitic cases obtained positive reactions in
30 to 40 per cent of all cases of idiocy, epilepsy and imbecility. A high proportion
of positive cases was found in various forms of insanity by Rosanoff, Wiseman and
Noguchi. (See Noguchi, Serum Diagnosis and Luetin Reaction, Philadelphia, 1912.)
Kaplan (Serology of Nervous Diseases, 1914), found a positive Wassermann in 4
out of 38 epileptics and a negative reaction in most cases of dementia praecox and
manic-depressive insanity, and he emphasizes the danger of reporting too many
cases of a positive reaction.
64 THE TREND OF THE RACE
duction of mental defect as the researches of Fraser and Watson
indicate, it would necessitate considerable modification of the
views that have been expressed regarding the so-called Mendelian
transmission of epilepsy and feeble-mindedness. Very many of
the charts picturing such inheritance are quite consistent with
the hypothesis that we are dealing with the transmission of an
infection which produces effects of various degrees of severity.
Where both parents are infected we should expect that the chil-
dren would be severely afflicted. The matings of normal and
defective, however, do not turn out quite as we should expect on
the theory of infection. It is highly desirable that future studies
of the inheritance of mental defect may make use of thorough
tests to eliminate the possibly very large factor of syphilis. This
has not been done in any of the work published by the Eugenics
Record Office, and it remains to be seen what basis will be left for
the various laws that have been laid down for the inheritance of
mental defect when this precaution has been taken.
THE NOTION OF DEGENERACY
Since Morel published his celebrated treatise on Degeneracy in
1857, it has been a prevalent idea that many forms of defect and
disorder are not transmitted as such, but may give place in the
descendants to abnormalities of the most varied kind. What is
transmitted is held to be a degenerate constitution which may be
manifested in diverse ways according to circumstances. " He-
redity," says Morel, "does not mean the very disorders of the
parents transmitted to the children with the identical mental and
physical symptoms observed in the progenitors. It means trans-
mission of organic dispositions from parents to children. Alien-
ists have, perhaps, more frequent occasion than others for ob-
serving not merely this heredity transmission, but likewise
various transformations which occur in the descendants. They
are aware that simple neuropathy (nervous tendency) of the
parents may produce in the children an organic disposition result-
ing in mania or melancholia, nervous affections which in turn may
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 65
produce more serious degeneracy and terminate in the idiocy or
imbecility of those who form the last link in the chain of hered-
itary transmission."
Dr. Moreau, a prominent member of the same school, tells
us that "it is not in the identity of functions, or of organic or
intellectual facts that we must seek the application of the law of
heredity, but at the very fountain head of the organism, in its
inmost constitution. A family whose head has died insane or
epileptic does not of necessity consist of lunatics and epileptics,
but the children may be idiotic, paralytic, or scrofulous. What
the parents transmit to the children is not insanity, but a vicious
constitution which will manifest itself under various forms in
epilepsy, hysteria, scrofula, rickets, etc. This is what is to be
understood by hereditary transmission."
The same idea is emphasized by Fere in La Famille Neuro-
pathique. "Le plus souvent, la maladie qui se transmet se trans-
forme; c'est ainsi qu'on voit succeder la manic, la melancolie,
Fimbecillite, Fidiotie." The lack of fidelity which characterizes
the transmission of defect is regarded as a result of the "dissolu-
tion of heredity" occasioned by a lack of developmental energy
(defaut d'energie embryogenique). "La degredation de la puis-
sance embryogenique, demontree par la frequence de malfor-
mations variees, et en fin de compte par la sterilite dans les races
degenerees permet de comprendre a la fois 1'heredite morbide
dissemblable, et 1'heredite morbide collaterale." But, as Fere
hastens to add, the sequences of degenerative changes do not
follow without rhyme or reason. There is a more or less definite
grouping of symptoms constituting a family of related defects.
"La degenerescence a ses lois comme 1'evolution normale; quelle
que soit sa cause, elle se manifesto sous un petit nombre de formes
communes."
If degeneration is due to a general defect of developmental
energy or the presence of factors which exercise an injurious
influence upon the evolution of the embryo, its protean manifes-
tations need not surprise us. One of the most conspicuous fea-
tures of the results of experimentation upon the effects of external
66 THE TREND OF THE RACE
agencies on embryonic development is the great variety of anom-
alies which are produced in response to any one agency. Fere's
interest in the causation of innate defect led him to consider the
problem of how development may be influenced by external
factors, and accordingly we find the author of the Pathology of
the Emotions and various other treatises on abnormal psychology
and nervous disorders, writing numerous notes upon the effect of
all sorts of agencies upon the development of the egg of the
domestic fowl. Injurious agencies generally effect a retardation
of development and the production of various anomalies; more
rarely there are produced individuals defective in certain respects
but presenting in general a superior development.
There is a certain parallelism between the manifestations of
morbid heredity and the pathological effects of injurious agencies.
Just as certain substances produce a great variety of teratological
effects in the developing embryo, so certain hereditary factors
result in very diverse characters in the adult organism. The
toxins of a chronic disease such as syphilis produce a bewildering
multiplicity of symptoms, and it should occasion no surprise that
certain inherited tendencies should do likewise. If there be
hereditary factors whose effect on development is to produce a
general retardation and deterioration after the manner of the
toxic influence of some chemical substance, the manifestations of
these factors in successive generations might take the form of
stigmata of degenerations as varied as those which occur in many
families of defective human beings. Fere speaks of such phenom-
ena as indicative of "the dissolution of heredity," as if we were
dealing with something which weakened or broke up the force of
embryogenic energy. Perhaps the germ plasm of certain individ-
uals may contain elements which tend to destroy the fidelity of
hereditary resemblance, although it may be questioned whether
this would in strictness be a dissolution of heredity.
It is, of course, possible to maintain that the multiplicity of
degenerative phenomena in human beings is the result of various
unit factors each of which tends to produce a particular kind of
defect. However true this may be in regard to certain character-
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 67
istics, it cannot, I think, be considered as a probable general
conclusion in the light of our present knowledge. For many of
the so-called stigmata of degeneracy there is little or no positive
evidence of transmission as particular characters apart from the
general complex. The apparent substitution of one anomaly for
another and the fact that certain forms of anomalies are apt to be
correlated with certain others, although not showing a constant
correlation, point to the conclusion that in most anomalies we are
dealing with symptoms of heritable defect instead of hereditary
characters per se. Fere who has brought together a number of
cases of this "malformation multiples" comments on "la coinci-
dence du bec-de-lievre avec I'mfantilisme, avec la polydactylie et
le pied bot, ou avec la syndactylie et d'autres vices de conforma-
tion des extremites, de la polydactylie avec le coloboma de 1'iris
et la retinite pigmentaire," and many other associations some of
which may rest upon mere coincidences.
One is, of course, not justified in lumping all sorts of defects
together as the result of a single tendency to degeneration. There
are indications of types of degeneracy within which certain
stigmata are particularly prone to appear while other types of
degeneracy are apt to be manifested by other groups of symptoms.
The protean manifestation of certain types of defect makes the
analysis of the phenomena a matter of unusual difficulty, and one
which is often further complicated by association with the like-
wise protean manifestations of hereditary syphilis. The following
family history reported by Kiernan and described in Talbot's
Degeneracy will forcibly illustrate this point: "A farmer lived
twenty miles distant from his nearest neighbor, whose only child
he married. ... He then found lead on his farm and went to a
city . . . where he made money more as a cunning tool than an
adventurer. He became a high liver, gouty and dyspeptic, and
died with symptoms of gouty kidney at 70. The couple had five
children. The eldest, a son, became a 'Napoleon of Finance/ . . .
He married a society woman, the last scion of an old family. The
second child, a daughter, was club-footed and early suffered from
gouty tophi. She married a society man of old family who had
68 THE TREND OF THE RACE
cleft palate. The third child, a daughter, had congenital squint.
She married a man who suffered from migraine of a periodical
type. The fourth child, a daughter, was normal. She married a
thirty-year-old active business man, in whom ataxia developed a
year after marriage. The fifth child, a son, was ataxic at eight-
een. The children of the ' Napoleon of Finance ' and the society
woman were an imbecile son, a nymphomaniac, a hysteric, a
female epileptic who had a double uterus, and a son who wrote
verses and was a society man. The cleft-palated society man and
club-footed woman had triplets born dead and a squinting,
migrainous son who, left penniless by his parents, married his
cousin, the nymphomaniac daughter of the 'Napoleon of Fi-
nance,' after being detected in an intrigue with her. The mi-
grainous man and squinting daughter of the farmer stock-broker
had a sexually inverted masculine daughter, a daughter subject
to periodical bleeding at the nose irrespective of menstruation, as
well as chorea during childhood, a normal daughter, a deaf-mute
phthisical son, a daughter with cloacal formation of the perineum,
an ameliac son, a cyclopian daughter (with one central eye) born
dead, and, finally, a normal son. The sexual invert married the
versifier son of the 'Napoleon of Finance.' The progeny of the
normal daughter of the farmer stock-broker and the ataxic hus-
band were a dead-born, sarcomatous son, a gouty son, twin boys
paralyzed in infancy, twin girls normal, a normal son, and a son
ataxic at fourteen. The progeny of the nymphomaniac daughter
and her strabismic, migrainous cousin were a ne'er-do-well, a
periodical lunatic, a dipsomaniac daughter who died of cancer of
the stomach, deformed triplets who died at birth, an epileptic
imbecile son, a hermaphrodite, a prostitute, a double monster
born dead, a normal daughter and a paranoiac son."
Aside from the evidences of luetic infection in some branches
of this unfortunate family, there is a combination of traits, some
of which, as bleeding and color blindness, are commonly trans-
mitted as so-called "unit characters," while others are sympto-
matic of defective tendencies which might find expression in a
multitude of forms.
INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 69
Doubtless the writers who attribute so much to degeneracy
have often failed to recognize traits which are separately trans-
missible. But on the other hand, exclusive attention to the
inheritance of particular characteristics leads to a disregard of
other features of organisms which may be associated with the
characters studied. Most studies made upon the Mendelian
inheritance of human traits suffer from this drawback. Inspired
by the desire to apply Mendel's law to all heritable traits, Mendel-
ians have focussed their attention almost exclusivity upon partic-
ular characters in the hope of unravelling the complex skein of
human inheritance by tracing out the individual traits. With
fuller experience with Mendelian phenomena it is coming to be
recognized by many investigators that "characters" are not
entities by themselves, but symptoms of general and deep-seated
though it may be slight modifications. As Dr. T. H. Morgan says :
"Most students of genetics realize that a factor difference usually
affects more than a single character. For example, a mutant
stock [of Drosophila] called rudimentary wings has as its principle
[principal] characteristic very short wings. But the factor for
rudimentary wings also produces other effects as well. The fe-
males are almost completely sterile, while the males are fertile.
The viability of the stock is poor. When flies with rudimentary
wings are put into competition with wild flies relatively few of the
rudimentary flies come through, especially if the culture is
crowded. The hind legs are also shortened. All these effects are
the results of a single factor-difference." Such flies may be called
degenerates; whether they are more variable than robust races
we do not know.
There is no doubt that many writers of a generation or more
ago employed the notion of degeneracy hi too wide and loose a
sense. Nevertheless there may be an important element of truth
in the idea which is apt to be overlooked by modern geneticists in
their preoccupation with the transmission of particular and clearly
definable characteristics. A more critical study of degenerate
strains of plants and animals might afford valuable suggestions
for the interpretation of many phenomena of human heredity.
70 THE TREND OF THE RACE
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INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECTS AND DISEASE 71
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Lundborg, H. Der Erbgang der progressiven Myoklonus-Epilepsie. Zeit. f. d.
ges. Neur. u. Psych., 9, 353-358, 1912.
Spratling, W. P. Epilepsy, and its Treatment. Saunders, Philadelphia and Lon-
don, 1904.
Thorn, D. A. The Frequency of Epilepsy in the Offspring of Epileptics. Bos,
Med. and Sur. Jour. 174, 573-5, and 175, 599-601. See also 1. c. 173, 467-473.
Weeks, D. F. The Inheritance of Epilepsy. Problems in Eugenics, I, 62-99, 1912.
CHAPTER IV
THE HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND
DELINQUENCY
" Si la pauvrete est la mere des crimes, le d6f aut d'esprit en est le
pere." La Bruyere, De I'Homme.
STRICTLY speaking it is of course absurd to speak of the inheri-
tance of criminality. Crime is an offense against law. What is
crime in one age and country may not be crime in another. No
one is a criminal until he commits a crime, and whether or not a
person so acts as to bring himself into conflict with the Jaw of
the land is obviously dependent upon many circumstances.
Under just the proper combination of conditions, doubtless most
of us might have become criminals, for a time at least.
While crime is in a very large degree a product of bad training
and evil surroundings, some individuals may have, in a much
greater degree than others, certain traits which dispose them to
commit criminal actions. What a man does is the result of both
hereditary and environmental factors. The recognition of the
fact that the criminal is not merely a sinner to be punished, but a
product to be scientifically studied and understood, is gradually
leading to a new attitude toward the phenomena of crime. As
judged by many modern students of the subject, crime belongs
largely in the field of pathology. Where it is not to be attributed
to bad education or environment it is charged to abnormal
heredity.
Since the publication of Morel's treatise on degeneration, there
has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the various
physical characteristics which are supposed to stigmatize the
natural-born criminal. Among the foremost of the students of
criminal anthropology is Lombroso whose anthropometric studies
of numerous criminals in Italian prisons convinced him of the
73
74 THE TREND OF THE RACE
existence of a definite type, a kind of human being endowed with
a peculiar physical organization and with instincts which power-
fully dispose him to commit anti-social acts. Such individuals
seem predestined to a life of crime from the day of their concep-
tion. They take to it as a cow takes to pasture, because of the
impelling force of unconquerable instinct.
Lombroso's early study of psychiatry gradually led him into
the field of anthropometry. He began a series of studies on the
physical and mental characteristics of Italian prisoners and
having had occasion to make a post-mortem study of a famous
brigand, Vilella, he was struck with certain anomalies of the
brain and particularly with a depression situated "precisely in the
middle of the occiput as in inferior animals, especially rodents."
"At the sight of that skull," says Lombroso, "I seemed to see
all of a sudden, lighted up as a vast plain under a flaming sky, the
problem of the nature of the criminal an atavistic being who
reproduces in his person the ferocious instincts of primitive
humanity and the inferior animals. Thus were explained anatom-
ically the enormous jaws, high cheek-bones, prominent super-
ciliary arches, solitary lines in the palms, extreme size of the
orbits, handle-shaped or sessile ears found in criminals, savages,
and apes, insensibility to pain, extremely acute sight, tattooing,
excessive idleness, love of orgies, and the irresistible craving for
evil for its own sake, the desire not only to extinguish life in the
victim, but to mutilate the corpse, tear its flesh, and drink its
blood."
Further studies carried on with much industry and enthusiasm
served to confirm Lombroso in his interpretation of the born
criminal as an atavistic product. It would be unjust to represent
Lombroso, as some of his critics have done, as teaching that all
or even a large majority of offenders are born criminals. He is
perfectly well aware, and has clearly stated, that many who are
led into crime are the victims of untoward influences, but he
insists that there is a class of human beings of degenerate inheri-
tance, and distinguished by certain physical and mental peculiar-
ities, who constitute a so-called criminal type. And he is careful
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 75
to explain that by type he does not mean a pattern to which all
born criminals conform. The type, as in comparative anatomy,
is an ideal construction from which the actual embodiments
depart to a greater or less degree. Some of the stigmata that
characterize the born criminal may fail in one offender and others
may be lacking in others. " In normal individuals," says Madame
Ferrero, the daughter and approved interpreter of Lombroso,
"we never find that accumulation of physical, psychical, func-
tional and skeletal anomalies in one and the same person that we
do in the case of criminals, among whom also entire freedom from
abnormal characteristics is more rare than among ordinary
individuals."
"Just as a musical theme is the result of a sum of notes and not
of any single note, the criminal type results from the aggregate
of these anomalies which render him strange and terrible, not
only to the scientific observer, but to ordinary persons who are
capable of impartial judgment."
The instinctive suspicion that we entertain of certain bad
characters is held to be an indication of the existence of physical
signs of criminality. Popular sayings offer evidence of this as is
indicated by the following: "There is nothing worse under
Heaven than a scanty beard and a colorless face." "The squint
eyed are on all sides accursed." "A turned up nose is worse than
hail." " Beware of him who looks away when he speaks to you."
Among the marks said to be characteristic of criminals are
anomalies in the size and shape of the skull, large face with
prominent cheek bones and jaws, asymmetry of the face, ears,
and eyes, drooping or oblique eyelids, and eyes with a hard ex-
pression and shifty glance, large misshapen ears frequently with
Darwin's tubercles, twisted nose, aquiline in murderers, but
flattened and upturned in thieves, palatal ridges, anomalous
teeth, scanty beard, and relatively long arms. In the brain
anomalies are frequent, such as hypertrophied vermis, doubling
of the fissure of Rolando, and peculiarities of the cells, especially
in the frontal lobes. Certain kinds of criminals, such as mur-
derers, are supposed to differ in their stigmata from others, such
76 THE TREND OF THE RACE
as thieves. Many of the stigmata, like the third trochanter, poly-
dactylism, perforate head of the humerus, etc., occur only in a.
small percentage of cases, but more frequently than in normal
persons.
According to Lombroso most of the senses of criminals, except
sight, are dull. There is an insensitiveness to pain which in
certain cases is very striking. Criminals are commonly impulsive
and may at times act with much energy, but they are generally
lazy. Moral sense and natural sympathies are at a low ebb.
Remorse seldom afflicts the born criminal. Vindictiveness, cruelty
and excessive egotism and vanity are common traits. Intelli-
gence, generally subnormal, may be well developed in some
instances; as a rule criminals show a lack of prudence and fore-
thought which often serves the ends of justice through causing
failure adequately to conceal the evidences of crime.
Lombroso regards the born criminal as an atavistic product.
Many of the stigmata are said to represent characteristics found
in the lower animals or among the savage races of mankind. The
born criminal is a brute or savage living among human beings
who have advanced beyond his stage of development. He repre-
sents a survival of a primitive type.
Lombroso recognized, especially in his later writings, that
certain criminals are to be regarded as pathological products
rather than cases of atavism. An important role is attributed to
insanity and especially epilepsy in the causation of crime, and the
effort is made to establish a fundamental relationship between
epilepsy and the atavistic traits of the born criminal. "Crimi-
nality," says Lombroso, "is an atavistic phenomenon which is
provoked by morbid causes of which the fundamental manifesta-
tion is epilepsy. It is true that criminality can be provoked by
other diseases . . . but it is epilepsy which gives to it, by its
gravity, the most extended basis."
The experience of Lombroso and other investigators shows
that epilepsy is much more prevalent in criminals than among
normal individuals, although not so common as Lombroso's doc-
trine would lead one to expect. This fact he attempts to account
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 77
for by the theory that epilepsy of criminals commonly exists in
an attenuated or modified form. "If fully developed epileptic
fits are often lacking in case of the born criminal, this is because
they remain latent under the influence of the causes assigned,
(anger, alcoholism), which bring them to the surface. With both
criminals and epileptics there is to be noted an insufficient devel-
opment of the higher centres. This manifests itself in the de-
terioration in the moral and emotional sensibilities . . . and es-
pecially in the lack of balance in the mental faculties, which, even
when distinguished by genius and altruism, nevertheless always
show gaps, contrasts, and intermittent action."
The investigations and theories of Lombroso greatly stimu-
lated the study of criminology and formed the starting point of a
school, the so-called positive school of criminologists, which has
been particularly active in collecting data on criminal anthro-
pology. The doctrines of this school have been vigorously
opposed by other students of crime, especially by Tarde, Topi-
nard, and more recently Goring whose work on The English
Convict represents perhaps the most thorough biometric investi-
gation of criminals that has yet been made. If the members of
the positive school went too far in representing the born criminal
as a member of a distinct atavistic type, they did valuable service
hi directing attention to the fact that crime often has a basis in
physical and mental abnormality, and in paving the way for a
true science of criminology.
The notion of atavism in the sense in which it figures so largely
in the theories of the positive school is one which is no longer
adopted by most modern workers in genetics. The reversion
which follows upon the restoration of ancestral conditions in the
germ plasm by the combination of complementary factors in the
crossing of different races of plants and animals, is a phenomenon
quite different from the so-called atavistic peculiarities of criminal
man. Much of what appears like atavism may result from
arrested development occasioned by various pathological causes.
And many deviations from normal structure which, if they do not
happen to resemble conditions occurring in one animal may be
78 THE TREND OF THE RACE
like something found in another, do not necessarily have any
connection with reversion at all, but are simply the consequences
of an abnormal inheritance, or the toxins of disease.
To the extent that the born criminal deviates from normal
man his peculiarities are to be regarded as the result of aberrant
rather than reversionary development. The biometric studies of
the English convict by Goring have shown that these deviations
are much less frequent than is commonly represented by the
positive school. Goring's work was based upon careful measure-
ments of three thousand criminals committed to prisons for
various kinds of crime. A comparison was made of thirty-seven
physical attributes in five different classes of criminals with the
end of ascertaining whether or not these classes could be distin-
guished by any average differences of structure. For the most
part when allowance was made for average age and other differ-
ences in the classes compared, the differences in the physical
characters of the five groups were so small that no particular
significance could be attached to them. In certain respects,
however, differential characteristics were found. Those convicted
of crimes of violence are superior to other kinds of criminals and
to the general population of corresponding age in physical strength
and health. Next come the sexual offenders; thieves and burglars
occupy an intermediate position; while those guilty of forgery,
fraud and damage to property are least developed in muscular
strength and have the poorest health. Criminals convicted of
forgery and fraud are of the greatest average height, while thieves
and burglars are inferior in stature as well as weight and "puny in
their general bodily habit." Aside from general differences in
physique, such as height, weight, obesity, strength and health,
there are no anatomical peculiarities which differentiate criminals
of different types or which serve to distinguish criminals in general
from the average run of mankind.
The criminal anthropologist might urge that the variations
among criminals, which are admittedly in all directions, might
tend to cancel one another in the statistical average and hence fail
to reveal the greater preponderance of physical anomalies that
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 79
characterize the criminal type. Statistical methods, however,
provide a means of testing such a supposition by enabling us to
compare the standard deviations of the characteristics tabulated.
The standard deviation, a measure of the average departure of
individuals from the mean of the group, gives us a precise measure
of the variability of the group dealt with. By comparing the
standard deviations of the curves of variability for any measur-
able character in criminals and non-criminals it can be determined
which class of men exhibits the greater average degree of variation.
This method is much more precise and valuable than the loose
enumeration of particular cases which is so often found in writings
on criminal anthropology. When applied to criminals by
Goring (he applied the standard deviation for thirty-seven
physical characters both in the criminal sub-groups and in the
criminal group in general), it was found that the characters of the
sub-groups of criminals had much the same range of physical
variability, and that criminals as a whole compared with different
classes of non-criminals fail to show any significantly greater
range of variation in the physical features of which measurements
were obtained.
The doctrine that the born criminal is an anomalous, atavistic
creature set apart from the rest of mankind by the possession of
a physical and mental organization that inevitably disposes him
to evil is rejected as without adequate basis of fact. "There is no
such thing as an anthropological criminal type."
But while denying the existence of a specific type of criminal,
Goring is careful to state that criminals are discriminated from
the law-abiding public by certain general physical and mental
characteristics. His standpoint is best stated in his own words:
"Reviewing the general trend of our results, it would seem that
the appearances, stated by anthropologists of all countries to be
peculiar to criminals, are thus described because of a too separate
inspection and narrow view of the facts by these observers. They
cannot see the wood for the trees. Obsessed by preconceived
beliefs, small differences of intimate structure have been uncriti-
cally accepted by them, and exaggerated to fit fantastic theories
8o THE TREND OF THE RACE
The truths that have been overlooked are that these deviations,
described as significant of criminality, are the inevitable concomi-
tants of inferior stature and defective intelligence: both of which
are the differentia of the type of persons who are selected for im-
prisonment. The thief who is caught thieving, has a smaller head
and narrower forehead than the man who arrests him; but this is
the case, not because he is more criminal, but because, of the two,
he is the more markedly inferior in stature. The incendiary is
more emotionally unstable, and more lacking in control, more
refractory in conduct, and more dirty in habit, etc., than the thief;
and the thief is more distinguished by the above peculiarities
than the forger; and all criminals display these qualities to a more
marked extent than does the law-abiding public; not because any
one of these classes is more criminal than another, but because of
their interdifferentiation in general intelligence. On statistical
evidence one assertion can be dogmatically made: it is, that the
criminal is differentiated by inferior stature, by defective intelli-
gence, and, to some extent, by his anti-social proclivities; but that
apart from these broad differences, there are no physical, men-
tal, or moral characteristics peculiar to the inmates of English
prisons."
The influence of heredity in the production of crime according
to Goring is very strong. Criminality, as most other students of
the subject have found, shows a marked tendency to run in
families. To the question whether heredity or environmental
factors are the most potent in producing criminals, Goring re-
marks: "We think our figures, showing the comparatively insig-
nificant relation of family and other environmental conditions
with crime, and the high and enormously augmented association of
feeble-mindedness with conviction for crime, and its well-marked
relation with alcoholism, epilepsy, sexual profligacy, ungovern-
able temper, obstinacy of purpose, and willful anti-social activ-
ity every one of these, as well as feeble-mindedness, being heritable
qualities we think that these figures, coupled with those showing
the marked degree of ancestral resemblance in regard to the fate
of imprisonment, go far to answering this question."
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 81
Whatever the final verdict of criminal anthropology may be
concerning the physical peculiarities of the instinctive criminal,
the evidence that a large proportion of crime is the outcome of
innate mental defects and vicious propensities is abundant and
convincing. Nearly all who have personally investigated the
subject have found a high degree of criminality, alcoholism, and
mental defect in the parents of criminals. Dr. Virgilio finds
crime in 26.8 per cent of the parents of criminals, associated
frequently with alcoholism. In the parentage of 447 criminals
Penta found criminality in 88 cases, hysteria in 55, epilepsy in 33,
alcoholism in 135 and insanity in 85. In the parents of 104
criminals whose heredity was examined by Lombroso there were
31 alcoholics, 10 criminals, 10 insane, while criminality and
prostitution were prominent in the brothers and sisters. Accord-
ing to Ellis, "of the inmates of the Elmira Reformatory, 499, or
13.7 per cent have been of insane or epileptic heredity. Of 233
prisoners at Auburn, New York, 23.03 per cent were clearly of
neurotic (insane, epileptic, etc.) origin, in reality many more."
Sichard, in 4,000 German criminals, found a neuropathic inheri-
tance in 36. 8 per cent. And Pauline Tarnowsky in studying 160
women homicides found alcoholism in 71.24 per cent of the par-
ents, mental disease in 10 per cent, and syphilis in 32.5 per cent.
Among thieves the percentages of these traits were 49, 6, and
21 respectively, and among prostitutes 82.66, 9, and 48. Among
the parents of 50 educated law-abiding women the percentage of
alcoholism, mental disease and syphilis was 6, 2, and 10 respec-
tively.
The presence of criminality in successive generations of certain
notorious families is doubtless to be attributed only in part to
their unfortunate heredity, since environmental factors doubt-
less contribute largely to the result. One of the first of such
families to be studied in detail was the celebrated Jukes family
which enlisted the interest of Mr. Dugdale, an able student of
social problems and an active worker in prison reform. During
his investigations of penal institutions in New York, Dugdale was
struck with the recurrence of the same family name among the
82 THE TREND OF THE RACE
inmates of certain prisons, and he was led thereby to investigate
the family connections of these individuals, with the result of
discovering a large number of people who were related and who
could be traced back to a family of sisters, one of whom, Ada,
nicknamed ''Margaret, the mother of criminals," gave rise to a
progeny who now number over 800 descendants. Pauperism,
crime, and especially prostitution were remarkably prevalent
among the descendants of this woman. The four other sisters of
Ada, whose histories are known, have left progeny whose record is
of the same general character. Of the 709 Jukes studied by
Dugdale, 180 were paupers or had received poor relief to the
extent of 800 years, 60 were habitual thieves, 50 prostitutes, 7
murderers, and the total cost to the state was estimated at
351,308,000.00.
This record was based on the history of the family up to 1875
when Dugdale's report (subsequently, 1887, issued in book form
entitled The Jukes) was first published. Owing to a chance
discovery of Dugdale's original manuscript with the true names
of the individuals indicated (the published names were all ficti-
tious) it became possible to trace out the later history of the
family. This has been done by Dr. A. E. Estabrook of the
Eugenics Record Office, and the results have been published hi a
monograph, The Jukes in 1915. The interval between Dug-
dale's time and 1915 has seen a rapid increase in the Jukes family
with little or no improvement in its general character. Estab rook's
investigations covered 2,094 persons of whom 1,258 were living in
1915. Of the whole family up to date considering only those of
Jukes blood, 170 were paupers, 129 had received outdoor relief,
118 were criminals, 378 were prostitutes, 86 kept brothels, and
181 were intemperate. The following extract, which is essentially
like dozens of others which might be chosen at random from Dr.
Estabrook's monograph, will illustrate the general nature of the
Jukes family history :
Abe Isaac, by his second consort, Loretta, IV 3, whom he married,
had seven children: Avery, Alton, Anson, Augustus, Alma, Alonzo,
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 83
and Amiel. After Loretta died, Abe Isaac cohabited for a short time
with Thelma, IV 4, but had no children by her.
Avery, V 3, was "a laborer"; at 30, grand larceny, county jail,
90 days; assault and battery, county jail, 90 days; at 49, rape on his
niece, Sing Sing, 5 years; no property. He was none too industrious
and received a pension as a Civil War veteran. He cohabited first
with Satie, V 2, a wanderer and a harlot, and had two children by her.
The older, VI 13, was a harlot like her mother and has been arrested
for intemperance and disorderly conduct. The other, VI 14, a son,
has disappeared.
Satie deserted Avery and he then married Geneva, V 4, and by her
had six children, the first dying at birth. While Avery was in State
prison for rape on his niece, Geneva was in and out of the poorhouse
with her children, and it was in the poorhouse that, at the age of 31,
her bastard child was born. Geneva's family is interesting. Her
brother has been in the penitentiary. Her mother was a pauper in the
poorhouse at the same tune that Geneva and her children were there,
making three generations of one family who were being cared for by
the town at the same tune. There is no doubt that she was feeble-
minded. At one tune she tried to kill one of her children, and was
thereupon sent to a hospital for the insane. She was addicted to the
use of laudanum, an overdose of which caused her death.
The first child of Avery and Geneva died in infancy. The second
was VI 16, who was 15 when his father was in State prison. At 16
this boy was sent to the penitentiary for petit larceny. At 17 he was a
vagrant, wandering here and there. At 18 and again at 20 he was in
the poorhouse for one year. At 24 he was sent to the penitentiary for
3 months for petit larceny. At 29 he was sent to State prison for
28 months for assault. At 35 he was in the county jail i month for
intoxication, and again at 55 he was in the county jail for 10 days for
the same offense. He has lost one eye, can neither read nor write,
works very seldom, and begs his way wherever he goes. He is men-
tally defective and should have been in custodial care many years
ago. He has cohabited for a long time with a woman, VI 17, who is
10 years older than he, and is a beggar, indescribably filthy, and
mentally defective. She has spent most of her life in the poorhouse.
At 20 she was there and found her mother and sister there also. She
can neither read nor write. She has never had any children.
The third child of Avery and Geneva was a girl, VI 19. She was in
84 THE TREND OF THE RACE
the almshouse as a young girl and later was placed in a Children's
Home. She was discharged from the latter institution after being
there but a short time. As a grown woman she was attractive, neat-
appearing, and quiet to a casual observer, but she had a career of
harlotry begun early in life and continued after she married (at 26)
VI 1 8, an ignorant, semi-industrious, but well-intentioned man.
Soon after the birth of her first child, VII 49, she was divorced on the
grounds of adultery. Cohabitation with a vicious criminal, VI 20,
followed and by him she had two children one of whom died in infancy.
This man was convicted of burglary and sent to State prison for i to
4 years, and during this time VI 19 again became promiscuous in her
sex relations. After his discharge from State prison she again con-
sorted with him, then later left him and cohabited with a negro by
whom she had one child. At the age of 39, VI 19 was sent to jail for
10 days for using indecent language. Two weeks after she was dis-
charged she was again arrested with her "husband," VI 20, and with
Ulysses, V 194, for the same offense and sent this time to the peni-
tentiary for 3 months. At 40 she was arrested for intoxication and
sent to jail for 10 days. Even later in life, to one who did not know the
real character of VI 19, her appearance, bearing, and behavior in-
dicated a woman of some refinement. She associated with a woman
much like herself in appearance but yet of the same low and vicious
traits. She placed two of her children, VII 49 and VII 50, in a Chil-
dren's Home. Her last child (by a negro) was taken by the negro's
people at her death, which occurred at 42.
One noteworthy feature brought out by Estabrook's studies,
is the large amount of feeble-mindedness among the Jukes. The
children are for the most part retarded in school and give evidence
of poor native ability aside from the effects of their home life.
The children brought up in institutions generally turned out
badly afterward. In general, according to Estabrook, "one-half
of the Jukes were, and are feeble-minded, mentally incapable of
responding normally to the expectations of society, brought up
under faulty environmental conditions which they consider
normal, satisfied with the fulfillment of natural passions and
desires, and with no ambition or ideals in life."
Feeble-mindedness characterizes the criminal elements of the
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 85
Jukes family even to a much greater degree than the family in
general. Estabrook states he was "able to study many of the
Jukes criminals of to-day and in every case the individual has
been proved without a doubt to be feeble-minded. Willett, who
committed murder; VI 529, a low-grade imbecile who committed
burglary; Edgar, a rapist; and VI 16, who committed assault,
are all mental defectives, and in none of these has their criminal
record biased the writer in diagnosing their mentality. There is
no evidence in the Jukes which points to the existence of a trait
of criminality. Not all feeble-minded Jukes are criminal, but all
the Juke criminals that I have known' I regard as mentally
defective."
Another notorious family with a bad record for criminality
is the Tribe of Ishmael whose history has been followed through
several generations by the Rev. O. C. McCulloch. The Tribe of
Ishmael lived in the central part of Indiana where they made
themselves a general nuisance to their neighbors by furnishing a
liberal quota of petty thieves, vagrants, paupers, prostitutes,
and several criminals of a more desperate kind. Many of these
people lived a gypsy sort of life in the summer. A large propor-
tion of the pauperism, prostitution and crime in the region in
which this family lived was .traceable to this polluted stock. "The
individuals already traced are over 5,000 interwoven by descent
and marriage. They underrun society like devil grass. Pick up
one, and the whole 5,000 would be drawn up. Over 7,000
pages of history are now on file in the Charity Organization
Society."
Jorger has traced out the remarkable record of the family Zero
which lived in a Swiss valley since the beginning of the lyth
century. The family early divided into three branches, two
of which consisted of law-abiding citizens. The third branch
arose from a man with a taint of insanity who married a vagrant
and degraded Italian woman. The son resulting from this union
married a woman of a vagabond German family Markus, by
whom he had seven children, each of whom formed the starting
point of a line of degenerate progeny. For three generations the
86 THE TREND OF THE RACE
descendants of these lines have been paupers, vagabonds, thieves,
drunkards and prostitutes. Mental defect was very common,
especially in certain strains, and a considerable amount of syphi-
lis was recorded, and much more probably occurred.
From the standpoint of heredity, such families as the Jukes,
Ishmaelites, Zeroes, etc., constitute a complex problem. That
bad environment and the evil influences of family traditions are
potent factors in determining the degradation of these unfortu-
nate people, there can be no doubt. But there can be little doubt
that heredity is a factor of great potency as well. Criminality
may be due, not so much to the transmission of vicious propensi-
ties (although there is evidence that vicious traits are trans~
mitted), as to the inheritance of mental defect and general lack of
stamina.
People with good stuff in them very often rise out of their
vicious environment, while others under the best of conditions
seem to take instinctively to evil pursuits. We should bear in
mind in studying degenerate families and their unfavorable
surroundings, that bad environment tends to be created by a bad
heredity. Given stocks with an inheritance of low mentality,
feeble inhibitions, and more or less mental disorder, in a few
generations such stocks would gradually sink into the ranks of
dependent or outcast humanity, and would soon develop tradi-
tions of vice and immorality which would make it especially hard
for an individual to rise in the social scale. When we consider a
single individual born amid such unfavorable surroundings, we
might be prone to attribute his shortcomings to his poor oppor-
tunities. We might be able to point to many cases in which
members of degenerate strains have become worthy citizens when
given better chances for obtaining success. Such cases, in fact,
are not infrequent. But this fact would in no wise controvert
the assertion that heredity is primarily responsible for the condi-
tion of these degenerate families. Under the conditions that
prevail in our civilized society, there is a general tendency for
families of good inheritance to rise into higher ranks, whatever
misfortunes may have been responsible for their inferior position
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 87
in the social scale. Families of bad inheritance, although they
may be endowed with wealth and social standing, tend after a
time to sink into lower social strata. The qualities that count
in the long run are mental ability, energy and reliability. It
is in these traits that the notorious families we have been con-
sidering have been so conspicuously lacking. People devoid of
these qualities form the ne'er-do-wells, the people who through
lack of initiative and energy drift into a bad environment and
hence are led into crime.
It is now fairly well established that criminals, or at least those
of them who are sent to prison, are, on the average, of subnormal
mentality. Here and there, of course, a man of superior ability is
convicted of crime. But the men who make up the bulk of our
prison population and especially men who have been convicted
on two or more occasions (and these constitute the greater part of
our prisoners) are distinctly below the general level of intelligence.
Dr. Fernald states that "at least 25 per cent, of the inmates of
our penal institutions are feeble-minded." According to Dr.
Stearns nearly one-fourth of the population of the State Prison
at Charlestown, Mass., are mentally defective. Dr. Haines
reports that of 100 offenders examined as they entered the Ohio
Penitentiary 20 were mentally incompetent. Of the homicides
five-sevenths were feeble-minded. The same writer states that
of 33 female prisoners of the same institution, 10 were feeble-
minded but all the others were of "good mentality." H. B.
Donkin states that 20 per cent of the prisoners of England are
feeble-minded. The percentage of feeble-minded at Pentonville
was found to be 18 per cent for adults and 49 per cent for
juveniles. 1
Recently Dr. Ordahl has made a series of mental tests of 53
male prisoners from the penitentiary at Joliet, 111., selected in such
a way as to secure a fair representation of the prison population.
1 Dr. Wey of the Elmira Reformatory says, "It is a mistake to suppose that
the criminal is naturally bright. If bright it is usually in a narrow line. Like the
cunning of the fox his smartness displays itself in furthering his schemes and
personal gratification and comfort."
88 THE TREND OF THE RACE
With the exception of one man of less than 20 years of age, the age
of the prisoners lay between 20 and 74, the greatest part being
between 20 and 30. In mental age, however, they ranged "from
that of a normal child of 6 years, to that of a youth of 15, or what
is assumed to be the normal adult intelligence."
Mr. Hastings Hart at a meeting of the American Prison Asso-
ciation in 1913 estimated that 25 per cent, of adult prisoners in
state institutions are feeble-minded. Lamb states that 45 per
cent of the yearly admissions to the Manhattan State Hospital
for the Criminal Insane are imbeciles of various grades, and
Moore says that 40-45 per cent of the entrants into the N. J.
Reformatory at Rahway during 1910 and the first part of 1911
were subnormal according to the Binet tests. The last report of
the Elmira Reformatory places one-third of those received as
mentally defective. Similar reports of the low mentality of
criminal women tested at Bedford were made by Miss Weidensall
who found that the intelligence of these women was considerably
inferior to the average intelligence of 300 working girls of 15
years of age.
Recent studies on the mental condition of prostitutes have
shown, as might have been anticipated, that a very large percen-
tage of these offenders are mentally defective. 1 Havelock Ellis
states that of the "15,000 women who passed through the Mag-
dalen Homes in England, over 2,500, or more than sixteen per
cent . . . were feeble-minded.'' In the Report of the Mass.
Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So-
called, it is stated that "of 300 prostitutes, 154, or 51 per cent,
were feeble-minded. . . . The mental defect of these 154 women
was so pronounced and evident as to warrant the legal commit-
ment of each one as a feeble-minded person or as a defective
1 In the last two or three years evidence of the mental inferiority of prostitutes
has accumulated with remarkable rapidity. Of recent contributions may be men-
tioned McCord, C. P., Jour. Am. Inst. Crim. Law and Criminal., 6,388; and Train-
ing School Bull., 1915; Ball, J. D., and Thomas, H., Journal Insanity, 1918, 647;
Merz, P. A., Jour. Am. Med. Assn., 1919, 1597; Malzberg, B., Eugenics Rev. 12, 100,
1920; Norton, J. K., Jour. Delinquency, 5, 63, 1920; Fernald, M. R. et al., A Study
of Women Delinquents in New York State, N. Y., Century Co., 1920.
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 89
delinquent. . . . The 135 women designated as normal, as a
class were of distinctly inferior intelligence." :
Dr. Abraham Flexner in his valuable book on Prostitution in
Europe, says:
Characteristic traits, external and internal, mark the scarlet woman;
she has a distinct gait, smile, leer; she is lazy, unveracious, pleasure-
loving, easily led, fond of liquor, heedless of the future, and usually
devoid of moral sense. Defect undoubtedly accounts for certain cases,
and especially so where a psychopathic family strain is continuously
implicated. Of 21 girls recently admitted into a newly-established
observation home in Berlin, 5 were reported as mentally below par;
of Mrs. Booth's 150 cases discussed below, 12 per cent were feeble-
minded. In the case of prostitutes committed under the British Ine-
briate Acts, the percentage naturally runs much higher: in 1909, out
of 219 such immoral women, only 70 are described as of "good"
mental state; 118 were "defective"; 23, "very defective"; 8, "in-
sane"; i. e., almost 70 per cent were below normal. . . . Bonhoffer,
studying 190 prostitutes incarcerated in prison at Breslau, found that
one hundred came from alcoholic families and that two-thirds of them
were mentally defective hysterical, epileptic or feeble-minded; his
judgment is adverse to the existence of the born prostitute, but in
favor of congenital defect as providing soil favorable to immorality. 2
The association of crime and delinquency with mental defect
which has been found among adult offenders, has been made
strikingly apparent in recent studies of the mental status of juven-
ile delinquents. Kelly reports that the boys of the Gatesville
Industrial School to which boys are committed as a rule only
1 According to Dr. Davis of the Bedford Reformatory for Women out of 647
cases in the Reformatory there were 20 of insanity, 107 of feeble-mindedness and
193 of mental defectiveness according to the Binet tests. The Portland Vice Com-
mission reported that out of the 2,500 prostitutes of Portland, 25-50 per cent were
mentally defective.
* In his monumental work, De la prostitution dans la ville de Paris, Parent-
Duchatelet remarks: "Un des faits qui m'ont frapp6 en faisant mes recherches dans
le Bureau des Mosurs et dans les archives de la Prefecture de Police, c'est la fre"-
quence des observations sur la faiblesse de itle et sur I'gtat voisin de Palie'nation
mentale attribue aux prostitutes."
90 THE TREND OF THE RACE
after they have been guilty of more than one offense, show, when
tested by the Binet and several other tests, a marked inferiority
in mental development. The proportion of feeble-minded was 20
per cent, "but probably at least 50 per cent of delinquents are
totally incapable of being taught to look after themselves in an
environment as unfavorable as the one from which they came."
The results of Ordahl's investigation of the cases brought before
the Juvenile Court of San Jose, California, reveal the fact that
"25 per cent of the criminal dependents, 45 per cent of the
minor delinquents, and 75 per cent of the adult delinquents are
feeble-minded. If the feeble-minded and borderline group are
combined, then 45 per cent of the minor dependents and 60 per
cent of the minor delinquents are below average-normal intelli-
gence. In both the minor dependent and the minor delinquent
group 60 per cent of the parents, so far as data were available,
are either alcoholic, immoral, feeble-minded or insane."
Ordahl's study of 341 delinquent boys of a school at St.
Charles, 111., to which boys are committed for various offenses,
reveals the existence of nineteen and six-tenths per cent of
distinctly feeble-minded cases; 20.8 per cent were of very dull
mentality "and many of these would probably prove on further
study to be feeble-minded "; 15.5 per cent were borderline cases,
the remaining 44.1 per cent, being of normal mentality. J. H.
Williams finds that out of 215 boys hi the Whittier State School
the distribution of intelligence was as follows:
Feeble-minded 32 per cent.
Borderline 21 " "
Dull Normal 27 " "
Normal and Superior 20 " "
Dr. Haines' reports on the intelligence tests of 671 boys from
the Ohio Boys Industrial Home, and 329 girls of the Ohio Girls
Industrial Home, reveal much the same condition. All the in-
mates were tested by both the Binet-Simon and the Yerkes-
Bridges Point Scale tests. The proportion graded as feeble-
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY gi
minded according to the latter was 29 per cent and according to
the former 57 per cent. Hauck and Sisson's studies of 201 boys
and girls of the Idaho Industrial Training School show 24.6 per
cent of feeble-mindedness among the boys, and 35.3 per cent of
feeble-mindedness among the girls. In their study of young
repeated offenders Drs. Spaulding and Healy found epilepsy or
mental deficiency in 245 out of 668 cases in which a thorough
study could be made; 152 cases showed moral defect in a preced-
ing generation often combined with a psychopathic or neuro-
pathic inheritance. Of the transmission of criminal traits as sueh
the authors could find little evidence. An individual study of
fifteen cases in which a peculiarly criminal inheritance was sug-
gested convinced the authors that "various physical or mental
factors are the real inheritance, and that criminalism may be
implanted on these in successive generations." All told, the
indirect influence of heredity on criminalism appears to be that
in 35 per cent there is predominantly a transmission of mental or
physical defect, and that in 9 per cent such inheritance is partly
responsible. This makes a total of 44 per cent in which bad
heredity is indirectly responsible for crime.
The percentage of mental defect reported among juvenile
malefactors naturally varies greatly in different groups, according
to the basis upon which they are selected, and the kinds of tests
applied. Travis, in his book on The Young Malefactor attributes
the chief causes for juvenile delinquency to unfortunate environ-
mental influences. While recognizing the importance of bad
heredity, Travis opposes the views of the Italian positive school
in claiming that "there are no stigmata of either crime or types of
crime, but only of abnormality or degeneration. ... A study of
the delinquent with respect to his physical, mental and ethical
conditions, shows that at least 90 per cent and probably 98 per
cent of first court offenders are normal."
With due appreciation of the value of Travis' studies of the
various factors which contribute to juvenile delinquency, and
without opposing his contention that these offenders fail to show
the physical stigmata of the so-called "born criminal," I am by
92 THE TREND OF THE RACE
no means convinced from the evidence presented that the delin-
quents are as nearly normal in their mental development as the
author contends. I fail to find in his volume any record of the
application of mental tests, and in fact there is very little discus-
sion of the role of mental retardation in juvenile crime. This
omission is probably due to the fact that the application of mental
tests has been carried on for only a few years. Under the circum-
stances, and in view of the contrary findings of other investi-
gators, little reliance can be placed on the estimate just cited.
The number of boys and girls who get into trouble through bad
home conditions, evil associates, loss of one or both parents,
and various other unfavorable influences is doubtless large, as
most students of the subject have shown. While many a boy or
girl of good natural mental or moral qualities has been led into
criminal ways, nevertheless a considerable proportion of the
conditions which predispose children to delinquency are indirectly
the result of bad heredity. Intemperance, vice, pauperism,
separation of parents, lack of parental control, ignorance, and
many other factors to which juvenile delinquency is so often
attributed, are very frequently the result of inherent incapacity or
defect. Environment, as in so many other cases, gets the credit
for what in the long run should be laid to the door of heredity.
It is probable that an investigation of the men who constitute
our tramps and vagrants would demonstrate a degree of mentality
much like that in the inmates of prisons. According to Dr. C. H.
Parker, "the Department of Education of Stanford University
tested two hundred unemployed of the migratory labor class, and
almost an even 25 per cent were found to be feeble-minded.
Binet tests made in 1913 by the Economic Department of Reed
College, Portland, covering 107 cases taken from the unemployed
army showed the percentage of feeble-mindedness to be 26."
Bonhoeffer has made a study of 404 individuals as they were
committed to the central prison of Breslau, Germany, for begging
or vagrancy. The investigation was confined to individuals who
had served repeated sentences before their prison confinement,
the number varying from 6 to over 60. These social parasites and
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 93
outcasts, as might have been anticipated, were found to be highly
abnormal; 22 per cent were adjudged feeble-minded and n per
cent were epileptic. Those of dull mentality were more numer-
ous. As a rule their schooling was very limited. Many did not
know the name of the Kaiser. Several who were born in Breslau
could not tell the name of the river upon which that city is sit-
uated; others confused the Pope with the cardinal residing in
Breslau, and for several, Prussia, Germany and Europe were
synonymous terms. Some also were ignorant of the main points
of the compass, the number of months and weeks in a year, and
the name of Bismarck. However poor his educational advantages
may have been, it seems improbable that a person of normally
active mind could have grown to maturity and remained ignorant
of such matters as these.
Only a small percentage were not addicted to alcohol, the
favorite form being brandy. The relatively small proportion that
came from the upper classes almost without exception were
mentally unbalanced and came from insane (9 per cent), epi-
leptic (12 per cent), or alcoholic (79 per cent) parentage. While
the general morbidity of the group was high, few were physically
unfit for labor. The majority, however, had been rejected as
army recruits. Most of them had been from time to time un-
skilled laborers of various kinds, and a great many originally
came from the country.
What was ascertained of the inheritance of these men indicated
that a bad heredity was primarily responsible for much of their
misfortunes. In a half of the cases there was a direct alcoholic
psychopathic inheritance from either the father or mother.
Doubtless more parental defect would have been discovered had it
been possible to secure reliable data.
The pedigrees of paupers, so far as they have been studied,
show a large percentage of mental defect. The Eugenics Educa-
tion Society in 1910 appointed a committee to investigate the
families receiving poor relief. The investigation dealt not only
with those who were poor through accident or misfortune, but
with those families whose members showed a chronic disinclina-
94 THE TREND OF THE RACE
tion for honest work. Pauper families were found to marry into
other pauper families, some families even producing paupers
through several generations. The committee reported that many
of "the paupers whom they had seen and examined individually,
are characterized by some obvious vice or defect such as drunken-
ness, theft, persistent laziness, a tubercular tendency, mental
deficiency, deliberate moral obliquity, or general weakness of
character, manifested by the want of initiative, energy or stam-
ina." In his discussion of the findings of this committee,
Whetham cites two families which are described as average
specimens of the results obtained: "Out of a family of twelve
children, of whom four were dead, two were in industrial schools
and one was in the workhouse. Both parents were paupers, all
four grandparents, and, in addition, three uncles, one aunt, one
aunt by marriage, three great-uncles and one of their wives,
two great-aunts were kept at the public expense. Another
branch of the same family gave the following results: An imbecile
child was found hi the wards of a workhouse infirmary; its pater-
nal grandfather's brother was a lunatic, the mother's father was
an insane epileptic, her mother was consumptive, her maternal
grandmother was probably consumptive and certainly a pauper,
while the mother herself was illigitimate and subject to fits."
The history of the Jukes, the Tribe of Ishmael, the Hill Folk,
the Nams, and several other families show that much pauperism
is a sort of family tradition resting upon a fundamental basis of
inherited defect. The bad environment among which children of
such families are usually raised makes paupers, vagrants or
criminals of many who otherwise might have led useful lives.
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THE HEREDITARY FACTOR IN CRIME
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Dallemagne, J. Les Stigmates Anatomiques de la Criminalitfi, Masson, Paris,
1896. Degen6r6s et Desequilibrfis, Bruxelles, 1897.
HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 95
Darwin, L. The Habitual Criminal. Eugen. Rev. 6, 204-218, 1914.
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Drahms, A. The Criminal: His Personnel and Environment. Macmilkn Co.,
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Dugdale, R. The Jukes, A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease and Heredity,
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Ellis, H. H. The Criminal. W. Scott, London, 1901.
Estabrook, A. H. The Jukes in 1915. Pubs. Carnegie Inst., No. 240, 1916.
Ferrero, G. L. Lombroso's Criminal Man. Putnam's Sons, N. Y. and London,
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Ferri, E. Criminal Sociology. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1917.
Forel, A. Verbrechen und konstitutionelle Seelenabnormitaten. Reinhardt,
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Goddard, H. H. The Criminal Imbecile. An Analysis of Three Remarkable
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Goring, C. The English Convict. Wyman and Sons, London, 1913.
Jorger, J. Die Familie Zero. Arch. f. Rass. u. Ges. Biol. 2, 494-559, 1905.
Lombroso, C. L'Uomo Delinquente, 5th ed, 3 vols., Bocca, Turin, 1906, 1907.
Criminal Anthropology. Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine, 12, 371-
433, 1897. The Female Offender, Fisher Unwin, London, 1895.
Lydston, G. F. Diseases of Society. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1904.
MacDonald, A. Abnormal Man, being Essays on Education and Crime with Di-
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408.]
Mosby, T. S. Causes and Cures of Crime. St. Louis, 1913.
Ordahl, G. A Study of Fifty-three Male Convicts. Jour. Delin. I, 1-21, 1916.
Ordahl, L. E., and Ordahl, G. A Study of 49 Female Convicts, 1. c. 2, 331-351,
1917.
Parmelee, M. The Principles of Anthropology and Sociology in their Relations to
Criminal Procedure, N. Y.. 1911.
Pollitz, P. Die Psychologic des Verbrechers, 2d ed, Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin,
1916.
Rath, C. Ueber die Vererbung von Dispositionen zum Verbrechen. W. Spemann,
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Rossey, C. S. Report on the First Three Hundred Cases Examined at the Massa-
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Tarde, G. Penal Philosophy. Boston, 1912.
Tarnowsky, P. fitude Anthropomtrique sur les Prostitu6es et les Voleuses.
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Weidensall, Jean. The Mentality of the Criminal Woman. Warwick and York,
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Wigmore, J. H. A Preliminary Bibliography of Modem Criminal Law and Crim-
g6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
inology. Bull. No. i, Gary Library of Law, Northwestern Univ., Chicago,
1909, pp. 128.
Wulffen, E. Gauner-und Verbrecher-Typen. Langenscheidt, Berlin, 1910.
Zampa, R. Delia Comparazione dei Caratteri Fisici dei Delinquenti et non De-
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DELINQUENCY AND DEFECTIVENESS
Beanblossom, M. E. Mental Examination of Two Thousand Delinquent Boys
and Young Men. Indiana Reformatory Print, 1916, p. 23.
Bronner, A. F. A Comparative Study of Delinquent Girls. Columbia Univ.
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Delinquency, I, 129-153, 1916.
Crafts, L. W., and Doll, E. A. The Proportion of Mental Defectives among Juve-
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Gruhle, H. W. Die Ursachen der jugendlichen Verwahrlosung and Kriminalitat.
Studien zur Frage: Milieu oder Anlage. Springer, Berlin, 1912.
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HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 97
Kammerer, P. G. The Unmarried Mother. (A Study of 500 Cases.) Little,
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McCord, C. P. A Study of the Mentality of Prostitutes and "Wayward Girls."
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CHAPTER V
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY
"We inherit our parents' tempers, our parents' conscientiousness,
shyness, and ability, as we inherit their stature, forearm, and span."
Karl Pearson.
WE have seen that feeble-mindedness and other forms of
mental defect tend to be strongly transmitted. Can it be shown
that the same statement applies to superior ability? For various
reasons the doctrine that mental traits are inherited has been
regarded with suspicion, and has frequently encountered active
opposition. Many writers, influenced by a theological or meta-
physical bias, have been reluctant to admit that the laws of
heredity which apply to the transmission of physical traits hold
also for the mind. Many political and social theorists have found
it convenient to minimize the importance of the innate mental
differences between men, and have attempted to explain such
mental differences as were only too obvious as the result of
accidents of education, early experience, and other circumstances
external to the individual himself. The doctrine of the equality of
man preached by Rousseau and his followers and embodied in our
own Declaration of Independence had a tendency to prevent due
recognition of the fact that human beings differ profoundly in
their inherited mental gifts. The admission of such inheritance
might prove a dangerous concession to the claims of aristocracy,
and it is not surprising, therefore, to find such a champion of
popular rights as Thomas Paine contending against the possi-
bility of the inheritance of mental ability. Writers of a much
later period, though inspired by much the same motives, have
expressed similar views. Henry George, who, like many other
socialists, attempted to explain the differences among men as
chiefly the production of an iniquitous social order, stated that
98
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 99
"The influence of heredity, which it is now the fashion to rate so
highly, is as nothing compared with the influences which mold
the man after he comes into the world."
The establishment of the theory of evolution, and its applica-
tion to the development of mankind could scarcely fail to direct
renewed attention to the inheritance of mental qualities in man.
Inspired by this doctrine and stimulated by the writings and
personal influence of his cousin, Charles Darwin, Francis Galton
was led to undertake those studies on inheritance by which he has
since become famous. The investigations which Galton made
upon the inheritance of ability were embodied in his celebrated
volume on Hereditary Genius. In this work Galton showed that
superior ability runs in certain families to a very marked degree.
We are all familiar with families which are celebrated for the
number of their great names: In science, the Herschels, Ber-
nouillis, De Candolles, Darwins and Gregorys; in literature,
the Brontes, the Arnolds, the Hallams, and the Lowells; in music,
the Bachs and the Mendelssohns. It might be contended that the
occurrence of such groups is purely fortuitous. Even if there were
no transmission of ability or any other reason why persons of the
same family should become distinguished it would be possible,
from all the great men in the world, to pick out a considerable
number of cases in which two or more men of great ability hap-
pened to belong to the same family. Galton, who was too critical
an investigator to base his case merely on evidence especially
selected to prove his theory, undertook an impartial statistical
inquiry into the families of eminent men in order to ascertain how
far the data obtained would yield evidence of the hereditary basis
of great ability. Eminent men were classified into several groups,
judges, scientists, literary men, statesmen, poets, musicians,
painters and divines. The basis for selection varied with the
different groups, but was in all cases made so as to include the
most eminent persons regardless of heredity. Then the endeavor
was made to determine to what degree eminent men in these
groups had eminent relatives. It was shown that eminent men
have eminent relatives to an enormously greater degree than do
ioo THE TREND OF THE RACE
ordinary people, and that, as a rule, the more eminent the person,
the more eminent persons are to be found among his near rela-
tives. Thus 80 per cent of the Lord Chancellors had eminent
relatives, whereas only 36 per cent of the other judges were thus
distinguished. Similarly it was shown that in the families of the
more illustrious statesmen there is a larger percentage of great
names than in the families of statesmen who are less eminent.
In general, the proportion of eminent relatives of great men is
found to decrease as the relationship becomes remote.
It is impossible in a short space to give an adequate summary
of the large amount of interesting data which Galton amassed,
and especially of the able discussion of the thesis that the facts
are explicable only by the hypothesis that great ability is trans-
mitted in much the same way as are most characteristics of
organic beings in general. It has never been questioned that
Galton's investigations have demonstrated the tendency of cer-
tain stocks to produce men of distinguished ability. But Galton's
critics have maintained that this tendency is based, not upon
heredity, but upon the peculiar advantages which these families
offered for the development of .whatever talent they may have
possessed. A parent-offspring or a fraternal correlation does not
in itself prove inheritance. The degree of education attained by
the members of a family, for instance, may depend upon wealth,
family tradition, or a number of other circumstances quite apart
from heredity. A child born in the slums, even with the best
inheritance, suffers certain very obvious disadvantages as com-
pared with a child of a Lord Chancellor. Mr. Constable in his
Poverty and Hereditary Genius which is devoted to controverting
Galton's conclusions, has urged that for many people the draw-
backs of poverty are so great as to prevent them from ever gain-
ing a reputation for distinguished achievement. There is, he
claims, a large amount of latent ability in the general population
that awaits only the touch of opportunity to blossom forth.
Similar views are held by many other writers, among the most
noteworthy of whom is the Nestor of American sociologists, Dr.
Lester F. Ward.
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 101
Galton, however, did not fail to ascribe a certain degree of
importance to environment in the making of great men, but
it is probable that he unduly minimized its influence. The
number of distinguished men per century has rapidly increased
as civilization has advanced and as education has become more
widely diffused, but we cannot maintain that there has been a
commensurate increase in the amount of inherited ability in the
race. Great men appear more abundantly near centres of learn-
ing than in regions less subject to the intellectual leaven of
culture. It is true that many men bom in poverty have attained
greatness only after a long struggle that seemed to develop their
intellectual powers and force of character. But there is no way
of ascertaining how many others there have been who might have
achieved greatness had they received the proper stimulus for
developing their latent power, or who may have become discour-
aged in their strivings by the deadening influence of a life of toil.
Among people who are financially able to give their children
the advantages of a good school and college education, the
environmental conditions that tend to give rise to greatness in
a country like England are not apparently very unequal. Chil-
dren in families with intellectual tastes may have a somewhat
better chance to become distinguished than if they had a less
stimulating home environment. It cannot be assumed, however,
that the home of a great man usually affords a much better
nursery for genius than many another home among people of
intelligence and culture. So far as environment is concerned it is
probable that the family of an English judge of the Court of
Chancery might be as favorable for the production of an eminent
person as the family of a Lord Chancellor. We might admit that
Galton underestimated environmental influence, but his critics
have never shown, with any degree of plausibility, that environ-
ment accounts for the striking tendency of eminent people to
have eminent near relatives.
Valuable contributions to the subject on the inheritance of
ability were later made by Galton in his work on English Men
of Science, and especially in his volume on Noteworthy Families
102 THE TREND OF THE RACE
written in collaboration with Edgar Schuster, the first Galton
Research Fellow in Eugenics in the University of London. Ma-
terial for the Noteworthy Families was obtained from answers to
circulars sent to all of the Fellows of the Royal Society whose
names appeared in the Year Book for 1904. Replies were re-
ceived from 207 of the 467 addressed, and as over half of these
were incomplete in regard to several members of the family, the
inquiry was limited to 100 of the most complete records.
Probably a better selection could not be made for the purpose
of studying the inheritance of ability. The Fellows of the Royal
Society are very carefully chosen by the Council of that society on
the basis solely of distinguished achievement. Political influence,
financial status, or the many other aids which sometimes place
men of mediocre talents in positions of prominence have practi-
cally no weight in the choice of a man for the honor of a F. R. S.
An inspection of the list of families with their imposing array of
great names can scarcely fail to convince any one that they
represent an aristocracy of ability of the most noteworthy kind.
The first family on the list, the Balfours, includes:
(1) Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister, 1902, President of the British
Association, 1904, noted statesman and author.
(2) Francis M. Balfour, F. R. S., his brother, Professor of Animal
Morphology at Cambridge, brilliant investigator in Embryology,
and generally regarded as one of the most able and promising of
English biologists at the time of his early death.
(3) The Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, P. C., Fellow of Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, and president of the Board of Trade, in 1902.
(4) Eleanor M. Balfour (Mrs. Henry Sidgwick), Principal of Newn-
ham College, Cambridge.
(5) Evelyn, wife of Lord Rayleigh, F. R. S., and mother of Robert J.
Strutt F. R. S.
(6) The Marquis of Salisbury, K. G., P. C., F. R. S., Prime Minister,
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, president of the British
Association, statesman and essayist.
Surely environment does not explain the distinction of a family
like this, or of many others in Galton's list. The appendix of the
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 103
work contains a list of 32 noteworthy fathers of 38 Fellows of the
Royal Society.
One of the most striking illustrations of the inheritance of
ability is afforded by the descendants of Erasmus Darwin. On
the originality, general ability, and productiveness of Erasmus
Darwin it is not necessary to comment. Robert Waring Darwin,
his son, was a distinguished physician, and, like his father, a
F. R. S. Another son, Charles, was a man of remarkable promise,
and although he died at the age of 20, he gained the first gold
medal of the ^sculapian Society for experimental research.
Charles Robert Darwin, the author of the Origin of Species, and
by common consent one of the world's greatest men of science,
was the son of Robert W. Darwin. He married his cousin, Emma
Wedgewood, a granddaughter of Josiah Wedgewood, F. R. S.,
the founder of the pottery works that produced the famous
Wedgewood ware. Charles Darwin's four sons became men of
note: Francis Darwin, F. R. S., a prominent English botanist;
George Darwin, F. R. S., noted astronomer, and Professor of
Astronomy at Cambridge; Horace Darwin, F. R. S., a prominent
engineer; Major Leonard Darwin, author of works on political
economy, president of the Eugenics Education Society, and
president of the International Eugenics Congress. Finally must
be mentioned Francis Gal ton, cousin of Charles Darwin, grand-
son of Erasmus Darwin, and an excellent illustration of the
hereditary genius, the potency of which he did so much to demon-
strate.
The inheritance of mental and moral traits has been studied
by Pearson and some of his colleagues by statistical methods
similar to those employed in the study of the inheritance of
physical traits. An intensive investigation was carried out by
Pearson upon from three to four thousand school children. In-
stead of attempting to compare the mentality of parents and off-
spring, Pearson studied the resemblance in mental and moral
traits of offspring of the same parents. The data upon which the
comparisons were based were obtained from the teachers whose
judgment of the mental and moral status of their pupils may be
IO4
THE TREND OF THE RACE
considered, on the whole, to have a fair amount of accuracy.
Various physical measurements of the children were also taken,
so that it was possible to compare the resemblance of the children
in mental characteristics with their resemblance in physical
characters. The correlations between brother and brother, sister
and sister, and sister and brother for various physical characteris-
tics averaged about .5. The fraternal correlations in mental and
moral characteristics are expressed in the following table:
Resemblance of Siblings in Mental Traits
Brothers
Sisters
Brothers
and
Sisters
Veracity
.47
.4.3
.40
Assertiveness
^3
.4.4.
. "?2
Introspection
. <*Q
.47
6a
Popularity
- ^o
. ^7
40
Conscientiousness
^Q
.64
.6^
Temper
"?I
-40
$1
Ability
.40
.47
.44
Handwriting
.13
.56
.48
Mean
5 2
51
52
It is certainly remarkable that siblings should not only resemble
one another in several mental and moral traits to so nearly the
same degree, but that the degree of resemblance should be just
about the same for both mental and physical traits. If the fra-
ternal correlation for mental ability or temper is about the same
as the fraternal correlation for eye color and cephalic index
(characters not sensibly influenced by the environment) we must
conclude, as Pearson argues, that correlations in these mental
characteristics are due mainly to inheritance. Of course associa-
tion, similarity of home environment, and common training may
tend to increase these correlations. If a favorable home environ-
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 105
ment is correlated with superior performance of the student,
it does not follow that the former may not be the result of superior
heredity on the part of the parents. As Pearson remarks: "The
average home environment, the average parental influence is in
itself a part of the stock and not an external and additional factor
emphasizing the resemblance between children of the same
home." Doubtless this consideration which is not sufficiently
appreciated by those who would make environmental differences
all important, is of much weight. We are still lacking, however,
an adequate measure of the extent to which similarity of condi-
tions may produce similarities in mental characteristics. The
most reasonable position in the face of such evidence as we have
just considered is that as regards the traits in question, differences
in heredity are much more important than differences in environ-
ment. No other position seems to be easily reconciled with the
remarkable similarity in the degree of resemblance between
correlations for physical and mental characteristics.
How often do we find among children of the same family
exposed to very similar conditions and having practically the
same training, but manifesting the greatest differences in tastes,
temperament, vivacity, ability, and other mental traits! Nor is
it a matter of common experience that these differences become
notably lessened with longer association and subjection to the
same environmental influences. The measurements of Thorn-
dike on the performance of school children who have been asso-
ciated for several years in the school, showed that the children
were quite as much unlike at 12 to 14 as between 9 and 10. Stu-
dents differing in their ability to perform certain tasks such as
addition were given precisely the same training, and then tested
again at a later period. Those who performed the task best at
the beginning of the experiment performed the task best at the
end, and they stood relatively further ahead of the poorer ones
than at first. Equalizing opportunity does not tend to make
people equal. If the opportunities for development are good
those with the best inheritance will profit so much more than
those with poor inheritance that the original differences between
io6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
them will be considerably increased. As we have before remarked,
what environment can do for a person depends upon how gener-
ously he has been endowed by inheritance. Of individuals who
inherit well it may in truth be said: "To those that hath shall be
given." If one's inheritance is poor there is nothing which this
world can offer that will compensate for the loss.
Schuster and Elderton have studied the inheritance of ability
by means of biometric methods similar to those employed by
Pearson. In one investigation these authors worked out the
parent-offspring correlations from data obtained by Heymans
and Wiersma in their studies of psychical inheritance. These
data were secured by sending out 3,000 questions to Dutch
physicians. Each questionnaire contained ninety questions
covering quite completely the psychical characteristics and
peculiarities of the subjects described. Over 400 replies were
received, which is a fairly good return considering the detailed
information sought for in the questionnaires. The degree of cor-
relation between parent and offspring was found to vary consid-
erably for different traits, but, after correcting for the influence
of assortative mating, the average correlations were found to be
as follows: father and son, .279; father and daughter, .252;
mother and son, .194; mother and daughter, .305. Considering
the way in which the data were collected and the adventitious
source of heterogeneity in the material the correlations show a
noteworthy degree of similarity to those discovered by Pearson.
In another study by Schuster and Elderton the material used
was derived from scholars at Oxford and the boys' schools at
Harrow and Charterhouse. From the Oxford records a compari-
son was made between the scholastic standings of fathers and
sons who had attended the University. Since 1800 the University
of Oxford had four classes of honors, those graduating without
honors receiving simply the "pass" degree. Those who attended
the University, but who failed for one or another reason to
graduate constituted a class whose scholastic standing is on the
average lower than those who graduated without honors. Ob-
taining honors can legitimately be held to offer a fair index of
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 107
ability. It is quite well established that high standing in college
is correlated with success in later life. Should it be found, there-
fore, that sons in the honor class have a relatively large proportion
of fathers in the high honor class, while sons of the "pass" or
ungraduated classes have a relatively large proportion of fathers
in these classes also, it would offer strong evidence of hereditary
differences in ability. The results of the study may be summar-
ized in the following table:
Scholarship of Fathers and Sons at Oxford
Percentage of Fathers
Sons Obtaining Obtaining First or Second
Class Honors
First class honors 41 . 9
Second class honors 40. 7
Third class honors 33-3
Fourth class honors 28. i
Pass degree 20 . i
No degree 12.9
The striking feature of this table is the regularity with which
the percentage of high scholarship among the fathers decreases
as the scholarship becomes lower in the sons. The correlation
coefficients between father and son were .29 or .31 according to
which of two methods of calculating the coefficients was em-
ployed. The correlation coefficient of brother and brother was
somewhat higher, viz., .405, due possibly to the fact that methods
of instruction, standards of grading and other circumstances
were more nearly alike for brothers than for fathers.
The scholastic records of two secondary schools, Harrow and
Charterhouse, were investigated by much the same methods, but
owing to the absence of data concerning the parents the study
was limited to comparisons between brothers. The data which
were drawn from several thousand students gave a fraternal
correlation of .398 which is very close to what was found for the
students at Oxford. This correlation did not increase sensibly
with increasing age of the students.
io8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
The inheritance of arithmetical ability has been studied by
Cobb who applied the "Courtis Tests in Arithmetic Series A"
to the parents and children in eight families of the faculty of the
University of Illinois. The records were compared with norms
obtained by testing 200 students of the same institution of much
the same degree of maturity and social status. Cobb studied
particularly the relation between the aptitude for addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division and copying figures in both
parents and children. One individual may be good in addition
and poor in division, and the endeavor was made to find if the
relative of that individual would show the same distribution of
aptitudes. The results of the study yielded considerable indica-
tion of alternative inheritance of the traits in question. The
average correlation with the mid parent was .49, with the like
parent .60, with the unlike parent .01. The numbers of individ-
uals dealt with were too small to yield results which would be
convincing by themselves, but they serve to corroborate the
general conclusions of other investigatiors. The studies of
Starch on the resemblance in the performance of scholars from
the same family yield further confirmatory evidence.
Next to Galton's Hereditary Genius perhaps the best known
investigation of the inheritance of mental traits is the work of
Woods on Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. Members of
royal families offer some peculiar advantages for such a study
since their genealogies are matters of record to a greater extent
than those of ordinary people; as a class they are free from the
struggle for livelihood and have usually enjoyed educational
advantages of a superior kind. Differences in environment
probably affect the intellectual development of royalty much less
than that of the majority of mankind.
The study of Woods embraced all members of the royal families
of Europe about whom information could be secured. Individ-
uals were grouped according to their intellectual ability into ten
catagories, number i including those generally adjudged to be
imbeciles, number 10 including only a few of the most illustrious
names, while the great majority naturally fell into the intervening
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 109
classes. A similar rating was made of moral qualities. The
rating of the intellectual status of royalty, a very difficult
matter, was made on as impartial a basis as possible. Grades
9 and 10 included only names occurring in Lippincotf s Dictionary
of Biography and especially celebrated also on account of high
intellectual power. Judgments of biographers and historians
were relied upon for determining the various grades. Many
errors of rating were doubtless made, as Woods himself admits,
but it is not probable that many of the lowest classes were put
into the highest classes, or vice versa. Probably most individuals
in the middle grades belong somewhere near the grade in which
they were placed. In a statistical investigation of this sort if
most of the judgments are approximately correct the conclusions
drawn will be of value.
While much evidence was given of the alternative inheritance
of mental traits, it was shown that rulers of great ability mani-
fested a strong tendency to cluster in groups. Such families
as the Montmorencys, Condes, and the Houses of Nassau-Orange
and Hohenzollern and the descendants of Gustavus Vasa of
Sweden present a marked contrast to the House of Hanover and
several other dynasties.
The parent-offspring correlation based on 494 pairs was .3007
for mental and .2983 for moral qualities. Offspring and their
grandparents gave a correlation of .161 for mental and .175 for
moral qualities. The results obtained by Woods are in striking
agreement with those of Pearson, Schuster and Elderton and
other investigators, the agreement being all the more noteworthy
since the material investigated differs so much from that of other
studies.
A short paper by Woods on Heredity and the Hall of Fame
offers additional evidence of transmitted ability; 26 out of 46
men in the Hall of Fame had close eminent relatives. "If all
the eminent relatives of those in the Hall of Fame are counted,
they average more than one apiece. Therefore, they are from
500 to 1,000 times as much related to distinguished people as the
ordinary mortal is."
no THE TREND OF THE RACE
While it is recognized by nearly all competent students that
mental ability is inherited, the precise method of its inheritance is
not thoroughly established. Heritable characteristics present
very different amounts of purely somatic or fluctuating varia-
bility and it would seem not improbable a priori that superior
mental endowments depending, as they do, upon the delicate and
intricate organization of the brain may be subject to such varia-
bility to an unusual degree. A child of good ancestry but exposed
while in utero to the influence of malnutrition, alcohol, or the
toxins of disease at the time when the delicate architecture of its
brain is being built up may fall considerably short of its normal
expectation hi intellectual development. But notwithstanding its
intricate structure and the apparent ease with which the delicate
balance of its organization might be upset, the nervous system is
reproduced in successive generations with a remarkable degree
of fidelity, both as regards its external connections and its internal
mechanism. Possibly the fluctuating variations in the nervous
system may be in part responsible for the fact that the parent-
offspring and fraternal correlations in the inheritance of mental
traits are usually found to be somewhat below those observed
for various physical characters. But there are other reasons
which might plausibly be assigned also. Although fluctuating
variability may affect the basis of mentality somewhat more than
it affects eye color or cephalic index it is not sufficient greatly to
obscure the facts of mental inheritance, or to reduce very mark-
edly the coefficients of mental resemblance between near relatives.
Is the inheritance of mental traits in accordance with Men-
del's law? The question is one of peculiar difficulty since mental
traits, 9 as a rule, do not present the sharply definable and discrete
features that often characterize the physical peculiarities of the
body. Common observation, however, yields abundant evidence
of the alternative inheritance of mental characteristics. Almost
every family includes children with different aptitudes, disposi-
tions, and tastes that manifest themselves from early infancy.
In their mental characteristics children resemble now the father,
now the mother or some grandparent or other relative. Many
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY in
readers will recall in this connection the much quoted lines of
Goethe:
" Vom Vater hab'ich die Statur,
Des Lebens ernstes Fiihren:
Vom Miitterchen die Frohnatur
Und Lust zu fabuliren.
Urahnherr war der Schonsten hold,
Das spukt so hin und wieder.
Urahnfrau liebte Schmuck und Gold,
Das zuckt wohl durch die Glieder.
Sind nun die Elemente nicht
An dem Complex zu trennen;
Was ist denn an dem ganzen Wicht
Original zu nennen?"
A number of investigators have come to the conclusion that
superior intellectual ability as well as a number of special talents
are transmitted as recessive characters. Hurst considers musical
ability recessive, and Davenport from a study of numerous
family records draws the same conclusion in regard to artistic
ability, literary ability, mechanical skill, calculating ability and
memory, all of which are held to be "unit characters that may
occur in any combination."
A careful consideration of the evidence adduced by Hurst and
Davenport fails to convince me that the traits mentioned are
recessive, and I am very decidedly of the opinion that they
cannot be considered as unit characters in the usual sense of
this term. It is not denied that Mendel's law holds for the
transmission of mental as well as physical characteristics, but it is
not proven that mental peculiarities are inherited in accordance
with any simple Mendelian ratio. Neither is the evidence satis-
factory that superior ability of various kinds is recessive to the
normal condition. Such a conclusion is improbable a priori from
what we know of the transmission of mental defect. If feeble-
ii2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
mindedness of various grades is recessive or partly recessive to
normal mentality, and if the lower grades of feeble-mindedness
tend to be recessive to the higher forms, we should expect to find
average ability recessive to superior ability. It is not an easy
matter, especially when dealing with incomplete records and with
characters which (like musical and artistic ability) are strongly
influenced by family traditions, to determine whether a given
character is dominant or recessive. The test of recessiveness is
given if the matings of parents both of whom have the character
in question produce children all of whom inherit this character.
But this test is never completely satisfied, although non-conform-
ing cases might conceivably be explained.
We should get much the same results if the character were
dominant and several determiners were concerned in its produc-
tion as hi the case of the dark color of various kinds of wheat and
oats. On the whole, I believe the inheritance of exceptional
ability is best explained though I cannot here give in detail the
evidence for this conclusion on the assumption that it depends
upon many factors which behave as dominants to those which
give rise to ability of an inferior kind. The fact that parents of
superior ability produce, though only occasionally, offspring
which, although normal and healthy, never come near to measur-
ing up to the intellectual capacity of their parents, is quite in
accord with this view, while opposed to the theory of the recessive
nature of superior mental endowments. Results of negro-white
crosses yield confirmatory evidence of the same view.
Perhaps the doctrine that genius or great ability is a sort of
anomaly dependent upon some defect of the germ plasm has been
fostered by the rather prevalent notion that genius tends to be
associated with insanity. The doctrine expressed by Dryden in
the lines;
"Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide, "
not only expressed a popular conviction, but the sober conclusion
of many scientific men who have devoted especial attention to the
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 113
problem. So eminent an authority on insanity as Dr. Henry
Maudsley has stated, "It is no exaggeration to say that there
is hardly ever a man of genius who has not insanity or nervous
disorder of some form in his family." Moreau de Tours who did
much to bring the relation between genius and insanity into
prominence regarded genius as a "neurosis, or abnormal exalta-
tion of the intellectual faculties." Lombroso, who has written
most copiously on this topic, finds that men of genius commonly
exhibit neuropathic traits indicative of a degenerate taint, and
have many peculiarities in common with the actually insane.
The foibles, eccentricities and weaknesses of men of genius have
afforded a theme for almost endless comment. And it is not to be
wondered at that those who contend that genius represents a sort
of pathological variation have no difficulty in collecting a number
of instances which fit their case. But a doctrine based on evi-
dence especially selected to prove the thesis rests upon a very
inadequate basis. What most of the writers who have accepted
this doctrine have done is simply to collect all the cases that they
could find in which men of eminence became insane or exhibited
occasional eccentricities. However extensive and imposing such
a collection of facts may be, it really proves nothing if one ex-
cludes, as is usually done, the very numerous cases which do not
bear out the theory.
The obviously scientific method of attacking the problem
would be to ascertain the percentage of insanity in a rather large
random sample of people of superior ability, and to compare it
with the percentage of insanity in the general population of
corresponding limits of age. The only writer with whom I am
acquainted who has ever attacked the subject by an impartial
statistical method is Havelock Ellis in his Studies of British
Genius. Selecting, according to certain rules, 1,030 names from
the Dictionary of National Biography, he found that, even when
slight or dubious cases were included, the percentage of men and
women who became insane was not more than 4.2 per cent. A
study of the parents of these British men of genius showed,
contrary to Maudsley's statement, that insanity could not be
ii4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
traced in more than i per cent of the cases. "No doubt," says
Ellis, "this result is below the truth, . . . the insanity of the
parents must sometimes have escaped the biographer's notice.
But even if we double the percentage to escape this source of
error, the proportion still remains insignificant."
A few years ago without being aware of the existence of Ellis'
work, I suggested to one of my students, Mr. C. A. James, that
he ascertain the percentage of insanity in chosen lists of great
men. Taking the men from Galton's Hereditary Genius and a few
shorter lists, it was found that pronounced cases of insanity
occurred in less than 2 per cent. Cases of slight neuropathic
disorders were not included because it was the aim to employ
much the same standards for judging people insane as are em-
ployed in collecting statistics of insanity in the general popula-
tion. Over one-fifth per cent of the population in the United
States are in hospitals for the insane according to the census for
1910. About one-third of this number is discharged every year,
many of whom soon find their way back again, and since many
others are cared for outside of hospitals, we may estimate conserv-
atively in the light of statistics from other countries that at any
given time one-third per-cent to one-half per cent of the popula-
tion is actually insane to a degree that would warrant custodial
care. When we limit our enquiry to the percentage of insane cases
among people within the age limits in which a reputation may be
gained for intellectual eminence, the percentage of insanity would
naturally become several times greater. Then, if we further
consider the number within these age limits who will develop
insanity sometime during their lives we will obtain a much larger
ratio still, but one which may be compared with the ratio of
insanity found to occur among those who have become noted
for their intellectual ability. What data we have on the subject
indicates that insanity is rather less frequent among the intellec-
tuals than the people at large. Certainly there is a much higher
correlation between insanity and feeble-mindedness than there is
between insanity and genius, unless we define genius in such a
way as to include only those great men who are one-sided or
"5
eccentric. If we did so we should have to exclude from the ranks
of genius such men as Shakespeare, Goethe, Aristotle, Darwin
and many others who occupy the very highest rank among the
great men of the world. It is possible to find little eccentricities
or idiosyncracies in such normal men as these, but a similar
scrutiny of the life of almost anyone would reveal the same thing.
One of the conclusions arrived at by Galton in his study of emi-
nent men of science was that these men constituted a group
distinguished for physical and mental health.
One of the circumstances most commented upon in discussion
of the inheritance of great men is the fact that the parents of
many men of genius never exhibited any evidence of superiority
which would lead one to suspect that they would give rise to a
person of exceptional eminence. And we are reminded of Newton,
Lincoln, Goethe, Shakespeare and others who appear to rise like
great isolated mountain peaks out of the level plain of ordinary
humanity. Sometimes it is suggested that such men are compar-
able to the "sports" or mutations that appear from time to time
in plants and animals.
It should be borne in mind that greatness involves a peculiar
complex of qualities the lack of any one of which may prevent
an individual from achieving an eminent position. A great man
has to do more than simply exist; he must accomplish labors
of a particularly noteworthy kind before he is crowned with fame,
and many a man of splendid natural endowments has fallen short
of achieving greatness through some inherent weakness of char-
acter or the lack of sufficient inspiration or driving force. Great
men not only have to be born great; they also have to achieve
greatness; and if they receive their proper recognition in the eyes
of the world, greatness has to be thrust upon them besides.
Whatever a man may be or do, his greatness as a matter of fact
depends upon the position in which the judgment of the world
places him.
Great men, it is true, seem to rise higher than their source.
Generally they come from ancestry considerably above medioc-
rity. And I venture to express the opinion that a great man has
n6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
never been produced from parents of subnormal mentality. A
great man is more apt to arise if both parents are of very superior
ability than if only one parent is not above mediocrity. Where
the great man appears to stand far above the level of his imme-
diate ancestors it is due in large part, I believe, to the fact that
each parent supplied peculiar qualities lacking in the other,
assisted also by qualities from more remote ancestors which may
have conspired to furnish the necessary complement of hereditary
factors. In addition there may be an element of somatic varia-
bility of a favorable kind. With the same inheritance two stalks
of corn may attain quite different height due to environmental
factors that influence growth. Forces that affect the pre-natal
or early post-natal life of the human being may influence his
development for good or ill to a considerable degree. After all it
may be a relatively small thing that gives the finishing touch to
the making of a great man. Heredity affords the necessary
foundation; but other things may aid or check subsequent devel-
opment. One thing is certain and that is you cannot make great-
ness out of mediocrity or good ability out of inborn dullness by
all the aids which environment and education or anything else
can possibly offer.
REFERENCES
Ambros, R. Die Vererbung psychischer Eigenschaften. Arch. ges. Psych. 28,
Lit. Ber., 1-33, 1913.
Boas, F. The Mind of Primitive Man. Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1913.
Constable, F. C. Poverty and Hereditary Genius: A Criticism of Mr. Francis
Gallon's Theory of Hereditary Genius. Fifield, London, 1905.
De Candolle, A. Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis deux SiScles. Geneva,
1873-
Ellis, H. H. A Study of British Genius, London, 1904.
Galton, F. Hereditary Genius. Macmillan Co., London, 1869. Reissued, 1914.
English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture. Macmillan Co., London,
1874; Inquiries into Human Faculty. Macmillan Co., 1883. (Reprinted in
Everyman's Library.)
Galton, F., and Schuster, E. Noteworthy Families. J. Murry, London, 1906.
Heymans, G., and Wiersma, E. Beitrage zur speciellen Psychologic auf Grund
einer Massenuntersuchung. Zeit. f. Psych. 42, 81, and 258, 1906, and 43, 321;
and 45, i, 1907.
THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 117
Pearson, K. On the Laws of Inheritance in Man. On the Inheritance of the Mental
and Moral Characters in Man and its Comparison with the Physical Charac-
ters. Trans. Anth. Inst. Gr. Brit, and Ireland, 1903, 179-237, and Biometrica,
3, 131-190, 1904.
Peters, W. Ueber Vererbung psyohischer Fahigkeiten. Fortschr. d. Psych. 3,
185-382, 1915. Teubner, Leipzig, 1916.
Reibmayr, A. Die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talents und Genies. 2 Bande,
Munich, 1908.
Schuster, E., and Elderton, E. The Inheritance of Ability. Eugenics Lab. Mems.,
I, 1907.
Starch, D. The Similarity of Brothers and Sisters in Mental Traits. Psych. Rev.
24, 235-238, 1917. The Inheritance of Abilities in School Studies. School and
Society, 2, 608-610, 1917; Educational Psychology, Macmillan Co., N. Y.,
1919.
Thorndike, E. L. Heredity, Correlation and Sex Differences in School Abilities.
Columbia Univ. Contr. to Philos., n, No. 2, 1903; The Measurement of Twins,
Arch. Philos. Psych. Sci. Methods, i, 1905; Educational Psychology, Vol. 3,
1914; Eugenics, with Special Reference to Intellect and Character. Pop. Sci.
Mon. 83, 125-138, 1913, also in Eugenics: Twelve Univ. Lectures, N. Y., 1914.
Woods, F. A. Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. N. Y. 1906; Heredity and
the Hall of Fame. Pop. Sci. Mon. 82, 445-452, 1913. American Men of
Science and the Question of Heredity. Science, 1909, 205-210. (Remarks by
Cattell, 1. c. 209, 210); Significant Evidence for Mental Heredity. Jour.
Heredity, 8, 106-112, 1917.
CHAPTER VI
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE
"There is no importance in an increasing population; on the con-
trary, if the population of Europe were stationary, it would be much
easier to promote economic reform and to avoid war. What is re-
grettable at present is not the decline of the birth rate in itself, but the
fact that the decline is greatest in the best elements of the population.
There is reason, however, to fear in the future three bad results: first,
an absolute decline in the numbers of English, French, and Germans;
secondly, as a consequence of this decline, their subjugation by less
civilized races and the extinction of their tradition; thirdly, a revival of
their numbers on a much lower plane of civilization, after generations
of selection of those who have neither intelligence nor foresight. If
this result is to be avoided, the present unfortunate selectiveness of
the birth-rate must be somehow stopped." Bertrand Russell, Why
Men Fight, p. 197.
"Desire not a multitude of unprofitable children, neither delight in
ungodly sons. Though they multiply, rejoice not in them except that
the fear of the Lord be with them." Ecclesiasticus, 16, i, 2.
"Our remote descendants will probably cease to propagate."
Godwin, Political Justice, II, p. 528.
ONE of the most striking features of the recent biological
history of man is the decline in the birth rate which has occurred
in most civilized countries since the middle of the igth century.
The decline began, however, at different dates in different coun-
tries. In France it set in during the first part of the last century.
In England and Germany it was not marked before the latter
quarter of that century. In Russia and the Balkan States it still
continues high, Bulgaria even showing a slight increase in the
birth rate in recent years. The general facts in regard to the
changes in the birth rate in Europe may be seen by consulting
the following table:
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE
119
Table of the Annual Births per 1000 of the Population for Several Coun-
tries of Europe
a
"^ ??
G
aj d
g>
w
Scotland
13
3
"a
i i
8
1
fe
X
03
8
O
Austria
b
1
B
t
i i
fr
6
o
fc
Sweden
ft
a
a
a.
C/3
|
JbC
"o
M
T3
"o
W
36.1
1871-76..
35-5
35-o
27.4
25-5
38.9
39-3
42.8
36.9
30.2
30-7
50-3
32.6
1876-80. .
35-4
34-8
25-7
25-3
39-2
38-7
44-i
37-o
31-7
30.3
48.4
32-0
36.4
1881-85..
33-5
33-3
24.0
24-7
37-o
38-1
44-6
37-8
31.2
29.4
49.2
36-7
30-9
34-8
1886-90. .
3i-4
3i-4
22.8
23.1
36-5
37-6
43-7
37-3
30.8
28.8
48.7
36.2
29.4
33-6
1891-95..
3-5
3-5
22.9
22-4
36-3
37-3
42.0
35-9
30-3
27.4
48.2
35-8
29.1
32.9
1896-00..
29.2
30.0
23.1
22.0
36.0
37-0
39-7
33-9
30.3
26.9
49-4
34-6
29.0
32.2
1901
28.5
29-5
22.7
22.
35-7
36-8
37-8
32-5
29.6
27.0
48.0
34-9
29.4
32-3
1905
27-3
28.6
23-4
20.6
33-o
34-o
36-1
32-7
27.4
25-7
44-8
35-2
26.2
30.8
1910
25-1
26.2
23-3
19.6
29.8
32.6
35-7
33-3
26. 1
24.7
33-i
23.8
28.6
1912
23-8
25-9
23.0
19.0
28.2
31.2
36.2
32.4
25.8
23-7
3i-5
23.2
28.1
1913
24.1
25-5
22.8
18.8
27.4
29.6
3i-7
25-4
23.1
30-3
28.2
1914
23-8
26.1
22.6
18.0
3i-i
25-3
22.8
29.6
1915
21.8
23-9
21.8
23.8
21 .6
There are no statistics on the birth rate of the United States as
a whole. A few states have kept records of births for several
years, but they have been admittedly incomplete, although in
general they are improving. From various sources, however, it is
evident that the birth rate in this country is declining at a rate
quite comparable to that of the more civilized nations of Europe.
Even with our enormous immigration the increase in the popula-
tion of the United States has fallen far short of what it was pre-
dicted to be by the statisticians of a half century ago who based
their estimates on the rate of natural increase existing at that
tune.
Since we know the number of immigrants annually entering
the country, we can estimate the proportion of our population
that results from natural increase, and we can, therefore, form a
rough estimate of the general birth rate. The United States
census, while it gives no statistics on birth rates, enumerates
the number of children under five years of age. The diminishing
120 THE TREND OF THE RACE
number of individuals in this group forms a rough indication of
the declining birth rate. This decline is indicated by the following
table compiled by Professor Willcox, 1 giving the number of chil-
dren under five years of age for every 1,000 women between the
ages of 1 6 and 44:
Decreasing Proportion of Children in the United States
Number of Children under 5
Date per 1,000 Women
16-44 Years of Age
1800 976
1810 976
1820 928
1830 877
1840 835
1850 699
1860 714
1870 649
1880 635
1890 554
1900 54i
1910 508
It has been calculated by Professor Willcox that if this rate of
diminution continues for a century and a half there will be no
more children produced. The proportion of children here indi-
cated would naturally be affected by foreign immigration which
consists largely of adults. This would tend to decrease the
relative proportion of children, but the large number of foreign
women among these immigrants who are of child-bearing age,
would tend in a few years to make the number of children in-
crease. In other words, if foreign immigration were checked the
proportion of children might not after all be greatly reduced, if
at all.
During the past few centuries, and especially in the iQth cen-
1 Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 15, 1-15, 1916
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 121
tury, the population of most civilized countries has considerably,
and in some cases very greatly increased. The population of
England and Wales between 1801 and 1911 has more than quad-
rupled; that of Scotland has nearly trebled. In the 60 years
between 1851 and 1911 the population in Russia has increased
from 55,818,000 to 105,651,000; in Austria from 17,525,000, to
28,568,000; in Hungary from 13,192,000, to 20,851,000 and in
Prussia from 16,935,000 to 40,163,000. Of all countries on the
continent of Europe, France has shown the slowest rate of in-
crease, and in late years the population has been nearly station-
ary. Ireland since 1851 has suffered an actual decrease of popu-
lation owing largely to the low birth rate and the extensive
migration of her people to America.
The rapid increase in the population of the United States is
due to the circumstances that produce a rapid increase in most
new countries which have been opened up to settlement by the
white race. The early settlers, being generally of a hardy and
prolific stock, living for the most part under wholesome condi-
tions, increased at an unusually rapid rate. Their numbers being
continually augmented by a rapidly increasing flow of immigrants
produced in a few centuries one of the most populous nations of
the earth. In Australia and New Zealand, in which we meet with
conditions more or less similar to those found in the United States,
there has been a similar rapid increase of population, but owing
to a more discriminating control of immigration the stock has
remained of a more homogeneous character.
The two chief factors in the increase of population in most
civilized countries are (i) the great industrial development
whereby countries are able to support a much larger number of
people than formerly, and (2) the gradual reduction in the rate
of mortality which has been effected through advances in medi-
cal science, and especially hygiene. Aside from gains or losses
through migration, the changes that occur in the number of
inhabitants of any country depend upon the relative proportion
of births and deaths. Notwithstanding the decline in the birth
rate, the natural increase of several countries is higher than it was
122 THE TREND OF THE RACE
a quarter of a century ago, owing to the fact that the birth rate
has not decreased so rapidly as the death rate.
In all countries increase of population has sooner or later to
come to a standstill. For a while the surplus humanity may find
an outlet by emigrating into new territory. Increased means of
production may for a while keep pace with the growing numbers
of inhabitants. But in time, growth of population must bring
about its own check.
While we must all recognize this fact, the "population ques-
tion" does not seem so portentous as it did several years ago.
The Malthusian doctrine, with its inevitable tendency of human-
ity to increase beyond the means of sustenance and its various
checks to increase, such as war, pestilence and famine, seemed to
promise little but a gloomy future of struggle and hardship for
the majority of mankind. It is now becoming probable, however,
that the automatic checks will not depend so much upon the
increase of the death rate as the decrease of the birth rate. There
is no longer ground for fearing the scourges that seemed to be the
inevitable consequence of a natural law of propagation. There is
perhaps more reason to be apprehensive lest the race should fail
to reproduce itself.
For most countries there is no immediate danger of race suicide,
although it may very well happen that we shall need to be
seriously concerned in the future over this possibility. The
birth rate in some countries has shown a continually accelerating
descent. In Germany during the first ten years of the 2oth cen-
tury the birth rate fell more than in the preceding thirty. The
decline has been especially rapid in the cities, the fall in Berlin
being more rapid than the fall of the death rate.
Notwithstanding the rapid increase in the population of
Germany, there are several German writers who have already
sounded the note of alarm lest the rapidly falling birth rate prove
a serious menace to the welfare of the empire. As Borntrager has
remarked, "The ever more rapid and more intensive an4 exten-
sive decline in the birth rate which has been deliberately brought
about in Germany, is one of the most threatening occurrences of
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 123
modern times, and one which must be absolutely stopped at the
earliest moment if we do not slowly but surely go to destruction."
Germany, however, is apparently in no greater danger of race
suicide than several of her rivals. It is from France that we hear
the greatest lamentations over decreasing fecundity, because the
danger to national security from this source is imminent. "Doit
elk mourir?" "Le suicide d'un race," "Le Probleme de la depopu-
lation" are the titles of some of the recent publications whose
names are suggestive of the pessimistic tone of their contents.
Whether the population of France will slowly decrease, no one
can say. For the sake of the world as well of France it is to be
hoped that some way will be found to check this decline in the
birth rate of a people who have contributed so much to the
advancement of civilization.
Other nations are rapidly approaching the birth rate of France,
but if their fecundity does not sink below what is necessary to
maintain their population there is nothing to regret in this fact.
When the world becomes as full of people as it can well support,
it would indeed be a great misfortune for the birth rate to con-
tinue high. When the globe is supporting its maximum popula-
tion the number would have to be kept within bounds either by
increased mortality, or by decreased fecundity, and the latter
method is certainly the less disagreeable.
The chief defense that is made of the former method with all
the misery it entails, is that it affords an indispensable means of
racial advance. In all ages the pressure of population with its
consequent tendency of peoples to overflow their boundaries has
been a potent cause of war, in fact it has made war almost
inevitable. It may be urged with much reason that the birth rate
of superior peoples should be kept high in order that they may
conquer and supplant inferior types. The effect of such conflict
under modern conditions would be to lead, through the elimina-
tion or amalgamation of subject peoples, to an eventual domin-
ance of a comparatively homogenous race. When this point is
reached conflict between political groups of much the same blood
would have much less biological significance than it has to-day.
i2 4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
There is no doubt that the dominant tendencies at the present
time are in the direction of racial uniformity rather than diver-
gence, and that whether nations remain at peace or engage in war
the process of unification will still go on. The ultimate result in
any case will depend largely on the relative birth rates of superior
and inferior types. The racial character of the survivors will
doubtless be influenced according as the final unification will be
effected forcibly or peaceably, but which outcome would be the
more desirable from the eugenic standpoint is by no means a
simple problem. Conflict may be defended as a means of insuring
the predominance of the best racial elements. Whether or not it
will do so, or whether it is the only or the best method of attaining
this end is a complex question, which I shall not attempt to dis-
cuss here. Nor is it my intention to touch upon the difficult
ethical and political aspects of the effort to maintain a high birth
rate, which characterizes the policy of militaristic nations. Cer-
tain it is that a high birth rate with the temptations which it
brings for nations to overflow their boundaries and encroach upon
neighboring territories has led to frequent wars in the past, and
will doubtless continue to be s source of strife in the future. The
different rates of increase of different nations are bound to
bring many difficult situations whose adjustment will seriously
tax the resources of those who would maintain the peace of the
world. 1
A most important feature of the decline of the birth rate is the
fact that the fecundity of different classes of people is very
unequally affected. In the United States we have a marked
decline of the birth rate among people of American parentage,
while the immigrants who, up to the period of the present war
have been arriving on our shores in ever increasing numbers,
still continue to produce large families. Owing to the general
lack of birth statistics in the United States, estimates must be
based upon the age distribution of the population at different
decades, and the birth statistics from a few states in which birth
* As Prof. Ross has remarked, "The real enemy of the dove of peace is not the
eagle of pride or the vulture of greed, but the stork." Changing America.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 125
registration has recently become compulsory and a few special
investigations relative to this subject.
In Rhode Island in 1905, 82.5 per cent of foreign born married
women were mothers (15.5 per cent childless), while in the native
American wives 71.6 per cent were mothers (28.4 per cent
childless). The average number of children born to foreign born
married women was 3.35, while the average number among native
born married women was 2.06. Since 1885 the average number of
children per foreign born married woman decreased from 4.69 to
3.35, or 28.6 pi* cent while the average number per native born
married woman fell from 2.81 to 2.06, or 26.7 per cent.
In Massachusetts in 1900-1905 there were 143 births per 1,000
foreign born women of 15-44 years, while among native born
women of the same age limits there were only 63 births. Mr.
A. H. Young finds in New Hampshire a situation very similar to
what occurs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. At ages under
20 years the birth rate of foreign born wives exceeded that of
native born by only about one-fourth, but at ages from 25 to 34
years the birth rate of foreign born wives was over double that
of the native wives. The birth rates of married women of child-
bearing ages are shown in the following table taken from data of
theU. S. Census:
Fecundity of Women in New Hampshire
1890
igoo
Native white married women, 15-45 years
7C 717
36,820
Children under i year from native born mothers.. . .
3.S71;
3 o8<
Per cent
IO.O
10 8
Foreign born white married women, 15-45 years
II,7Q3
16,00"?
Children under i year from foreign born mothers
2,7t;o
4.,OS4.
Per cent
23.4.
2C.2
The state registration statistics give the average annual
number of births per thousand married women of 15-45 years
from 1898-1902 as 115.3 for the native born women, and 236.8
for the foreign born women. The presence of a large French-
126
THE TREND OF THE RACE
Canadian element (50 per cent of the foreign born) tends to raise
the birth rate of the foreign born population. In their report on
infant mortality in Manchester, N. H., in 1914, Duncan and
Duke state that, " although foreign born constitute only about
42 per cent of the total population, foreign born mothers give
birth to 67 per cent of the 1,643 infants." In New York City,
according to the report of the New York Department of Health
for 1909, the birth rate per thousand of native born women is
28.26, while for an equal number of foreign born women it is
109.46, or nearly four times as large. ^
Hoffmann finds from a study of a number of genealogies of
American families, that the average number of children per family
sank from nearly 7 in the i8th century to nearly 5 in the first half
of the 1 9th century, and further decreased to less than 3 in the
latter part of the 1 9th century. The studies of Crum have yielded
additional evidence of much the same character. A study was
made of the genealogical records of 22 American families contain-
ing 12,722 wives and 61,115 children. The chief results are sum-
marized in the following table :
The Decreasing Size of American Families
Before
1700
1700-49
1750-99
1800-49
1850-69
1870-79
No. of children per wife
7-37
1.81
50.36%
1.81%
21.4
6.83
i-74
42.89%
4-ii%
21.7
6-43
1.88
40-50%
4.98%
22.
4-94
4.07
29.17%
7-96%
22.3
3-47
5.91
I5-7I
13-98%
22.9
2-77
8.10
8-57
18%
23.1
Percentage of childless wives . .
Mothers with 6-9 children ....
Mothers with only i child
Average age of marriage . . .
The families whose records are included in published gene-
alogies represent the older American stock which may be repro-
ducing more slowly than that of more recent native Americans.
Benjamin Franklin estimated the average number of children in
an American family in the i8th century at 7, and from the study
of a number of genealogies I have arrived at approximately the
same result.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 127
It is unfortunate that the data collected by the Censuses of
1890, 1900 and 1910 on the relative fecundity of native and
foreign stocks have never been completely tabulated. The
Immigration Commission has made an analysis of a part of these
data from certain fairly representative regions of the country.
The returns used were taken from the Census of 1903. For
purposes of comparison a somewhat arbitrary measure of fecun-
dity was employed, namely, the number of children of women
who had been married from ten to twenty years. Of these there
were 78,432. These comprise women from various sections of the
country both urban and rural. The regions studied included the
state of Rhode Island, the cities Cleveland, 0., and Minneapolis,
48 mainly rural counties of Ohio, and 21 mainly rural counties
of Minnesota. In general the women of native white parentage
had 2.7 children, while those of foreign parentage had 4.4. The
women of foreign parentage were divided into 2 classes, (i) those
who migrated to this country, and (2) those both of whose parents
were immigrants, parents of mixed native and foreign blood not
being considered. Of the first class the average number of chil-
dren was 4.7, while that of the second was 3.9, the second genera-
tion of the foreign born showing a diminution of fecundity though
retaining a higher birth rate than the women of native American
stock. The percentage with no children was, foreign born first
generation, 5.3 per cent, foreign born second generation, 6.3 per
cent, native born white 13.1 per cent, negroes 20.5 per cent.
Notwithstanding the high percentage of childless wives among
the negroes, the average number of children, 3.1, was greater than
that of the native white American. Both native and foreign
women were found to be considerably more prolific in the rural
districts than in the cities.
The fertility of foreign born women varied markedly according
to their nationality. This may be seen by consulting the follow-
ing table giving the average number of children per each wife of
foreign extraction:
128 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Fertility of Foreign Born Stocks in the United States
Italians 4.9 Norwegians 4.7
Bohemians 5 . Austrians 4.6
Finns 5.3 French 4.3
Russians 5.4 Germans 4.3
French-Canadians . 5.6 Irish 4.4
English-Canadians . 3.5 Swedes 4.2
Poles 6.2 Scotch 3.6
English 3.4
The peoples from southern and central Europe show a higher
fecundity than those from Great Britain and the northern part
of the continent. For most cases this is true of the second genera-
tion of foreigners as well as the first. Mr. Hill who worked over
the data referred to grants that in the southern states the families
of the American born may be of larger size. It is questionable,
however, if they would be enough larger to make good the losses
through death.
When we consider that with our present death and marriage
rates nearly four children per married couple are required to
replace the preceding generation, we are compelled to conclude
that, taken as a whole, the stock represented by American born
parents is probably not reproducing itself. It is the aliens and
their immediate children who are responsible for the increase of
our population. If these were deducted from our numbers we
would probably see that the population of the United States
would show an actual decrease. Among the people we commonly
call Americans race suicide would probably be found to be con-
siderably more rapid than in France.
We are losing such stock as is represented by the Mayflower
descendants, the first families of Virginia, and the daughters
of the revolution. New England, once so prolific in typical
American manhood and womanhood, is now largely filled up with
recent immigrants and their children. Recently in connection
with one of my students, Miss C. M. Doud, I have been studying
the decline of the birth rate in one important group of American
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE
129
stock, the Society of Mayflower Descendants. 1 By means of
questionnaires we have obtained data concerning families of the
California branch of this Society. The size of the family was
found to decrease with the recency of the birth of the parents.
The size of the family of parents born in successive periods is
shown in the following table:
Declining Birth Rate of the Mayflower Descendants
Husbands &
Husbands &
wives born
Husbands
born
between
Husbands &
wives both
Husbands
born
between
wives both
born
between
Husbands &
wives both
between
1810-1830
1830-1840
wives after
1840
between
1840-1860
1850-1860
wives after
1860
1860-1880;
families
probably
between
1870-1880
completed
No. of children
6.0
5.6
3.0
fj
(4 families)
[27 families)
(8 families)
(45 families)
(20 families)
Mother's family
9-5
4.52
4.28
3-54
3-82
Father's family
8.0
5.15
5.63
It is possible that a few children may yet be born to the parents
of the last age group, viz., those in which the mothers were born
between 1870 and 1880. As only 8 of the mothers in this group
were less than 45 years of age, and as all of them are over 38, the
children from this group will be very few. Perhaps the average
number of children per family of the Mayflower descendants
is somewhat larger than our results indicate, but it is not probable
that the number of children would be more than two and a half
per married couple, a number obviously insufficient to main-
tain the stock.
Whatever we may say for the eugenic qualities of our citizens
of foreign extraction, and many of them doubtless represent an
excellent inheritance, we cannot but regard the disappearance
of such stock as the Adams, Lowells, Edwards, and Lees as noth-
ing short of a grave national misfortune.
The most serious menace to racial welfare, not only in America,
but in most civilized lands, is the relative sterility of superior
1 Jour. Hered., Vol. 9, 296-300.
130 THE TREND OF THE RACE
types of humanity. On the other hand, those who are mentally
defective or subnormal tend, through their lack of restraint and
foresight, to be unusually prolific. The records of the Jukes,
Kallikaks, Nams, Hill Folk, Tribe of Ishmael and other notorious
defective strains show that these degenerates are distinguished
for unusual fecundity which more than offsets their high infant
mortality. Dr. Wilmarth in reporting on some cases of the
transmission of mental defect has incidentally chosen cases which
illustrate the high fecundity which is only too prevalent in this
class: "Two children from one family are under our care. From
the sheriff, who brought the children, and an intelligent neighbor,
I learned that the mother was weak mentally. The father seldom
worked but managed to raise his family on what he could obtain
in other ways. Not one of the eighteen children was a desirable
member of society. The girls drifted into disreputable lives; the
boys were idlers and thieves with no moral sense. I know a
couple in Pittsburgh, Pa., whose nine children were all idiots of
low grade. A family in eastern Wisconsin, the father and mother
are both feeble-minded; at least 7 of the 8 children are imbeciles;
5 we have cared for. A couple in this state have nine children, all
subnormal, and there are several, to my knowledge, in collateral
branches of the family. One feeble-minded woman, now removed
from the state, had by different men 18 children in 19 years, she
alleges. I have seen only three of her children. These were
feeble-minded and especially defective in moral sense." 1
1 Dr. C. T. Ewart (Jour. Mental Science, 56, Oct., 1910) states that "Dr. Ettie
Sayer, in the course of her work for the London City Council, studied the family
history of 100 normal families and 100 families where mental defectives were found.
The normal families averaged five in number, while families showing abnormality
averaged 7.6, or nearly one-third as many more." It is not altogether clear from
the account how the average number in the normal families was arrived at. If
100 families were chosen and the average number of children computed, it would
not form a fair basis of comparison with the fecundity of the stocks containing
mental defectives. Taking the mental defectives, or any lot of individuals however
characterized, it is probable that they will be found to come from families of
more than the average size. If we draw 100 people at random from the general
population, we are apt to get a preponderating number from families of relatively
large size, since these present the largest number of individuals to draw from. If
we take 100 families and find the average number of individuals they contain, this
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 131
Whetham remarks 1 that, "Feeble-minded women, whether
married or unmarried, are remarkably fertile. The workhouse
records frequently note that five, six, or seven children have been
born before the mother is twenty-five years of age, and she herself
may have commenced child-bearing at fifteen years of age or even
younger. Most of these children inherit the mental condition of
their parents, and where both parents are known to be feeble-
minded, there is no record of their having given birth to a normal
child. In one workhouse there were sixteen feeble-minded women
who had produced between them one hundred and sixteen chil-
dren with a large proportion of mental defect. Out of one such
family of fourteen, only four could be trained to do remunerative
work."
"With regard to the fertility of feeble-minded stocks, it has
been pointed out that the feeble-minded children from the degen-
erate families, who use the special schools in London, come, some-
times two or more at a time, from households averaging about
seven offspring, whereas the average number of children in the
families who now use the public elementary schools is about four."
In England until recently (the evil is still not entirely abated)
there has been a very effective system for encouraging the prop-
agation of feeble-minded stocks. Girls born in the workhouse
were kept as public charges in homes or industrial schools until
they were 16, when they were turned loose upon the world. With
their generally poor inheritance combined with unfavorable
conditions for developing whatever germs of mentality or strength
of character they may have possessed, it is no wonder that a large
number will be less than the average size of the families from which we draw our
100 individuals at random. The assumption that averages arrived at by these two
methods are comparable is a fallacy which is very common in writings on eugenics,
and it is one that very easily escapes notice. In the present case, if the size of the
families from which mental defectives came were compared, not with the average
size of normal families, but with the average size of the families from which normal
individuals came (which is a very different thing) the results would, other things
equal, be indicative of differences in the fecundity of the two stocks. It may be
that the comparison was made by the latter method in the investigation referred to,
although it is not so stated.
1 Introduction to Eugenics, p. 26.
132
THE TREND OF THE RACE
proportion of these girls drift into immoral lives. They fre-
quently return to the workhouse to have their children who, after
being raised at public expense, are then liberated to repeat much
the same performance.
The relation between fertility and social status has been studied
by a number of investigators. Heron found in London that the
districts which afford evidence of prosperity have a low birth rate,
while districts in which indications of poverty are common have a
high birth rate. It was estimated that while the death rates in the
latter districts were higher than in the former, the difference was
not great enough to counteract the greater fecundity of the poorer
classes. Moreover, Heron showed that sixty years ago the
relative fecundity of the classes dealt with was the reverse of what
it is at the present time. Bertillon 1 gives the following tabulation
of the birth rates per thousand women between 15 and 50 years of
age in various sections of four European cities:
Fertility of Women in Different Districts of Large Cities
Paris
Berlin
Vienna
London
Very Poor Districts. . . .
108
157
200
147
Poor " ....
95
129
164
140
Comfortable "
72
114
iSS
107
Very " " ....
65
96
153
107
Rich " ....
S3
63
107
87
Very Rich "
34
47
7i
63
While the figures given may not exactly represent the birth
rates of these districts, they doubtless form a fairly close approxi-
mation of them. The birth rate of Paris and Berlin measured
by the number of annual births per thousand married women is
shown in the following table:
1 Bull. Inst. Internal. Stat., n, 163-176, 1899.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 133
Number of Children per 1,000 Married Women in Different Urban
Districts
Paris
Berlin
Very Poor Districts.
14.2
2T/1
Poor "
128
198
Comfortable " ....
TOO
TQ2
Very " "
06
172
Rich "
Od.
TA?
Very Rich " ...
6c
if tj
121
That similar conditions prevail in American cities is indicated
by statistics of the birth rates of different classes in Philadelphia. 1
In expensive residence districts the rate is 18; in the well-to-do
districts, 21.4. per thousand; among the American born factory
workers it is 24.5, while among the worst paid immigrants it is
41.9. The death rate in the expensive wards is 14.5 per thousand;
while it is higher in the slums, viz., 20.5, it does not nearly make
up for the difference in the birth rate.
It is not easy to compare the eugenic worth of the American
and foreign born elements of our population, and it would be a
great error to measure the eugenic value of a stock in terms of
wealth or social position. Many people of the most desirable
types of inheritance can boast of very little of either of these
desirable possessions. No small proportion of poverty in our
present economic regime is due to accident, illness or other cir-
"cumstances for which the unfortunate victims are in no way to
blame. Nevertheless, it is undeniably true that many people are
poor because their innate shiftlessness, mental inferiority, and
unreliability makes them practically unemployable. Such
persons, and a good share of their progeny, tend to remain in the
ranks of the poverty stricken classes, unable to seize any oppor-
tunity that may present itself for improving their condition. It is
not uncommon to find pauper pedigrees extending through several
generations. People of good stock unless hampered by ill fortune
1 S. Nearing, North American Rev. 197, 629, 1912.
134 THE TREND OF THE RACE
continually rise out of the ranks of poverty, but those of shiftless
habits, dull mentality, and little ambition constitute the kind of
poor who are always with us.
A cooperative study made by Pearson and several collaborators
(Elderton, Barrington, Lammotte and DeLaski) throws consid-
erable light on the relation between fecundity and the possession
of qualities of a socially valuable kind. Several of Pearson's
colleagues found in the laboring population of English towns
that there was a fairly high correlation between large families and
dirty homes (.41), low rent (.31), poor food (.33), insufficient
food (.35), low wages of father (.32) and irregularity of employ-
ment. We may explain the low rent and the poor and insufficient
food of large families as, in part at least, a consequence of their
large size. There seems, however, no good reason to suppose that
the possession of a large family would have any effect in lowering
the wages of the father. Wages are at least a rough measure of
the efficiency of the individual worker, and the fact that the men
who are poorly paid have a larger number of children than those
who receive better wages indicates that the less efficient types
have the highest degree of fecundity. 1 Miss Elderton in her
elaborate report on the English birth rate says of the artisan
classes: "The poorest classes of all, those who cannot provide
for themselves but seek public dispensaries and maternity char-
ities for attendance, do not appear to limit their families, for very
many have large families running up to thirteen or more."
Dunlop gives data from Scotland based on the number of
children per marriage lasting for 15 years, and in which the wives
were between 22 and 27 years of age at the time of marriage.
1 Mr. S. Johnson in studying the fecundity of British workmen found that those
with regular employment had on the average in 1908, 2.86 and in 1909-10, 2.71
children, while those with irregular employment had in these years 3.12 and 3.26
children. Jour. Roy. Stal. Soc. 75, 534-550, 1911-1912.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 135
Fertility of Classes in Scotland According to Occupation
Crofters 7 . 04
Miners 7 . 01
Agricultural laborers 6 . 42
General laborers 6 . 29
Ministers 4 . 33
Advertisers and solicitors 3.92
Physicians and surgeons 3.91
The marriages considered are naturally more fertile than the
average, but they show the difference in the fertility of people of
different stations.
A good deal of interesting data has been collected in the last
few years concerning the dwindling families of college graduates,
and the general conclusion quite uniformly arrived at, and one
from which the data leave no opportunity for escaping, is that the
college-bred elements of the population are not nearly reproducing
themselves. Several years ago President Elliott pointed with
alarm to the low birth rate of the graduates of Harvard Univer-
sity. J. C. Phillips, in the Harvard Graduates Magazine for
September, 1916, has presented a detailed study of the birth rates
of Harvard and Yale graduates. Taking the records of classes not
later than 1890, to insure dealing mainly with completed families,
he finds that about 25 per cent of the Harvard graduates never
marry; of those who do, 21 per cent are childless, and that more
than three children to a family is a rare occurrence. The decline
of the birth rate in Harvard and Yale is shown in the following
table:
136
THE TREND OF THE RACE
Number of Children in Families of Harvard and Yale Graduates
HARVARD
Year
Children per Married
Couple
Average per Graduate
i8si-6o. .
3 . 13
1.68
1861-70
2 .62
i. 08
1871-80
2 . 23
i .6*
1881-90
2 .06
I. CC
YALE
i8<;i-6o.
3 . 32
2 . S3
186170.. . .
2 .60
2 . l6
1871-80.. .
2 23
I .7 1 ?
1881-90
2 .04
I . C?
Birth rates for the graduates of Wesleyan University are given
by Nicolson 1 as follows:
The Diminishing Families of the Graduates of Wesleyan University
Children per Family of
I KUT
Men Graduates
Women Graduates
18334.0. .
4AQ
1841^0. .
3 4.6
1851-60..
3 27
1861-70
2 QO
1871-80
2 S3
2 6
1881-90
I 96
2
1891-00
I 42
I 37
190110
.8l
J/
60
The numbers for the last two decades are too small since the
families are not complete in either case, but the dwindling of the
families is nevertheless evident if these decades are not considered.
1 Science, N. S. 36, 74-76, 1912.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE
137
The decline of the birth rate in two other colleges is shown in the
following table:
Families of Graduates of Middlebury and New York Universities
Number of Children
Year
Middlebury
N. F. University
180300. .
e 6
181019
4 8
1820-29
4. 1
1830-^9. .
7.0
4 O
1840-40. .
^ .4
3 2
18^0 50.
2 Q
2 O
186069. . . .
2 8
2 S
187074. .
2 ?
187^-70. .
i 8
In general, the graduates of women's colleges show a lower
birth rate than the graduates of colleges for men. The marriage
rate for women graduates is low. Miss Nearing 1 on the basis of an
extended study, says "College women do not marry probably in
fifty cases out of one hundred given sufficient time out of college."
The following table from Professor Amy Hewes gives the marriage
and birth rates of the graduates of Mt. Holyoke College:
The Families of Mt. Holyoke Graduates
Dates of
Graduation
Per Cent
Single
Per Cent
Married
Children per
Married Graduate
Children per
Graduate
1842-49. .
14.6
8^.4
2.77
2 . 37
24. <(
7C tr
3 &
2. "I 1 ?
1860-69
60
2 .64
i .60
1870-79 . .
40. 6
^0 4
2.7S
i. 6^
1880-89
42 .4
S7.6
2 . ^4
I .A6
l8oO-Q2 . .
<O
I QI
1 Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass., 14, 156-174, 19*4.
THE TREND OF THE RACE
In the classes graduating from Vassar College between 1860
and 1892, 53 per cent had married, producing 1.91 children hi
each family, or an average of one per graduate. The average
number of children per graduate up to the year 1903 was .8 of a
child. The average for Wellesley graduates between 1875 and
1899 was .83 of a child.
The birth rates of four colleges are summarized in the fol-
lowing table compiled by Miss Nearing:
The Fecundity of Graduates of Colleges for Women
College
No, of Children per 100 Married Graduates
Vassar
1870-79
1880-89
1890-99
1900-09
207.8
167.3
166.1
147-
i7i-5
IIO. I
182.3
68.8
77-4
91.2
Bryn Mawr. . .
Wellesley
Mt. Holyoke
Of graduates before 1901 Smith College had 59.4, Vassar, 83.9,
Bryn Mawr, 82.3 and Mt. Holyoke, 73.0 children per hundred
graduates.
Women graduates were found to marry, on the average, two
years later than the women who do not attend college. Notwith-
standing this fact, the fecundity of graduates is not markedly
lower than that of non-collegiate women of American birth
belonging to the general class from which graduates are
recruited.
Professor Cattell has investigated the size of the families of 440
American men of science, choosing only those cases in which
the ages of the parents indicated that the family was completed.
The data collected show a remarkable low birth rate. It is true
that the death rate among the American men of science is unu-
sually small, being "seventy-five per thousand to the age of five
years and about one hundred and twenty to the age of marriage."
"The marriage rate for scientific men," says Cattell, "is high, 895
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 139
among the thousand [the number investigated] being married.
None the less it is obvious that the families are not self -perpet-
uating. The scientific men under 50, of whom there are 261 with
completed families, have on the average 1.88 children, about 12
per cent of whom die before the age of marriage. What propor-
tion will marry we do not know; but only about 75 per cent of
Harvard and Yale graduates marry; only 50 per cent of the
graduates of colleges for women marry. A scientific man has on
the average about seven-tenths of an adult son. If three-fourths
of his sons and grandsons marry and their families continue to be
of the same size, a thousand scientific men will leave about 350
grandsons to marry and transmit their names and their heredi-
tary traits. The extermination will be still more rapid in female
lines."
From the foregoing data we may draw several conclusions
regarding the effects of our present differential birth rate.
1. We are probably losing the elements of our population that
belong to native American stock. Wherever data have been
collected sufficient to base a judgment upon regarding the birth
rate of native Americans, it has been shown that, with our existing
marriage rate and death rate the birth rate is insufficient to repro-
duce the population. The increase of our population comes
mainly from immigrants and the children of immigrants. The
eugenic effect of this is good or bad according to the qualities of
the immigrants of foreign born stocks, and this problem cannot
be solved in any general or off-hand way.
2. We are losing the elements of our population that have
achieved success financially, socially, or hi the field of intellectual
achievement. Speaking generally, none of these classes is repro-
ducing itself. This condition is quite as bad in Europe, at least in
several countries, as in the United States. It constitutes a very
serious menace to our present social welfare, and one which is
striking at the very roots of our civilization. The menace is all
the more dangerous because its effects do not, like those of war,
pestilence or famine, obtrude themselves upon our notice. The
forces for evil that work insidiously are the most to be feared be-
I 4 o THE TREND OF THE RACE
cause they may produce great havoc before they are detected, or
at least before the extent of their damage is adequately realized.
3. The elements of the population that are of subnormal
mentality exhibit at present the highest degree of fecundity. This
is the general verdict of most students of the birth rate of different
classes of the population. The higher death rate of the subnor-
mals probably does not offset completely their greater fecundity.
There are various factors, however, which tend to reduce the
fecundity of subnormal classes. Criminals have their families
reduced on account of penal servitude, and it is improbable that
tramps and hoboes, who as a class are of subnormal mentality,
leave sufficient offspring to replenish their stock. Prostitutes,
who constitute another subnormal class, are frequently sterile as a
result of venereal diseases, and they also purposely avoid having
offspring. We possess little data concerning the fecundity of
women of this calling. Many of them have had one or more
children before entering upon their professional career, and
they sometimes marry and bear children after the business of
prostitution has been abandoned. Although they come from
stocks that are more than usually prolific, it is very doubtful if
they produce sufficient offspring to replace themselves.
The subnormal elements of the population thus suffer in several
ways an extensive sterilization of their number. We have no
means of accurately measuring the extent of the losses to their
ranks. Notwithstanding crime, vagabondage, prostitution and
a high infant mortality, stocks like the Kallikaks, Jukes, Nams,
etc., somehow continue to increase in numbers. If their produc-
tiveness suffers from crime and vice, the celibate careers, late
marriages and restricted birth rate of the classes in the higher
social strata apparently reduce fecundity still more. At any rate,
the latter classes in general have a birth rate which cannot fail to
lead to extinction. This much is clearly indicated from a variety
of sources, while the springs of our defective inheritance have
shown no manifest signs of drying up.
THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 141
REFERENCES
Bailey, W. B. Modern Social Conditions. Century Co., N. Y., 1906.
Bertillon, J. La Depopulation de la France; ses Consequences, ses Causes, Mesures
a Prendre pour la Combattre. F. Alcan, Paris, 1911.
Borntraeger, J. Der Geburtenruckgang in Deutschland. Seine Bewertung und
Bekampfung. A. Schoetz, Berlin, 1912.
Brentano, L. Die Malthussche Lehre und die Bevolke*ungsbewegung der letzten
Dezennien. Abh. K. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. hist. Klasse, 24, in Abt. 565-625
and Anhang of 39 pp. 1909.
Cattell, J. Me K. Families of American Men of Science. Pop. Sci. Mon. 86,
504-515, 1915; Sci. Mon. 4, 248-262; 5, 368-377, 1917.
Cauderlier, G. Les Lois de la Population et leur Application a la Belgique. Brus-
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Crackanthorpe, M. H. Popuktion and Progress. Chapman and Hall, London,
1007.
Crum, F. S. The Decadence of the Native American Stock. A Statistical Study of
Genealogical Records. Publ. Am. Stat. Ass. 14, 215-222, 1914-15.
Dunlop, J. C. The Fertility of Marriage in Scotland. Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 77,
259-288, 1913-14. See also 1. c. 77, 35-54, 1915, and Vol. 3, Rep. i2th Census
of Scotland.
Elderton, E. M. Report on the English Birth Rate. Part i, England North of the
Humber. Eugen. Lab. Mems. 19 and 20, 1914.
Elderton, E. M. et al. On the Correlation of Fertility with Social Value. A
Cooperative Study. Eugen. Lab. Mems. 18, London, 1913.
Engelmann, G. J. The Increasing Sterility of American Women. Proc. Am. Med.
Ass. 1901. Sterility of American Marriages. Critic and Guide, 1904, 182-186.
Fahlbeck, P. E. Der Adel Schwedens, G. Fischer. Jena, 1903.
Heron, D. On the Relation of Fertility in Man to Social Status, and on the Changes
in this Relation that have taken place in the last 50 years. Drapers' Co.
Research Mems. Studies in National Deterioration, i, 1906. Note on Repro-
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Hill, J. A. Comparative Fecundity of Women of Native and Foreign Parentage in
the U. S. Publ. Am. Stat. Ass. 13, 583-604, 1913.
Hoffmann, F. L. The Decline in the Birth Rate. North Am. Rev. 189, 675-687,
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Holmes, S. J., and Doud, C. M. The Approaching Extinction of the Mayflower
Descendants. Jour. Hered. 9, 296-300, 1918.
Johnson, R. H., and Stutzmann, B. Wellesley's Birth Rate. Jour. Hered. 6,
250-253, 1915.
Kiaer, A. N. Statistische Beitrage zur Beleuchtung der ehelichen Fruchtbarkeit.
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Deutschland, Braun'sche Hofbuchdruckeri, Kalsruhe, 1907, pp. 280.
i 4 2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
National Council of Public Morals. The Declining Birth-Rate. Button and Co.,
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1914-15.
Nearing, S. Social Decadence. North Am. Rev. 197, 629-639, 1913.
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and Fewer Deaths: What do they mean? 1. c. 7, 119-127, 1916.
Woodruff, C. E. Expansion of Races. Rebman Co., N. Y. 1909.
Young, A. A. The Birth Rate in New Hampshire. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 9, 263-
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Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 69, 88-132, 1906. (Discussion, 133-147.)
CHAPTER VII
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE
"Of the thirty-eight physicians [in New York] who were willing to
discuss the matter I asked: 'What do you find to be the ideal American
family? ' Thirty said, ' Two children, a boy and a girl ; ' Six said ' One
child.' One said, ' Having a family is not an American ideal; ' and one
said, 'Five or six.'" L. K. Commander, The American Idea.
"I wouldn't have another for the world. I had Lucy when I was
first married and didn't know any better." Mrs. C. of New York.
THE practical problem of remedying the evils of the present
differential birth rate requires for its solution a knowledge of the
causes by which this condition is brought about. Spencer attrib-
uted the low birth rate among the intellectual classes to the
"antagonism between Genesis and Individuation," the utiliza-
tion of vital energy in cerebration being supposed to diminish, by
a sort of compensating loss, the power of producing offspring. He
admits that " special proofs that in man great cerebral expendi-
ture diminishes or destroys generative power, are difficult to
obtain." Certainly cases enough might be adduced in which men
of high intellectual power have shown no lack of fertility, but
among women it seems more probable that intense and continued
application to mental work might produce at least a partial
sterility. A half century ago large families among the intellectual
classes were not uncommon. The rapid decline of the birth rate
within a couple of generations can scarcely depend upon any deep
seated organic changes occurring in the human species. Our
changed modes of life with their greater drafts upon nervous
energy may have had a certain effect in reducing the natural
fecundity of the female sex, but it is questionable if much of the
decline in the birth rate can be attributed to this cause.
In interpreting statistics concerning the number of births per
thousand of the population, we must consider the effect of de-
143
144 THE TREND OF THE RACE
creasing mortality. If people live longer, there is naturally a
larger number of them alive at any given time. If each family
always produced the same number of children the relative num-
ber of births per thousand would decrease as the number of
people alive at any given time increased. Therefore, with the
same marriage rate and the same degree of fecundity, a commu-
nity with a decreasing mortality would show a decreasing birth
rate, were we to measure birth rates, as is usually done, by the
annual number of births per thousand inhabitants.
Marriage rates estimated, as they commonly are, by the num-
ber of marriages made annually per thousand of the population,
would be changed by both the birth rate and the death rate.
With a given number of marriages per annum, the rate per
thousand of the population would decrease with an increased
birth rate and increase with an increased death rate. In consid-
ering the relation of marriage, birth and death rates it must be
borne in mind that each of these affects the others as expressed by
the method usually employed.
Changes in the birth rate arising from variations in the rate
and age of marriage and the death rate may be partly avoided
by employing the so-called "corrected births rates" in which
allowance is made for changes in these factors according to the
method employed by Newsholme and Stevenson or some similar
mode of procedure. An index of birth rates for many purposes
more satisfactory is afforded by the number of children born
annually to every 1000 women of child-bearing age. What
method of enumeration is the best depends on the particular use
one wishes to make of the data.
Statistics on the birth rate may also be vitiated to a certain
degree by immigration and emigration. In the United States,
not only foreign immigration, but the frequent emigration of our
people from one state to another introduces a source of error into
the statistics compiled by the several states. In addition, the
vital statistics of our states suffer from other sources of inaccu-
racy due to the way in which they are compiled. Data on births
are faulty owing to incomplete birth registration. Only a few
THE CAUSES OF. THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 145
states make a serious attempt to compel such registration by law.
While physicians and midwives may comply with the regulation
for reporting births, there are many children born without attend-
ance, and which, therefore, are frequently not registered. More
care has been taken recently in compiling data on births with the
result that a larger number are reported. The rise in the birth
rate of several of our states is not improbably due largely to this
cause. Massachusetts has for many years compiled data on
births and has passed laws compelling birth registration, but the
U. S. Children's Bureau has made a thorough study of a limited
district in that state with the following results: "99 births were
found to have been registered twice, 10 births were registered
which actually occurred outside the limits of the municipality,
10 births occurred in another year from that in which they were
registered;" 123 births for one reason or another were not regis-
tered. The errors, which were considerable, happened to offset
each other fairly well since the record showed only 14 fewer births
than actually occurred.
The birth rate is undoubtedly affected by changes in the age of
marriage and in the frequency of marriage, but it is evident that
neither of these causes can account for more than a small part of
the general decline in the birth rate during the past fifty years.
Marriage statistics suffer greatly from inaccuracy of data on the
age of marriage. As most people do not consider it a matter of
much importance to report the true ages of the contracting par-
ties, the age of the woman especially is frequently stated to be a
few years younger than it really is. 1 Conclusions in regard to
the effect of the marriage rate and age of marriage on the birth
rate, so far as the United States is concerned, must be regarded as
tentative. According to the U. S. Census for 1910, there has been
for both sexes a gradual advance since 1890, in the percentage of
married persons and in the percentage of married, widowed, and
divorced persons combined. "In the age groups 15 to 19 years,
1 For a discussion of what might be called the coefficient of mendacity for differ-
ent ages of Australian brides see Knibbs, The Mathematical Theory of Population,
Appendix A, of the Census of Australia for 1911, Vol. i.
146 THE TREND OF THE RACE
22 to 24 years, and 25 to 34 years, the percentage married, wid-
owed or divorced was greater in 1910 than in 1900 and in the case
of the first two groups it was also greater in 1900 than in 1890."
A larger proportion of the population are marrying in the earlier
ages than was the case ten or twenty years ago. The falling off
in the natural rate of increase of population in this country would
not seem to be due therefore to the postponement of marriage.
In England and Wales the marriage rate has remained fairly
constant for nearly a century, although exhibiting, as Ogle has
shown, a considerable fluctuation due to war and especially to
changes in economic conditions, the curve rising and falling
concomitantly with the rising and falling of the curve representing
the value of exports. The decline in the birth rate has progressed
quite steadily without much apparent relation to fluctuations in
the rate of marriage. The relatively small changes in the mar-
riage rate in England and Wales are shown in the following table :
Marriage Rates in England and Wales
Year
1820
Rate per 10,000
81 c
Year
1880 .
Rate per i
18^0..
78
IQOO. .
80
l8AO. .
78
77
86
IOIO. .
1860
IQI3. .
78
1870. .
81
IQId. .
70.
In Germany the marriage rate has remained fairly constant,
rising in some provinces and falling in others. In the cities of
Prussia the marriage rates were 1880: 84.5; 1890, 93.5; 1900,
96.5; while for these three dates in the country they were 73,
75.5, and 78.5. Since the marriage rate has risen during the
period in which the birth rate has fallen, we cannot attribute
much of the fall in the birth rate to variations in the frequency
of marriage.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 147
Marriage Rates per 10,000 of the Population in Germany
Germany
Prussia
Bavaria
Saxony
Berlin
i84i-<;o. .
81
86
66
86
03
1851-60
78
84
64
8q
07
186170.. . .
8<;
8<;
87
80
II?
1871-80.. . .
86
87
84
04.
IIQ
1881-90.. . .
78
80
60
01
IO7
1891-00
82
83
77
01
IOI
1900..
8<
8q q
ICKX..
80 <
81
IQIO.. .
77
77- <>
IQI2..
78. q
80
The marriage rate of France shows a considerable degree of
constancy over a long period. It reached its lowest figure, 60.5,
in 1870, the year of the Franco-Prussian War, and its highest
rate, 97.5, in 1872, the year after the war. During the first
twelve years of the 20th century the marriage rate in France
showed a very slight increase. The marriage rate in France since
the beginning of the last century is shown in the following table:
Marriage Rate in France
1801-10 76
1810-20 79
1820-30 88
1830-40 80
1840-50 80
1850-60 79
1860-70 78
1870-80 80
1880-90 74
1890-00 75
1900 77.
1901 78
1902
75-5
1903
75-5
1904
... 76
1905. ......
... 77
1906
... 78
1907
... 80
1908
... 80
1909
... 78
1910
... 78
1911
77-5
1912
... 79
1913
... 75
148
THE TREND OF THE RACE
It is clear that the rate of marriage in France can have had
little to do with the birth rate which has quite steadily declined
since the beginning of the igth century, even during the various
periods in which the marriage rate has increased, especially be-
tween 1890 and 1907.
Other countries in Europe show a fair constancy of marriage
rates over decennial periods, some having a slight decrease and
others exhibiting a slight increase as we approach the present
time. In most countries the highest marriage rate occurred in
the decade 1870-80, but the lowest appeared at varying periods
down to the present.
The reduction in the infant death rate which has occurred in
Europe during the last quarter century would tend to depress the
marriage rates. On the other hand, the declining birth rate
would have an opposite effect. We may avoid these sources of
error somewhat (though encountering others) if we estimate the
proportion of married women to the total number of women of
marriageable age. The following table shows the number of
married women of 15 to 45 years per thousand of all women 15
to 4 5 years:
Proportions of Married Women in Europe
1870-71
1880-81
1890-91
IQOO-OI
England and Wales
CIQ
ci4
4.04.
4.02
Ireland. .
4.22
2QC
264.
2?O
Sweden.
4.C.7
AAA
4.C.4
AAA
Germany
CIQ
CIC
<28
Prussia.
4.08
C.IQ
C.IO
<n
Austria.
C.2O
C.O4.
erg '
France
ccc
^40
C4C
C77
Italy
^40
CC2
56l
Reckoned in this way the proportion of women who are mar-
ried shows a decrease in some countries (England and Wales,
Ireland), and an increase in others (Prussia, France and Italy),
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 149
while in others it has fluctuated back and forth. In general, the
marriage rates calculated according to the two methods show a
fairly pronounced tendency to vary together.
The birth rate would very naturally be affected by the average
age of marriage, since with later marriages there is a greater
reduction of the child-bearing period. Galton estimates that the
expected fertility of women marrying at 29 is to that of women
marrying at 20 as 5 to 8. It is a common belief that the average
age of marriage is increasing. For some countries this is true,
but as the accompanying table shows, this is by no means a
general fact. The average age has declined slightly for both
sexes in France, Prussia, Bavaria, Oldenburg and Denmark for
nearly a half century. For the last quarter of the i9th century it
has declined also in Finland, Wurtenburg and Saxony.
Average Ages of Marriage.
Eng. & Wales
c? 9
Prussia
<? 9
France
<? 9
Sweden
<? 9
Bavaria
o" 9
1856-60. . .
30-So
26.10
30.89
28.41
1861-65..
30.11
25.80
1866-70.. .
29.89
27.22
30.19
25.62
30.86
28.26
1871-75...
29.81
26.99
30.50
25-79
31.16
28.46
32.3
28.7
1876-80. . .
29.56
27.08
30.16
25-37
30.78
28.
31-6
28.
1881-85...
29-51
26.27
29.82
25.96
30.19
27-49
30.6
27.6
1886-90. . .
28.23
25.96
29.65
26.52
29-75
25.11
30.24
27-57
29.1
26.1
1891-95.. .
28.43
26.16
29.65
26.52
29.80
25.40
30.68
27.64
1896-00. . .
28.38
26.21
29.30
26.20
29.65
25.20
30-23
27-33
1901-04.. .
28.90
25.70
In England and Wales the mean age of spinsters has slowly
advanced, according to Newsholme, since 1873, (earlier data are
rather untrustworthy), the increase from 1896 to 1899 being
from 25.08 years to 25.73. There has been a general increase also
in Queensland and New South Wales.
The statistics of the average age of marriage (as well as those of
the marriage rate) are affected by the frequency of divorce.
Where divorces are common there is apt to be a large number of
ISO THE TREND OF THE RACE
remarriages among people of relatively advanced ages. The
increase of divorce, although very widespread, has been much
more rapid in some countries than in others, and in countries such
as the United States, where divorces are rapidly becoming more
frequent, the average age of marriage would tend thereby to
become considerably higher. Some countries have a separate
tabulation of first marriages. The ages of such marriages in
England and Wales have shown a slight increase since 1866, but
they have decreased in France (since 1851) and in Bavaria. For
most countries there are no separate tabulations available.
Age of marriage doubtless affects the differential birth rate
since the different classes marry on the average at different
periods of life. There is in most countries a tendency for members
of the educated and professional classes to marry late. According
to Rubin and Westergaard the average difference in the ages at
marriage of official and working classes at Copenhagen for 1878-
1882 was over 5 years. Of the former only 6.4 per cent were
married before 25, while 35.1 per cent of the latter were married
at that age. Similar differences were found by V. Fircks. Von
Mayr gives the ages at marriage for several classes in Prussia for
1 88 1-86 as follows:
Age of Marriage According to Occupation
Average age
Official class 33 . 41
Medical profession 31 . 76
Artists and writers 30 . 62
Army, navy, police 29 . 30
Day laborers 29 . 40
Metal workers 28 . 04
Factory employees (male) 27 . 67
(female) 24.62
That the more educated and skilled among the laborers marry
later than their less skilled coworkers is indicated from several
sources. Rowntree (A Study of Town Life, '02) gives the following
ages of marriage for skilled and unskilled workers of York:
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 151
Ages at Marriage of Workmen in York
Age when Married
Percentage of Marriages among Workers
Under 20
Skilled
5
18.2
30.0
27.8
9-8
3-o
4.6
2.4
3-7
Unskilled
4-2
27.7
26.5
23-5
8.1
4-5
14
i-4
2.7
2022
23 2<c . .
26-30. .
7I-7C . .
36-40. .
41-45; . .
46-^0. .
Over 50
That the fertility of different classes is not caused entirely by
the greater duration of marriage of the people who marry at an
earlier age is indicated by the English statistics on the fecundity
of marriages of different durations in the different groups. Mar-
riages of a given degree of duration from two years up to thirty
show uniformly a much higher fertility among the laborers than
among the professional classes.
Fecundity According to Duration of Marriage of Followers of Different
Occupations
(British Census of 1911)
All dura-
tions
0-2 yrs.
2-5 yrs.
5-io
yrs.
10-15
yrs.
15-20
yrs.
20-25
yrs.
25-30
yrs.
"3
.5?
1
2
Surviving
~!&
Surviving
"a
2
Surviving
I
Surviving
I
Surviving
3
S
I
1
I
Surviving
General Population
Coal-miners
Agricultural laborers
Boilermakers
Fanners
oo.o
26.4
13-4
10. I
00.5
95-3
91.9
81.2
79-8
72.0
70-3
64.7
100.0
120.2
IIQ.6
107.3
109. I
98.7
86.7
76.9
85.0
82.0
7 6.1
72.1
IOO
128
123
110
95
97
95
83
68
72
68
85
IOO
126
124
108
98
99
91
80
71
75
70
90
IOO
120
US
108
107
97
86
80
92
87
75
83
IOO
116
113
107
112
99
83
78
97
93
79
89
too
124
US
no
108
95
89
77
81
84
74
78
IOO
118
119
108
us
98
84
73
85
93
80
84
IOO
!28
114
1 10
IOI
95
92
79
79
73
70
64
IOO
112
119
107
no
98
86
75
85
ftj
76
72
100
1,50
US
HI
98
95
93
84
76
67
68
57
IOO
123
122
IOS
107
99
87
79
82
75
74
64
too
126
no
no
94
95
97
85
79
58
66
52
IOO
20
19
7
4
00
91
81
84
6?
73
60
IOO
120
105
116
85
98
96
89
92
63
74
56
IOO
116
S
107
97
IOO
96
81
92
7i
80
59
Carpenters
Cotton spinners
Cotton weavers
Nonconformist ministers. ..
Clergymen (C. of E.)
Teachers
Doctors
152 THE TREND OF THE RACE
An important circumstance that brings down the birth rate is the
increasing urbanization of the population which in many coun-
tries 'has occurred to such a remarkable extent during the past
half century. City life affects fecundity in many ways which we
need not here attempt to specify in detail. The many conditions
which sap the vitality of the urban population, and which are
partly expressed in the greater death rate, are doubtless respon-
sible for much of the decline, but the economic, psychological and
social factors probably operate more strongly also than in the
rural districts. Life in the country is more normal and whole-
some than in the city; the children are more of an asset on the
farm than they are in the cities and towns, especially since the
passage of legislation restricting the employment of child labor;
facilities for rearing children are on the average much better in
the country; the use of preventives and abortion are less prev-
alent; and the search for pleasure and the desire for social life
have less influence upon the country housewife than upon her
urban sister. In general, city life may be said to intensify the
action of most of the agencies that are responsible for the dimi-
nution of births.
The inadequate birth statistics of the United States afford
little opportunity for comparing directly the urban and rural
birth rates for the country in general, although fairly reliable
data are furnished by a few of the states. However, the census
returns give the number of individuals under five rears of age per
thousand women between 25 and 45 years in rural and urban
communities for the United States as a whole. These numbers
are as follows:
Urban white 252
Urban negro 290
Rural white 603
Rural negro 652
With both negroes and whites the number of children under
five is much larger in the country than in the cities; and the
same statement holds for each group of states taken separately.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 153
Were we to compare the number of children under five per thou-
sand married women in cities and in rural districts, the latter
would still show a preponderatingly larger number of children.
The fact that there are more children in relation to the number
of women in the rural districts than in the cities is very strong
evidence that the former have the higher birth rate. This con-
clusion is in general corroborated by what is known of the birth
rate in cities where there is a tolerably adequate birth registra-
tion. The proportion of women in the United States who are or
have been married is greater in the country than in cities in the
ratio of 64.6 to 57.8 according to the last (1910) census. This of
itself would naturally tend to increase the fecundity of rural dis-
tricts. On the other hand, the proportion of women of child-
bearing age is greater in cities than in the country, the per cent of
white women of 15-44 years in the country being 21.27 per cent
and in cities 25.4 per cent, and among negroes 22.5 per cent and
31 per cent.
Cities usually contain a greater number of bachelors and
spinsters than are found in the rural districts. Commenting on
this peculiar circumstance Weber remarks: "A number of expla-
nations may be offered for such an apparent contradiction. For
one thing, rural emigration takes away most of the bachelors and
maids, leaving in the country a population with a large proportion
of married people; and at the same time that marriages are
comparatively infrequent, social circumstances may be such as to
impel rural couples to go to the cities for the performances of
marriage ceremony. Moreover, in many German cities it is found
that city young people often remove to a suburb to begin house-
keeping in a cottage of their own; the marriage is thus credited to
the city, while the census counts the married couple in the sub-
urb. The most probable explanation, however, is that city
marriages take place at an earlier age than country marriages,
where the city marriage-rate is the higher of the two, and that
they are dissolved sooner by the relatively high mortality to
which males are subject in the city. This would account for the
larger number of widows in urban populations. Divorce is also
154 THE TREND OF THE RACE
more frequent in the city. By the re-marriage of widowed and
divorced persons, the city marriage-rate is raised, without any
real addition to the number of married people as compared with
the rural community where the first marriage would have con-
tinued longer."
Differences in the age composition of urban and rural com-
munities, and differences in the percentage of women who are
married make the crude birth rate a very unsafe index of how
fecundity is affected by an urban environment. On account of
their higher percentage of people of child bearing age the crude
birth rate gives to cities too favorable a showing. Many married
women now to go city hospitals to have their children, and the
city thereby gets credit for births which really belong to the
country. And the figures for urban birth rates are also apt to be
higher than the rural on account of more adequate birth regis-
tration in cities where the matter can be brought under one
administrative control.
Percentage Married in 28 Great Cities of the U. S.
Cities Whole Country
Male Female Male Female
Foreign White 67.3 62.7 65.9 68.1
Native White 57.1 58.0 66.0 67.9
" Foreign 45.6 54. 48.6 58.8
Negro 59.5 51.9 69.0 65.0
59.0 58.8 63.8 66.3
Perhaps the most important factor in the situation in the
United States is the presence of a relatively large foreign popula-
tion in the cities. The foreign elements marry early and have a
high marriage rate. Their fecundity for these and other reasons is
high. In several cities of the United States we have therefore the
somewhat unusual condition of a relatively higher birth rate in
cities than in the rural districts of the states in which they occur.
Thus in Massachusetts in 1916 the birth rate was 24.8, the lowest
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 155
on record since 1880. With the exception of Cambridge which
contains a rather high percentage of native born stock all the
cities with over 100,000 inhabitants have a birth rate higher
than that of the state as a whole (Boston, 25.8; Worcester, 29.6;
Fall River 29.2; Lowell, 30.3; New Bedford, 31.0; Springfield,
30.8; Cambridge, 24.5). In Maine in 1916 the general birth rate
was 20.45; m 20 f the largest cities it averaged 21.27. In the
towns with a relative large number of foreign born the birth rate
is, as a rule, relatively higher than in those with more native born
inhabitants. The general birth rate for Michigan in 1915 was
26.6 (death rate 13.3). In all the cities it was 27.6 (death rate
14) ; in cities with over 50,000 inhabitants it was 31.6 (death rate
16.4), and in cities under 5,000 it was 23.2 (death rate 14.5).
Statistics from Ohio tell much the same story as may be seen in
the table:
Rural and Urban Birth and Death Rates in Ohio
Birth
Rate
Deatl
i Rate
igi6
1917
igi6
1917
Whole State
21 .O
21.4.
14.41
14 7^
Cleveland
27 .4
20. 2
14.6
ICC
Cincinnati
18.4
IQ.O
i6.<;
i6.c.
Dayton
22 .O
2^.8
14. 2
14.7
Toledo.
2O O
7Q 4
IO 4
IO O
Columbus
2O. O
10.
I?. 4
1^.2
All Cities
2T. . 7
2< . I
ic. c
16.1
The state of New York gives statistics of the birth rate of
native born and foreign born women in cities and rural districts,
and hence enables one to obtain direct evidence on the point in
question. In 1916 the birth rate of the entire state was 23.4. In
New York City which is notorious for its high percentage of alien
population the birth rate was 24.5; in the rest of the state it was
22. Taking all cities of the state together, it was 25.6, the birth
i S 6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
rate in the rural parts of the state being only 18.5. In almost all
the cities of the state the percentage of foreign born was greater
than in the country. The percentage of foreign born women in
cities of over 25,000 was 26.8% as compared with that in the
whole state which was only 19.2%. Particularly significant is the
fact that the birth rate per 1,000 married women of 15-44 yrs. in
1916 was 72 for the native born and 177.3 f r & e foreign born in
the country, and 69.3 for native born and 174.8 for foreign born
women in the cities. Thus in both native and foreign born women
of child-bearing age higher fecundity was shown by the country
dweller, but the larger proportion of foreign born women in cities
made the urban birth rate higher than the rural.
It is probable that much the same relations would be found to
be widely prevalent in the United States. In many states there
are no birth statistics kept which may be depended upon, and
even in those in which birth registration has been most faithfully
carried out there is a considerable amount of inaccuracy. The in-
creasing birth rate which some states of the registration area
show in the last decade is, I suspect, largely, if not mainly, the
result of improving registration of births. The low birth rate and
the surprising irregularities in the records which are shown by the
statistics of only a few years back naturally destroy confidence in
the data. I have taken only the most recent available reports
from states in which there is reason to believe that records are
sufficiently complete to warrant basing conclusions upon. In
these states it is not improbable that the rural birth rates are too
low. as it is probable that births have been more carefully re-
corded in cities then in the country. However, the inaccuracies
are, I believe, not sufficient to seriously modify the conclusions
drawn from the data.
The evidence afforded by the birth statistics of urban and
rural communities is supported by the careful compilations of the
Immigration Commission on the birth rates of native and foreign
born women. In Rhode Island the average number of children
born to women under 45 who were married from 10-20 years in
urban and rural communities is indicated below:
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 157
Number of Children per Married Women of 15-45 Years in
Rhode Island
Native white, native parentage .... 2.4
" foreign parentage. ... 3.9
Foreign born 4.6
Canadian English, ist generation . . 3.7
" 2d .. 3 .3
Canadian French, ist generation. . . 5.8
2 d " ... 4.8
English, ist generation 3.7
2d " 2.5
German ist generation 3.8
2d " 2.7
Irish, ist " 4.8
2d " 4-3
Italian 5.0
Scotch, ist " 3.8
2 d " 2.3
Swedes, ist 3.9
2 d " ?
Other foreigners, ist generation. ... 4.2
n j
2d 3.3
Native negro 3.3
In Cities
over 10,000
In Remainder
of State
2.7
4.6
4.8
4-5
3-6
6.0
5-i
3-9
2.8
4-4
3-4
4.6
4-5
?
4-4
?
3-7
With the exception of the Irish with their higher urban birth
rate and the Italians with the same birth rate in city and country,
all classes, the foreign born as well as of the native population,
have more children per married woman of child-bearing age in the
country than in the city. Also the percentage of childless mar-
riages is greater in the cities for both native (19.4 urban, 13,
rural) and foreign born (8.4 urban, 6.5 rural).
The study of Cleveland in relation to 48 predominantly rural
counties of Ohio showed similar relations to those found in Rhode
158 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Island. The average number of children per married woman
under 45 who had been married 10-19 years is shown below:
Number of Children per Married Woman of 15-45 Years in Urban and
Rural Districts of Ohio
No. Children per Married Woman
Cleveland
Rural Counties
All classes
4
A
Native white, native parentage ....
Native white, foreign parentage. . . .
Foreign white
2-4
3-3
4-7
3-4
3-8
4-6
Most of the foreign nationalities taken singly showed a higher
fecundity in the rural counties, although exceptions occurred in
the Bohemians, ist generation of Hungarians, ist generation of
the Irish, Poles and Russians. "In Cleveland," says the Report,
"the average number of children (2.4) borne by the native white
women of native parentage is only slightly greater than half the
average (4.3) borne by the white women of foreign parentage. In
the selected rural counties the average number (3.4) borne by the
native white women is three-fourths as large as the average (4.5)
borne by the women of foreign parentage. The average for the
native white women of native parentage is larger in the rural
counties than in Cleveland. This is also true of the average for
the women of foreign parentage, but not in so marked a degree.
In fact, there are some foreign nationalities which appear to have
larger families in the city than in the country. But the difference
is not very marked and may be due to factors which are more or
less accidental and have no causal relation to urban or rural
influences." These facts are especially interesting when it is
recalled that the crude birth rate of Cleveland is very much
higher than it is in Ohio as a whole, and still higher than in rural
Ohio.
In Minnesota a comparison of the number of children of native
born and foreign born women in Minneapolis and 21 rural coun-
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 159
ties showed a high fecundity for the rural women. "In Minne-
apolis," says the report just quoted," the average number of
children (2.4) borne by the native white American women is but
two-thirds the average (3.8) borne by the white women of foreign
parentage. In the rural counties the average is 3.4 for the native
American women, being again only two-thirds as large as the
average (5.2) for the women of foreign parentage. Thus the
average is larger in the rural counties, both for the native Amer-
ican and the foreign women."
In Ohio and Minnesota as in Rhode Island the percentage of
childless marriages is much greater among the city women, both
native as well as foreign born. The per cent of childless marriages
in Cleveland was for native parentage 15.2%; for foreign paren-
tage, 6.3%; in the rural counties the ratios were 5.7%, and 5.1%
respectively, in Minnesota the per cent of childless marriages
was in Minneapolis 12.7 among women of native parentage, and
6.9 among those of foreign extraction; in the 21 rural counties the
ratios were 5.1% for native and only 2.7% for foreign women.
In all states the percentage of childless marriages was greater in
the second generation of the foreign born than in the first.
The data furnished by the Immigration Commission therefore
agree with those from New York and elsewhere in showing that
the effect of urban life is to depress the birth rate, and that the
relatively high birth rates of American cities are due mainly to
their relatively high percentage of inhabitants of foreign extrac-
tion. The fact that the crude birth rate is frequently higher in
cities than in the country has given rise to erroneous opinions in
regard to the actual fecundity of urban populations. Thus
Bailey remarks in his valuable work, Modern Social Conditions,
"It was formerly the case that cities were ' man consuming ', re-
quiring that their numbers be kept up by immigration from the
country. As time went on conditions changed, until to-day the
cities furnish a large proportion of their own increase. At first the
birth rate in the country was higher than in the cities, but grad-
ually that in the cities has gained until it has surpassed the
country rate." Weber states in his Growth of Cities that we are
i6o
THE TREND OF THE RACE
hardly justified " in making the generalization that city marriages
are less fruitful than country marriages. Indeed, the opposite is
true in several countries, if the great cities be excepted." Most
of the data appealed to in support of this statement are derived
from statistics in the go's and previously. Weber's work was
published in 1899, and whatever may have been the relations at
that time it is evident that urban birth rates have since fallen
more rapidly than the rural. Sweden which at the time Weber
wrote had a higher birth rate in the city than in the country has
now just the reverse. This is shown in the following table of the
birth rate in the cities and rural districts of that country:
Births per 1,000 in Sweden
In City and in Country
Date
City
Country
Date
City
Country
1821 30. .
31 .64.
34.07
1006. .
26. 15
2< <6
18304.0. .
20. 14.
31 . 72
1007. .
26. 12
2^3"?
1840 <?o. .
20. 30
31.28
1008. .
26 80
2^ 3^
i 8 < 060. .
32 $6
32.81
IOOQ. .
2< 71
2? d
1860-70
32 Q<
31 . 10
1910. .
24 S8
24. OO
1870-80
32 13
3O 21
1911.
23 83
24. OS
188090
31 O7
28 6<
1912.
23 O3
24 06
1890-1900
27 O7
27 16
IQI3.
22 8c;
23 4.tJ
1900-1910
2S.87
2< . 74
IQI4. .
21 .63
23 33
IQI^. .
20. 16
22 13
IQl6. .
10. $2
21 7O
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 161
In Italy in 1908 and 1911 the birth rate of cities with over
100,000 inhabitants was as follows:
Birth Rates in Italian Cities
City
Birth Rate
City
Birth Rate
Rome
igo8
24-3
29.4
20. o
24.8
22.7
21. O
2 3-9
IQII
26.5
26.O
17.7
24-5
21-9
21-5
2 3 .8
Messina 1
Naples .
1908
29-5
29.4
30-5
33-8
19.8
33-4
IQII
37-2
25-5
30-7
28.5
22.2
31-5
Venice
Turin
Palermo
Catania
Livorno
Genoa
Bologna.
Florence
Italy as a whole
Milan
1 On account of the earthquake there were 5,021 births in 1908, but the number
increased to 16,210 births in 1911.
In Great Britain and Ireland the crude birth rate in many cities
is higher than in the countries in which they are located. Rela-
tions of city and country in Great Britain are anomalous for
several reasons; nevertheless the country districts, so far as our
information goes, have a somewhat higher fecundity when this is
estimated by the proportion of children to 1,000 married women of
child-bearing age. As stated in the report of the National Birth
Rate Commission on the Declining Birth Rate, "In 1911 the
legitimate birth rates in terms of 1,000 married women, aged
I 5~45> were for County Boroughs 195, for London 199, Urban
Districts 192 and Rural Districts 204."
In her report on the decline hi the birth rate in the north of
England Miss Elderton states that in order of decrease in the
birth rate come "(i) textile and woolen towns, (2) engineering
and metal working towns, (3) mining districts, and lastly (4)
purely rural districts."
In France in 1913 the crude birth rate in cities of 10,000 or over
averaged 18.67. The birth rate for the rest of the population was
19.45 and for France as a whole 18.8. The rate for the rural
districts was exceeded only by that of the towns between 5,000
l62
THE TREND OF THE RACE
and 10,000 inhabitants. The conditions just before the war
(1913) are shown in the following table:
Births, Deaths and Marriages in France for 1913
Births
Deaths
Born Dead
Marriages
Divorces
Paris
17 . 12
is. 67
i .4.0
II . 21
i 07
Cities 100-500,000
18.98
10.60
i . 21;
8 47
61
" 30-100,000. .
l8 23
10. 07
i .00
8 i<
c8
" 20 30,000. .
18.33
20. 10
0.06
7
46
" 10 20,000
\S*J
19.06
10. 74.
" s 10,000. .
2O 4.6
18 76
Average of cities
18.67
18.68
Average of rest of France
19-45
It will be observed that Paris has a crude birth rate lower than
any other class of cities, and that in general (the cities of 100,000-
500,000 proving an exception) the birth rate increases as the size
of the city diminishes.
It is in Germany, which furnishes a greater wealth of data on
the subject than any other country, that we find the clearest
evidence of the relative unfertility of city stocks. The subject
has been treated by a considerable number of writers (Mombert,
Borntrager, Kriege, Roesle, Kaup, Stenger, Bailed) whose ver-
dicts are in general agreement. The following table gives a very
general survey of the relations:
Births Per 1,000 Married Women of Child- Bearing Age in Germany
Years
Entire State
In Cities
In the Country
1880-81
322
30 c;
32Q
i88q-86. .
32Q
1800 o i . ,
328
207
347
1 80 1; -06. .
317
270
343
IOOO-OI..
30?
266
337
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 163
Mombert from whom the above table is taken states that
legitimate fertility in the cities as compared with the land is
lower, has declined more rapidly and began to decline earlier. In
the large cities (Grosstadte) the fall hi the birth rate has been
especially rapid. All of the large cities showed a lower corrected
birth rate in 1901 than the country. The average children per
1,000 married women (15-45 yrs) in cities of 40,000 in 1901 was
238 as compared with the rural rate of 337, but this rate was
higher than that of most of the larger cities of that year (Berlin,
172, Breslau, 234, Frankfurt, 208, Munich, 225, Dresden, 211,
Essen, 328, Hamburg, 194, Leipzig, 209).
Data on urban and rural birth rates are often greatly affected
by many factors which tend to obscure the influence of cities
per se. Much depends upon the kind of industry in which the
city populations are engaged. Manufacturing cities have, as a
rule, a higher birth rate than cities which are chiefly engaged in
commerce, or which are mainly residential. Often the racial
composition of cities differs considerably from that of the sur-
rounding country, as is very strikingly illustrated in the United
States. To a less extent this is true in Europe where the percen-
tage of persons born outside the country is greater in cities, and
especially in large cities, than in rural districts. Cities tend to be
centers of racial mixtures, whatever this may imply as regards
the birth rate and the quality of the offspring of mixed marriages.
It is probable that the ratio of males to females would be increased
by this circumstance, but what other biological effects would
follow is doubtful. Since the inhabitants of cities may differ from
those of the surrounding country in race, religion, education and
prosperity, peculiar combinations of circumstances may render
even the corrected birth rate of cities higher than that of the
country. There is abundant evidence, however, that the usual
effect of an urban environment is to check the propagation
of the race.
There is little doubt that one factor in the decline of the birth
rate is the reduction hi infant mortality which has accompanied
the fall of the death rate in recent decades. The correlation
164 THE TREND OF THE RACE
between a high birth rate and a high infantile death rate is not
simply a matter of cause and effect as so many of the Neo-Mal-
thusians assume. While large families may not be so adequately
supported on a small income as small ones, the association of high
birth rates and high infant death rates is to a large extent due to
the fact that both have a common cause in the lack of knowledge
or prudence in the parents. In families in which the number of
births is voluntarily limited, the death of a child is apt to be
followed by the birth of another to replace the loss, as is very
commonly the case in France. But even where there is no at-
tempt to regulate the propagation of the race there are certain
physiological factors which tend to bring about a correlation
between high infant mortality and a high birth rate. It is a
well-known fact that, while a child is nursing, the mother is much
less apt to conceive. Even primitive peoples often take advan-
tage of this fact and nurse their offspring for a long time in order
to avoid having others. The death of an infant and the conse-
quent interruption of lactation is commonly followed by another
conception. The more rapidly infants die the more rapidly,
therefore, new conceptions are apt to occur.
The birth rate has fallen in several cities in Germany much
faster than the infant mortality. In Munich, for instance, the
birth rate fell from 1876-80 to 1906-09 over three times as much
as the infant mortality, and in 349 German cities of over 15,000
inhabitants the birth rate fell from 1901 to 1909 over three times
as much as the infant death rate. Mombert has pointed out that
in many cities and districts (Frankfurt, Stettin, Cologne, etc.)
in Germany the infant death rate has risen while the birth rate
has decreased, and in a few cities the birth rate has increased
while the infant death rate has decreased.
France shows an unfortunate condition in having a low birth
rate and a high infant death rate.
The classes in which the birth rate has fallen most are those in
which the habit of nursing offspring has most fallen into disuse.
The interruption of lactation would naturally tend to increase
fecundity, but it has not done this, largely, no doubt, because it
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 165
has not been allowed to do so. We cannot, therefore, for several
reasons attribute to reduced infant mortality a large part of the
decline of the birth rate, although this has doubtless been one
factor.
The influence of venereal diseases upon the decline of the
birth rate, although undoubtedly considerable, is difficult to
estimate. No reliable data exists as to the proportion of the
population affected by these diseases, although their prevalence
is a matter of common knowledge. 1 That the two most common
venereal maladies are potent causes of sterility has long been
recognized. Gonorrhoea, which, according to several medical
authorities, has at one time or another affected more than 50 per
cent of the adult male population, is responsible for a large
amount of sterility, the extent of which the medical profession has
only recently come to appreciate. Through obstructing the vas
deferens or epididymis, as well as in other ways, gonorrhoea is a
not infrequent cause of sterility in the male sex. Furbringer
attributes one-third of all sterile marriages to this cause. Kohern
found in 96 sterile marriages 30 per cent due to the absence of
sperms in the seminal fluid of the husband. The greatest damage
is done, however, by the transfer of the infection to wives, which
often takes place even after the disease has apparently ceased in
the husband. Gonococcus infection, according to the moderate
estimate of Prinzing, causes 13 per cent of sterile marriages.
Noggerath places the percentage of sterility in woman due to this
cause as high as 50, and Neisser believes that 45 per cent of sterile
marriages are due to gonorrhoea of one or the other sex. This dis-
ease is a frequent cause of failure to produce more children after
the birth of the first child owing to the rapid extension of the in-
fection after childbirth. The extent to which complete or partial
sterility is due directly or indirectly to this cause must be very
considerable, although it is not capable of precise measurement.
1 The best index of the prevalence of venereal diseases in the U. S. is afforded
by the examination of recruits hi the late war. According to the Report of the
Surgeon General for 1919, 5.6 per cent were found to be infected at the time of the
draft. This figure includes negroes among whom venereal infections were about
seven times as frequent as among th whites.
166 THE TREND OF THE RACE
That syphilis is another potent factor in reducing the birth rate
has long been recognized. Syphilis is a common cause of abortion
and of still births, but the percentage due to this disease appears
not to be accurately ascertained. Dr. Willey thinks that about
32.8 per cent of total still births are due to syphilis. Dr. Thos.
Barlow thinks that the majority are the result of this cause.
According to Dr. Prince Morrow (Social Diseases and Marriage}
"60 per cent of children born of syphilitic mothers die in utero
or soon after birth. Records of the Leurrenne Hospital which
refer almost exclusively to syphilis in prostitutes show that of
165 pregnancies with maternal syphilis, 145 which terminated
fatally, while in only 22 did the infants survive, that is, only
i child in 7 pregnancies." Syphilitic mothers often produce
several abortions, after which they may bear living offspring,
who, however, being affected with hereditary syphilis are apt to
die young. The attempt of the National Birth Rate Commission
to elicit some information from various experts who were ex-
amined as to the prevalence of abortion due to syphilis, yielded
little but guarded expressions of opinion. Reliable data on
abortions are practically impossible to procure. While abortion
has become more frequent in recent years, the increase is doubt-
less to be attributed largely to the employment of artificial means.
Venereal diseases are, as a rule, notoriously more prevalent
in cities than in rural districts, 1 and hence may constitute an
important factor in the greater relative reduction of the urban
birth rate. One of the most thorough studies on this subject
was made by Guttstadt who sent a questionnaire to the physi-
cians in Prussia, concerning the number of venereal cases treated
in April, 1900. Of every 10,000 adult inhabitants of Prussia there
were treated:
1 The relatively high rural rate for gonorrhoea shown by American recruits for
the recent war is largely due to the great prevalence of this disease in the negro
population which is still mainly rural.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 167
Venereal Diseases in Prussian Cities
Males
Females
In Berlin
IA.I Q
AC 7
In 17 other cities of over 100,000
OO O
MO /
27 O
In 42 cities of 30,000 to 100,000
s8 4
*/ *y
17 6
In 47 cities with less than 30,000
A.Z I
16 o
In other cities and rural districts
7 O
2 7
Naturally there are sources of error in these data owing to the
tendency of individuals to go to larger cities for treatment. That
they indicate a greater liability to infection in the larger cities,
however, is confirmed by data on the infections of recruits to the
army from various parts of Prussia. Of 10,000 recruits in 1903-
05 there were venereal cases as follows:
Venereal Cases in Urban and Rural Recruits in Prussia
Berlin 413
27 other cities over 100,000 158
26 " " 50-100,000 102
23, " " 25-50,000 80
Small cities and rural districts 44
Dr. Blaschko contributes further to the bad reputation of
Berlin in his estimate that of 1,000 men between 20 and 30 years
nearly 200 become infected with gonorrhoea and 24 with syphilis
per year, and that of men who marry after 30, each has had
gonorrhoea twice on the average, and every one in 4 or 5 has
syphilis. This is apt to be an over-estimate. The Berlin Gewerb-
skrankenverein reports the yearly number of venereal infections
as having increased from 53.6 per thousand male members in
1892-95, to 87.1 per thousand male members in 1906-7. Of
course a considerable number of cases may not have been reported
to the organization, so that the estimates are minimal. Dr.
W. Claasen, on the basis of medical reports on syphilis in medical
benefit organizations, estimates that from 22.5 per cent to 34
per cent of all Berlin workers contract syphilis at some time
168 THE TREND OF THE RACE
during their lives. Still higher estimates are made by Lenz,
although they are based on very unreliable methods. In Den-
mark (1886-95) venereal infection in Copenhagen, other cities
and in the country bore the ratio of 201, 30, and 4 respectively
(Prinzing.)
It is Impossible on the basis of any statistics that have been
compiled to ascertain whether venereal diseases have been in-
creasing or decreasing. Medical opinion on the subject is very
divergent. It is only recently possible, owing to the discovery
of the Wassermann and other tests for syphilis, to gain any
idea as to the extent to which this scourge is disseminated
among the population, and no data have yet been compiled that
will give an accurate idea of its prevalence. We are much less
able to estimate its prevalence in times past.
Since venereal diseases are much more common in cities, and
since the city population has been increasing at a relatively rapid
rate, it would seem likely that venereal diseases in cities have been
on the increase. And if they have increased in the cities it would
be only natural that with our greatly increased means of travel
they would be disseminated into the small towns and rural
districts, leading to an increase also in these communities. We
are perhaps justified in attributing the tendency of the birth
rate to fall more rapidly in the cities hi part to the greater preva-
lence of venereal disease in urban communities. But how far
these diseases have produced a fall of the general birth rate is
uncertain.
Of all the factors influencing the birth rate, it is probable that
the most potent is the voluntary restriction of births. In many
families children do not come because they are not wanted, and
in many others the number of children is limited to two or three.
The custom of standardizing the family, so common in France, is
rapidly spreading to other lands, especially among the members
of the higher social strata. Large families are no longer in style,
and parents who have many children are often regarded as
guilty of a violation of good form, if they do not incur a more
serious judgment.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 169
The means resorted to in order to avoid the responsibility of
parenthood vary in different households. The effective method
of continence in marriage naturally does not commend itself to
the rank and file of the human species. However much moralists
may condemn the employment of other means of preventing the
arrival of the unwanted child, most of those who regulate their
families will doubtless continue to follow prevalent customs.
The two methods of interfering with the natural course of repro-
duction are abortion and prevention of conception. The former
method, consisting as it does in the destruction of a life already
developing toward a human personality, is condemned in most
countries as essentially a form of murder. Procuring abortion,
either by the mother's own act or through the agency of another
person is commonly adjudged a criminal offense, and any physi-
cian or surgeon who is an accomplice in the crime is liable to more
or less severe penalties, unless the operation is one which the
safety or health of the mother demands. Notwithstanding all
the legislation against the traffic in child murder, there are very
few convictions on this score. The business flourishes in most
civilized countries under the patronage of the rich and influential
as well as the poor wage earners, who wish to avoid the burden of
large families, and the unfortunate girls who would avoid the
disgrace of unmarried motherhood. It is the general consensus of
opinion among writers on the subject that abortion is on the
increase, that it is more prevalent in the more civilized com-
munities, and more common in cities than in the country. What
primitive peoples effect through infanticide, the modern woman
accomplishes through recourse to the drug store or the gyneco-
logical expert. The thinly veiled advertisements of professional
abortionists are to be found in the papers of nearly every city.
There is reason to believe that in the United States and elsewhere,
conditions are becoming general such as Dr. Iseman has de-
scribed for New York. " So general is the demand and so common
the practice, that in the competition for the traffic the ordinary
criminal operator has been practically driven out of the business
by the highly skilled and respectable members of the medical
170 THE TREND OF THE RACE
profession. Up to a few years ago there still remained some
rivalry on the part of the lodge doctor, the advertising specialist,
the foreign midwife, the massage dens, and the manicurist, but
even these had to go before the more dignified, less dangerous, and
lawful abortions performed at the dispensaries, clinics, and in-
firmaries which seemingly for this purpose have multiplied in
every section of the city.
"With the advent of this benevolent abortion not alone has
the regular medical procurer been shorn of the patronage, but
with him has also gone that cautious old tinkerer, the family
physician and abortionist, both being superseded by those
brilliant specialists of the art, the gynaecologists, whose philan-
thropic and unfailing tomahawks are whetted for every embryo
daring to stray within the confines of a woman's clinic."
It is a well-known fact that at present many women whenever
they perceive the first signs of pregnancy rush to their physician
for relief. The number of such early abortions is naturally not
subject to statistical investigation. But it is a common opinion
among medical men that they are exceedingly common, and are
becoming increasingly prevalent. The special committee on
criminal abortion appointed by the Michigan State Board of
Health stated in their report, "To so great an extent is this now
practiced by American Protestant women that by the calculation
of one of the committee, based upon correspondence with nearly
one hundred physicians, there comes to the knowledge of the
profession seventeen abortions to every one hundred pregnancies;
to these the committee believe may be added as many more that
never come to the physician's knowledge, making 34 per cent or
one- third of all cases ending in miscarriage; that in the United
States the number is not less than 100,000, and the number of
women who die from its immediate effects not less than 6,000 per
annum." (Rep. State Bd. Health Mich., 1881, 104-6.) This
estimate was made over 36 years ago. More recently a prominent
student of the subject, Dr. W. J. Robinson, estimates that
probably from one to three million abortions are practiced an-
nually in the United States.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 171
A very illuminating study of the problem has been made by
Miss Elderton in her Report on the English Birth Rate. As the
conditions portrayed are quite typical for industrial communities
in this country as well as England, and probably other countries
also, it will be of interest to quote rather extensively from this
report. Speaking of the city of York, Miss Elderton says, "Pre-
ventive measures appear to be largely used by nearly all sections
of the population in York, although some of our correspondents
are not acquainted with the sale of preventatives in public places.
One correspondent finds the source of the falling birth rate not in
economic depression, but in the rapid growth of prosperity among
the working classes in York, and in particular in the exceptional
opportunities for the remunerative employment of unmarried
women. These unmarried women often several in one home,
earning good wages connote that the standard of home comforts
is a high one. When these women marry, they will not put up
with large families and the resulting poverty, incessant toil and
drudgery; if they have any knowledge at all of the means of
prevention, they check births. This correspondent does not
think there is a large recourse to methods of abortion, but that
there is greater acquaintance with methods for preventing con-
ception. Indirectly, therefore, the employment of women, it is
suggested, has raised the standard of living and lowered the
birth rate. A second correspondent finds that preventives are
used more freely in the upper classes of York society, the county
and military sets, and to a somewhat lesser extent in the middle
and lower middle classes. In the artisan classes means of preven-
tion are not so often adopted, but if pregnancy does occur aborti-
facients are resorted to. The poorest classes of all, those who
cannot provide for themselves, but seek public dispensaries and
maternity charities for attendance, do not appear to limit their
families, for very many have large families running up to thirteen
or more. It is clear, however, that if certain members of this class
used preventives, they would not come under observation to the
same extent as the normally fertile. . . . The upper classes do
not as a rule come under the chemist's observation, they order
172 THE TREND OF THE RACE
from wholesale dealers and expense is no consideration; they use
mechanical more frequently than drug preventives. In the case
of abortion, there is no connivance with the medical profession,
but women apply for a medicine on the ground of some slight
irregularity and then take such large doses as to produce the
desired effect. The middle class also as a rule adopts Neo-Mal-
thusian practices; appliances are purchased in chemists' shops,
but they are also obtained from various barbers and tobacconists.
Among the very poor, although the desire to limit the family is
filtering down to them, more natural lives are led; they cannot in
fact afford drugs, etc., but they are less 'sophisticated' and act
more instinctively. There is no doubt that the habit of artificial
limitation is growing rapidly in both the upper and middle classes,
but our correspondent's experience brought him more closely in
touch with skilled artisans, clerks, small shopkeepers, with from
2 a week income upwards. Those with more than 250 a year
tend to a proportionally larger use of mechanical preventives.
Voluntary self-restraint, or cohabitation at certain times only
has hardly anything to do with the decline in the birth rate in this
class. The current tone in the matter may be illustrated by two
stories, the one told by a married woman with wide experience,
namely, that if you hear a knot of young married women of this
class talking together, the chances are that the topic will be the
means of prevention, and the second the words of a male acquaint-
ance to our correspondent himself 'on the arrival of one of my
youngsters': 'Well, you are a fool, and you in a chemist's
shop!'"
That family limitation was not more prevalent earlier may be
in part ascribed to the fact that such a possibility never occurred
to the majority of parents. The perpetuation of the race simply
went on in a natural way as it does among the lower animals, and
however undesirable may have been the results of unrestricted
multiplication, relatively little effort was made to check the
number of births. The surplus humanity was taken care of by a
high death rate, assisted occasionally by war, pestilence, famine,
and here and there by infanticide.
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 173
Birth restriction probably would have been much more com-
mon in past times had our ancestors the knowledge on the subject
that is in the possession of most well-informed persons at the pres-
ent time. But aside from this circumstance, there is, for several
reasons, a greater temptation to limit the family than there was in
times past. Our changing modes of life make children less desir-
able. In most places they are no longer an economic asset. In
fact they are becoming an increasing financial burden. Stand-
ards of living are being raised. There is an increased demand on
the part of women for more leisure and a respite from the burdens
which a large family imposes. The desire for luxury and social
pleasures leads many a married women to choose a childless life,
or to be content with but one or two children. And there is the
desire to climb higher on the social ladder (the capillarite sociale
of Dumont) which is not so easily accomplished with children
hanging about the skirts.
A common reason given for not having more children is the
inadequacy of the family income. Those responding to the
questionnaire sent out by Mr. Webb stated that the causes that
led to family limitation were mainly economic. A similar ques-
tionnaire distributed by Major Greenwood elicited the reasons for
family restriction as follows: economic, 130; health, 90; doubtful,
69. Undoubtedly there are many married couples who would
have more children if they had more means to support them.
But, as a rule, wealth is no sooner acquired than standards of
living are raised and a desire for luxuries increased. The acquisi-
tion of wealth, far from creating an increased sense of racial obli-
gation, engenders in most people the conviction that they are
legitimately entitled to shift to other shoulders all functions that
require a sacrifice of egoistic pleasures.
There is doubtless a primary tendency among human beings, as
there is among the lower animals, to respond to increased means
of support by an enhanced birth rate. In periods of prosperity
there are more marriages and hence a greater tendency to produce
children. But the contention of Cauderlier that prosperity in
general increases the birth rate is contradicted by a number of
174 THE TREND OF THE RACE
well-known facts. A sudden accession of wealth may have one
effect, but its longer possession, with all the customs and tradi-
tions associated with its enjoyment, may have a quite different
result. If wealth affords the means of supporting more children
it calls into operation a number of secondary factors which tempt
its possessors to enjoy life unencumbered by a numerous progeny.
It is among the well-to-do who are best able to support and edu-
cate their children that the gospel of birth control has secured its
largest following. Many comfort themselves with reflections
about "fewer and better children," and that "Quality is better
than quantity," without considering that without a certain
minimum number of children there would soon be neither quan-
tity nor quality. It is doubtful if one person in ten who employs
these glib justifications of family restriction has ever seriously
reflected on the racial consequences which this restriction may
entail. The possession of means of interfering with the normal
course of perpetuating life confers a grave responsibility for its
wise employment. And it is not surprising that the power should
be generally abused. Limiting the family is a perfectly justifiable
procedure for a large part of humanity, but it is unfortunate that
it is practiced most among those whose excuse for so doing is
least.
Many people who practice family limitation are actuated by
the desire to provide better for a few children instead of bringing
into the world a large family which cannot be adequately sup-
ported. It would, however, be a serious racial misfortune if the
great mass of reasonably thrifty and intelligent people should, for
such a reason, reduce the size of their families below what is
necessary to perpetuate their stock. To put family interest above
racial welfare is as bad in its effect as to sacrifice the race to the
selfish enjoyment of the individual. With most people considera-
tions of the interests of the race are not kept habitually in mind, if
they are ever present at all. What is one child more or less in a
populous country as compared with the sacrifices needed to feed
an extra mouth? This is the concrete question which occurs
almost inevitably to every married couple in moderate circum-
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 175
stances who give thought to the larger aspects of perpetuating
their kind. With people of good inheritance it is a question of
family prosperity versus the general weal. And it is so easy to
find a reasonable justification for pursuing the former to the neg-
lect of the latter. There are people in plenty willing to die for
their country, but when it conies to raising children for it, that
is a different matter.
It is to be feared that the so-called Neo-Malthusian doctrines
which are becoming so widely diffused nowadays are having more
effect in extinguishing good inheritance than in checking the large
families which are so frequently associated with a squalid exist-
ence and a high death rate. As its name implies the Neo-Mal-
thusian movement is an outgrowth of the general doctrine enun-
ciated by Malthus in his celebrated Essay on Population. In the
words of one of its chief exponents, Dr. C. V. Drysdale, "Neo-
Malthusianism is an ethical doctrine based on the principle of
Malthus that poverty, disease and premature death can only be
eliminated by control of reproduction, and on a recognition of the
evils inseparable from prolonged abstention from marriage. It
therefore advocates early marriage, combined with a selective
limitation of offspring to those children to whom the parents can
give a satisfactory heredity and environment so that they may
become -desirable members of the community. It further main-
tains that a universal knowledge of contraceptive devices among
adult men and women would in all probability automatically
lead to such a selection through an enlightened self-interest, and
thus to the elimination of destitution and all the more serious
social evils, and to the elevation of the race."
This is quoted from the second edition of the author's book,
The Small Family System, which contains perhaps the best general
statement of the Neo-Malthusian doctrine, with an able plea in
its behalf. Like many other Neo-Malthusians, Dr. Drysdale sees
in family limitation what is perhaps as near to being a panacea
for all social ills as any one measure that could possibly be applied.
To the adoption of Neo-Malthusian practices is attributed a
large part of the decrease in mortality which during the last half
1 76 THE TREND OF THE RACE
century has accompanied the fall of the birth rate. A high birth
rate commonly goes along with a high infant mortality; hence, it
is argued, the latter would diminish if the birth rate were reduced.
By doing away with over-population Neo-Malthusianism would
tend to exterminate disease and poverty, and by permitting early
marriages to take place without incurring the responsibility of
parenthood it would materially decrease prostitution and vene-
real disease. In place of a population living in squalor and igno-
rance, competing keenly for the bare means of subsistence, and
tending through rapid increase to encroach upon neighboring
nations, we should have a people with a relatively low death
rate, living in comparative affluence, freed largely from the temp-
tations to vice and crime, and enjoying the blessings of peace and
contentment. All this through the proper employment of con-
traceptives!
This vision of the beneficent results of checking over-population
has aroused in many all the enthusiasm that characterizes the
.devotees of a new religion. We have societies for spreading the
gospel in various countries, as, for instance, the Malthusian
League of England, the ligue Neo-Malthusienne of Paris, similar
leagues in Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Sweden,
Spain, and several birth control leagues in the larger cities of
the United States. A number of periodicals are devoted, in whole
or in part, to the same propaganda, such as the Birth Control
Review, Birth Control News, Dr. Robinson's Critic and Guide,
The Malthusian (C. V. Drysdale ed.), La Generation Consciente
(Paris), Salud y Fuerza (Spain), L'Educazione sessuale (Italy),
Die neue Generation (Germany). Much of this teaching finds
its way into socialist pamphlets and periodicals which have no
small influence upon the birth rate of the better informed workers.
Many of the latter take an antagonistic attitude to having large
families, not merely because many children make greater de-
mands upon the family income, but believing that, as the popula-
tion increases, wages, and hence the welfare of the working
classes in general, tends to decrease, and believing also, and to a
certain extent rightly, that the gospel of fecundity has been
preached in the interest of capital in order that there may always
be a supply of cheap labor, they have come to regard the produc-
tion of large families as almost an act of class disloyalty. Know-
ing little of heredity, taught to look upon the differences between
human beings as chiefly the result of environment and oppor-
tunity, and being impressed with the notion that the ills of
humanity have their root in purely social and economic malad-
justments, they are apt to set little store by the great variations
in hereditary qualities which human beings everywhere present,
and to overlook the really vital importance of conserving the
best inheritance of the race. It does not seem to them, there-
fore, a matter of much importance whether they produce
their quota of children or not. In fact, it might seem to be
a patriotic duty to refrain from having children, so that the
next generation would be able to secure a greater per capita
reward for its labor.
If a large part of the thinking elements of the working classes
hold such views and are thereby led to reduce their families below
the necessary minimum for reproducing their kind, we cannot
upbraid them for neglecting an important duty, but can only
endeavor to dissuade them from carrying family restriction to
the point of race suicide.
No Neo-Malthusian who has the least knowledge of the prin-
ciples of heredity would advocate the restriction of families of
desirable parentage beyond the minimum necessary for race
perpetuation. Many Neo-Malthusians, however, place so little
emphasis on this aspect of the matter that the actual influence of
their teaching would be to produce just this result. Dr. Drys-
dale's book, for instance, is so devoted to condemning the evils
of large families and extolling the benefits arising from the small
family system that he has practically no word on the evils that
would result from an undue restriction in families of desirable
inheritance. An indiscriminate advocacy of small families with
no indication of how small the families should be, is more apt to
cause good inheritance to disappear than it is to check the propa-
gation of bad stock. In this matter, if anywhere in ethics, ths
178 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Aristotelian doctrine of the golden mean finds its ample justifi-
cation.
We agree that in numerous instances family limitation would
confer an inestimable boon. As Dr. Drysdale well says, "There
are millions of poor physically and mentally unfit creatures who,
if voluntary restriction were known to them, or they were not told
it was unhealthy or immoral, would only be too glad to escape
burdening themselves and the community with a numerous and
weakly progeny. What is the use of deploring the increase of the
unfit when the poor mothers among the working classes are only
too anxious to avoid the misery of bearing child upon child in
wretched surroundings on miserably insufficient wages, and
of seeing half their children perish from semi-starvation before
their eyes?"
It is argued that the greatest benefits of birth control would
result from diffusing the proper knowledge among the classes that
form the rather broad belt between mental deficiency and com-
mon mediocrity. We cannot reasonably expect that, in this belt,
a great deal of respect would be paid to the counsel of sexual
abstinence as a means of limiting the family. Since knowledge of
the means of preventing conception is so prevalent among the
upper ranks of society, why become so righteously indignant
about extending the information to the people among whom it
would do the most good?
While much has been said against Neo-Malthusianism on
hygienic, ethical and patriotic grounds, there can be no doubt
that opinion in medical circles and elsewhere is coming to be more
favorable to the movement. It is becoming more and more
evident that legislation against the dissemination of knowledge
on the prevention of conception is futile, if not mischievous. It
now has little effect except that of keeping knowledge of the
subject away from the more ignorant and improvident, and of
indirectly leading to an increase of abortion among all classes.
The attempt to make ignorance the bulwark of morality has al-
ways broken down, and it might be better to make knowledge of
the least injurious contraceptive methods the general property of
THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 179
all married couples rather than to keep it under the ban of legal
prohibition. There is a considerable amount of sincere moral
feeling, and a larger amount of purely hypocritical protest against
such a procedure. 1 The question cannot be decided by ecclesias-
tical authority, or by any sort of ,a priori deduction, but only on
the ground of what is most conducive to the welfare of the race.
What we need is a judicious combination of the preachments of
Dr. Drysdale and Mr. Roosevelt, family limitation where such
is needed, and greater fecundity among those whose inheritance
is of superior quality.
1 Mr. H. Gachte has somewhat ironically pointed out that among the members of
the National Committee on the Increase of the Population in France, there were
only 578 children to 445 members, or an average of one and a third children per
family!
On the pros and cons of birth control the reader may be referred, in addition
to the books and periodicals mentioned above, to Beale's Racial Decay, a rather
rambling, disorganized work, strongly condemnatory of birth control. This work
formed the occasion of Mr. Roosevelt's famous article on Race Suicide (Outlook,
Vol. 97, p. 763) which should be read by everyone interested in the subject. Of
purely historical interest is Knowlton's, Fruits of Philosophy (a rather sorry pro-
duction by the way) whose republication in England in 1878 brought about the
celebrated trial of Chas. Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant. Mention may also be
made of Mrs. Besant's pamphlet, The Law of Population, which ran through many
editions amounting in all to several hundred thousand copies. A strong attack on
birth restriction is contained in the Rev. R. Ussher's, Neo-Mallhusianism (Methuen
and Co., London, 1897). On the Neo-Malthusian side attention may be called to
Uncontrolled Breeding, by A. More; Small or Large Families, by C. V. Drysdale,
H. Ellis, W. J. Robinson and A. Grotjahn; W. J. Robinson's books, Eugenics,
Marriage and Birth Control, Fewer and Better Babies, The Limitation of Of spring;
A. Grotjahn's, Geburtenriickgang und Geburtenregelung (Marcus, Berlin, 1914). H.
Ellis has discussed the subject in his Task of Social Hygiene, Essays in War Time,
and in the Eugenics Review for 1917. An interesting series of articles by M. A.
Hopkins runs through Harper's Weekly for 1915. A useful bibliography of several
hundred references has been compiled by Th. Schroeder (H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y.,
, 35 cents).
i8o THE TREND OF THE RACE
REFERENCES
Blaschko, A. Geburtenriickgang und Geschlechtskrankheiten. Earth, Leipzig,
1914.
Deghilage, P. La Depopulation des Campagnes. Les Causes, les Effets, les
Remfedes, F. Nathan. Paris, 1907.
Dudfield, R. Some Unconsidered Factors Affecting the Birth-Rate. Jour. Roy.
Stat. Soc. 71, 1-55, 1908.
Dumont,A. LeProblSmede la Depopulation. Paris, 1897; Natality et Democratic,
Paris, 1898; Depopulation et Civilization, Paris, 1800.
Fahlbeck, B. E. Der Neo-Malthusianismus in seinen Beziehungen zur Rassen-
biologie und Rassenhygiene. Arch. f. Rassen-und Ges. Biol. 9, 30-48, 1912.
F6lice, R. de. Les Naissances en France: la Situation: ses consequences: ses Causes:
Existe-t-il des Remedies? Hachette and Co., Paris, 1910, pp. 370.
Ferdy, H. Sittliche Selbstbeschrankung, Hildesheim, 1004, pp. 204.
Forberger, J. Geburtenriickgang und Konfession. Berlin, 1914, pp. 72.
Geissler, A. Ueber den Einfluss der Sauglingssterblichkeit auf die eheliche Frucht-
barkeit. Zeit. Sachs. Stat. Bur. 31, 1885, p. 23.
Goldstein, J. Die vermeinth'chen und die wirklichen Ursachen des Bevolkerungs-
stillstands in Frankreich. Munich, 1898. See also Zukunft, 7, 55; Bevolke-
rungsprobleme und Berufsgliederung in Frankreich. Berlin, 1900.
Grotjahn, A. Geburten-Riickgang und Geburten-Regelung. BerUn, 1914.
Iseman, M. S. Race Suicide. Cosmopolitan Press, N. Y., 1912.
Keller, A. G. Birth Control. Yale Rev. 7, 129-139, 1917.
March, L. Commission de la Depopulation. Sous-Commission de la Natalite.
Rapport sur les Causes Professionelles de Depopulation. Paris, 1905.
Ogle, W. On Marriage-Rates and Marriage Ages, with Special Reference to the
Growth of Population. Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 53, 253-280, 1890.
Piff, T. Ueber die Ursachen des Geburtenrtickganges in Deutschland. Berlin
klin, Wochenschr. 1913, i, 261-264.
Ploetz, A. Neomalthusianismus und Rassenhygiene. Arch. Rass. Ces. Biol. 10,
166-172, 1913.
Rutgers, J. Rassenverbesserung, Malthusianismus und Neomalthusianismus.
Dresden and Leipzig, 1908, p. 303.
Taylor, J. W. The Diminishing Birth Rate. London, 1904.
Webb, S. The Decline in the Birth Rate. Fabian Tract, No. 131. London, 1007.
Physical Degeneracy or Race Suicide? Pop. Sci. Mon. 69, 512-529, 1906.
Wolf, J. Die letzten Ursachen des Geburtenriickgangs unserer Tage. Arch. Soz.
Wiss. 37, 919-929, 1913. Der Geburtenruckgang und die Rationalisierung des
Sexuallebens in unserer Zeit. G. Fischer, Jena,i9i2.
CHAPTER VIII
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN
"The conception of the destruction of the less fit as a beneficent
factor of human growth must become part of our mental atmosphere,
we must look upon it as a chief cause of the mental and physical
growth of mankind in the past, not as a blind and hostile natural force
carelessly crushing the single life, but as the source of all that we
value in the intellect and physique of the highest type of mankind
to-day." Karl Pearson, The Groundwork of Eugenics. Eugenics
Laboratory Lecture Series, II.
ACCORDING to the Darwinian theory the evolution of life is
mainly the result of the operation of natural selection or the
preservation of favored races in the struggle for life. Opinions
differ greatly concerning the extent to which natural selection
acts in the human species. Mr. Darwin considered the factors of
human evolution at some length in his Descent of Man and while
he has recognized the potency of sexual selection and the trans-
mission of the effects of use and disuse of parts, he lays great
stress upon natural selection, both in the preservation of the most
favored individuals and in the selection of the most efficient
social groups in intertribal and inter-racial conflict. "The early
progenitors of man," he says, "must have tended, like all other
animals, to have increased beyond their means of sustenance;
they must, therefore, actually have been exposed to a struggle for
existence, and consequently to the rigid law of natural selection.
Beneficial variations of all kinds will thus, either occasionally or
habitually, have been preserved and injurious ones eliminated."
Mr. Darwin emphasizes the importance of variations in the direc-
tion of greater intelligence and the development of those social
instincts which lead mankind to cooperate for mutual defense.
These traits which are so characteristic of man would therefore
tend to be developed by natural selection during the entire course
of human development.
181
i8 2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
We often find it stated that in mankind natural selection has
been practically done away with by our advances in civilization.
We no longer 1 live in fear of wild beasts; human beings seldom
die of starvation or succumb to the direct effects of climate. We
endeavor to keep alive the weaklings who would perish under a
more primitive regime. Everything is done which is rendered
possible by our knowledge and skill to prevent natural selection
from eliminating the ill-favored members of our race.
Nevertheless the operation of natural selection is far from
completely checked. However far science may advance, it will
always lie beyond our power to do away entirely with its action.
Dr. G. A. Reid in his Present Evolution of Man maintains that
man's advance "is not mainly an evolution of physical or intel-
lectual strength, as in his remote ancestry, but mainly an evolu-
tion against disease." While there are several evolutionary
factors which Dr. Reid has not considered in his book, he is doubt-
less correct in his contention that the course of our development in
the past has been greatly influenced by the selective action of
various diseases, and that it will probably continue to be so in the
future. Races tend, through the action of natural selection, to
become immunized to prevalent diseases. Most diseases act
much more severely upon some individuals than others. Many
people are practically immune to certain diseases, and some races
are more or less immune to diseases which in other races have a
high fatality. The relative immunity of the negro race to malaria
is well known. According to Hirsch (Geographical and Historical
Pathology, I, p. 245) there died of malarial fevers per thousand of
the population in Ceylon
Negroes i . i
Natives of India 4.5
Malays 6.7
Natives of Ceylon . : 7
Europeans 24 . 6
1 Indirectly, of course, lack of adequate nutrition is a frequent source of death
as it predisposes people to die from various diseases. The same may be said of
the indirect effects of climate.
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 183
In the most malarious districts of the West coast of Africa mem-
bers of the white race would probably be eliminated hi a few
generations. Hay craft states that "the black population of
Sierre Leone have only a mortality of .24 per cent, from malaria,
while the mortality of the white settlers is 47 per cent." Measles,
which is a common but not severe malady with us, is said to have
swept away 40,000 of the 150,000 of the inhabitants of the Fiji
Islands in 1876. Tuberculosis is apparently more fatal among
the negroes, American Indians and the races of the South Pacific
than it is among ourselves. The Chinese enjoy a peculiar im-
munity to typhoid fever, and cancer is probably more prevalent
hi Caucasians than among more primitive races.
These are a few of the facts which indicate that the same selec-
tive agency may act very differently upon different racial stocks.
The complex of conditions presented by life in India bear more
hardly upon Europeans than upon the Hindus. In the United
States the conditions, which include economic and social as well
as climatic factors, are much more fatal to the negroes than to the
whites. According to the last census reports the anticipation of
life for white males is 50.23 years and for white females 53.62
years; but for negro males it is only 35.05 years and for negro
females 37.67 years.
The effect of selective agencies upon different races doubtless
has much to do in deterrriining the present geographical distribu-
tion of the races of mankind. The negro population would never
invade the arctic circle even if there were no other human com-
petitors; and were it not for their relative immunity to malaria
they would probably long ago have been eliminated from Africa
by invaders from other lands. As Dr. J. A. Lindsay has pointed
out, the selective influence of disease cannot be treated in general
terms. Some diseases, like the plague, cholera and typhus pro-
duce much greater ravages among the slum elements of the popu-
lation than among the well-to-do, whereas influenza is much more
apt to attack all classes alike. The latter disease causes a much
higher death rate among the older people and especially those
with pulmonary affections. The common children's diseases,
i8 4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria are very
prevalent among all classes. The mortality of the first three is
much greater among the children of the poor, whereas diphtheria
when allowed to run its natural course has a high mortality among
rich and poor alike. With measles and whooping cough mortality
is largely dependent upon general health, whereas with diphtheria
this is not nearly so obvious.
Some epidemic diseases are doubtless selective in their nature,
eliminating to a greater degree those with weakened constitutions,
.whereas others apparently possess little selective value so far as
can be observed. Some diseases, therefore, may be racial bles-
sings in disguise, whereas others may have simply a depressing
influence on the race as a whole. There is evidence to show that
in the white race there are different degrees of susceptibility to
several diseases correlated with differences in the degree of pig-
mentation. Baxter, in his study of large numbers of soldiers of
the Civil War, concluded that those with a light complexion were
more liable to disease and suffered more from their injuries than
those with a dark complexion. The proportions of recruits re-
jected for military service were, among the blonds, 385.2 per
thousand, and among the dark complexioned, 325 per thousand.
Eye troubles in the two classes were in the proportion of blonds
22 and dark 18. In Scotland, according to Tocher, the incidence
of insanity is greater among the people of light colored eyes.
McDonald has studied the relation between pigmentation and
disease in a large number of children in the hospitals at Glasgow.
He finds that in regard to diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet
fever and measles, " the dark-haired, dark-eyed child has consid-
erably more recuperative power than the fair-haired, light-eyed
child. The medium-haired medium-eyed child occupies an inter-
mediate position as regards recuperative power." "The closer
the type approximates the fair, the less recuperative power it has,
and the less resistance it offers to the diseases."
These results are quite parallel to what has often been observed
among animals. Darwin states on the authority of Professor
Wyman that dark pigmented swine in Virginia eat with impunity
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 185
the paintroot (Lachnanthes) that is poisonous to white swine.
Black sheep, according to Heusinger, possess a similar immunity
to certain plants injurious to white sheep. And there are cases in
which infectious diseases are more fatal to light than to dark
colored breeds of animals.
It is generally held that tuberculosis is more apt to attack
individuals with defective vitality. The tendency of tuberculosis
to run in families has long been recognized, but since it was
demonstrated that this disease is caused by bacterial infection, it
has not been regarded as truly hereditary. Direct transfer from
mother to embryo is exceedingly rare. It is probable, however,
that there are hereditary differences in the liability of individuals
to become infected. Pearson and his co-workers have collected
evidence to show that the correlation between parents and
children for tuberculosis (which lies between .4 and .6) is higher
than the correlation between the occurrence of tuberculosis and
unfavorable environment such as poor housing and bad ventila-
tion. A parent-offspring or a fraternal correlation is not neces-
sarily the result of heredity. It might also be brought about by
the transmission of an infection quite apart from heredity. It is
argued, however, that since the correlation for tuberculosis in
husband and wife where the chances for infection are presumably
equally great lies between o and .3, and as a part of this correla-
tion is probably due to assortative mating, or the tendency of like
or similarly situated individuals to intermarry, the parent-off-
spring correlation must be mainly the result of an hereditary
proclivity to infection.
It may be questioned, however, if tuberculosis is as apt to be
conveyed in the marital relation as it is from parent to offspring.
If, as many authors now contend, tuberculosis is usually acquired
in childhood, often lying latent until some condition causes it to
flare up in adult life, the high value of the parent-offspring corre-
lation may be the result of early infection rather than a hereditary
diathesis.
On the other hand, autopsies show that the great majority
of human beings are infected by tuberculosis some time during
i86 THE TREND OF THE RACE
their lives and generally before adult age. Hamburger states
that in Vienna 95 per cent of the children of the poor between
12 and 13 years of age are infected, and he thinks that practically
all will be infected before they reach adult life. If it should be
established that most people become tuberculous at an early age,
the hypothesis that the parent-offspring correlation for tubercu-
losis is due simply to opportunities for infection will hardly suffice
to explain the fact. The generality of early infection is a matter
to be considered in interpreting the significance of the correlation.
If almost every one has become infected, and thus has the oppor-
tunity to develop tuberculosis, and if the existence of the more
severe forms of the disease is more closely associated with blood
relationship than it is with the surrounding conditions under
which tuberculosis is apt to become manifest, the evidence would
strongly point to the importance of the hereditary factor. The
problem is a difficult one about which there has been considerable
controversy, and we shall have to await further insight into the
subject before the precise r61e of heredity can be fully established.
Should the hereditary factor be a potent one it would indicate
that natural selection is acting to remove the stocks with a tuber-
cular diathesis.
That natural selection tends to eliminate stocks with a pro-
clivity to other diseases is evident. Several diseases such as
diabetes, Blight's disease, Huntington's chorea and others which
are known to be transmitted are not infrequent causes of death.
Dwarfism, ichthyosis, xeroderma, albinism, hereditary cataract,
and deaf mutism, while not in themselves fatal, may lesson the
chances for leaving offspring and hence lead to the extinction of
stocks in which they occur. Haemophilia which is transmitted as
a sex linked character would tend inevitably to be eliminated
by natural selection since it greatly increases the danger from
any wound that causes the loss of blood. Lessen states that 18
out of the 37 deaths in the celebrated Mampel family were due
to this malady. The hereditary forms of insanity not only keep
their victims from propagating their kind, but they often tend
to shorten their lives. Brower and Bannister state that in the
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 187
best regulated asylums the death rate "is hardly less than 7 per
cent, even under favorable conditions," which is about four times
as great as should exist hi well-regulated municipalities of the
ordinary population. If, however, we take out certain forms of
insanity, such as paresis and organic dementia, we have the ratio
somewhat reduced. In any case, however, it will decidedly exceed
that amongst the general population. The death rate in asylums
is less than that of the insane outside of these institutions. Barr
(Mental Defectives, p. 131) states that out of 625 cases of mental
defectives of whose deaths he had records, "the largest number of
deaths occurred between 10 and 20 years; but comparatively
few passed the 25th year and exceptional cases appeared from 30
to 40 years." According to Clark and Stowell in the New York
City Children's Hospitals and Schools the mortality among the
feeble-minded is double that of other children, and the mortality
of the lowest grades, idiots and imbeciles, is four times as great as
among the feeble-minded. With the higher grades of the feeble-
minded the expectation of life is much greater, but among these
natural selection takes a relatively heavy toll as is evinced by
their high infant mortality.
It is a fair inference that natural selection causes a higher
mortality among those who, while not feeble-minded, are below
the general average of intelligence. Not only is their station in
life apt to be such as to raise their death rate, but through igno-
rance or lack of the ability to afford the proper surroundings for
their children they have a high infant mortality which tends to
offset, in a measure, their greater fecundity.
Contrasted with the rather high general death rate of inferior
stocks is the relatively low death rate of the classes with excep-
tional intelligence. Sir Francis Galton has noted that English
men of science as a class are long lived, and Cattell finds that the
death rate and especially the infant mortality in the families of
American men of science is unusually low. The death rate is
relatively low in professional classes in general and among others
who have achieved a noteworthy success in other fields. If it is
said that their reduced death rate is due to better environment
i88 THE TREND OF THE RACE
we must bear in mind that their better environment is to a large
extent the result of their belonging to hereditary stocks at least
a little above the general average of humanity. If the birth rates
of the classes that achieve success by virtue of their inherent
superiority were as high or nearly as high as it is among their
less favored brethren the general level of ability would doubtless
be raised through natural selection. Unfortunately under our
present social conditions natural selection and reproductive
selection frequently work in opposite directions, and the evidence
points to the conclusion that the influence of the latter is gener-
ally the more potent.
For a number of years Professor Karl Pearson and several of
his associates have been endeavoring to demonstrate by statistical
methods that natural selection is actually at work among human
beings and to obtain a measure of the intensity of its action.
From data on the general health of professional classes which were
exposed to much the same environmental influences, Pearson
found a parent-offspring correlation of .3824 which is indicative
of a fair amount of hereditary resemblance. Longevity was found
byBeeton and Pearson to run in families as has long been believed
and as in fact common observation seems to show. In selected
groups such as the British Landed Gentry and the Peerage where
environmental differences play a relatively small r61e, a marked
correlation was found between the length of life of father and son
and also between the length of life of brothers. Great length
of life was also found to be correlated with increased fertility.
It is, of course, obvious that up to the end of the reproductive
period, the longer people live the more children they may be
expected to have. But the fact that the longer women live after
their reproductive period the more children they are likely to have
in this period indicates that increased fertility and longevity are
both the result of a high degree of vitality. " Of two women who
both lived beyond 50 years, the longer lived is likely to have had
before 50 the large* family." (Beeton, Yule and Pearson.)
Similar results were obtained by Powys from data obtained
in New South Wales. Fecundity was found to increase in women
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 189
as their age at death increased from 45 to 65-70 years and then to
decrease somewhat. " Childless women and mothers of extremely
small families have shorter expectation of life than mothers of
moderate sized families." With families of more than six children
the mother's expectation of life diminishes. In a memoir by
Beeton and Pearson it is remarked: "I [K. P.?] think, therefore,
that we can no longer talk of natural selection as an hypothesis.
It is in the case of man demonstrably at work either changing in a
quantitatively definite manner his constitution as a whole or else
necessary to keep that constitution stable. It is now not correct
to say as Lord Salisbury said in 1894 of natural selection ' No man,
so far as we know, has ever seen it at work.' It is sensibly and
visibly at work; a factor in 50 to 80 per cent of the deaths in the
case of man is not a slight perturbation ... it is something we
run up against at once, almost as soon as we examine a mortality
table."
Attempts have been made to demonstrate the workings of
natural selection by studying the changes occurring in the human
population of limited districts. Among the most extensive inves-
tigations in this field are those of 0. Ammon upon the inhabitants
of Baden. The people of this duchy were held to consist mainly
of two racial elements, a relatively tall, blond, blue-eyed, dolicho-
cephalic "Germanic" race, and a small, dark-haired, dark-eyed,
round-headed "mongoloid" race. The long-headed types were
found to prevail more in cities and towns than in the country, and
the older urban inhabitants were found to be more dolichoceph-
alic than the recent ones. The long heads being the more intelli-
gent, superior stock tended to supplant the round heads in the
cities where the struggle for position depends more than in the
rural districts upon the possession of superior mental and moral
qualities. It is the dolichocephalic, according to Ammon, that
form the aristocratic race, fitted by their superior endowments to
form a ruling caste. They are found in greater numbers in the
higher walks of life and they are relatively more abundant hi the
higher than in the lower grades of the gymnasia. In the migra-
tion of peoples from the country to the city which it is assumed
igo THE TREND OF THE RACE
has been going on for a long time it is supposed that the greater
preponderance of the dolichocephalic race in the city population,
and especially in the higher levels of wealth and culture is the
result of the action of natural selection in favor of the superior
type. The city draws the best of the country stock, and of the
inhabitants that have migrated to the country the more dolicho-
cephalic succeed best in the struggle for wealth and power.
We may admit that Ammon has shown that in Baden changes
have been taking place in the characteristics of the inhabitants.
It is not so clear, however, that these changes have been chiefly
the result of natural selection. The racial composition of com-
munities is very apt to change as the result of migration and the
operation of differential fecundity. Many of us have witnessed in
this country a marked change in the character of the population
of restricted localities within a period of a few decades. And it
is quite evident that such changes are not due to natural selection.
Observation of a change in the inhabitants occurring in a small
area and in a comparatively short interval of time will not offer
conclusive evidence regarding the factors producing the change.
Most of the anthropometric data assembled to prove the opera-
tion of natural selection is not convincing in that it does not
exclude the operation of other possible causes.
Any consideration of the role of natural selection in man must
take account of the much discussed question of the selective
nature of the infant death rate. The first year is by far the most
precarious period of life. The infant mortality rate varies enor-
mously in different countries, according to social and economic
conditions and the general enlightenment of the inhabitants.
In Chile in 1903 it was over 352 per thousand births. For several
decades hi most countries of Europe the infant mortality rate has
been somewhere between 100 and 200 per thousand. It is high in
Prussia, Austria, Hungary and Russia, but exceptionally low in
Norway and Sweden. It is low in Australia and lowest of all in
New Zealand where it reached the remarkable figure of5iini9i2.
The infant mortality of the United States has been estimated at
124 for 1910, although hi the absence of data on the birth rate
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 191
this figure can be considered only as a rough approximation to
the truth.
It is a remarkable fact that while the death rate of most civi-
lized countries has been falling for the past hundred years the
infant death rate in general should have suffered little improve-
ment and in some countries actually increased up to the beginning
of the 2oth century. During the past few years much greater
attention has been devoted to the subject, and a variety of organ-
izations have been active in checking the inexcusable loss of infant
life which has been so long suffered to go on, and as a consequence
infant mortality in many localities has very rapidly fallen. In
the same country enormous differences in the infant death rate
still exist in different towns and sections not far removed from
each other, as may be illustrated by the infant mortality rates of
the following towns of Massachusetts in 1912:
Chicopee 177
North Adams 1 13 . i
Waltham 86.8
Brookline 55
These conditions are usually associated with the economic
status of the inhabitants. The death rate is higher in urban
than in rural districts, and it increases in cities with the greater
density of the population.
In all places infant mortality is very much higher among the
poor. In fact Mr. Ashby states that "poverty is perhaps the first
and greatest predisposing factor in infant mortality." Duncan
and Duke in their valuable survey of the infant mortality of
Manchester, N. H., find that the rate of infant deaths rapidly
falls as the income of the father rises. Where the annual earnings
of the fathers are less than $450, the infant mortality rate was
found to be 242.9. Fathers earning from $650 to $850 lose
162.6 per thousand of their children, while those earning $1,250
and over, lose only 58.3. Among the foreign born mothers of
Manchester the death rate was 183.5, while among the native
192 THE TREND OF THE RACE
born it was 128.1. The relatively preventable character of this
mortality is indicated by the fact that length of residence in the
United States was found to affect greatly the infant mortality of
the foreign born mothers; those mothers who had been here over
five years had an infant mortality rate of 165.7, while for those
who had been here less than that time the rate was 248.8. An
investigation of the infant mortality of Montclair, N. J., by the
Children's Bureau gave the infant mortality among the native
white women as 49, among the foreign born as 88.1, and among
the negroes 151.5. Wolf compiled statistics in Erfurt, Germany,
which indicated that out of the one thousand babies born,
505 died among the working class
173 " " " middle "
89 " " " rich
Dr. John Robertson found the infant mortality in Birmingham,
England, in 1915 to be 200 per 1,000 among the poor, and 50 per
i ,000 among the middle class and rich. He found that when the
father earned less than i a week if the mother were employed at
a factory the infant mortality was 203, if she were employed at
home or elsewhere it was 187, and if not employed 191. If the
father earned over i a week and the mother was employed in a
factory the infant mortality was 1 23, if employed at home or else-
where it was 53, and if she were unemployed, 99.
Undoubtedly a large amount of infant mortality is the result
of the ignorance and inexperience of mothers. Poor milk, im-
proper feeding, inadequate medical attention, and unsanitary liv-
ing conditions are responsible for many deaths of infants especially
among the poor. Undoubtedly as a result of these conditions
large numbers of normal and healthy infants perish. Several
epidemics common to infancy and childhood are practically as apt
to take the strong as the weak, and with improper care during
illness even an exceptionally strong child may die. Many stu-
dents of the subject consider that the infant death rate is for the
most part quite indiscriminate and non-selective in its action.
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 193
From the point of view of racial welfare one should distinguish
between the elimination of infants who are destined to produce
inferior adults and infants who, though weak, grow up into adults
who are strong and healthy. The preservation of the latter class
of infants would not lead to undesirable developments, except
perhaps in making it necessary for parents to bestow more care
upon their new born children. As the human species evolved
from animal ancestry infants became progressively weaker and
required more and more attention for their successful rearing.
Along with this there went an increase in the amount of parental
care devoted to the young. Infants may be very poorly adapted
to survival in an unfavorable environment and nevertheless form,
as adults, the most desirable types of the race. Goethe as an
infant was very puny and his life was for a time almost despaired
of, but as a man he was exceptionally robust, vigorous and long
lived. It is only in so far as infantile weakness is correlated
with weakness or defect in later life that the elimination of the
less hardy babies would have any relation to racial improvement.
It is probable that despite many exceptions there is a general
correlation between weakness in infancy and weakness in later
life. Ploetz has adduced evidence to show that infant and child
mortality is less in stocks with greater longevity. Part of the data
were obtained from records of royal families (fiirstliche Familien)
of Germany and another part from families mainly of the middle
class (burgerliche Familien). The results may be seen in the
following table:
194
THE TREND OF THE RACE
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NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 195
In both the royal and the middle classes the percentage of
children dying under six years of age decreases as the age at death
of either the father or the mother increases. In other words, if
either parent dies young it greatly decreases the expectation of
life for the new born child. How are we to interpret this relation-
ship? It might be urged that the death of one parent would be
apt to involve lack of adequate care for the children. It was
pointed out that while this might partly account for the death
rate in children of the younger parents it would not explain the
fact that the child death rate continues to fall during the later
age periods in which the parents are so old that their death could
not possibly have fallen within the first five years of the life of any
of their children. It was also pointed out that in the royal fami-
lies in which the death of the parent would not leave the child
without adequate means of support there is much the same
correlation between the longevity of parent and child mortality
that is found in the middle class families. The relation of child
mortality to the death period of the father in these royal families
is especially noteworthy.
The results are attributed by Ploetz to the inheritance of
different degrees of constitutional weakness. Natural selection,
therefore, acts not merely on the parents who are lacking in vigor,
but it picks out their young offspring, and thus tends to eliminate
stocks which transmit a defective vitality.
It is probable that a considerable part of the infant death rate
that seems to be caused by external factors with little regard
to heredity is more strongly influenced by the hereditary factor
than is at first apparent. Much has been written on the high
mortality of artificially fed babies as compared with those which
are breast fed. We might be tempted to attribute this to the
great superiority of the mother's milk over the various substitutes
which are used to replace it. Certain investigations by Pearson
on the infant mortality of breast fed and artificially fed babies
of the towns of Preston and Blackburn, England, have shown that
the death rate of artificially fed babies depends largely on whether
the mothers do not want to nurse their children, or fail to nurse
196 THE TREND OF THE RACE
them because they are unable to do so or because the children
are unable to take mothers' milk. " These results," says Pearson,
"suggest that it is not the artificial feeding, but the health of the
mother which is the dominating factor in the mortality and
delicacy of the infant." The precise r61e of heredity here is, of
course, not revealed, but the facts indicate that it is more potent
than the crude data on the relation of artificial feeding to mor-
tality would indicate.
Much infantile weakness, however, is the product of purely
somatic variability, depending upon immaturity of birth, illness
or misfortune to the mother and many other fortuitous conditions.
Of the many malformations that cause infants to die soon after
birth there is in relatively few cases evidence of the hereditary
character of the defect. Such variability serves to mask more or
less the true hereditary variations that may be present. Natural
selection would tend to eliminate the weak or imperfect individ-
uals whether their defects were hereditary or not, but it is only
to the extent that the purely hereditary variations are picked out
that natural selection is able to produce any racial modification.
A high infant mortality has been considered by some investiga-
tors as racially advantageous in that a larger proportion of the
congenitally weak are eliminated. The preservation of a larger
proportion of the new born would save many weaklings who
would produce a deterioration of the vitality of the population.
The Eugenics Section of the American Association for the Study
and Prevention of Infant Mortality recognized that under present
conditions the efforts of the society "must necessarily work some
anti-eugenic results," although maintaining, as practically all do,
that it is an imperative duty to check infant mortality so far as
possible. No one seriously proposes to do away with medicine
and hygiene because the death rate in the adult population is to a
certain degree selective and it would hardly be consistent to deny
the benefits of medical science to the helpless period of infancy.
Even those who maintain that a high infant mortality is of racial
value generally hesitate to advocate the abolition of efforts to
reduce it. In reading the literature on the subject one cannot fail
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 197
to be impressed with the fact that sentiment has considerably
influenced opinion on the purely matter of fact problem as to
whether the infantile death rate is or is not selective. The prob-
lem of how far selection occurs in the early periods of life is one
of great difficulty and it is especially important that it be ap-
proached in an entirely unbiased spirit. In attacking it by statis-
tical methods it is necessary to be continually on one's guard
against falling into the many pitfalls which lie across our path.
One method by which the problem has been attacked is to
ascertain the relation between high infant mortality and the
expectation of life among the survivors. Several investigators
(von Erben, Bleicher, Gottstein and Rahts) have reported that a
high infant or child mortality is followed by a relatively low
mortality in later life. On the other hand, Newstiolme in an
elaborate comparison of the infant and child death rates over
several districts of England has found that where there is a high
infant death rate there is also a high death rate of all children up
to the period of adolescence. Koppe has found a high infant
mortality correlated with a high death rate in the second year,
and Prinzing has found a similar correlation between death in the
first year and deaths from i to 4 years of age. Sadayuki's results
show that in separate provinces of Germany a high infantile and a
high child death rate go together. Other investigators (Prinzing,
v. Vogt, Peiger, Mullhausen) have found (contra Grassl) high
infant mortality to be correlated with inferiority of recruits
for military service.
Those who have concluded from these results, as several have
done, that the infant death rate cannot be selective have drawn
an unwarranted inference. Many conditions which produce a
high inf antile death rate are apt to cause a high death rate also in
childhood and adolescence. Ignorance, poverty, epidemic dis-
eases and unsanitary surroundings take their toll from people of
all ages, and the fact that the period beyond infancy is not spared
because the first year of life is unduly crowded with fatalities,
in no way proves that the death rate is not selective during the
whole period. It is not a fair test of the potency of selection to
i 9 8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
show that in a region that has a high infant death rate, the death
rate for older children is higher than it is in some other region
with a low infant death rate. What we want to know is whether
the child death rate is less than it would have been under the same
conditions if the infant death rate had not been so high. If it
should be found that a high infant mortality is generally followed
some years later by a reduced child mortality of the same group
and under the same environment the evidence would point to the
selective value of early mortality.
An investigation of this problem was made by Mr. E. C. Snow
whose memoir on The Intensity of Natural Selection in Man con-
tains evidence of much painstaking and critical labor even though
it may leave something to be desired hi the way of lucidity of expo-
sition. The data for one study were taken from the Reports of the
Registrar General for England and Wales, and those for another
were obtained from the vital statistics of Prussia. Correlations
were worked out for various districts of England and Prussia
between the mortality of early life (1-3 years in different cases)
and the mortality of subsequent age intervals. After many
corrections for environmental differences and the variable sizes of
the cohorts, the data were found to show a negative correlation
between the death rates of early periods and those of later periods
of life. In other words, a relatively high death rate in the first
period renders the death rate of the survivors in the subsequent
period less than it otherwise would have been. Such a result is
not inconsistent with the conclusion stated previously, that cer-
tain regions have a relatively high death rate for several succes-
sive years. There may be a more severe selection all through life
in one group than there is in another.
It would be a matter of interest to ascertain, though the
problem would present many difficulties, whether the death rate
tends to be less selective, or in other words more indiscriminate
as we approach the period of birth. A priori, this would seem
to be very probable. There may be some truth in Dr. D. S.
Jordan's statement that "a strong child can be killed almost as
readily as a weak one when it is very young," and it is when
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 199
infants are very young that the death rate is by far the highest.
An indiscriminate death rate not only tends to mask the operation
of natural selection, but it interferes with its action. The more
the purely fortuitous causes of death are removed the more truly
selective the remaining part of the death rate becomes. It is
probable that many important causes of infant mortality could be
removed without interfering greatly with the kind of selective
elimination which is of value in maintaining racial vitality.
Certain congenital variations may lessen the chances of survival
as an infant, but once the period of infancy is passed there may
be no deleterious effect in the later years of life. Immaturity
at birth may lessen an infant's chance of life, but after a few
weeks have passed there may be no more trouble from this cir-
cumstance. The lessening of infant mortality which is now being
so successfully accomplished may not be so disadvantageous
racially after all. It possibly may be of greater racial advantage
to shield infancy as much as possible and thus allow an increase
of deaths to occur later in life when the death rate is apt to be
more discriminating. It is only those infant traits which are
correlated with undesirable adult characteristics which it would
be of advantage to have eliminated from the race, and it is not
clear what is the best method of securing this result.
There is reason to believe that a considerable part of the
infant death rate is due not to any inherent weakness in the
infants themselves, but to defects in the stock which are mani-
fested in later years. Just as there may be variations which are
injurious to infancy but have no effect on the welfare of an older
person, so there are variations which will tend to be eliminated in
older persons but which have little immediate effect upon infancy.
In the latter class are to be included those inherent defects of
mind and character which are most conspicuously revealed after
several years of life. While the lower types of mental defectives
may be more apt to succumb at all ages, the high-grade morons
and people of dull mentality are frequently of good physical
constitution, and it is probable that their infants under good
care would have as low a death rate as those born of more intelli-
200
THE TREND OF THE RACE
gent ancestry. The relatively high death rate among the infants
of this class is a secondary result of the mental inferiority of their
parents. Natural selection tends to eliminate this class of indi-
viduals not so much through taking a greater toll from the adults
but through the high death rate of their offspring. We have
already remarked upon the high infant mortality of such stocks as
the Jukes and Kallikaks. Ashby remarks in his volume on Infant
Mortality, in speaking of efforts to reduce the infant death rate in
New York, "The unanimous verdict of the doctors, who have
made the observations, are that neither the surroundings of the
infant, nor the exact character of the milk obtained, were as
important factors in the health of the infant as the intelligent
character of the mother. . . . Ignorance and lack of intelligence
are thus two of the great evils which we have to contend against,
and mothers do not generally appreciate the extent upon which
infant life depends on the adoption of simple hygienic precau-
tions." Those who are slum dwellers through low intelligence
and natural shif tlessness have a high infant mortality. In so far
as unfavorable conditions for infant welfare are the result of the
inborn inferiority of parents, and no one can deny that they are
frequently so to a considerable degree, to that extent natural
selection tends to eliminate the stock.
In this connection it would be of interest to consider the selec-
tive effect of alcohol. Alcoholism in the parents is associated with
infant mortality. Dr. Sullivan has compiled the following data:
No. of children
No. of children
died in 2 yrs.
Percentage of
dead children
Drunken Mothers, 21
Sober Mothers, 28. . .
125
138
69
33
55-2
2 3-9
Much more data could be adduced to the same effect, but we
shall refer the reader to other sources for fuller information. It is
generally recognized that the victims of alcoholism are to a large
extent individuals of neuropathic inheritance. Alcohol picks out
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 201
the defective members of the race and if it does not eliminate
them directly, it causes or rather augments the death rate of their
progeny and hence works toward the extirpation of their breed.
From the standpoint of eugenics the infant mortality that
results from inherent incompetence or moral depravity has its
obvious advantages. If stocks such as the Jukes, Kallikaks and
Tribe of Ishmael had had an infant mortality even higher than it
was there would be few who would regret the fact. It would have
been much better had these degenerates never been born. But
having been brought into the world perhaps the next best thing
would have been for them to have died young.
By way of summary the kinds of infant mortality we have
distinguished may be expressed as follows:
1. Non-selective elimination. This is of no racial value and not
only masks the workings of natural selection, but interferes with the
stringency of its action.
2. Selective elimination of non-hereditary characters. We might
consider this a racially impotent form of natural selection.
3. Selective elimination of characters of value only during infancy.
Racial effect not beneficial beyond rendering infancy more hardy.
4. Selective elimination of infantile weakness or defect which would
produce diminished vigor in later life.
5. Selective elimination of infants not in themselves weak or imper-
fect, but who would develop into socially undesirable persons. They
are eliminated in greater numbers because of the incompetence of
their parents.
The last two forms of selection are strongly working in the
direction of racial advance.
The doctrine that the human species may be in any way im-
proved through the selective elimination of infants has been
opposed on the ground that whatever agencies cause babies to die
would also involve more or less permanent injury upon the sur-
vivors. In commenting on those writers who commend a high
infant death rate on account of its selective value, Dr. Saleeby
remarks: "But waiving here the observation that 'natural selec-
202 THE TREND OF THE RACE
tion ' is being curiously revived by these inexperienced eugenists
just when it is being discarded by biologists, we may note that
any process of selection which can be justified must weed out
the worthless without damaging the worthy. Such is the pre-
sumed action of natural selection. But to talk of natural selec-
tion in anything so hideously unnatural as a slum is wildly un-
scientific. . . . What really happens in a slum, of course, is the
damaging of all the life therein." We need not tarry over the
reckless statements into which Dr. Saleeby has been led appar-
ently through the warmth of indignant protest against what
he has called the "better dead school." We might be tempted
to remark that it was "inexcusable" for any one having the least
acquaintance with current biological thought and investigation
to refer to natural selection as a sort of exploded notion which has
been given up by modern biologists. And we might comment
on the absurdity of saying that natural selection cannot be oper-
ative in a slum because the conditions there are "unnatural."
But disregarding these somewhat impetuous pronouncements,
it may be said in regard to the main conclusion that the fact
that agencies which are inimical to infancy may also deteriorate
the quality of the survivors in no wise proves that natural selec-
tion is not in vigorous operation. Its effects may not, on the
whole, be desirable, but that is another matter. If bad environ-
ment weeds out unfavorable germinal variations, while at the
same time it stunts the development of the more favorable
ones which it spares, the biological, or perhaps we should say
the germinal gain might be more than offset by the social loss.
It might not profit us to be the product of superior germ plasm
if we had to live under conditions in which we could not attain
our full development. To how great an extent do the agencies
that commonly produce a high infant mortality handicap in-
dividuals in their later development? How far is the fact that
certain localities with a high infant mortality have a high child
and adult mortality due to the handicapping of infancy, and how
far is it due to the direct effect of the unfavorable conditions of
later years? There is reason to believe that both of these factors
NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 203
have a strong influence on the mortality of later life. And there is
another factor which may be operative, and that is the influence
of unfavorable surroundings on the germ plasm. It is, of course,
possible that many conditions leading to a high infant death
rate may affect the germ plasm in such a way as to produce
variations of an inferior kind. It is on this point that we are in
most urgent need of more light. Selective agencies differ in their
effect upon the general vitality of the organisms. The problem of
how any agent of elimination may affect the race is complicated
by its possible action in producing variations in the germ plasm.
A high infant death rate caused by agencies with an injurious
effect on the germ plasm instead of being a blessing in disguise
might prove to be an index of racial decay.
REFERENCES
Ammon, O. Die naturliche Auslese beim Menschen. C. Fischer, Jena, 1893.
Zur Anthropologie der Badener, Jena, 1899. Die Gesellschaftsordnung und
ihre naturlichen Grundlagen, Jena, 1895.
Beddoe, J. Selection in Man. Sci. Prog. 5, 384-397, 1896, and 6, 167-177, 1897.
Beeton, M., and Pearson, K. Data for the Problem of Evolution in Man. II, A
First Study of the Inheritance of Longevity and the Selective Death Rate in
Man. Proc. Roy. Soc. 65, 290-305, 1900. On the Inheritance of the Duration
of Life, and on the Intensity of Natural Selection in Man. Biometrica, 1, 50-89,
1901.
Beeton, M., Yule, G. U., and Pearson, K. Data for the Problem of Evolution in
Man. V. On the Correlation between Duration of Life and the Number of
Offspring. Proc. Roy. Soc. 67, 159-179, 1901.
Bell, A. G. The Duration of Life and the Conditions Associated with Longevity:
A Study of the Hyde Genealogy. Genealogical Record Office, Washington,
D. C., 1918, p. 57.
Blaschko, A. Naturliche Auslese und Klassenteilung. Neue Zeit. No. 20, 615-624,
1895.
Blum, A. Eugenics and Obstetrics. Problems in Eugenics, 387-395, 1912.
Carr Saunders, A. M. Pigmentation in Relation to Selection and to Anthropo-
metric Characters. Biometrica, 354-384, 1912.
Clark, L. P., and Stowell, W. L. A Study of Mortality in Four Thousand Feeble-
Minded and Idiots. N. Y., Med. Jour. 97, 376-378, 1913.
Debret, F. J. La Selection Naturelle dans 1'Espece Humaine. Paris, 1901, pp. 92.
De Candolle, A. Les Types Brun et Blond au Point de Vue de la Sant6. Rev.
Anthrop. 1887, 265-274.
Elderton, E. M., and Pearson, K. Further Evidence of Natural Selection in Man.
Biometrica, 10, 488-506, 1915.
204 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Jordan, H. E. The Eugenic Bearing of the Efforts for Infant Conservation. Am.
Ass. Study and Prevention Inf. Mort. 2, 117-126.
Koeppe, H. Sauglingsmortalitat und Auslese. Munch, med. Wochenschr. 1905.
Lindsay, J. A. The Influence of Disease upon Racial Efficiency and Survival.
Eugen. Rev. 5, 101, 113, 1913; Jour. State Med. 21, 428-439 and Chicago Med.
Recorder, 35, 466-476, 1913.
Macdonald, D. Pigmentation of the Hair and Eyes of Children Suffering from the
Acute Fevers, Its Effect on Susceptibility, Recuperative Power, and Race
Selection. Biometrica, 8, 13-39, 1911-12.
Newman, G. Infant Mortality. A Social Problem. Methuen and Co., London,
1906.
Newsholme, A. The National Importance of Infant Mortality. Jour. Roy.
Sanit. Inst. London, 31, 326-348, 1910-11; Infant and Child Mortality,
39th Ann. Rep. Local Gov. Board, 1909-10. Suppl. to Rep. of Medical
Officer, Wyman and Sons, London, 1910. See also Second Rep. to Local Gov.
Board, Cd. 6909, Chap. 9, 43-53, 1913.
Newsholme, A., and Yule, G. U. Infant and Child Mortality. Rep. to Local Gov.
Board, Cd. 5263, Part i, 9-18; app. 1, 78-83, 1910.
Pearson, K. The Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution. Arnold,
London and N. Y., 2 vols. 1897; The Grammar of Science, 2d ed., A. and C.
Black, London, 1900; The Intensity of Natural Selection in Man. Proc. Roy.
Soc. 85, s. B. 469-476, 1912; (with E. M. Elderton), On the Hereditary Char-
acter of General Health. Biometrica, 9, 320-329, 1012; Darwinism, Medical
Progress and Eugenics. The Cavendish Lecture, 1912, Eugen. Lab. Lect.
Series, 9, 1912, and in West London Med. Jour. 17, 165-93, 1912.
Ploetz, A. Die Tiichtigkeit unserer Rasse and der Schutz der Scwachen. Berlin,
1895; Lebensdauer der Eltern und Kindersterblichkeit: Ein Beitrag zum Stu-
dium der Konstitutionsvererbung und der natiirlichen Auslese. Arch. Rass.
Ges. Biol. 6, 33-43, 1909.
Powys, A. O. Data for the Problem of Evolution in Man. On Fertility, Duration
of Life and Reproductive Selection. Biometrica, 4, 233-285, 1905.
Prinzing, F. Die angebliche Wirkung hoher Kindersterblichkeit im Shine Dar-
winischer Auslese. Zentralbl. f. allg. Gesundheitspflege, 22, 1903.
Ripley, W. P. Ethnic Influences in Vital Statistics. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 5, 18-
40, 1896-97.
Sadayuki, K. Der Einfluss des Sauglingssterblichkeit auf die Wertigkeit der
Ueberlebenden. Inaug. Diss. Munich, 1909, pp. 67.
Snow, E. C. On the Intensity of Natural Selection in Man. Drapers' Co. Mems. 7,
1911.
Steinmetz, S. R. Der erbliche Rassen-und Volkscharakter. Viertel jahreschr. f.
wiss. Philos. u. Soziol. Leipzig, 1902, 77-126; Bedeutung unp Tragweite der
Selektionstheorie in den Sozialwissenschaften. Zeit. f. Sozialwiss, 1906, 471.
Westergaard, H. Die Lehre von der Mortalitat und Morbiditat, 2d ed., G. Fischer,
Jena, 1901. (ist ed., 1882.)
Weinberg, W. Die Sterblichkeit der Kinder der Tuberculosen, insbesondere nach
der Geburtszeit. Arch. soz. Hyg. 6, 1911; Die rassenhygienische Bedeutung der
Fruchtbarkeit. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 8, 25-32, 1911.
CHAPTER IX
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR
"Though, during barbarism and the earlier stages of civilization,
war has the effect of exterminating the weaker societies, and of weed-
ing out the weaker members of the stronger societies, and thus in both
ways furthering the development of those valuable powers, bodily
and mental, which war brings into play; yet during the later stages of
civilization, the second of these actions is reversed. . . . But when
the industrial development has become such that only some of the
adult males are drafted into the army, the tendency is to pick out and
expose to slaughter the best-grown and healthiest; leaving behind the
physically-inferior to propagate the race." Herbert Spencer, The
Study of Sociology.
THE subject of the present chapter really belongs under the
heading of the preceding one. Of the many forms of selective
elimination which are at work in human society, war is one of the
most conspicuous. It involves a struggle for existence in the
most literal sense of that term, but whether in general it even-
tuates in the survival of the fittest depends upon many circum-
stances which are often difficult to estimate. Although many
have written about it as if it consisted merely in the struggle of
rival contestants of which the strongest or most skillful worsted
his adversary, the biological effect of war is no simple problem.
"If it were not for war," says General Bernhardi, "we should
find that inferior and degenerated races would overcome healthy
and youthful ones by their wealth and their numbers. The
generative importance of war lies in this, that it causes selection,
and thus war becomes a biological necessity. It becomes an indis-
pensable regulator, because without war there could never be
racial nor cultural progress."
The same position has been developed by many writers, some of
them militarists, and others who have been led to this view-point
205
206 THE TREND OF THE RACE
by what they considered to be the teachings of Darwin. It is
only recently that general currency has been given to the idea
that war as a selective agent works toward racial degeneracy
instead of improvement. One of the chief advocates of the
abolition of war, Prof. Novicow, states that "War produces in-
deed a selection, a choice of the worst. The young men strongest
and most healthy go to the war. Among its combatants, the most
valiant take the lead. In consequence, the more perfect the
individual, the greater his chance to be killed. In most battles it
is the best that fall. On the other hand, the feeble and sickly
elements, those not enrolled under the banners of war, reproduce
themselves, while the flower of the nation is condemned to celi-
bacy or to relations with prostitutes, this leading so often, alas, to
the most fatal results."
In this country opposition to war on biological grounds has
been carried on vigorously by Dr. D. S. Jordan who for a number
of years has been devoting his chief energies to investigating,
lecturing and writing on this subject. The readers who wish to
find the case against war presented in a forcible and eminently
readible manner may be referred to Dr. Jordan's books on The
Blood of the Nation, The Human Harvest, and War and the Breed.
The reversal of selection which war effects is, according to Dr.
Jordan, one of the most powerful forces working for national
deterioration. '"The best ye bred' is war's insatiable call.
Send us your best, your fittest, your most courageous, your
youths of patriotism and your men of loyal worth, send them all
and breed your next generation from war's unfit remainder. . . .
Like seed like harvest, you cannot breed a Clydesdale from a
cayuse, neither can the weakling remnant of a warlike nation
breed a new generation of heroes for a new generation's
wars."
Large standing armies are dysgenic as well as actual war.
Darwin, whose teachings have so often been appealed to in sup-
port of militarism, said " In every country in which a large stand-
ing army is kept up, the finest young men are taken by the con-
scription or are enlisted. They are thus exposed to early death
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 207
during war, are often tempted into vice and are prevented from
marrying during the prime of life. On the other hand, the
shorter and feebler men, with poor constitutions, are left at
home, and consequently have a much better chance of marrying
and propagating their kind."
Where there is universal military service the best of the youths
are taken for recruits and are withdrawn from opportunities for
marrying during the period when they are forced to bear arms.
Barrack life, at least until recently, has led to the increase of
venereal disease which has always been one of the chief evils
of military life. Hospital admissions from the armies of Great
Britain, United States and several other countries have been
frightfully high. The disastrous consequences of venereal infec-
tion in later married life need not be dwelt upon. Matters are
rapidly improving, however, in this regard, and the recent statis-
tics of the American Army afford a remarkable example of what
may be accomplished. Should the venereal peril be overcome
perhaps the chief evil of army life would be abolished. In a
system of military conscription which takes young men of but
20 years of age and keeps them in training for two or three years
it is claimed that the effect of delaying marriage would not be
significant. In most cases, however, the returning recruit is
more or less delayed in making the economic preparation for
marriage, so that this event may take place considerably later
than it otherwise would have occurred.
What would seem, a priori, to be the effects of war from the
principles of heredity and selection Dr. Jordan attempts to sub-
stantiate by an inductive study of what the after effects of war
have actually been. In their volume on War's Aftermath D. S.
Jordan and H. E. Jordan give the results of their studies of the
effect of the Civil War on the population of Virginia. Their
studies consisted of an intensive investigation of two counties,
and a more cursory survey of several others, " the whole checked
up by the opinions of fifty-five Confederate veterans of excep-
tional character and intelligence." I quote some of the chief
conclusions drawn from the work:
2 o8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
1. The leading men of the South were part of select companies and
these were the first to enlist.
2. The flower of the people went into the war at the beginning and
of these a large part (20 to 40 per cent) died before the end.
3. War took chiefly the physically fit; the unfit remaining behind.
4. Conscripts, though in many cases the equal of volunteers, were
on the average inferior to the latter in moral and physical qualities,
making poorer soldiers.
5. A certain rather small number ("bushmen") fled to the hills and
other places to avoid conscription. Others deserted from the ranks
and joined them. These deserters suffered much inconvenience, but
little loss of life.
6. The volunteer militia companies, having enlisted at the begin-
ning, lost more heavily than the conscript companies who entered
later.
7. The result was that the men of highest character and quality
bore largely the brunt of the war and lost more heavily than their
inferiors. Thus was produced a change in the balance of society by
reducing the percentage of the best types without a corresponding
reduction of the less desirable ones, a condition which was projected
into the next generation because the inferior lived to have progeny
and the others did not.
Most of the widows of soldiers never married again and many
soldiers' fiances remained unmarried or married below their
previous station. A study of the share of university men in the
war showed that a considerably larger proportion fell in battle
than of the other men engaged. As a southern officer remarked,
"Those who fought the most survived the least." "There is
always, in war," says Jordan, "a percentage against the man of
intelligence because he is likely to be the man of courage, and the
man who will die because he believes it to be the right."
As Bodart remarks, "The officers of an army almost always
suffer a much higher percentage of casualties than the men. This
is to be explained by the effort of the officer to set before his men
a good example in cool, courageous conduct." Haushofer gives
the following statistics of the Prussian losses of different ranks in
the Franco-Prussian war:
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 209
Generals 46 per 1,000
Staff Officers 105 " "
Captains, Captains of Horse 86 " "
Lieutenants 89 " "
Under Officers and Men 45 " "
Since in general officers represent a class superior in intelligence
and efficiency their enhanced death rate in war cannot fail to
have a dysgenic effect.
In his treatment of the biological influence of war it is some-
what unfortunate that Dr. Jordon should have limited himself
to the simpler and more obvious aspects of the subject. He has
done good service in calling general attention to the dysgenic
effect of certain aspects of military selection, but he has given
slight attention to or passed over in silence several of its secondary
biological results and especially the very important problem of
the racial value of group selection. There are some counter
tendencies which, while they may not outweigh the effect of losses
in battle, are nevertheless of considerable importance. Sickness
in most wars carries off more soldiers than fall in battle. Accord-
ing to Kellogg, "In the terrible 2O-year stretch of the Napoleonic
campaigns the British Army had an annual rate of mortality from
all causes of 56.21 per thousand men; the mortality from disease
was 49.61 per thousand, leaving the direct loss from gun fire to be
only 7.60 per thousand. The British losses in the Crimea in two
and a half years were 3 per cent by gun fire and 20 per cent by
disease." In our Spanish war we lost ten times as many soldiers
from disease as we did in battle. Even in the short Franco-
Prussian war the losses by disease slightly exceeded the losses
from gun fire. This high mortality from disease affords a certain
test of toughness, as it is fair to suppose that those with the weak-
est constitutions succumb in the largest numbers. This, how-
ever, eliminates only the worst of the best and its general value to
the race is, therefore, open to question.
Another secondary effect of importance is the influence of war
on the civilian death rate and birth rate. This influence varies
210 THE TREND OF THE RACE
greatly according to the degree to which a nation suffers through
hardship, disease and other factors that affect the people who do
not bear arms. It is naturally the population of the defeated
nation which suffers most. In France, according to Dumas, the
civilian death rate, in 1869, just before the Franco-Prussian war
was 23.4 per thousand, but in 1870, it went up to 28.3 and in 1871
to 34.8; it then fell in 1872 to 21.9. Nearly every great war is
accompanied by the introduction of some epidemic which rages
in the civil population. Smallpox, cholera, the plague and various
other diseases have been carried from one nation to another by
armies and have often led to losses much greater than those
sustained by the armies in the field.
In the present war the population of Belgium and Serbia have
been subjected to suffering almost without parallel in modern
times, but hardship is no stranger in the land of their oppressors,
especially among the poorer classes. The infant death rate has
been abnormally high and the birth rate has rapidly fallen since
the outbreak of war. The actual and potential losses among the
civilian population have been enormous, and it will require many
years before the Central Powers can recuperate from the effects of
this drain upon their human resources. What is the incidence of
this enhanced civilian death rate? For a considerable part of the
population who are not fortunately situated it would doubtless,
on the average, affect those who are constitutionally weak with
especial severity. Ammon maintains that the high death rate
during wars is a racial advantage in so far as this is the result of
epidemics, and Drs. G. A. Reid and Haycraft would probably
agree with him. The racial effect of the death rate would doubt-
less depend much upon circumstances which vary from war to
war. The selective value of epidemics for instance depends
greatly, as has been pointed out before, on the particular diseases
which are disseminated. Where general massacres are indulged in
as in Armenia, or where the inhabitants of certain villages are
stood up against a stone wall and shot, nothing can be said of the
selective working of the death rate. Long wars are especially apt
to work havoc in the general population. But even in the short
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 211
Franco-Prussian war the increase in deaths among the civilian
population of France was greatly in excess of the total deaths in
the army. The excess of deaths over the number for 1869 was
183,000 for 1870 and 407,000 for 1871, while the total deaths of
soldiers and officers for the two years (1870 and 1871) of the
war was 140,000. These are grouped by Bodart as follows:
Killed and died of wounds 60,000
Died in prison 17,000
Died in Switzerland and Belgium 2,000
(after being disarmed)
Died of disease and exhaustion 61,000
Total 140,000
It is evident that no small part of the biological influence of
war must depend upon the effect produced on the civilian popula-
tion. In a great many cases this must have been much greater
than the influence of death on the battle field. The varied
character of this effect, however, precludes any treatment of the
subject in general terms. Besides, we know as yet but little as to
just what, in any case, the biological results have been.
It is urged that a partial compensation for losses in battle is
afforded by the greater chance for marriage enjoyed by men who
have been in the army. The marriage rate, which is low during
war time, goes up quickly after peace is resumed. Nature has
endowed the female sex with a commendable partiality for the
military hero. This circumstance, combined with the fact that
the superior vigor of the returning soldiers would tend to make
them more prolific would, it is claimed, keep the more virile stocks
from being depleted. We have to consider in this connection,
however, the influence of venereal infection which army life has
unfortunately tended to intensify and also the after effect of war
on the health and longevity of the soldier. As Lapouge has re-
marked, "a la caserne meme et en pleine paix, des deteriorations
sont produi.tes en nombre par le sur menage, par les typhoides
benignes, par les affections veneriennes. Beaucoup d'hommes
212 THE TREND OF THE RACE
contractent an moins des blennorhagies, et il n'y a guere d'officier
qui n'en compte plusieurs; la syphilis est presque aussl frequente.
Ces deux affections sont d'une importance extreme au point de
vue du mariage et de la reproduction."
The effect of wounds, epidemics and hardship tend to leave
large numbers of soldiers in a decrepid state, by which they are
handicapped economically and are to a certain extent kept from
marrying. The superior opportunities for marrying enjoyed by
the officers do not eventuate in much racial benefit since the birth
rate in military sets is unusually low.
On the whole it is quite probable, I believe, that the effect
of military selection is dysgenic. So far as the direct effect of
conflict is concerned there would be little doubt of this and it has
been admitted by many who have claimed that war in general is
to be commended on biological grounds. It is a matter of serious
doubt whether the counteracting factors come near outweighing
the selective effect of battle.
There have been several attempts to show that the children
born during war time do not develop into such large and vigorous
men as those who are born before or after the war, and who
therefore come to a larger degree from fathers who were in mili-
tary service. Kellogg states that the statistics kept by the French
Government on the physical character of recruits show that "the
average height of the men of France began notably to decrease
with the coming of age, in 1813 and on, of the young men born in
the years of the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), and that it
continued to decrease in the following years with the coming of
age of youths born during the Wars of the Empire. Soon after
the cessation of these terrible man-draining wars, for the main-
tenance of which a great part of the able-bodied male population
of France had been withdrawn from their families and the duties
of reproduction, and much of this part actually sacrificed, a new
type of boys began to be born, boys indeed that had in them an
inheritance of stature that carried them by the time of their com-
ing of age in the later i83o's and i84o's to a height one inch
greater than that of the earlier generations born in war time. The
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 213
average height of the annual conscription contingents born
during the Napoleonic Wars was about 1625 mm.; of those born
after the wars it was about 1655 mm." Exemptions for infirmi-
ties ran nearly parallel with exemptions for undersize.
The researches of Lapouge on the height, color and head form
of recruits born in the cantons of Herault just before, during and
after the Franco-Prussian War offer interesting results. The
classes of recruits born in 1871 (during the war) were, with the
exception of those in a few urban cantons, shorter than those born
in 1867. Those born in 1871 were of lighter complexion than the
recruits of preceding and succeeding years. It was found that
in Herault the blonds furnished an undue proportion of those
who were rejected for military service. The recruits born in
1871 were characterized by an unusual degree of brachycephaly
while those born in 1872 had a dolichocephaly no less exaggerated,
the one class being with heads broader than the average, the other
with heads narrower than the average. It has been objected by
Steinmetz and Whetham that the smaller size of the recruits born
in 1871 is due, not to selection, but to the stunting effects of the
hardships entailed during the war. Granting that this might
account for their lower stature, it could not explain the relatively
large number of blond and brachycephalic types. The latter
seem to have preponderated among the classes of rejected
recruits.
In any evaluation of the biological effects of war we must
consider not only the characteristics of the individuals who are
destroyed in each country, but the effects of the victory of one
group of contestants over another group. Clans, tribes and
nations function as units in the struggle for existence. Other
things equal, the group with the greatest military efficiency will
be victorious. Even though the selective elimination within each
group should be dysgenic, the survival of a superior people may
lead to a racial advance. There can be little doubt that what
may be called group selection has proven of great importance in
the evolution of the human species. It has placed a premium
upon the virtues of fealty, reliability, sympathy and all those
214 THE TREND OF THE RACE
other altruistic traits which promote harmonious cooperation
and social efficiency. Through its influence in moulding human
nature man has become a social animal. Those groups in which
sympathy, mutual helpfulness and loyalty were best developed
would naturally prevail over others in which the purely individ-
ualistic propensities dominated over the social impulses. Hu-
man nature with its pugnacity, its combination of self-assertion
and subordination, and the various herd instincts by which at
times it is so powerfully moved has been fashioned in the stern
school of conflict.
Undoubtedly warfare among our primitive human ancestors
was an institution with very different effect on the race than war
among civilized peoples. When practically the whole tribe went
to war the effect would more often be the preservation of the
most vigorous and capable men in the hand to hand encounters
which are characteristic of primitive peoples. Primitive warfare
was more nearly on the level of the conflicts between our animal
ancestors. Its results were probably eugenic rather than dysgenic,
both as regards individual selection and the selection of rival
groups. Walter Bagehot who was one of the first to emphasize
the importance of group selection (it had been recognized by
Darwin) remarks hi his able and original work on Physics and
Politics, "What makes one tribe ... to differ from another is
their relative faculty of coherence. The slightest symptom of
legal development, the least indication of a military bond, is then
enough to turn the scale. The compact tribes win, and the
compact tribes are the tamest. Civilization begins, because the
beginning of civilization is a military advantage."
When human beings possess only a very small amount of cul-
ture, differences in the innate endowments of rival groups must
have frequently, if not usually, played a decisive role in the deter-
mination of supremacy. There can be little doubt that as man
becomes more of a social animal he becomes more of a warlike
animal. One of the most common results of the evolution of
animal societies is the increase of the instincts of pugnacity which
are developed hand in hand with instincts for mutual support and
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 215
cooperation. We need only to compare the behavior of ants,
termites, and the social bees and wasps with the activities of the
unsocial relatives of these insects to be impressed with this fact.
Man cannot be compared with these insects in regard to the ex-
tent to which the purely social instincts have been developed; he
is still very much of a self-centered, individualistic sort of crea-
ture. How many ages of bloody conflict it has taken to endow hu-
man beings with their present rather imperfect adaptation to so-
cial life we can only estimate in a very approximate way. The
teachings of history, the observations of the present customs of
primitive races and what little information can be gleaned of the
civilization of early human inhabitants of the earth indicate that
human beings have evolved under the stress of keen competition,
not only with the forces of nature, but at more or less frequent
intervals with other members of their own species. As Huxley
has remarked, "However imperfect the relics of prehistoric man
may be, the evidence which they afford clearly tends to the
conclusion that, for thousands and thousands of years, before the
origin of the oldest known civilizations, men were savages of a
very low type. They strove with their enemies and their competi-
tors; they preyed upon things weaker or less cunning than them-
selves; they were born, multiplied without stint, and died, for
thousands of generations, alongside the mammoth, the urus, the
lion, and the hyaena, whose lives were spent in the same way;
and they were no more to be praised or blamed, on moral grounds,
than their less erect and more hairy compatriots."
If warfare had been dysgenic in its effects during the early
periods of human development we may well wonder how the race
should ever have arrived at its present high estate. But as
civilization advances, and as human beings become organized
into larger and larger social groups the character of warfare
gradually changes. With the development of armies which carry
on their operations often at a distance from the civilian popula-
tion, and especially since the perfection of fire arms, the advan-
tages in favor of the strongest and most skillful warrior were
decreased. Wars of extermination which are not uncommon
216 THE TREND OF THE RACE
among barbarous tribes and which were carried on by peoples of
the cultural level of the Children of Israel and occasionally by
those more advanced may have had a eugenic effect. Leading as
they did to the supplanting of the conquered by their conquerors
their general result must have been a gradual replacement of less
efficient by more efficient peoples. But in modern warfare the
vanquished are not exterminated. They are usually not dispos-
sessed of their territory and after peace is declared they may
multiply more rapidly than their conquerors. Our own Civil
War certainly led to no desirable results from the viewpoint of
group selection. Both sides lost much of their best blood, and it
cannot be said that either side was the superior of the other in
hereditary qualities. Between wars such as this and the en-
counters of groups of primitive man there may be very varied
kinds of biological effect depending on the varied methods of
waging war, the character of the contestants and the nature of the
final settlement of the conflict. Wars between the higher and
lower races, such for instance as those which led to the replace-
ment of the aborigines by the Anglo-Saxon are doubtless produc-
tive of racial advance. The great extension of this enterprising
people owes much to a series of successful wars against the less
favored peoples who were found to be in the way. It cannot be
denied that wars between subdivisions of the white race may have
resulted in racial improvement, but it would be unsafe to claim
this for most of them. Theoretically it is easy to justify war
among modern peoples by saying that it is the best endowed
group which is most apt to prevail, and therefore the best condi-
tion for racial advancement is afforded by giving free play to
group selection. This is the favorite standpoint of those who
would justify war on biological grounds. As Steinmetz has
pointed out in his able Philosophic des Krieges, modem wars,
while they do not directly lead to extermination may leave a
people so crippled, devoid of energy, spirit and enterprise that its
life tends to stagnate and its population eventually decreases.
Headley remarks in his Problems of Evolution "Though it can
never happen that any of the European nations, even in the
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 217
event of a great war ending in the complete victory of one side,
will disappear in the sense that it will have no descendants, yet
the number of its descendants depends very largely on wars and
menaces of war. The country that secures the best of the earth
will send out more colonists than the country that has to send its
sons to live among foreigners and speak a strange language."
Results such as are here described have probably been produced
in a few cases, but it is doubtful if many of the wars that have
been waged in modern Europe have worked out in this way. So
far as any racial effects are evident it is not improbable that most
European wars have been injurious to all parties concerned.
However defeat may have influenced national spirit it does not
seem to have produced a very obvious effect on the birth rate.
The successive defeats sustained by Austria in the igth century
have not hindered the rapid growth of her population. A victo-
rious career does not affect so much the growth of a people as the
expansion of a nation, which is generally a very different thing.
National boundaries are of interest to the politician and
historian, but to the student of racial biology they are mainly
a source of confusion. Poland was obliterated as a nation, but,
despite a considerable amount of mistreatment, the Poles have
continued to multiply at a rate that has given their conquerors
a certain amount of uneasiness. It is not to be inferred, however,
that it is a matter of indifference from the biological standpoint
whether people do or do not constitute a nation. Moreover in
Europe at present the divisions of ethnic stocks are so crossed by
national boundaries that strife between peoples would throw most
countries into a many-sided civil war.
The studies of the actual effects of war from the viewpoint
of group selection is an almost untouched field. The difficulties
in the way of adjudging the biological value of the wars that have
occurred between civilized states are many and formidable. We
know little of the differences in innate mental ability, as distin-
guished from cultural development, that exist between the racial
elements of civilized countries. There is reason to believe that
the more conspicuous temperamental traits that distinguish the
2i8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Teutonic and Slavic from the Latin races are hereditary racial
characteristics, although they may be modified to a certain degree
by social environment. It may be maintained that conflicts will
still be more apt to be won by nations of the highest endowment
of intellect, and which by nature are best endowed with the
instincts which make for loyalty and cooperation. But granting
that this tendency exists, there are so many factors that modify
its influence that its actual biological effect is much in doubt.
In the first place we must bear in mind that mere size is not
infrequently the determining cause of victory quite regardless
of the quality of the combatants. Fortunate alliances may bring
success to an otherwise weak country. Geographical location
often proves to be of importance in both offensive and defensive
warfare. But of especial significance is a nation's cultural devel-
opment which depends upon its past history and surroundings
perhaps even more than the natural aptitudes of its people.
The Teutonic tribes fled before the well-drilled and equipped
armies of the Romans, not because they were inferior either in
mental or physical inheritance, but because they had lived outside
of the main stream of European civilization, and when we observe
the Serbians and Russians unable to cope with the well-organized
and disciplined armies of Germany there is little ground for
attributing the outcome to the innate superiority of the victors.
The immediate causes of success were superior discipline, organi-
zation, equipment and the elaborate, scientific and detailed prep-
aration for a long premeditated contingency. While we may
admit that on the average and in the long run the success of a
nation may be the result of superior hereditary endowments, it is
probable that, as Schallmayer, Steinmetz and others have pointed
out, the role of hereditary differences becomes less as civilization
advances.
Granting that war is most apt to be won by the best stocks,
its biological value depends upon the advantage that is taken of
the victory. If winning a war does not lead to a greater expansion
of the victorious people its racial value is nullified. As a result of
warfare in recent times nations frequently lose territory, pay
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 219
indemnities and suffer economic restrictions, but the people are
left free to multiply and they frequently increase more rapidly
than those of the victorious nation. The biologically defensible
wars are wars of extermination, such as those carried on by the
Dyaks and the Israelites. Wars for political purposes, and eco-
nomic advantage, especially when they do not lead to the acquire-
ment of new colonial regions in which to expand, often have
little apparent effect on the biological fortunes of either party.
The biological victory, such as it is, may often belong to the side
which loses in battle. In future wars the successful nations may
see to it that such a result will not follow. It would only be the
part of consistency for those who justify war on the grounds of
biological necessity to strive to convert future conflicts into wars
of extermination. We have seen a tolerably close approximation
to such a policy put into practice in the present great war. The
widespread advocacy in Germany of the expropriation of the land
of conquered nations, its settlement by Germans in order to in-
crease the population and strength of the empire, and the banish-
ment of the previous inhabitants or their. reduction to hewers of
wood and drawers of water should they prove sufficiently amen-
able, reveals a grim determination to use victory to the utmost for
attaining the desired end. Professor H. G. Holle (Polit.-Anlhrop.
Monatschr., 14, 1915) advises his countrymen: "If the national
will to live, which has so gloriously manifested itself in the war,
shall not yield to a culpable renunciation we must annex foreign
dominions to the east and the west. ... If we really come to
make such dominions our own then such inhabitants, who on
account of their race or characteristics are not adapted to us and
upon whose gradual Germanization we cannot rely must be
banished and their settlement must be imposed upon our oppo-
nents as a condition of peace. If we then credit the freed land,
which is more valuable to us than gold, against the war indemnity
thinly populated France would willingly accept this condition and
gladly take over any of the Walloons who desired to be French.
Also in regard to the Polish inhabitants of our present eastern
boundary so far as they do not wish to remain German, the
220 THE TREND OF THE RACE
opportunity presents itself of offering them a double area in the
'Kingdom' of Poland." And the author quotes with approval a
statement of Sontag (Archiv fur innere Kolonization, 7, H. 5)
"If the German empire needs new land adapted for settlement
in order not to let its people stifle for want of room and in order
greatly to increase the strength of its rural population, then
indeed must we take this land if a war which we are compelled to
enter upon offers us the opportunity. But and this must be the
foremost consideration in the matter new land must be made
free from a population which would detract from our national
and political character, and which would only add new trouble to
the difficulties already present in our eastern and western boun-
daries, and above all also the danger of a racial deterioration of
the mass of our own people."
Victory, according to Holle and Sontag, must not be allowed
to become sterile from the viewpoint of extending the race of the
conquerors. The much fostered persuasion of racial superiority
which appeals so powerfully to the German mind would have had
in the event of victory no small share in determining the policy of
the Germans in dealing with the peoples over whom they were
victors. Other peoples are not to be regarded as having rights to
be respected, but as so much human material of an inferior sort
who, in the interests of biological evolution, should be supplanted
by the superior blood of the Teutonic race. "A nation," says
Klaus Wagner, "even when her national and fundamental inter-
ests do not coincide with those of another nation, still must rudely
destroy this people's highest interests, must indeed remorselessly
cut off from this foreign people the means of living for the future.
It is a great powerful nation which overturns a less courageous
and degenerate people and takes its territory from it. ... The
great nation needs new territory. Therefore it must spread out
over foreign soil, and must displace strangers with the power of
the sword."
We have lived past the day when war is waged as "a grand
pastime."
THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 221
REFERENCES
Bodart, G., and Kellogg, V. L. Losses of Life in Modern Wars. Oxford Univ.
Press, 1916.
Chambers, T. Eugenics and The War. Eugen. Rev. 6, 271-290, 1915.
Copeland, E. B. War Selection in the Philippines. Sci. Mon. 3, 151-154, 1916.
Gumplowicz, L. Der Rassenkampf, 2d ed. Innsbruck, 1909.
Holle, H. G. Vom Kampf urns Dasein und seiner Redeutung fur Menschen und
Volker. Polit.-Anthrop. Monatschr. 14, 302-317, 364-376, 1915.
Hoffmann, G. von. Krieg und Rassenhygiene. Lehmann, Munich, 1916, pp. 29.
Howerth, I. W. War and the Survival of the Fittest. Sci. Mon. 3, 488-497, 1916.
Jordan, D. S. The Blood of the Nation. Am. Unitarian Ass., Boston, 1910; The
Human Harvest. Am. Unitarian Ass., Boston, 1897; War and the Breed:
the Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations. Beacon Press, Boston, 1815.
Jordan, D. S., and Jordan, H. E. War's Aftermath. Houghton, Mifflin Co.,
Boston, 1914.
Kellogg, V. L. Eugenics and Militarism. Problems of Eugenics, 220-231, 1912;
Beyond War: A Chapter in the Natural History of Man. Holt, N. Y., 1912;
The Bionomics of War. Soc. Hygiene, i, 44-52, 1914-15.
Mallet, B. Vital Statistics as Affected by the War. Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 81, 1-36,
1918.
Mitchell, P. C. Evolution and the War. J. Murray, London, 1915.
Nasmyth, G. W. Social Progress and the Darwinian Theory. Putnams, N. Y.,
1916.
Nicolai, G. F. The Biology of War. Century Co., N. Y., 1918.
Novicow, J. Les Luttes entre Socigtes Humaines et leurs Phases successives,
Paris, 1893 (ad ed. 1896); La Critique du Danvinisme Social. Alcan, Paris,
1910; War and its Alleged Benefits. Holt, N. Y., 1911 (Translation of La
Guerre et ses Pr6tendus Bienfaits, A. Colin. Paris, 1894).
Pearl, R. Biology and War. Jour. Wash. Ac. Sci. 8, 341-360, 1918.
Prinzing, F. Epidemics Resulting from Wars. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1916.
Ritter, W. E. War, Science and Civilization. Sherman, French and Co., Boston,
Roosevelt, T. Twisted Eugenics. Outlook, 106, 30, 1914.
Rott, Dr. F. Die Einwirkung des Krieges auf die Sauglingssterblichkeit und die
Saiiglingsschutzbewegung. G. Stilke, Berlin, 1915.
Savorgnan, F. La Guerra e la Populazione. Bologna, 1918.
Schallmayer, W. Der Krieg als Ziichter. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 5, 364-400, 1908.
Steinmetz, S. R. Die Philosophic des Krieges. Leipzig, 1907.
Thacker, A. G. Some Eugenic Aspects of War. Sci. Prog. 10, 73-80, 1915.
Thomson, J. A. Eugenics and the War. Eugen. Rev. 7, 1-14, 1915. Also Brit.
Med. Jour. 1915, i, 345; and West. Canada M. J. Winnipeg, 9, 260-274, 1915.
Wagner, Klaus. Krieg, Jena, 1906.
Whetham, W. C. D. War and the Race. Quarterly, 227, 17-38, 1917.
CHAPTER X
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING AND
THE DIFFERENTIAL MARRIAGE RATE
"She's that sort," declared my Emma. "When you get them slim
maidens, so quick-eared and quick-eyed as a mouse, with full lips
that move and twinkle to their thoughts, and pretty, sly, sleepy eyes,
same as Phillipa have got, then you can take it that men interest 'em
more than any created thing. And they interest men, because nothin's
so lightning quick as a man to answer that sort of a signal." Eden
Phillpotts, Chronicles of St. Tid.
As is well known Mr. Darwin attempted to explain the develop-
ment of many of the secondary sexual characters which distin-
guish the males from the females of higher animals as the result of
the action of sexual selection. This term was used by Darwin to
describe two very different kinds of selective activity; in one the
outcome was based upon the "law of battle" or the struggle
between rival males, the female falling as a matter of course to the
lot of the victor; in the other mode of selection, the female is
supposed to choose from among rival suitors the one whose
charms make the strongest appeal. The law of battle is essen-
tially a form of natural selection, although it does not as a rule
result in the actual death of the unsuccessful contestant. It offers
a very plausible explanation of the development of horns, tusks,
greater strength and various offensive and defensive features that
characterize the male sex of many animals. These endowments
are directly useful in keeping the stock of their possessors, if not
their possessors themselves, from extinction, and their develop-
ment would naturally be favored by selection. But with sexual
selection of the other type in which female volition forms an
essential element, the outcome is usually the development of
characteristics that charm the senses instead of directly aiding
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 223
the male in meeting the hazards of battle. The brilliant plumage
of male birds, their powers of song and their instincts for display-
ing their charms during courtship would probably long ago have
been eliminated by natural selection had it not been for their
appeal to the aesthetic appreciation of the females.
It is the part of Darwin's theory of sexual selection which
implies the potency of female choice which has incurred the
greatest amount of adverse criticism. It is undeniable that in
man, who is the only creature we are directly concerned with at
present, female selection is capable of operating much as Darwin
supposed it to act among less highly developed animals. How far
this fact suffices to account for the differences in the appear-
ance of the two sexes is a difficult problem. Some of these, such
as the greater size and strength of man, his broader shoulders and
the greater development of his pugnacious instincts may be in
part the result of the "law of battle" during the early stages of his
evolution, though they may be in part also the outcome of strug-
gles which had no direct relation to mating. That sexual selection
in the sense of preferential mating has played any important
part in producing the relatively hairless condition of the human
body or the development of beards in the male sex is open to grave
doubt. In fact, it would be hazardous to assert that any particu-
lar feature of either sex owes its existence wholly or even mainly
to sexual selection. Nevertheless this factor can scarcely fail to
have exerted some influence on racial development at all periods
of human history. It is perhaps safe to say that unattractive
women have always been at a discount, and that, notwithstanding
their subordinate position among primitive peoples, women have
in one way or another exercised a certain degree of choice in the
selection of their mates. Undoubtedly the rigidity of tribal
custom has greatly restricted the operation of sexual selection by
women, and in many cases practically eliminated it altogether.
Darwin, however, cites many illustrations of the fact that "with
savages the women are not in quite so abject a state in relation to
marriage as has often been supposed. They can tempt the men
whom they prefer, and can sometimes reject those whom they
224
dislike, either before or after marriage. Preference on the part of
the women, steadily acting in any one direction, would ultimately
affect the character of the tribe; for the women would generally
choose not merely the handsomest men, but those who were at
the same time best able to defend and support them. Such well-
endowed pairs would commonly rear a larger number of offspring
than the less favored. The same result would obviously follow in
a still more marked manner if there was selection on both sides,
that is, if the more attractive and powerful men were to prefer
and were preferred by the more attractive women. And this
double form of selection seems actually to have occurred, es-
pecially during the earlier periods of our long history."
Further evidence hi the same direction is adduced by Wester-
marck who cites many illustrations that support his contention.
"It would be a mistake," this author observes, "to suppose that,
among the lower races, women are, as a rule, married without
having any voice of their own in the matter. Their liberty of
selection, on the contrary, is very considerable, and, however
down- trodden, they well know how to make their influence felt"
(History of Human Marriage, p. 2 1 2). Howard (History of Matri-
monial Institutions, I, 216) states that "The facts appear to
demonstrate that woman's original liberty of selection has never
been entirely lost. It is evident that wife-purchase, though
sometimes the means of degradation, even of marital bondage, is
compatible with a high degree of matrimonial choice."
The evidence adduced by Darwin and Westermarck has been
criticised by Finck who attempts to show that female choice has
been so restricted by most uncivilized peoples that its influence
is practically a negligible factor. It is true that with child be-
trothals, marriage by purchase, or capture, the force of parental
authority, and the influence of custom, taboos, etc., woman is
commonly disposed of with as little regard to her inclinations
as if she were a cow or a sheep. Several recent studies of primitive
peoples, however, have yielded considerable evidence that sup-
ports the conclusions of Darwin and Westermarck. If there has
been a rather extensive period of our history hi which female
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 225
choice has been very greatly repressed this represents but a
temporary phase of human evolution which was probably pre-
ceded, as we know it has been followed, by a period hi which the
female sex was allowed a greater freedom in the selection of mates.
The general effect of sexual selection among savages and semi-
civilized peoples was, on the whole, probably eugenic; the men
remaining unmated were apt to be the more unattractive or less
valorous and enterprising members of the tribe, and the types
that met with tribal approval, especially the successful warriors,
often enjoyed especial facilities for transmitting their character-
istics. While primitive women, like their more civilized sisters,
were attracted by males who appealed to them as possessing
beauty, they were probably more influenced by those qualities of
strength and courage which led to supremacy in the "law of
battle." The Indian maiden in a song quoted by Mr. Schoolcraft
represents her lover as "tall and graceful as the young pine wav-
ing on the hill, and as swift in his course as the noble stately
deer. His hair is flowing and dark as the blackbird that floats
through the air And his eyes, like the eagle's, both piercing and
bright His heart it is fearless and great. And his arm it is
strong in the fight." In some tribes a man can win a wife only
after making successful trials of strength and skill. "When a
Dyak wants to marry," says Mr. Bock, "he must show himself a
hero before he can gain favor with his intended." And this is
commonly done by obtaining a number of heads from the mem-
bers of a hostile tribe.
This predilection for strong and heroic men has long been a
force making for the improvement of the race. It is not un-
common for a woman with or without her consent to be awarded
as a prize to the males who are victors in the contest for her
possession. "Sometimes," says Howard, "a fist-fight, a battle
with clubs, a duel with bows and arrows or a pulling-match settles
the claims of rival suitors; and often, as among the North Ameri-
can aborigines, the contest takes the form of wrestling for wives"
(1. c., p. 203). It is a prevalent custom for chiefs who are apt to be
men of uncommonly forcible type, to have several wives, and
226 THE TREND OF THE RACE
consequently many children. Where polygamy is permitted,
and it is a widely prevalent institution, plural wives in general
are apt to fall to the lot of the more enterprising and successful
men.
Among primitive and semi-civilized peoples there is reason
to believe that, both as a result of the law of battle and the
exercise of female choice, the stronger and more virile men were,
on the whole, more apt to transmit their qualities than under
our present civilized regime. Progress inevitably introduces many
changes in the way in which sexual selection operates. In at-
tempting to estimate how sexual selection has been affected by
our modern civilization it must be borne in mind that we have
to reckon with various tendencies which may work to produce
opposed, or at least different results. As common observation
shows, chances for marriage are considerably reduced among the
conspicuously ugly. Those with morose and unsocial dispositions
are not so apt to attract mates as the cheerful and vivacious. The
sexually attractive have an advantage over the sexually unattrac-
tive. Vitality, both in predisposing to marriage and in rendering
its possessors more acceptable to the other sex, is a quality dis-
tinctly favored by sexual as well as by natural selection. Al-
though in marriage there is fortunately a wide variation in mat-
ters of taste, there is nevertheless a broad basis of agreement upon
the peculiarities of the opposite sex that are most alluring. Quali-
ties that make a peculiar appeal to the other sex are those which
in general are the index of characteristics of racial value. As
Havelock Ellis remarks "in most countries an important and
essential element of beauty lies in the emphasis of the secondary
and tertiary sexual characters; the special character of the hair
in woman, her breasts, her lips, and innumerable other qualities
of minor saliency, but all apt to be of significance from the point
of view of sexual selection." The instinctive proclivity of man to
select characteristics which are the outward and visible signs of
qualities of importance in the perpetuation of the species has
doubtless long been a factor of importance in racial evolution and
will continue to be so long as human nature remains as it is.
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 227
The qualities which are prized in mates, and which, therefore,
tend to be developed by sexual selection, may be ascertained
without much difficulty by collecting statements of preferences
from a sufficiently large number of people to give a representative
expression of prevalent taste. The magazine, Physical Culture,
has collected expressions of opinion from its women readers as
to the qualities desired hi an ideal husband. The first requisite
was health; financial success, paternity, appearance, disposition,
education, character, housekeeping and dress followed in the
order named. The results of a similar inquiry addressed to its
male readers regarding the qualities desired in an ideal wife may
be tabulated as follows:
Requirements of an Ideal Wife According to Male Readers of Physical
Culture
Qualities Per cent
Health 23
Looks 14
Housekeeping 12
Disposition n
Maternity n
Education 10
Management 7
Dress 7
Character 5
The classification of qualities was somewhat unfortunate
and probably accounts for the small value apparently placed on
character. A statement of the matrimonial requirements of 115
young women of the Brigham Young College, a Mormon institu-
tion of Utah, showed that 86 per cent demanded that the pros-
pective husband must be morally pure; 99 per cent required that
he be mentally and physically strong, 52 per cent that he be of
the same religion as themselves, 45 per cent that he must be
taller than they, and 93 per cent that he must not smoke, chew or
drink, thereby voicing a pronounced difference of opinion from
that of Robert Louis Stevenson who declared that "no woman
228 THE TREND OF THE RACE
should marry a teetotaler, or a man who does not smoke." The
judgments of these young ladies are interesting as indicating how
far ideals of manhood may be moulded by instruction and afford
ground for hope that much may be accomplished in the direction
of eugenic improvement by inculcating the proper standards
in the minds of the young.
The potency of the appreciation of beauty and ability in the
choice of mates is indicated by the study of Miss C. F. Gilmore on
the marriages of the graduates of the Southwestern State Normal
School of Pennsylvania. The girls were graded for beauty by
impartial observers on the scale of 100. Those of grade 80 and
over had the highest marriage rate, while among the others the
marriage rate in general declined in proportion as the grade for
beauty was low. In the same school the girls of higher standing
were most chosen. There was a slight tendency for the marriage
rate to decrease with lower scholastic standing, although the girls
graded between 60 and 70 were married some what more rapidly
than the class between 70 and 80. How far these results find a
parallel elsewhere we have too little data to ascertain. It is,
a priori, probable and in accord with common observation that
the most beautiful girls are apt to be chosen as wives. Intellect in
women may be preferred in general, notwithstanding the fact
that many men set little store by this quality in the other sex, and
may even prefer an amiable sort of stupidity in their wives so
that they can enjoy a sense of their own mental superiority.
But quite aside from the attractiveness of intellect there is a
tendency for the more intellectual women to choose a celibate
career for various reasons that have been mentioned elsewhere.
Intellect influences marriage selection in two diverse ways; first,
by rendering the prospective partners more attractive, and
second, by making its possessors more independent and particular
in the choice of a mate, or, through affording other interests,
diminishing the inclination toward married life. Intellect in men
tends to be selected by women, and intellectual men are not as
a class markedly indisposed to marry. However, they tend
to marry relatively late in life, and the effect of this on
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 229
the race is the same as if they were chosen with relative
infrequency.
Sexual selection in the strict Darwinian sense has been distin-
guished by Pearson from another form of selection which is
termed assortative mating. The former he designates as prefer-
ential mating. "If we wish to discuss," he says, "whether
preferential mating with regard to any organ or character is
taking place in a given form of life, we must investigate whether
the type and variability of the mated and tmmated members of
one or the other sex are the same. If they are not, then sexual
selection in the form of preferential mating is undoubtedly at
work." Pearson has shown us from data collected by Francis
Gal ton that light-eyed people marry more frequently than dark-
eyed. There is thus a preferential mating in man. "Whether the
preference arises from greater sex instincts or from the aesthetic
sense is immaterial from the standpoint of evolution, however
interesting from the moral or social standpoint."
Assortative mating is the union of like with like. It may occur
where the mated and the unmated do not differ in the average
development of any characteristic, or where all the individuals
become mated. The few studies of assortative mating in man
have shown, contrary to popular impression, that there is a
tendency of persons of like characteristics to marry. Fol by a
study of 251 photographs of young and old married couples
concluded that in the majority of cases (66.7 per cent in the
young and 71.7 per cent in the old) the parties were similar
instead of dissimilar. Galton's early studies (Natural Inheritance)
failed to show that people were much influenced in marriage by
similarities in stature, temper and artistic tastes. The mating of
couples with similar eye color was somewhat more frequent than
would be produced through mere chance unions. In his later
studies of the parents of English men of science Galton showed
that hi temperament and color of eyes and hair the parents
showed a notable similarity. From more extensive data Pearson
has shown that light-eyed men tend to marry light-eyed women
more than dark-eyed, and that dark-eyed men tend to marry
2 3 o THE TREND OF THE RACE
dark-eyed women more than light-eyed. In stature the tendency
to assortative mating was marked; the tall tend to marry with
tall, the short with short, and the intermediate with intermediate.
H. Ellis has added confirmatory evidence of assortative mating of
people of similar stature. He found that people tend to marry
those similar to themselves in complexion, although the number of
cases considered was too small to base a positive conclusion upon.
There is evidence that the tuberculous tend to marry the tubercu-
lous, due in part probably to the influences that bring them to-
gether in the same localities, and in part to a natural sympathy
which draws them together, and also to the fact that they are less
liable to be chosen by normal and healthy persons. That the
deaf tend to marry the deaf, as has been shown by Fay and Bell,
is due largely to the segregation of these people hi institutions,
although the two other causes we have just mentioned may also
be influential upon those who remain scattered among the general
population.
One of the most unfortunate kinds of assortative mating in
man, as has been pointed out in a previous chapter, is the unusual
frequency of marriages among the feeble-minded and degenerate.
The unattractive physical and temperamental qualities which
would be a bar to mating among people of higher grade are not so
potent a deterrent to matrimony or at least to a union of the sexes
among inferior stocks. What data have been collected on the
proportion of married people of marriageable age among the
Jukes indicate that there are relatively more of them married than
among people in general. In this family as in the Kallikaks,
Zeroes, Nams, and Hill Folk early marriages were customary. Of
the Hill Folk Danielson and Davenport remark that, "The large
majority of the matings which are represented in this report are of
defectives with defectives. A few of those who have drifted into
a different part of the country have married persons of a higher
degree of intelligence, but the most of such wanderers have, even
in a new location, found mates who were about their equal in
intelligence and ambition." This condition is typical of similar
families.
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 231
Passing to people of a higher grade it may be said that medioc-
rity tends to mate with mediocrity and that superior types
tend to select their mates among the superior. Common stand-
ards, agreement in tastes and similar educational attainments,
doubtless have a marked effect in bringing about unions between
those of similar inherent endowments. By thus limiting mar-
riages to certain castes assortative mating tends to bring about
the differentiation of the race into a number of divergent stocks.
Whether it conduces to racial advance 'or the reverse depends
upon various accessory circumstances. Per se it is a condition of
divergence rather than racial improvement. Naturally the
character of the race would be very markedly affected by varia-
tions in the frequency of age of marriage in the castes which
assortative mating tends to create. Among the intellectual
classes, while we meet with the tendency of like to mate with like,
we find the frequency of marriage much reduced, and the age of
marriage increased. Data previously cited in the discussion of
differential fecundity indicate a lamentably low marriage rate
among college women. This is probably due to several causes,
among which may be mentioned the higher qualifications which
the college woman demands of the man she marries, her greater
financial independence, and therefore the less temptation to
marry for support; and to some extent, as some writers have
pointed out, the fact that unattractive women may be more apt
to go to college than their more favored sisters. While some may
take a college course because they do not marry or are not likely
to marry, I think that most people connected with educational
institutions for several years will agree that the proportion of this
class has materially diminished in the last two decades.
The situation revealed by Miss H. D. Murphy's study of the
women of Washington Seminary is typical. The decrease of
marriage rates and the increase of careers other than home mak-
ing which women follow are shown in the following table:
232 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Proportions of Graduates who Marry
(From Popenoe and Johnson's Applied Eugenics)
Decade of graduation '45 '55 '65 '75 '85 '95 'oo
Per cent married 78 74 67 72 59 57 55
Per cent not in home-making
occupations 20 13 12 n 30 30 39
Miss Shinn (Century, Oct., 1895) gives the following data on
the marriage rates of college women assuming graduation at
the average age of 22:
Marriage Rates of College Graduates.
Age Coeducated Separate
25 38.1 29.6
3 49-9 : 40-1
35 53-6 46 . 6
4 56.9 51.8
It may be said that about 50 per cent of college women remain
unmarried. It is apparently true that women of superior intellect
and force of character are those who, whether college women or
not, are pretty apt to be selected for spinsterhood. They are
more likely to win positions which permit them to enjoy the
comforts and many of the luxuries of life; they develop other
interests which often detract from the appeal to matrimony.
In some cases they lose a certain feminine charm, a misfortune
that arouses a deep-seated instinctive recoil in the opposite sex.
There can be no doubt that the race is losing a vast wealth of
material for motherhood of the best and most efficient type.
Many of the women who are nowadays most prone to sacrifice
motherhood to a "career" are just the ones upon whom the obli-
gation of motherhood should rest with the greatest weight. It
may be seriously doubted if the growing independence of women,
despite its many advantages, has proven an unmixed blessing.
Thus far it has worked to deteriorate the race in the interests of
social advancement, a process which is bound to be disastrous in
the long run.
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 233
That the marriage rate and the average age of marriage vary
considerably according to the social and economic status is a
fact the racial influence of which naturally depends upon what
degree of correlation exists between the social and economic
position of different classes and their heritable qualities. Those
who believe that there is no such correlation or that it is insignif-
icant in amount will consider that it makes little difference so far
as the innate qualities of the race are concerned how marriage
rates or birth rates are distributed among the different classes of
the population. There is much reason to believe, as I have al-
ready contended, that the inherited endowments of human beings
constitute, in the long run, a potent factor in determining the
place they occupy in our social organization, and if this is true,
the marriage rates of different classes becomes a matter of much
interest in regard to our biological development. Bertillon has
furnished some data on the relation between the marriage rate
and economic status in Paris, Berlin and Vienna. These are
presented in the following table which gives the number of mar-
riages per 1,000 of unmarried men of over 20 and of women of
over 15 years of age:
Urban Marriage Rates According to Economic Status
Character of District
Paris
1886-95
Berlin
1886-95
Vienna
1891-97
Men
Women
Very poor
29.1
27.9
24.7
24-5
21.
21. I
44.0
44-4
36.3
26.5
26.0
20.5
90.1
80.6
84.0
71.6
$6.6
43-4
67.0
52.7
48.9
40.7
28.7
19.1
Poor
Well off
Very well off
Rich
Very rich
For several reasons this table constitutes only a rough approxi-
mation to the true relation between marriage and economic
234
THE TREND OF THE RACE
status, but the general tendency it exhibits is in harmony with
much other evidence.
The average ages of the first marriage in different classes in
Copenhagen for the years 1878-1882 are given by Rubin and
Westergaard as follows:
Age of Marriage According to Occupation in Copenhagen
Men
Women
Officials, Merchants
12 2
26 ^
Artizans, Shopkeepers
2T 2
27 6
Teachers
2Q 7
26 s
Lower Officials
28 o
26.8
Laborers..
27 ^
26 8
The diverse tendencies exhibited in sexual selection among
human beings render it difficult to estimate the nature of its
influence. There has been no comprehensive study in any
community of the eugenic worth of those who marry as compared
with those who do not marry. Such a study in several communi-
ties of different social and economic levels would doubtless yield
results of much interest and value. We know that many persons
remain unmarried on account of various forms of congenital
inferiority or defect both in mind and body. It is probable that
a much larger proportion of our population are coming to remain
unmarried because they wish to be economically independent, or
free to follow their own lines of interest, or because their ideals of
a life partner are so high that they have never found the person
whom they would consent to marry. Are the fine types of hu-
manity who now remain single compensated for by those whose
natural inferiority or undesirability prevents them from marry-
ing? There is little evidence that such is the case. At present
it is very doubtful if the net result of sexual selection is in the
direction of racial improvement. 1
1 "The marrying class is nowadays the class that lacks the physiological qual-
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 235
But whatever may be its present shortcomings sexual selection
is an evolutionary factor of magnificent possibilities. It affords
perhaps the readiest method for a group to realize its eugenic
ideals. Alfred Russell Wallace believes that when economic
reforms do away with the present temptation for women to marry
in order to secure subsistence and a home the standard of mar-
riage selection will be greatly raised. "The idle or the utterly
selfish would be almost universally rejected; the chronically
diseased or the weak in intellect would also usually remain
unmarried, at least till an advanced period of life, while those who
showed any tendency to insanity or exhibited any congenital
deformity would also be rejected by the younger women, because
it would be considered an offense against society to be the means
of perpetuating any such diseases or imperfections." Women,
Wallace contends, are now driven to marry "men who are pal-
pably unjust, stupid or weak," and that "it may be taken as
certain, therefore, than when women are economically and so-
cially free to choose, numbers of the worst men among all classes
who now readily obtain wives will be almost certainly rejected"
One would like to be able to share Wallace's sanguine hopes
of the eugenic potency of economic reform. Perhaps his chival-
rous championship of oppressed woman has prevented him from
giving due weight to the existence of the idle, worthless and selfish
members of the weaker sex who, in an improved economic regime,
would probably find no greater difficulty than they do at present
in attaching themselves to some unfortunate male. Both the
worthless and the worthy tend to mate with their own kind, and
they would doubtless continue to do so under any economic sys-
tem that could be devised. It is not so much economic reform
per se that would improve marriage selection, as the greater
diffusion of education, and the elevation of the ethical standards
of the mass of the people. The amelioration of economic abuses
ifications for parentage. The better-paid, well-nourished, provident artizans are
marrying later in life, and producing fewer offspring than the slum natives. Profes-
sional men, doctors, solicitors, clergymen, authors, artists, teachers and brain-
workers are forced in large numbers to defer wedlock till middle age, or even later."
Gallichan, The Great Unmarried, p. 41.
236 THE TREND OF THE RACE
might facilitate greatly the attainment of this goal, but it would
take much more than economic reform to bring about the change
in our outlook and ideals that would be required to inaugurate a
greatly improved type of sexual selection.
REFERENCES
Assortative Mating in Man. A Cooperative Study. Biometrica, 2, 482-498, 1903.
Bliss, G. I. The Influence of Marriage on the Death-Rate of Men and Women.
Publ. Am. Stat. Ass. 14, 54-61, 1914.
Blumer, J. C. Marriage Rate of Iowa State College Women. Jour. Heredity, 8,
217, 1917.
Castle, C. S. A Statistical Study of Eminent Women. Arch. Psych. 27, 1913;
Statistics of Eminent Women. Pop. Sci. Mon. 82, 593-611, 1913.
Collet, C. E. Prospects of Marriage for Women, igth Cent. 31, 537-552,
1892.
Darwin, C. R. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. ist ed. 1871,
Part 3, Sexual Selection in Relation to Man.
Davenport, C. B. State Laws Limiting Marriage Selection. Bull. Eugen. Rec.
Off., 9, 1913.
Ellis, H. H. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Sexual Selection in Man, 1905;
Studies, etc., Sex in Relation to Society. Philadelphia, 1910.
Finck, H. T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan Co., London and
N. Y., 1887; Primitive Love and Love Stories. Scribner's Sons, N. Y., 1899.
Fol., H. La Ressemblance entre Epoux. Rev. Scientif. 47, 47-49, 1891.
Gallichan, W. M. The Great Unmarried. F. A. Stokes, N. Y., 1913.
Haecke, H. Die Ehelosen, eine bevolkerungs-und sozialstatistische Betrachtung.
Jahrb. f. Nationalokon. u. Statist. Ill Folge, 42, 1-32, 1911.
Harris, J. A. Assortative Mating in Man. Pop. Sci. Mon. 80, 476-493, 1912.
Hartley, C. G. The Position of Women in Primitive Society. E. Nash., London,
1914.
Johnson, R. H. Marriage Selection. Jour. Hered. 5, 102-110, 1914.
Marvin, D. M. Occupational Propinquity as a Factor in Marriage Selection.
Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 16, 131-150, 1918.
Nisbet, J. F. Marriage and Heredity. Ward and Downey, London, 1903.
Pearson, K. Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of Evolution, III. Regres-
sion, Heredity and Panmixia. Phil. Trans. 187, 253-318, 1896, and VIII. On
the Inheritance of Characters not Capable of Exact Measurement, 1. c. 195,
79-150, 1901. See also Proc. Roy. Soc. 66, 23-33, 1900.
Prinzing, F. Heiratshaufigkeit und Heiratsalter nach Stand und Beruf. Zeit. f.
Sozialwiss. 6, 546-559, 1903; Die Sterblichkeit der Ledigen und der Ver-
heirateten nebst Sterbetafeln derselben berechnet fiir Bayern. Allgemeines
stat. Archiv. 5, 237-262, 1899.
Rubin, M. and Westergaard, H. Statistik der Ehen auf Grund der sozialen Glied-
erung. Jena, 1890.
Shinn, M. Marriage of College Women. Century, 50, 946-948, 1895.
SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 237
Smith, M. R. Statistics of College and Non-college Women. Pubs. Am. Stat.
Ass. 7, 1-26, IQOO.
Snow, E. C. Selection and Assortative Mating. Brit. Med. Jour. 1912, i, 836.
Stanley, H. M. Our Civilization and the Marriage Problem. Arena, 2, 94-100,
1800; Artificial Selection and the Marriage Problem. The Monist, 2, 51-55,
1891-92.
Steinmetz, S. R. Feminismus und Rasse. Zeit. f. Socialwiss., 1904.
Strahan, S. A. K. Marriage and Disease. Appleton and Co., N. Y. 1892.
Swift, M. I. Marriage and Race Death. The M. I. Swift Press, N. Y. 1906.
Thwing, C. F. What Becomes of College Women. North Am. Rev. 161, 546-553,
1895.
Wallace, A. R. Human Selection. Fortnightly, London. 48, n. s. (or 54 old s.)
325-337, 1890; Social Environment and Moral Progress. Cassell and Co.,
London, 1913.
Westermarck, E. A. The History of Human Marriage. Macmilan Co., 2nd ed.,
London, 1894.
Wright, J. F. Marriage Relationship in the Tribe of Ishmael. Proc. Nat. Conf.
Char, and Corr. 1890, 435-437, 1890.
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES AND
MISCEGENATION
"We are coming honestly to believe that the world is richer for the
existence both of other civilizations and of other racial types than our
own. . . . Even if we look at the future of the species as a matter of
pure biology, we are warned by men of science that it is not safe to
depend only on one family or one variety for the whole breeding-stock
of the world. For the moment we shrink from the interbreeding of
races, but we do so in spite of some conspicuous examples of successful
interbreeding in the past, and largely because of our complete ig-
norance of the conditions on which success depends." Graham Wal-
las, Human Nature and Politics, pp. 293, 294.
THE peoples of the earth have followed the most varied customs
in regard to marriage. From extreme inbreeding we have all
gradations to the crossing of distinct races. Among savage and
barbarous peoples the practice of exogamy, or marriage outside
the tribe, is very prevalent. In general, we find that marriages
between near' relatives are forbidden, and often the prohibition
goes farther and includes those bearing the same name or belong-
ing to a group which may be specified in various other ways.
Such prohibitions are not due to any instinctive repugnance to
incest, certainly no such instinct occurs in the lower animals,
nor is it reasonable to suppose, as has sometimes been done, that
they arose from the observed ill effects of consanguineous unions.
The effect of marriages among near kin is a matter about which
qualified students of genetics have come to different opinions, and
it is hardly probable that primitive peoples have been able to
arrive at valid conclusions on a subject that requires for its
solution a refinement of inductive method which is quite alien to
the thinking of untrained men.
Among plants and animals the effects of inbreeding and cross
breeding have long attracted the attention of breeders. The
238
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 239
subject enlisted the interest of Mr. Darwin who devoted to it
several years of study. By an extensive series of well-planned and
controlled experiments Darwin showed that in many plants con-
tinued inbreeding was followed by a reduction of the size, vigor
and fertility of the stock, and that crosses with related varieties
often led to the production of forms with greater vigor than either
of the parents. In fact, many plants were found to be sterile when
fertilized with their own pollen, although others, such as beans,
are regularly self-pollinated. The numerous mechanical and
other devices by means of which plants effect cross fertilization,
were interpreted as adaptations developed by natural selection
for securing the advantages which crossing was supposed to
confer. "Nature," says Darwin, "abhors perpetual self-fertili-
zation."
Among animals, cross fertilization is more common than in
plants. Male and female sex organs are more frequently borne by
separate individuals, but even where hermaphroditism exists, it
is an exceedingly rare occurrence for eggs to be fertilized by sperm
cells from the same animal. With the exception of some of the
Protozoa, we do not meet with that close inbreeding which is
found in a considerable number of species of plants.
"When," says Darwin, "we consider the various facts now
given which plainly show that good follows from crossing, and less
plainly that evil follows from close interbreeding, and when we
bear in mind that throughout the organic world elaborate provi-
sion has been made for the occasional union of distinct individuals,
the evidence of a great law of nature is, if not proved, at least
rendered in the highest degree probable; namely, that the crossing
of animals and plants which are not closely related to each other
is highly beneficial or even necessary, and that interbreeding
prolonged during many generations is highly injurious."
When we observe the inbreeding of plants and animals we
cannot fail to be impressed by the varied results which are found
in different forms. In many plants continued self-pollination is
followed by rapid deterioration. Shull and also East and Hayes
in experimenting with inbred varieties of corn found that there
240 THE TREND OF THE RACE
was a general decrease of productivity in successive generations.
When two deteriorated inbred strains were crossed the yield
was generally markedly increased. In order to insure the great-
est production in corn it is necessary to use seed that results from
the crossing of different strains.
In tobaccos which are commonly self-pollinated the effects of
crossing are much more variable. In the cross between Nicotiana
tabacum and N. sylvestris East and Hayes found that the FI hy-
brids were superior to the parents in height, vigor and profusion
of flowers, although they were sterile. Crosses between some
tobaccos resulted in small, weak plants, and crosses between
others were entirely without result. In fact the tobaccos present
almost every gradation between negative results and a greatly
enhanced vigor of progeny.
There are many plants, such as our garden peas and beans, in
which the opportunity for self-pollination is normally excluded,
which propagate indefinitely without deterioration. Others re-
produce parthenogenetically or propagate by purely vegetative
methods without any apparent loss of vigor. In such species
crosses may produce plants of increased size and sometimes
greater fertility, or the reverse, according to the particular kinds
used. While it is a very general fact that crossing of related
varieties produces superior types, the rule is very far from being
a universal law.
Most breeders of animals have held that close inbreeding,
while of value for the preservation or the enhancement of desired
qualities, tends to produce a deterioration of the stock. The
experiments of Crampe, Ritzima Bos, Weismann, von Guaita
and Fabre-Domengue afforded support to the commonly accepted
opinions of the practical breeder. These results, however, should
be accepted with caution in the light of more recent investigations.
The work of Castle and his pupils on the fruit fly Drosophila
showed that brother and sister matings could be carried on for
59 generations without loss of fertility, although the crossing of
two inbred strains produced a more fertile progeny. Moenk-
haus found that within a closely inbred strain of Drosophila,
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 241
fertility could be increased as well as decreased by selective breed-
ing. Some of the lines were inbred (brother and sister) for 75
generations without loss of fertility or vigor. The work of
Shultze and of Copeman and Parsons on mice, of Castle on rats
(bred for 17 generations), and the observations on guinea pigs
reported by Popenoe revealed no evidence of a decline of fer-
tility as a result of inbreeding.
The most thorough investigation of inbreeding has been
carried on by Miss H. D. King with the albino rat. The work of
Miss King revealed several sources of error that have to be
guarded against in a study of inbreeding and which not improb-
ably misled some previous investigators of the subject. Without
describing the methods and precautions followed by Miss King,
it may be stated that 25 generations of such close inbreeding as
brother and sister matings did not produce any loss in the vigor,
growth, or fertility of the inbred strains as compared with the
controls.
The rediscovery of Mendel's law in 1900 stimulated renewed
interest in the problems of inbreeding and cross breeding, and led
to attempts to interpret the varied results in terms of this illum-
inating principle. The usual explanation given is that inbreeding
is injurious only when it brings out unfavorable characteristics
that have been latent in the stock. Naturally, inbreeding affords
an opportunity for recessive characters to make their appearance.
If, for instance, such a recessive trait as albinism is present in a
stock, it may be brought out by inbreeding. Davenport remarks
that "Albino communities of which there are several in the
United States are inbred communities, but not all inbred com-
munities contain albinos."
Many strains contain recessive characteristics of an undesirable
kind. So long as these are kept from appearing by the presence of
corresponding dominant characteristics all goes well. But when
two organisms are crossed in each of which the recessive trait
occurs, we should expect the trait to appear in one-fourth of the
offspring. In the different varieties of corn there are probably
many factors upon which size, vigor and fertility depend. Most
2 4 2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
recessive factors, are prevented from becoming manifest owing to
the cross pollination that usually occurs. When self-fertilization
takes place these recessive factors have an opportunity to find
expression. With continued self-fertilization the strain becomes
homozygous for more and more factors, until finally a condition is
reached with complete homozygosis in which no further deterio-
ration results. In corn much more deterioration occurs in some
varieties than in others. This is what one would expect according
to the Mendelian interpretation, inasmuch as the characters for
which the strain comes to be homozygous would vary in different
cases. 1
Inbreeding in forms containing no recessive factors that make
for reduced vigor would, according to this interpretation, produce
no ill effects. Inbreeding does not cause defect; it simply brings
out latent defect when it occurs in both parents. Whether or
not inbreeding is followed by inferior progeny depends, therefore,
upon the composition of the germ plasm of the inbred stock.
If the stock is good it not only produces no degeneracy, but
affords a means of perpetuating valuable qualities, and it becomes
especially useful when the desired qualities are recessive.
The usual Mendelian interpretation of the results of inbreeding
and cross breeding which has been briefly outlined affords a
plausible explanation, so far as it goes, of the diverse results
obtained, and is supported by other lines of evidence which we
shall not here attempt to discuss.
1 Keeble and Pellew have attempted to explain the fact that heterozygosis is
commonly associated with increased vigor, by assuming that there are more dom-
inant factors present in the heterozygous state. The results of heterozygosis are
doubtless dependent not merely on the number of different factors present, but
upon their quality and the nature of then- interactions. If recent investigations
throw doubt on the doctrine of senescence and the theory of rejuvenescence,
several problems in regard to inbreeding and cross breeding still remain obscure.
From the standpoint of vigor and fertility we can only say that some crosses are
good, soma are bad and others indifferent. While Mendel's law may have brought
us nearer the explanation of why these diverse results occur, the final solution of
the problem must await further research. See also the discussions of this topic
in East and Jones' Inbreeding and Outbreeding (Phila., 1919) which appeared after
the above was written.
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 243
In the light of what is known of the effects of inbreeding and
cross breeding in plants and animals it is obvious that we are not
in a position to draw conclusions a priori in regard to inbreeding
and cross breeding in man. In the absence of direct observations
on the effect of crossing of any two races of human beings, we
might expect as a probable result that, in regard to general vigor,
(i) the progeny would be superior to both parents, (2) that they
would be inferior to both, (3) that they would be superior to the
one and inferior to the other, or (4) that they would be on the
same general level as either one. We might predict with some
assurance what would be the probable outcome as to the inheri-
tance of eye color, hair color and some other characters whose
mode of transmission has been studied in other cases. But con-
cerning most of the qualities that render one race superior to
another we should be justified in making only very guarded
suppositions.
The results of inbreeding and cross breeding in man present a
general similarity to those observed in plants and animals. They
may reasonably be interpreted according to the Mendelian
scheme, although this circumstance might not enable us to say
whether, in general, they are desirable or the reverse. In regard
to the effect of consanguineous marriages especially, there has
accumulated a large number of observations. It is an undoubted
fact that such matings have frequently been followed by the
appearance of undesirable characteristics in the offspring. But in
weighing the evidence on this point one has to guard against being
unduly impressed by facts which have been especially selected to
support a particular thesis. Numerous cases have been reported
in which various defects have been associated with consanguin-
eous matings. It would be possible, however, to amass many
instances of this kind even if consanguinity had nothing to do
with the production of defect. With this caveat in mind let us
consider this possible influence of consanguinity in bringing to
light certain hereditary traits.
The role of consanguinity in bringing forth feeble-minded off-
spring has been discussed by many authors who have reported
244
THE TREND OF THE RACE
most diverse results. Huth has compiled the following table from
several writers who have given the percentage of consanguinity
among the parents of idiotic offspring:
Feeble-Minded Offspring from Consanguineous Marriages
Observers
Total No. of
Feeble-Minded
Cases
No. Derived for
Consanguineous
Marriage
Percentage
Gralhaus
1.388
C2
3 8
Howe
7 CO
17 (or 20)
4. 7 (or c.O
Down
852
60
7 -O
Ireland
213
18
8.;
Comm. of Conn
1 60
20
12 C
Bemiss
IC..O
Mitchell
CIO
08
18.1
The fluctuations in these data do not prove the contention of
Huth that the statistics are entirely worthless. They are what
one would expect in the light of Mendelian theory. And there is
nothing surprising in the results obtained by Dr. Voisin who
found, as the result of a careful examination of 1,077 f n ^ s
patients at Bicetre and Saltpetreiere, that in no one instance
could healthy consanguinity be regarded as a cause of idiocy,
epilepsy or insanity. The same observer reports on an isolated
community at Batz in which there were five cousin marriages and
31 second cousin marriages with no malformations or mental de-
fects. Howe, on the other hand, found among the parents of 359
idiots, 17 and possibly 20 cases of consanguineous marriages.
These consanguineous parents, several of whom were scrofulous
and intemperate, produced 95 children "of whom 44 were idiotic,
12 others were scrofulous, i was dead and i was a dwarf." The
percentage of idiots given in the table as the findings of Bemiss
rests upon an inference not very well supported by the facts.
Out of 833 consanguineous marriages he found that 7.8 per cent
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 245
of the children were feeble-minded, while out of 125 ordi-
nary marriages the feeble-minded children were only 0.7 per
cent.
Consanguineous marriages were found by Estabrook and Dav-
enport to constitute nearly a quarter of all the matings of the
Nam family. Many of the inbred lines of this notorious stock pro-
duced a high percentage of feeble-minded offspring. The same
is true of the Kallikaks and other families with a large amount of
mental defect. It is undeniable that in such cases the marriage
of relatives is apt to produce unfortunate results.
The role of consanguinity in the production of deaf -mutism has
been studied especially by Fay and Bell. The precise mode of
transmission of congenital deafness is not known. It is appar-
ently recessive, but nevertheless the marriage of two congenital
deaf mutes produces only about 25 per cent, instead of 100 per
cent, of deaf offspring. This may be at least formally explained
by assuming that deafness is often the result of different factors
in different strains. Fay found that marriages of deaf mute
relatives produced 30 per cent of deaf offspring, and that 45
per cent of the matings produced at least one deaf child. Bell on
the basis of the U. S. census returns estimates that "of the 2,527
deaf whose parents were cousins, 632, or 25 per cent, are congeni-
tally deaf, of whom 350 or 55.41 per cent also have deaf relatives
of the classes specified; while among the 53,980 whose parents
were not so related the number of congenitally deaf is 3,666 or
but 6.8 per cent, of whom only 1,023, or 27.9 per cent have deaf
relatives." 1
As Davenport states "If one partner be congenitally deaf and
the other have no ear defect and knows none in his family the
chances for deaf offspring are small. In 72 such marriages con-
sidered by Fay only 5 resulted in deaf offspring. It is quite likely
1 For an interesting attempt to interpret congenital deafness as a simple Mende-
lian character see H. Lundborg, Ueber die Erblichkeitsverhaltnisse der konstitu-
tionellen (hereditaren) Taubstummheit. Arch. f. Rass. Ges. Biol. 9, 133-149, 1912.
Further discjssion by the same author will be found in the new journal tlereditas,
Vol. i, 35-40, 1920. See also Bergh, E. Studier over dovstumheten i Malmohus
Ian. M. D. thesis, Stockholm, 1919.
246 THE TREND OF THE RACE
that in some even of these five matings the normal parent had
unknown deaf relatives. But if the hearing partner have deaf
relatives then the proportion of resulting fraternities containing
deaf mutes increases to 35 per cent."
Huth who has made a very useful compilation of data on the
subject has tabulated returns from 52 institutions or observers
with percentages of deaf mutes of consanguineous origin varying
from o to 34.4, but with a general average of over 5 per cent in
33 cases, of 10 per cent or over in 21 cases, and 25 per cent or
over in 6 cases. Although the variability of these results was
used as an argument against the role of consanguineous marriages
per se in the production of deafness, the data show that this defect
arises from such marriages in an unusually large number of in-
stances.
The problem of the inheritance of deaf -mutism, like that of the
transmission of feeble-mindedness, epilepsy and insanity, is com-
plicated by the as yet insufficiently known influence of syphilis.
Dr. Kerr Love has attempted to separate cases of syphilitic origin
by the use of the Wassermann reaction. It is only by eliminating
such cases, as well as those caused early in life, that the real mode
by which deafness is transmitted can be revealed.
Where people form inbreeding communities different traits are
apt to become prevalent in different localities. According to
Davenport, "consanguinity on Martha's Vineyard results in n
per cent deaf mutes and a number of hermaphrodites; in Point
Judith in 13 per cent idiocy and 7 per cent insanity; in an island
off the Maine Coast the consequence is intellectual dullness; in
Block Island loss of fecundity; in some of the 'Banks' off the
coast of North Carolina, suspiciousness, and an inability to pass
beyond the third or fourth grade of school; in a peninsula on the
east coast of Chesapeake Bay the defect is dwarf ness of stature;
in George Island and Abaco (Bahama Islands) it is idiocy and
blindness (G. A. Penrose, 1905). There is no one trait that re-
sults from the marriage of kin; the result is determined by the
specific defect in the germ plasm of the common ancestor."
Such evils of inbreeding as have been discussed may be re-
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 247
garded as the inevitable consequence of Mendel's law of inheri-
tance. Where a defect is inherited by two parents from a common
ancestor their union is naturally followed by the production of
the defect in question. It may be seriously doubted if inbreeding
does more than this or is ever strictly speaking the cause of defect
of any kind; it simply makes manifest defects that are already in
the germ plasm.
It must not be forgotten that if inbreeding sometimes brings
out undesirable qualities it may also conserve good , ones. A
conspicuous example of a consanguineous marriage which was
productive of most fortunate results is afforded by the marriage
of Charles Darwin with his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood. The
Wedgewoods, like the Darwins, belonged to a noteworthy family.
Josiah Wedgewood the founder of the works that make the well-
known Wedgewood pottery was a F. R. S. as was also the cele-
brated Erasmus Darwin. All of Darwin's sons became celebrated
for their intellectual achievements and are noteworthy for being
unusually able and normal types of men.
A good deal of close intermarrying has occurred in the Walcotts,
Edwards, and other old New England families who have produced
many of our most able men. Consanguineous marriages have
probably been a means of conserving superior ability hi some of
the royal families of Europe, although in others they have served
to bring out a neuropathic inheritance. 1
The effect of crosses between different races and peoples has
been the subject of no end of discussion. Naturalists, historians,
anthropologists, travelers, missionaries, and casual observers of
all descriptions have contributed to swell the volume of literature
which has been accumulating on this subject since the days of the
author of Leviticus. Even the most competent observers have
come to opposed conclusions, and it is not rare to find the same
mongrel race spoken of by different writers in quite contradictory
terms. No one can read much of the literature on race crossing
1 That cousin marriages in England are no more harmful than ordinary mar-
riages is indicated by the statistical investigations of George Darwin (Jour. Roy.
Stat. Soc. 38, 153-182, 1875.)
248 THE TREND OF THE RACE
without being impressed with the fact that prejudice and precon-
ceived opinions have greatly influenced the verdict of a large
proportion of those who have dealt with the problem. It is no
easy matter in most cases to distinguish the effects of race cross-
ing per se from the influence of the social environment under
which the cross breed lives. The product of race mixture is very
frequently a person of unsettled social status. He is more or less
alienated from both races from which he sprang. His associations
are only two frequently with the worst elements of the more culti-
vated stock. The family environment and traditions under
which he is brought up are often less favorable than they are for
the offspring of either pure race. Contact between whites and
natives has effected the debauchery of the native women, in-
creased addiction to alcohol, and the introduction of tubuculosis
and other diseases which are apt to be especially severe upon the
inferior race. The spread of venereal diseases with the most
deplorable influence upon the native and mixed population is an
occurrence which has been repeated almost times without number
wherever civilized man has mingled with more primitive peoples.
Where race mixture occurs old customs which form the chief
restraining influence on conduct become broken up; tribal feeling
and character are weakened, and moral laxity naturally follows.
The saddest pages of history are those which deal with the
relations of the white man with his less enlightened brethren.
The whites may have introduced missionaries, salvation, and a
measure of education, but they have also brought syphilis, de-
bauchery, industrial slavery and not infrequently extinction.
There can be little doubt that the shortcomings frequently
attributed to mongrel stocks are the result of causes quite inde-
pendent of heredity. Nevertheless, nothing is more common
than to find the defects and vices as well as the virtues of mixed
races attributed to the influence of race mixture per se. An opin-
ion on race mixture which is frequently appealed to is that of
Prof. Agassiz who says, in speaking of the mixed population of
Brazil, "Let any one who doubts the evil of this mixture of races,
and is inclined from mistaken philanthropy to break down all
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 249
barriers between them, come to Brazil. He cannot deny the
deterioration consequent upon the amalgamation of races, more
wide spread here than in any country in the world, and which is
rapidly effacing the best qualities of the white man, the negro,
and the Indian, leaving a mongrel, nondescript type, deficient in
physical and mental energy."
Schultz in speaking of race mixture in Peru says, "The degen-
eration there is even greater and has been more rapid than in
the other South American countries and the cause is the infusion
of Chinese blood into the veins of the white-negro-Indian com-
pound. There are scarcely any Indo-Europeans of pure blood in
Peru, for with the exception of pure Indians in the interior the
population consists of mestizos, Zambos, mulattoes, terceroons,
quadroons, cholos, musties, fustics and dusties; crosses between
Spaniards and Indians, Spaniards and negroes, Spaniards and
yellows; crosses between these people and the cholos, musties
and dusties; crosses between mongrels of one kind and mongrels
of other kinds. All kinds of cross breeds infest the land. The
result is incredible rottenness." In all the great South American
melting pot and also in Mexico and Central America we meet
with much the same situation.
Schultz's book (Race or Mongrel?} is a plea for racial purity.
The downfall of nations which has bee a explained in so many
different ways is accounted for in this volume as a result of hy-
bridization. Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Egyptians and Lom-
bards have all been destroyed by the admixture of foreign blood.
"Nature suffers no mongrel to live." Only the pure races thrive
and attain a high degree of development.
Lapouge speaking of race crosses tells us that "En general,
les resultats de ces unions n'ont rien d'avantageux. Laideur,
vulgarite, manque de vigueur, moindre duree de vie, tares phys-
iques nombreuses, nos sang-meles ont tout centre eux." Mr.
Madison Grant hi a recent work (The Passing of the Great Race]
which has attracted considerable attention, represents the racial
hybrid as no higher than the lower race from which he sprang.
"The cross between a white man and an Indian is an Indian;
250 THE TREND OF THE RACE
the cross between a white man and a negro is a negro, the cross
between a white man and a Hindu is a Hindu, and the cross be-
tween any of the three European races and a Jew is a Jew."
The unfortunate cross breed has come in for condemnation
from all quarters. The favorite description is that the mongrel
inherits the vices of both parents and the virtues of neither. Ac-
cording to Schultz, it is according to a "law of nature," although
why it is so is inexplicable, that "only the bad qualities of the
whites and the negro are transmitted to the mongrel offspring."
Certainly the results of hybridization in plants and animals are
very far from proving Schultz's thesis. And it is rather surprising
that a writer who appeals to biology as affording a support to his
views on race mixture should have ignored so much that fails to
corroborate his theory. It is nonsense to say that the inferiority
of the hybrid exemplifies a law of nature. There are abundant
plant and animal hybrids that are superior types, and biology af-
fords no a priori reason why the hybrids of races and peoples
may not be superior also. We can only decide the question by an
impartial appeal to the results of race crossing, after making
due allowance for the social and other influences which may affect
the character of the mixed stock.
That mongrel nations are often decadent is not an infallible
proof that biologically or psychologically the effect of race cross-
ing is bad. Mr. James Bryce states in his work on South America,
a work which, by the way, gives a verdict quite different from
that of Schultz on the mixed people of that country, "No one
has yet studied scientifically the results of race fusion. History
throws little light on the subject, because wherever there has been
a mixture of races there have been also concomitant circum-
stances influencing the people who are the product of the mixture
which have made it hard to determine whether the deterioration
(or improvement) is due to this or some other cause."
Mr. Bryce is no apologist for miscegenation and he has else-
where warned the American people of the danger of absorbing the
blood of the negro. Race crossing may have unfortunate social
consequences without being bad biologically. As Topinard has
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 251
contended, the crosses of related peoples or races may be advan-
tageous, while the union of the more distinct races, such as white
and negro, may result in a very undesirable product. This is
quite possible if not probable, and has the support of numerous
analogies among plants and animals. But it would be possible to
support almost any conclusion on race crossing by an appeal to
such analogies. Those who condemn race mixtures point to the
inferiority of many mongrel breeds and the infertility of crosses
between distantly related stocks, while the advocates of mis-
cegenation refer to the benefits that have so often resulted from
crossing different varieties. Our only recourse in such a case is
the study of the actual facts.
It is sometimes stated that the hybrids between distinct races
must have a relatively inharmonious constitution containing
many incongruous hereditary tendencies. But the grounds for
this are largely a priori. The mule is a very valuable animal with
an unusually efficient organization notwithstanding the marked
differences of the horse and the ass. There are many crosses
between forms more closely related which are poor and weak
products that cannot be compared with the tough organization
of this familiar beast of burden. How characters of different
types will harmonize cannot be told until they are combined in a
cross.
With the varied considerations which may prejudice opinions
to say nothing of the differences presented by the observed facts
in different parts of the world, it is not surprising that students of
race mixture should have arrived at opposed conclusions. The
sociologist Novicow 1 sings the praises of miscegenation as loudly
as other writers have condemned it. "II est connu qu'une race
s'abatardit par les unions consanguines et qu'elle s'ameliore par
les croisements. . . . Les croisements sont done indispensables
pour soutenir et augmenter la vigueur d'une race. . . . Les
croisements sont d'une utilite si incontestable qu'il faudra les
favoriser le plus possible. De nous jours encore, nombre de
societes non seulement barbares mais meme civilizees, tachent
1 Les luttes enire les societes humaines, pp. 201-204.
252 THE TREND OF THE RACE
d'entraver les croisements. Elles se causent a elles-memes le
plus grand de tous les maux: 1'abatardissement de la race."
In Ploss-Bartel's monumental work, Das Weib, it is stated that
race mixture in general increases the beauty of the female sex,
a statement in which he is supported by Reibmayer (Inzwht und
Vermischung beim Menscfien, p. 64). Boas says that "observa-
tions on half-breed Indians show that a type taller than either
parental race develops in the mixed blood; that the fertility of the
mixed blood is unexceeded ; and that I cannot find any evidence
that would corroborate the view so often expressed, that the hy-
brid of distinct types tends to degenerate." E. Fischer, who has
devoted an extensive study to the Boer-Hottentot hybrids of
South Africa, describes them as of good vitality, fertile and effi-
cient, and presenting no evidence of deterioration. According to
Hoffmann the intermixture of native Hawaiian women with full-
blooded Chinese has produced a physically and morally superior
type, and Dr. Baelz maintains that the Japanese-Caucasian cross
breeds are physically and intellectually the equals of the mem-
bers of either pure race.
With all the opportunity that has been afforded for the study
of negro-white crosses it might be supposed that the biological
status of such mixtures would be well known. But this is far from
the case. The general opinion is that the mulatto is inferior in
physical development, vitality, and especially prone to disease.
Hoffmann quotes from the report of the Provost Marshal Gen-
eral eleven statements of examining surgeons in the Civil War.
Ten of these express an unfavorable opinion of the physical con-
dition of the mulatto, and in only one instance was an opinion
given favorable to the mixed type and that was based on only
two cases which made it of no determining value. While the
mulatto is not inferior in weight and is of intermediate height, his
lung capacity is less than that of either pure race. According to
Gould, the average lung capacity of white soldiers in the Civil
War was 184.7 cubic inches; of negroes 163.5, while in the mulatto
it was only 158.9. The chest circumference was found to be for
whites 35.8 inches, for negroes 35.1, and 34.97 for mixed breeds.
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES
253
These differences are correlated with differences in the number of
respirations per minute which are as follows: whites 16.4, negroes
17.7 and mulattoes 19. Gould gives results on cranial measure-
ments as follows: circumference of head, 22.1 in. in whites, 21.9 in
negroes, 22.0 in mulattoes. Dr. S. B. Hunt l has shown that the
weight of the brain in the mulatto increases with the proportion
of white blood in his composition. The mulattoes less than half
white have, on the average, a less brain weight than the pure
negro. The results are shown in the following table :
Brain Weights of Mulattoes
No. of Cases
Degrees of Color
Weight of Brain
24. .
white
1,47? Km.
2< . .
31 n
1 4
1,300 "
47. .
1/2
i,^4 "
?i. .
11
/ 4
I.^IQ "
QC ..
Vs "
1,308 "
22
11
/IB
1,280 "
The figure for the brain weight in whites based on 278 other
cases is 1,403 gm. Results confirmatory of these findings have
been reported also by Topinard.
In regard to the fecundity of the mulatto we have varied opin-
ions. Morris (The Aryan Race, p. 216) tells us that he "has the
weakness and infertility of the hybrid." Nott finds that in
South Carolina the mulattoes show a decided infertility, although
in Louisiana they are fairly prolific. Woodruff (Expansion of
Races, p. 251) states quite positively that "The Mulatto in-
variably dies out unless new black blood is infused into the
mixed race, and though some families survive a few generations,
as a rule there is absolute extinction of such feeble offspring." 2
lU The Negro as a Soldier." Anthrop. Rev. 7, 1869.
1 As Prof. Kelsey has remarked (The Physical Basis of Society, p. 298), "Whenever
we are told that a people of mixed white and Negro blood must perish from the
earth let us not forget that across Africa in the Sudan and down the East Coast
there are untold millions of people of just that descent."
254
THE TREND OF THE RACE
On the other hand, Quatrefages adduces evidence to show that
the products of negro-white crosses are unusually prolific and H.
E. Jordan states that " the mulatto is probably more prolific than
the normal average of either white or negro. During the past
twenty years he has increased at twice the rate of the negro."
F. L. Hoffmann who has studied the subject in a painstaking
manner comes to perhaps the only justifiable conclusion that
''the imperfect state of vital statistics, even at the present time,
makes it difficult if not impossible to settle scientifically the ques-
tion of increase or decrease in fecundity."
It is undeniable that since 1850 mulattoes have increased
relatively faster than the negroes, as is shown in the following
table:
Increase of Mulattoes in the U. S.
Years
Total
Negroes
Blacks
No. of
Mulattoes
Per Cent
Mulattoes
Mulattoes to
1,000 Black
1850....
3,638,808
3,233,057
405,751
II. 2
126
1860
4,441,830
3,853,467
588,363
13-3
153
1870
4,880,009
4,295,960
584,049
12.
136
1880
6,580,793
1890. . . .
7,488,676
6,337,980
1,132,060
15-2
179
1900. . . .
8,833,994
1910. . . .
9,827,763
7,777,077
2,050,686
2O-9
264
This table does not tell us anything, however, of the birth rate
of the mulattoes as compared with that of the negroes. The
mulattoes increase in number not only through their own birth
rate, but through the unions of whites and negroes, through the
unions of whites and mulattoes, and especially through the unions
of mulattoes and negroes, the children of the latter unions being
usually counted as mulattoes. Even if crosses of negroes and
whites are becoming less frequent the relative increase of the
mulattoes may be due largely to negro-white crosses. Mulattoes
are relatively more common in the Northern States and especially
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 255
in the West, the proportion to 1,000 negroes being in 1910, 252 in
the South, 363 in the North and 473 in the West. They are also
more common in urban than in rural communities. The decreas-
ing proportion of mulattoes in the North and West which has
occurred recently is probably due to the migration of negroes from
the South. The urban negroes are often found in the slums or
living in close association with the "tenderloin" districts where
they mix with the lower elements of the white race and especially
with those of foreign extraction whose antipathy to persons of
color is not so strong as it is in the native American.
There has been considerable complaint in the South over the
amount of miscegenation that is still going on. It is not rare
for white men to support a colored mistress, and temporary
associations between the races are naturally much more frequent.
It is very difficult to ascertain to how great an extent the increase
in the number of mulattoes is due to irregular connections be-
tween the races. We know little of the actual birth rate of
mulattoes as distinguished from that of the pure negroes. And
consequently we can draw no conclusion as to the natural fecun-
dity of the products of negro-white crosses.
That the mulattoes in Jamaica do not perpetuate themselves
has been asserted by Elwick, and a similar statement has been
made by Dr. Ivan for those of Java. If these statements are
true and they are difficult to verify, the reason may well be
other than the reduction of natural fecundity. The Rehboter
hybrids studied by Fisher show a high fecundity. Their stock
resulted from the unions of Hottentot women and a small band of
Dutch, Germans and other Europeans, 27 in all, reinforced later
by a few other Europeans who also married Hottentot women or
women of mixed origin. The average number of children born to
the parents of hybrid origin was 7.7. The death rate was low,
and the stock was physically well developed. In this isolated
community freed from the vicious environment under which
race crossing so commonly occurs, the union of two distinct races
produced a healthy and rapidly increasing stock.
The Anglo-Polynesian hybrids on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands
256 THE TREND OF THE RACE
sprang from a small group of nine Englishmen, six Tahitian men
and fifteen Tahitian women who settled originally on Pitcairn
Island in 1790. In 1855 the population which had increased to
200 removed to Norfolk Island whose population in 1905 num-
bered 1,059, most of whom were descended from the original set-
tlers. Sixteen returned to Pitcairn Island in 1856 where they
rapidly increased and became a healthy, flourishing people.
In his studies of half-breed Indians, Boas states that "the
average number of children of five hundred and seventy-seven
Indian women and of one hundred and forty-one half-breed
women more than forty years old is 5.9 children for the former
and 7.9 for the latter. It is instructive to compare the number of
children for each woman in the two groups. While about ten per
cent of the Indian women have no children, only 3.5 per cent of
the half-breeds are childless. The proportionate number of
half-bloods who have one, two, three, four or five is smaller than
the corresponding number of Indian women, while many more
half-blood than full-blood women have had from six to thirteen
children."
That the hybrids between the races of man tend to sterility
still awaits proof. We have no adequate evidence of sterility
even in the hybrids between those races which are most distantly
related. It has been claimed that marriages between different
people of the same race, such as the Nordic and Mediterranean or
Alpine are relatively infertile, but the evidence is far from proving
that the causes are physiological and not social. From a study of
a large number of marriages of different European peoples Prof.
A. E. Jenks has drawn the conclusion that pure bred stock is much
more fecund than cross bred stock. Since the conclusion if valid
would have a far-reaching significance, it is desirable to consider
critically the evidence on which it is based. The material con-
sisted of 40,000 families of Minneapolis, Minn., 480 families of
Sioux Falls, S. Dak., and 95 families of Benton Township, Lincoln
Co., Minn. An enumeration was made of the number of unmar-
ried offspring in the families of various nationalities in which
both parents came from the same country and also in the families
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES
257
in which the parents came from different countries. The results
are here given in tabular form:
Relative Fecundity of Pure-Bred and Half-Bred Families in Minneapolis
Pure-Bred Families
Half-Bred Families
Group
No. of
families
No. of
children
No. of
children
per
family
No. of
amalga-
mating
groups
No. of
families
No. of
children
A erase
ch Idren
Per
f mily
Expected
average
i Dutch
3
282
1,022
4,96l
3,028
3.SOS
372
184
155
246
523
77
8,614
16
106
894
2,670
12,564
7,4t4
8,559
838
411
334
509
1,014
127
13,156
34
3-53
3-iS
.61
S3
44
44
25
23
14
.06
93
.64
52
-SO
13
16
23
IS
22
33
13
18
21
9
20
17
28
IS
181
291
2,100
2,004
2,148
3,52
86 1
897
665
265
1,882
233
3,859
229
331
627
4,282
3,625
3,868
6,235
1,670
1,602
1,251
471
3,253
399
6,392
395
83
IS
.04
.81
.80
77
94
78
.88
77
72
7i
.66
73
4
7
4
4
4
. i
3
. I
. 2
. I
.O
.8
9
.8
2 French-Canadian -
8 Scotch
12 Welsh
14 Scotch-Irish
The differences between the sizes of homogamic and hetero-
gamic marriages are striking. But are they due to differences in
the natural fertility or like and unlike unions? It is especially
noteworthy that the number of native Americans given in the
table is far greater than any other nationality. It is also note-
worthy that there are great differences in the size of the families
among the people in different countries, differences which are
probably due to a small extent to physiological causes, but are
mainly the result of other factors which have been discussed in a
previous chapter. In a marriage between a Dutch man or woman
and a person of another nation the chances are, other things
equal, that the person would be an American, owing to the nu-
merical proponderance of the latter stock. Since the size of the
American family is notoriously small, the influence of American
custom would be a strong element in determining the number of
children hi the mixed marriage. Persons from nationalities with
large families, if marrying outside their group, would be apt to
258 THE TREND OF THE RACE
marry into a stock which produces less children. Jenks recognizes
this fact and has calculated the expected size of the family re-
sulting from mixed marriages.
In speaking of Dutch families he says "Not only is the Dutch
half-breed family much less fecund than the Dutch pure-bred
family, but the average for the Dutch half-breed families is notice-
ably lower than the expected average for said families. This
expected average is computed from the fourteen ethnic groups
composing the 181 Dutch half-breed families. The expected
average is 2.4 children per family, while the actual average is
only 1.83 children the fact of amalgamation apparently being
the cause for reduced fecundity." Just how the expected size of
the family is calculated is not explained in detail, but apparently
the author has calculated the average fecundity of the stocks into
which any given group marries and taken the mean between
this and the average size of the pure-bred Dutch family. But
however he computes the expected averages of cross-bred families,
why can we say that any numerical expression represents the
expected number of children from a given cross mating? The
proceeding involves the assumption that the size of the families of
the stocks in question is an index of their natural fecundity. If
this is not the case, the argument becomes vitiated. If the aver-
age size of the pure-bred Dutch families is 3.53 and the size of the
American family is 1.52 are we justified in expecting that the
average size of the Dutch-American family is the mean of these
two numbers, or 2.5? Take a stock in which birth restriction is
an ingrained custom and suppose that marriages occur between
its members and those of a people which does not practice artifi-
cial restriction of the family. Who can say what is the "ex-
pected" number of children? It seems not improbable that
the size of the family would be nearer that of the stock with a tra-
dition of family limitation, because one member, at least, would
be familiar with the practice. There are various social influences
also which might affect the size of the cross-bred groups, and it is
not improbable that those who marry with people of alien stock
may not be typical of the general average of their group. Much
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 259
would depend upon the stock into which people are prone to
marry, but on this we are given no data.
It is quite unwarrantable to draw the conclusion that "pure
bred and prepotent are practically synonymous," or that the
American who is an "extremely amalgamated group in conse-
quence of amalgamation is a decidedly impotent group." The
American birth rate is low for the reasons that have led to the
reduced birth rate in France and elsewhere. The decline of the
birth rate in Europe has been quite as rapid in countries whose
population is relatively homogeneous as in countries where there
has been a great mixture of peoples.
Jenks has studied the amount of in-marrying and out-marrying
in eight chief ethnic groups in Minneapolis and finds that their
order arranged according to increasing percentage of out-mar-
riages is as follows: Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Danes,
Irish, English, Welsh, Scotch. "This series of ethnic groups,
arranged in order of decreasing amalgamation and increasing co-
hesion from the Scotch to the Swedes is the exact duplicate of the
series of the same Minneapolis ethnic groups in order of increas-
ing fecundity, except for the Irish and Scotch as seen in Table A.
It seems that the most fecund ethnic groups are those least given
to amalgamation, and vice versa." It may be noted, however,
upon inspecting the table, that as a rule, where there is a relatively
high fecundity of in-marriages there is also a relatively high
fecundity of out-marriages. As a comparison of the relative
number of native and foreign born among the various ethnic
groups shows, those groups composed mainly of foreign born
members have the highest birth rate and (very naturally) the
highest percentage of in-marriages. These are the groups which
must be composed of relatively recent immigrants who would
retain their traditional fecundity. Where, as in the Swedes and
Norwegians the foreign born outnumber the native born members
of their stock over two to one, we should naturally expect the
birth rate to be high. With the next group, the Germans, the
foreign born are only a little less in number than the native born
(5,988 to 4,111). With the Irish, English, Welsh and Scotch the
2<5o THE TREND OF THE RACE
native born are greatly in excess. Denmark occupies an anoma-
lous position in that most of her people were foreign born. We
should expect her to come after the Irish and ahead of the Eng-
lish, according to Jenks and to occupy a position ahead of the
Germans according to the proportion of foreign born. The
relatively large number of out-marriages considering the probably
recent arrival of her immigrants is perhaps due to the compara-
tively small number of Danes in the city. Where a people is
represented by a comparatively few individuals the number of
out-marriages would naturally be high. The relatively high
fecundity of the Irish, despite their long sojourn in this country
(as indicated by proportions of their native born), is probably
due to their high percentage of Roman Catholics as is also
the case with the French-Canadians.
Recency of arrival is probably a potent factor in determining
the size of the family and the amount of intermarriage in the
various stocks represented in the city of Minneapolis. This
conclusion is all the more probable since the birth rate of the
foreign stocks in Minneapolis does not show a close correspond-
ence with the birth rate of these stocks in their native countries.
Those stocks which have the largest percentage of American born
of one or more generations show, as a rule, both the highest
number of out-marriages and the lowest birth rate. The out-
marriages, with a few exceptions due probably to the small
numbers represented, are more frequent in all groups among the
first generation of American born than in the foreign born, and
greater in the third generation than in the second or first. The
most mixed groups, are as a rule, the groups having the largest
proportions of older immigrant stock; they are the most Ameri-
canized, and their birth rate is also low, not because they are of
mixed blood, but because they have become most thoroughly
imbued with our traditions. As so frequently happens when one
is dealing with demographical statistics, the conclusion which
seems at first to follow is not borne out by a more critical ex-
amination of the evidence. We have as yet insufficient
grounds for concluding that race mixture or the mingling of
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 261
inter-racial groups is followed by any reduction of natural
fecundity.
What can we say of the effects of race-mixture on mental
development? We have no grounds for alleging that the products
of mingling the various ethnic stocks of Europe are in any way
inferior to their component elements. Certainly it would be easy
to compile a very extensive list of most eminent men of mixed
ethnic origin. There is no adequate evidence for concluding that
hybrids even of distinct races are mentally less developed than
the average of the inferior race. In general, experience seems to
show that they possess a degree of intelligence more or less inter-
mediate between that of the races from which they are derived.
Where there has been much intermuigling of races of different
cultural levels the mixed breeds tend to occupy a relatively
advanced position.
The best opportunities for the study of mentality of a mixed
race are afforded by the mulattoes of the United States. Most
students of the subject agree that the mulatto is considerably
superior in intellect to the full-blooded negro, however they may
explain this superiority. From a study of the achievements of
mulattoes and negroes by E. B. Reuter I quote the following:
In a recently published compilation of one hundred and thirty-nine
of the supposedly best-known American Negroes there are not more
than four men of pure Negro blood, and one of these, at least, owes his
prominence to the fact of his black skin and African features rather
than to any demonstrated native superiority. Of the twelve Negroes
on whom the degree of doctor of philosophy has been conferred by
reputable American Universities, eleven at least were men of mixed
blood. Among the professional classes of the race the mulattoes out-
class the black Negroes perhaps ten to one, and the ratio is yet higher
if only men of real attainments be considered. In medicine the ratio
is probably fifteen to one, in literature the ratio is somewhat higher,
on the stage it is probably thirteen to one, in music the ratio is at
least twelve to one. In art no American Negro of full blood has so far
found a place among the successful. . . .
The successful business men of the race are in nearly all cases men
2 6 2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
of bi-racial ancestry. ... In all times in the history of the American
Negro and in all fields of human effort in which the Negroes have
entered, the successful individuals, with very few exceptions, have
been mulattoes. . . .
In South Africa the mulattoes are on a distinctly higher cultural
level than are the natives of unmixed blood. In the British West
Indies the more cultured mulattoes have been formed into a middle
class group, separated from and superior to the black peasantry. . . .
In North Brazil the mixed-blood group of Portuguese, Indian and
Negro ancestry are on a distinctly higher social and intellectual
plane than are either the Negroes or the native Indians. ... In the
Philippines the half-castes of Chinese-Moro, as well as those of Spanish-
Moro, origin are well in advance, intellectually, of the pure-blood
natives. Every man in the Filipino group who has risen above
mediocrity under the Spanish, as under the American, occupancy of
the islands has been a man of bi-racial ancestry.
While admitting that the simplest explanation of the superior-
ity of the mulatto is that it is due to the infusion of a superior
mental inheritance from the white race, the author holds that this
does not account for all of the superiority, and attempts to work
out another interpretation of the results based on the assumption
that the black and the white races are essentially equal in native
intelligence. Mulattoes, it is claimed, enjoyed superior advan-
tages during the period of slavery and afterward, but the chief
cause of their superiority is the fact that "from the Negro side
the mulattoes are descended from the best of the race."
"The choicest females of the black group became the mothers
of a race of half-breeds. The female offspring of these mixed
unions became chosen in turn to serve the pleasure of the superior
group. By this process of repeated selection of the choice girls of
the black and mulatto group to become mothers of a new genera-
tion of mixed-blood individuals, there has been a constant force
making for the production of a choicer and choicer type of fe-
male." Thus a process of marriage selection is instituted which
the author thinks goes far toward explaining the intellectual
superiority of the mixed type.
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 263
All this seems like a desperate attempt to avoid a perfectly
natural and almost obvious conclusion. The doctrine of the
mental equality of black and white does not commend itself to
most of those who have had much experience with the colored
race, and it is contradicted by the results of a number of studies
on the intelligence of whites and blacks by the application of
mental tests as is in fact admitted by Reuter. 1
Much of course remains to be done before a precise comparison
of the mental status of the races of man can be made. If there has
been a selection of the better negro types in the production of the
negro-white crosses there is even more evidence that the white
parents are not to be considered as representing a very high aver-
age type of their race. Even granting that during slavery the
best negro women were more apt to become the mothers of mu-
lattoes, it cannot be contended that this was true after emancipa-
tion when more mulattoes were produced than at any previous
time. Since the Civil War the mulattoes were apt to be the prod-
uct of the worst elements of both races. Hoffmann collected
information concerning 37 black-white unions of which eight
were white men living with negro women and 29 were those of
white women living with negro men. Of the eight white men
living with negro women " three were criminals or under strong
suspicion of being such. . . . The others were more or less
outcasts. One was a saloon keeper, one had deserted his family
for his negro mistress, two were men of good family but them-
selves of bad reputation." The record of the twenty-nine women
married to or living with colored men was still worse. And of the
twenty-nine colored men living with white women, "only one,
an industrious barber, was known to be of good character."
The number of cases is small, as Hoffmann states. "It is my
own opinion," he says, "based on personal observation in the
cities of the South that the individuals of both races who inter-
marry or live in concubinage are vastly inferior to the average
1 In his recent valuable book on The Mulatto, Prof. Reuter has brought together
much additional evidence of the mental superiority of the mulatto to the negro.
The cause of this superiority is not discussed in detail.
264 THE TREND OF THE RACE
types of the white and colored races in the United States; also
that the class of white men who have intercourse with colored
women are, as a rule, of an inferior type." Those familiar with
the life and ways of negroes and mulattoes especially in our
cities where the mulattoes are relatively abundant will be in-
clined to agree that the facts stated by Hoffman represent more
nearly the typical kinds of black-white matings that occur and
have occurred since the Civil War, than the theories of Reuter
as to how they might have occurred. If there is enough ability
in the selected negro stock to account for the superiority of the
mulatto when mated with ordinary white parentage we should
certainly find a considerable number of cases in which both black
parents were of a superior type and who would be expected to
produce offspring at least the equal of the better mulattoes.
Pure blacks of proven native ability of high order are in fact
rare. The fact that mulattoes, despite their relatively inferior
white parentage, are in all countries, superior to the blacks, is
strongly indicative of a marked difference in the average in-
tellectual capacity of the two races.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that the intellectual
superiority of the mulatto over the negro affords no sufficient
ground for advocating the amalgamation of the negro and white
races. If the mulatto has a better mind than the negro, he is
apparently inferior to him in physique and is inferior in every way
to the whites. Any system of cross breeding which means the
substitution of mulatto for white children cannot be viewed as
anything but a serious menace. It is to be condemned, not only
from the biological standpoint, but because it would lead to social
and moral deterioration. To say that negro-white crosses are
undesirable on biological grounds, however, is not to assert that
race crossing is bad per se. If races are on the same level of
inherent physical and intellectual endowment their fusion may
produce a very desirable combination of qualities and might
give rise to a diversity of traits which would be socially valuable.
We have insufficient grounds for condemning crosses of races or
peoples per se, but only those crosses which substitute an inter-
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 265
mediate product for the most highly endowed stock. It is the
very best inheritance that should be conserved at all costs. Out
of it come the rare minds that rise like mountain peaks above the
general level of humanity. And it is to these minds, small in
number, but incalculably great in influence, that advancement in
civilization and culture is largely due.
I cannot close this chapter without a few remarks on the
increasing fusion of racial elements and the possible eventual
outcome of this process. As the human species became dispersed
into various quarters of the globe it became more and more
divided into isolated groups. Given a heterozygous stock, isola-
tion would of itself afford a condition under which the race would
be broken up into varieties through the influence of segregate
breeding. As a result of spreading into regions of different climatic
and other environmental conditions, the race would also tend
to become modified in different ways through the action of
natural selection. In the early periods of the history of man when
he was spreading over and becoming adapted to the diverse
regions of the earth, the predominant trend of development was
toward divergence. The result is a multiplicity of groups within
groups, which ethnologists are still far from having arranged in a
satisfactory system of classification.
For long periods and with increasing frequency as mankind
has advanced, there have been migrations, conflicts and inter-
mixtures of previously differentiated peoples. But at the present
time, when railroads and steamships, to say nothing of other
conveniences of travel and communication, are bringing races into
closer and closer contact, the process of race fusion goes on at an
accelerated pace. Many of the old barriers of religion and na-
tional or sectional prejudice are breaking down. People of minor
racial distinctions such as those of the countries of Europe are
rapidly commingling their blood and over large areas such as
South America, parts of Africa and Asia and in numerous islands
of the Pacific there is an extensive blending of distinct races. If
in the early history of mankind development was along diverging
lines it is now proceeding more conspicuously and rapidly in the
2 66 THE TREND OF THE RACE
reverse direction. Will the outcome be, as some think it will,
the ultimate fusion of all races into one? As Metcalf remarks,
"The amalgamation of the races of man into one race as homog-
eneous as the present European population will doubtless take a
few thousand years to accomplish, but as far as we can judge from
the conditions now existing and those seemingly necessarily about
to come, such union of the races seems inevitable."
It is evident that the intercommunication between races will
in the future increase rather than decrease, and it is probable that
amalgamation of races will go on more rapidly than before. The
superior races may take more efficient means to protect them-
selves from the infusion of inferior blood, but among the less
advanced races and peoples intermingling seems destined to wipe
out the individuality of many existing stocks. The distinct
races will doubtless become narrowed down to a relatively small
number, and what diversity remains will be maintained either
through conscious efforts to retain racial integrity, or the action
of climate or other conditions which will tend to keep certain
parts of the earth in possession of those races which are especially
adapted to thrive there. The tropics are apparently unsuited for
continuous habitation by the white man. The diseases which
have tended to exclude the Caucasian may all in time be con-
quered. But there will always remain the outstanding factor of
climate which, in the long run, proves to be a very effective
barrier to the expansion of races. It is not improbable that large
parts of tropical Africa will have to be left permanently in the
hands of the negro race. On the other hand, the black race does
not thrive in northern latitudes. It would be absurd to assume
that each part of the globe is inhabited by the racial elements
which are best adapted to them; nevertheless there are certain
broad, general adjustments which have doubtless largely deter-
mined the ubiety of the chief racial subdivisions of the human
species. With the breaking up of old racial boundaries there may
be effected a redistribution of ethnic stocks so that they will be
more closely associated with climatic zones. Racial distinctions
may then be permanently kept if they are favored by differences
CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 267
of temperature and other environmental factors. The tendency
toward universal amalgamation may be held in check by natural
selection which will keep up racial distinctions which are corre-
lated with climatic adaptation. What the final result of these
opposed tendencies will be no one can foretell.
REFERENCES
Adrian, C. Die Rolle der Consanguinitat der Eltern in der Aetiologie einiger
Dermatosen der Nachkommen. Dermat. Zentrlbl. 9, No. 9, 1906.
Arner, G. B. L. Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population. Columbia
Univ. Studies in Hist. Econ. and Pub. Law. 31, No. 3, 1908, pp. 99.
Bemiss, S. M. On Marriages of Consanguinity. N. Am. Med. Chirurg. Rev.,
Jan., 1857; also in Jour. Psych. Med. and Med. Path. n. s. 1857, 368-379,
London. See also Trans. Am. Med. Ass. u, 319-425, 1858.
Boas, F. The Half-Blpod Indians: An Anthropometric Study. Pop. Sci. Mon.
761-770, 1894; Race Problems in America. Science, n. s. 29, 839-949, 1909.
Darwin, G. H. Marriages Between First Cousins in England and their Effects.
Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 38, 153-182, 1875; Discussion, 183-4; Note on the Mar-
riages of First Cousins, 1. c. 38, 344-348, 1875.
Davenport, C. B. State Laws Limiting Marriage Selection. Bull. Eugen. Rec.
Off. 9, 1913.
Peer, E. Der Einfluss der Blutverwandtschaft der Eltern auf die Kinder. S.
Karger, Berlin, 1907, pp. 32.
Fehlinger, H. Kreuzungen beim Menschen. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 8, 447-457,
1911.
Finch, E. The Effects of Racial Miscegenation. Papers on Inter-Racial Problems,
ed. by G. Spiller, 108-112, 1911.
Fischer, E. Die Rehbother Bastards 'und das Bastardierungsproblem beim Men-
schen, G. Fischer, Jena, 1913; Das Problem der Rassenkreuzung beim Men-
schen, Freiburg i. B. 1914, p. 30, also Die Naturwissenschaften, 17, Oct., 1913.
Hoffman, F. L. Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. Pubs. Am.
Econ. Ass. n, 1-329. Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1896.
Huth, A. H. The Marriage of Near Kin, 2d ed., London, 1887.
Jenks, A. E. Ethnic Amalgamation. Holmes Anniversary Volume, 228-240,
Washington, 1915.
Jordan, H. E. The Biological Status and Social Worth of the Mulatto. Pop. Sci.
Mon. 82, 573-582, 1913.
Kraus, F. Consanguinity in Marriage and its Effects on the Offspring. In Senator
and Kaminers, Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage, N. Y., 2 vols.,
1904-05.
Laurent, E. Mariages Consanguins et Degeneiescences. Paris, 1895.
Nettleship, E. Consanguineous Marriages. Eugen. Rev. 130-139, 1914.
Quatrefages, A. de. The Human Species. Appleton and Co., N. Y., 1879.
Reuter, E. B. The Superiority of the Mulatto. Am. Jour. Soc. 23, 83-106, 1917;
The Mulatto in the United States. R. Badger, Boston, 1918.
268 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Rohleder, H. Die Zengung unter Blutsverwandten, Bd. 2 of Monographien (iber
die Zengung beim Menschen, Leipzig, 1912.
Spiller, G. (Editor) Papers on Inter-racial Problems. P. S. King and Son, Lon-
don, 1911.
Voisin, A. Contribution a PHistoire des Manages entre Consanguins. Mem. Soc.
Anthrop. Paris, 1865, 2, 433-459, 1865. Reprinted, Paris, 1866.
Weinberg, W. Verwandtenehe und Geisteskrankheit. Arch. Ras. Ges. Biol. 4,
471-475, 1907.
Wilson, J. G. The Crossing of the Races. Pop. Sci. Mon. 79, 486-495, 1911.
CHAPTER XII
THE POSSIBLE ROLE OF ALCOHOL AND DISEASE
IN CAUSING HEREDITARY DEFECTS
"There is probably no biological problem of greater interest and
importance, and about which less is known, than that of the causation
of germinal variations whether of a progressive or retrogressive
nature." Tredgold, Mental Deficiency.
IN attempting to estimate the factors of evolution, whether
in man or in the lower forms of life, we must of necessity face the
problem of the causes of variability. Important as this subject
is for evolutionary theory as well as many practical problems
in experimental breeding, it has received surprisingly little
attention from students of biology. Darwin, who studied varia-
tion most exhaustively, and who amassed a great wealth of facts
concerning the variations of animals and plants, threw little light
upon the problem beyond pointing out the probability that
"variability of every kind is directly or indirectly caused by
changed conditions of life." Domestication, especially if long
continued, appears to enhance variability. In common with
Andrew Knight, Schleiden and others Darwin held that excess of
food is one of the most potent factors by which variations may be
induced. Much of the variability due to food, climate, etc.,
was attributed by him to the inheritance of the somatic effects
of these agencies, a conclusion with which most geneticists
would not now agree. Outer agencies were held also to affect
the reproductive cells, and thus to cause variations which tend
to become strongly inherited.
Germinal variations frequently occur in a haphazard manner.
Generally no specific cause can be assigned for their appearance.
When a hairless dog, a navel orange, or a runnerless strawberry
arises all we can say is that such events just happened. If con-
genital variations arise as a response of the germ plasm to stimuli,
269
270 THE TREND OF THE RACE
we have made practically no progress in ascertaining, in any form,
whatever relation may exist between the nature of the variation
and the kind of external stimulus by which it is evoked.
A large part of the congenital variations that appear in organ-
isms are mere products of the mingling of factor differences con-
tained in the germ cells of the parents. Where such variations
are not obviously the expression of typical Mendelian inheritance
they are frequently explicable as unusual factor combinations
which are nevertheless essentially Mendelian. Certain variations
may perhaps be attributable to the loss of factors and others to
the reduplication of one or more factors, as the result of some
anomalous behavior of the germ plasm, such as occurred in the
mutant (Enothera gigas and several other similar cases. But all
such variations as these are probably of minor significance in
relation to the general problem of progressive evolution. They
are the results of the shufflng of the cards, and at best they can
produce only new combinations of old factors.
There are writers (Lotsy, Hagedoorn) who hold that the kinds
of variations just alluded to are the only ones of which we have
any evidence. But if we admit the existence of this kind of
variability only, we are landed in serious difficulties. There is
certainly no adequate reason for denying that variation is a real
phenomenon dependent upon qualitative changes in the germ
plasm. Many cases are known in which the appearance of new
mutants is in all probability dependent upon such qualitative
germinal variations. But with few exceptions their occurrence
seems entirely fortuitous and we can form no conjecture as to
their possible cause.
There is a certain amount of experimental evidence that
germinal modifications may be evoked by environmental agen-
cies. The experiments of Tower on the production of mutants in
the Colorado potato beetle, and the work of MacDougal and
Gager in inducing mutations in (Enothera and other plants by
salt solutions and radium are among the few investigations on
multicellular organisms which have yielded positive indications of
germinal response to changes in the environment.
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 271
Much of our data on this problem is derived from observations
on the supposed effect of alcohol and other injurious substances
on the offspring of animals or human beings subjected to these
influences. In the experiments of Hodge and of Pforringer on
dogs, and of Laitenen on rabbits and guinea pigs the animals were
given alcohol during pregnancy and the number of stillborn or
imperfect young was unusually high. Of the three dogs used in
the experiments of Hodge one died during parturition. After the
two others had produced several stillborn or abnormal young the
alcohol was discontinued. In both cases the litters which were
born after alcohol was no longer given were mostly dead. Where
there is an opportunity for the foetus to be affected directly by
alcohol in the mother's blood there is no evidence of any truly
hereditary effect. If alcoholized mothers continued to produce
defective young after the use of alcohol is withdrawn, the result
may still be due to the direct effect of the injury sustained by
the mother.
There have been some experiments on the direct effect of
alcohol on the germ cells. Miss Torelle has studied the influence
of alcohol on the sperm cells of the starfish. She found that
small amounts of alcohol added to a sea water containing the
sperm cells did not diminish their vitality and when eggs were
fertilized by these sperms they developed rather better than the
controls. Ivanow treated the sperms of the rat, sheep, dog,
rabbit and guinea pig with alcohol up to as high as seven per cent.
The females artificially impregnated with these sperm cells
brought forth a normal and vigorous progeny. In the mature
condition Ivanow infers that sperm cells are quite resistant to
alcohol. This should render us rather skeptical about the sad
havoc alleged to be produced in human offspring by paternal
drunkenness at the time of conception. The sperms already
isolated from any organic connection with the rest of the body,
and relatively resistant, would probably be less affected than
at any previous tune. The experiments of Gee showed that
spermatozoa of fishes were relatively uninjured by alcohol up to
strengths which were nearly fatal to them. However, with
272 THE TREND OF THE RACE
alcohol of just the proper strength, the spermatozoa could be
injured so that eggs fertilized by them developed in an abnormal
manner.
While most of the experiments on the hereditary influence
of alcohol in animals are singularly lacking in conclusiveness,
the recent work on guinea pigs by Stockard in collaboration with
Craig and Papanicolaou has afforded data of a much more con-
vincing sort. The animals used were first mated and shown
to be capable of producing normal offspring before they were
subjected to alcohol, and only healthy and fertile stock was
employed. For six days per week the guinea pigs were subjected
to the fumes of alcohol until they began to show signs of intox-
ication, although they were never allowed to become completely
intoxicated. After this treatment was continued for some time
the animals were mated. Normal males were mated with alco-
holized females and vice versa; and there were also matings of
alcoholized males with alcoholized females.
Out of ninety matings of normal females with alcoholized
males thirty-seven gave negative results or early abortions; ten
of the litters from the other matings were stillborn, and out of the
forty-three litters containing living young, about thirty-five lived
but a few days, while the survivors, forty-seven in number,
contained many small and defective individuals.
In thirty-three matings between normal males and alcoholized
females seven gave negative results. Four produced only still-
born young, and of the young from the twenty-two living litters,
twenty-three died soon after birth. When both parents were
subjected to alcohol, out of forty-one matings twenty gave no
results, or early abortions. Fourteen resulted in stillborn litters,
and the seventeen living litters contained only twenty-six young
of which twelve died soon after birth.
Contrasted with the foregoing is the outcome of ninety matings
of normal guinea pigs giving sixty-six living litters with ninety-
nine surviving offspring.
These results are sufficiently striking, not only because of the
considerable numbers of animals employed, but on account of
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 273
the very decided preponderance of sterile matings and stillborn
or short-lived young in the experiments with the alcoholized
animals. And the results are all the more convincing because
the alcoholized animals had been previously bred and proven
capable of bearing normal offspring.
The following table gives a summary of results up to 1916:
Effects of Alcohol on the Descendants of Treated Animals
ffeg. Result
No. of
Young dying
Condition of the animals
No. of
or early
Stillborn
Stillborn
Living
soon after
Total
Surviving
matings
abortion
litters
young
Litters
birth
dead
young
Ale c? 1 x norm. 9
Norm cT x ale 9
7
Ale cf 1 x ale. 9
8
Summary
64
18
40
82
70
no
82
Control norm, cf X norm. 9 .
go
22
2
8
66
19
27
99
9 treated during pregnacy
4
o
4
i
i
7
2nd gener. x norm
46
8
29
37
2nd gener. * ale
S3
16
8
17
22
28
2nd gene . * 2nd gener
95
20
7
16
59
43
59
52
3rd gene * 3rd gener
48
20
7
14
21
19
33
13
3rd gene x 2nd gener
33
IS
4
8
14
16
24
7
3rd gene x norm
8
5
3rd gene X ale
2nd, 3rd gener. x 2nd, 3rd
eener. . .
18
o
2
6
7
6
12
j
More recently additional data were obtained in part from
animals of unrelated stock, but the results only confirmed the
previous findings. Some of the general comparisons are shown
in the following table:
Progeny of Normal and Alcoholic Guinea Pigs
Normal Lines
Ale. Lines
Normal Inhert.
Ale. Inhert.
Total number
233
181
27
25
52
o
i
594
383
138
73
211
IS
8
4i
32
6
3
9
o
i
302
184
77
4i
118
10
u
Lived over 3 months. .
Aborted, premature, stillborn .
Died within 3 months
Total died
Defective
Undersized
274 THE TREND OF THE RACE
One fact of much interest is that guinea pigs from alcoholized
parents produce a relatively defective progeny even though they
may not have been given alcohol themselves. "Animals as far as
three generations removed from the direct alcohol treatment are
still differentiated as a group from the control in regard to the
weight of the litters in which they are born, the tendency of the
litters to result in failure, the high proportion of prenatal mor-
tality over postnatal, and the total mortality which is one and
one-half times higher than the normal." Deformities and defects
appear much more commonly in the alcoholic strains. Among
these were paralysis agitans, opaque cornea, cataract and opaque
lenses, small defective eyes, complete absence of one eye, and,
finally, complete absence of both eyeballs. In some cases there
were deformities of the limbs, albinos, and dwarf forms with a low
degree of vitality. No defects were noted in the normal line.
Defects sometimes arose in strains in which the males only had
been alcoholized, in some cases the treatment having been given
only to the grandparents or great-grandparents of the deformed
animal.
It is a noteworthy fact that when males alone are subjected
to alcohol the effect on the early mortality of the offspring is
often very marked, although in other respects the greatest injury
is done when the females only are treated. In the latter case
there is opportunity not only for the germ cells to become affected
so as to produce a true hereditary change, but the embryo may be
directly injured by the alcohol in the mother's blood. Deteriora-
tion in offspring as a result of intoxication of the male parent can
scarcely be due to anything but a change produced in the germ
cells. The fact that defects thus arising may be transmitted to
further generations is indicative of the production of a true
hereditary effect through a modification of the germ plasm.
The investigations of Pearl on the hereditary effects of alcohol
on the domestic fowl yielded results apparently at least opposed
to those obtained by Stockard and his co-workers with guinea
pigs. The alcohol was administered by the inhalation method.
The fowl subjected to alcohol weighed on an average less than
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 2.75
the controls, and they showed a reduced activity, but the mean
egg production of the two groups was practically the same. The
mortality of the treated fowl was less than that of the controls.
But this result may not be significant on account of the small
number of individuals dealt with. " The proportion of fertile eggs
was materially reduced in the matings in which one or both
individuals had been treated. The higher the germ dosage index
for the mating the smaller was the percentage of fertile eggs
found to be.
"The prenatal mortality measured by the percentage of em-
bryos (zygotes) which died before hatching to all embryos formed,
was materially smaller in the case of offspring from matings in
which one or both parent individuals were treated, than in the
case of offspring from untreated control parents."
Perhaps the most striking result was that the mortality of
all ages after hatching was lower in the offspring of parents both
of which had been subjected to alcohol and while the weight
at hatching was much the same in both groups the adult body
weight was higher in the offspring of the alcoholized fowl. Ab-
normal offspring appeared no more frequently in the progeny of
alcoholized parents than in the untreated strains. In view of the
somewhat superior character of the fowl from alcoholized parents,
Pearl concludes that there is "no evidence that specific germinal
changes have been induced by the treatment, at least so far as
concerns those germ cells which produced zygotes."
However, he admits that alcohol probably injured some of
the germ cells as is evinced by the high proportion of infertile
eggs in cases in which either the male or the female parent had
been treated with alcohol. Alcohol was supposed to eliminate
the weaker germ cells, thereby diminishing the proportion of
individuals developed from inferior germ plasm. Whether alcohol
improves or deteriorates the stock would, therefore, depend upon
the relation between its action as a selective agent in eliminating
weaker sex cells or preventing their union and its action as a
direct source of injury to the germ plasm.
Both Pearl and Stockard consider their results as not opposed
276 THE TREND OF THE RACE
to one another, the apparent discrepancy being due to the differ-
ent degrees of resistance of the bird and the mammalian germ
cells to alcohol. Where the direct injury to the germ plasm is not
too great the action of alcohol in eliminating the weaker germ
cells may outweigh its direct injury to the more vigorous ones.
This, if I understand it, is the essential feature of Pearl's attempt
to harmonize his own results with those obtained with guinea
pigs. Stockard points out that there may have been in Pearl's
experiments, not so much an elimination of weaker germ cells, as
a very early prenatal mortality, which would naturally be mis-
taken for infertility of the eggs. Such early mortality was ac-
tually demonstrated in the guinea pigs, especially hi the alcoholic
strains. But, however this somewhat difficult problem may be
solved, whether elimination occurs before or soon after the germ
cells unite, both Pearl's and Stockard's results may be due to a
tendency of alcohol to act injuriously on the germ plasm. The
influence of alcohol on the race, however, is very different accord-
ing to whether or not the direct injury of alcohol to the germ
plasm is outweighed by its operation as a selective agent.
Confirmatory evidence of the effect of alcohol on the germ
cells is afforded by the experiments of Cole and Davis on rabbits
by means of double matings. When females were mated at
nearly the same time with normal and with alcoholized sires it was
found that the sperm of the males that had been given alcohol
usually failed to fertilize the ova, owing probably to the influence
of alcohol on the vitality of the spermatozoa.
In regard to the hereditary influence of alcohol in man our
evidence is less direct and less conclusive. The great majority of
writers on the relation of alcohol to heredity are firmly convinced
that the evil effects of alcoholism are transmitted from parents to
their children. In recent years, however, expression of opinion on
the part of the more scientific students of the subject has become
rather more guarded, and by a few writers, prominent among
whom is Dr. G. A. Reid, it is held that parental alcoholism has no
appreciable influence on the next generation. No critically
minded and unbiased person who has become well acquainted
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 277
with modern views on the nature of hereditary transmission can
read very much of the writings that have accumulated on this
question without a feeling of grave doubt or suspicion in regard
to the collusiveness of most of the evidence that is brought
forward. The subject is seldom discussed without bias, and most
of our data has been collected by writers who were endeavoring to
make the case against alcohol as bad as it could be made. But
should there be no transmission of acquired characters in the
strict sense of the term, it does not follow that parental alcohol-
ism produces no effect upon the next generation. It may affect
the nutrition of the germ cells and so tend to stunt the offspring.
It may poison the germ cells by being carried into direct contact
with them through the blood; or it may poison them indirectly by
means of substances arising from the disordered functions of the
body. In still another way the next generation may be affected,
and that is by the influence of alcohol on the foetus during the
period of pregnancy. We cannot call such an influence hereditary
transmission, although it has often been confused with hereditary
transmission. Alcohol in the blood of the mother might pass
through the placenta into the fcetal circulation where in fact it
has been detected. The effect of alcohol on the offspring in such
a case would be a direct and not an inherited one. It is as if one.
of a pair of Siamese twins should drink and the other one should
also get drunk, a result which might very well happen. In any
consideration of the hereditary effects of alcohol we shall have,
therefore, to treat the effects of maternal indulgence during preg-
nancy as a special case. It is quite possible for alcohol to in-
jure the unborn child without affecting the germ plasm or heredi-
tary substance, or producing an effect that is, strictly speaking,
hereditary.
There is another distinction which must be made in discussing
this subject, and that is the distinction between inheriting a
propensity toward alcoholism, and the transmission of the effects
of parental indulgence in alcohol. If the son of a drunken father
drinks to excess it does not follow that the son has inherited
the effects of his father's habit of drink. Father and son may
278 THE TREND OF THE RACE
both drink because they belong to a strain with a hereditary
weakness in this direction. The son may drink because of the
environment in which he was raised; he may have been given
liquor, as children of such parents often are, and early acquired a
taste for it; or he may have been thrown among associates who
would naturally lead him into the drinking habit. No amount of
data showing a correlation between the alcoholism of parents and
that of their offspring is sufficient, by itself, to prove anything
whatsoever in regard to heredity. But simple as this distinction
is, it is one that has been ignored by a multitude of writers.
Nothing is more common than to find statistics regarding the
appearance of alcoholism in successive generations adduced as a
sufficient proof of the hereditary effects of alcohol. One might
get the same kind of statistics about taking snuff, chewing to-
bacco or using bad grammar, but they would prove nothing in
respect to hereditary transmission.
With these considerations in mind we may consider some of the
arguments adduced to show the hereditary influence of alcohol.
It is a conclusion supported by many statistics and among others
by the recent data of Elderton and Pearson, that the percentage
01 stillbirths and of deaths in early infancy is higher in the off-
spring of alcoholic than in those of non-alcoholic parents. There
are several possible causes of this. First, the injurious effect of
alcohol on the foetus. Second, the injurious effect of alcohol on
the health of the mother. Third, the relatively unfavorable
circumstances of the alcoholic's family. In London in 1903-04
over half the deaths from overlying occurred on Saturday and
Sunday nights. The curve for deaths from suffocation in Eng-
land is almost perfectly paralleled by the curve of arrests for
drunkenness. Fourth, alcoholic mothers are more frequently
unable to nurse their children, and, according to Bunge, infant
mortality in the first year of life is, in some places, six times as
high in children fed on cow's milk as among those that are breast
fed. Holt, a well-known authority, says that deaths of cow-fed
infants are three times as frequent as among children nursed by
their mothers. One reason, therefore, for the greater mortality of
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 279
the children of alcoholic mothers may be that the latter are unable
to nurse their children as much as mothers not addicted to drink.
The r61e of heredity here is obscured by so many other factors
that the real hereditary influence of maternal alcoholism re-
mains in doubt.
One of the strongest indictments against alcohol is that the
offspring of people addicted to drink show a high percentage of
idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy and insanity, and that when they
escape these graver ills they usually fail to reach a normal degree
of mental development. The relation of parental alcoholism to
epilepsy forms the subject of an extensive monograph of Dr.
Sollier on the Influence of Heredity on Alcoholism. This mono-
graph is based entirely on the author's own investigation of three
hundred and fifty families of alcoholics, one of the members of
which was or had been hi the wards of the asylum for epileptics
at Bicetre. The histories of a large number of cases are given in
detail and they contain records of drunkenness, disease, crimes,
insanity, feeble-mindedness and a variety of other abnormal
traits. "Out of these three hundred and fifty families," Sollier
says, "there were two hundred and nine in which we could find
no acknowledged hereditary ancestor whose condition would
account for the alcoholism. We have however admitted the
disease without inheritance in two hundred and nine cases, say in
59.71 per cent of the whole number. In one hundred and forty-
one cases the alcoholism was linked with conditions of heredity;
in one hundred and six cases by heredity in similars; in thirty-
five cases by heredity in dissimilars. . . . The patients hi whose
families we have sought to trace the exciting causes of the dis-
ease, were all degenerates of a low order, idiotical, incompletely
developed, feeble, epileptic."
The facts stated in the last sentence quoted should warn us
to be particularly careful in drawing conclusions. How much of
the degeneration in these families is due to the effect of alcohol
and how much to bad heredity independent of alcohol we do not
know. To what an extent the alcoholism which in a number of
cases occurs in two generations is to be attributed to heredity we
280 THE TREND OF THE RACE
do not know. And even if we admit that the proclivity to alco-
holism in these cases is inherited, it does not follow that the
inheritance of this proclivity is in any way the effect of alcohol.
Barr in his work on Mental Defectives quotes Hippolyte Martin
to the effect that among one hundred and fifty insane epileptics,
eighty-three had a paternal history of intemperance, and he
states that in his (Barr's) own records "only fifteen of my two
hundred and fifty cases of imbecile epileptics had such a history."
Horsley and Sturge in their recent book on Alcohol and the Human
Body say that "there is very strong evidence to show that paren-
tal alcoholism is one of the most frequent causes of epilepsy in
children." Of the two authorities cited in support of this conclu-
sion, one, Dr. W. C. Sullivan, found that out of two hundred and
nineteen children who had alcoholic mothers 4.1 per cent became
epileptic, whereas in the general population epilepsy occurs in
less than one-half per cent, numbers two small to eliminate the
effect of mere chance. And besides, it was not taken into consid-
eration that both epilepsy and alcoholism may have resulted
from a nervous heredity.
The other authority appealed to, Dr. Legrain, personally
followed up the descendants of two hundred and fifteen drunk-
ards and found that in their families epilepsy, insanity and other
nervous disorders were extremely common. Here again the same
uncertainty occurs. Is the alcohol the cause of the epilepsy and
insanity, or do constitutions with a proclivity to epilepsy and
insanity take most readily to alcohol? It may be that much of
the epilepsy and especially of the insanity was caused directly
by drink, and that the offspring of drinkers being more apt, for
various reasons, to drink, .naturally exhibit a higher percentage
of nervous disorders. It is one thing to show that hereditary
nervous disorders are more common in stocks addicted to alcohol,
and quite a different thing to prove that alcohol is the cause of
these disorders when they appear in the next generation.
Demme's results which are often alluded to are vitiated by the
fact that they are based on especially selected evidence. A com-
parison is made between the offspring of two drunkards and two
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 281
sober parents. In the former there were 8 idiots, 13 epileptics, 2
deaf mutes, 5 dwarfs, 3 physically deformed, 12 who died in in-
fancy, 5 who became drunkards affected with chorea and epilepsy,
and only nine who were entirely normal. The families of the nor-
mal parents showed nothing extraordinary as might have been ex-
pected. It is evident that, granting the drunkards' families were
typical of alcoholic parents, which it is absurd to suppose that
they are, the relation would not prove the causative r61e of
alcohol in the production of the various pathological conditions
that were found.
Comparatively few writers have been alive to the alternative
possibilities of interpretation in the statistics with which they
were dealing. H. I. Berkely, for instance, in his Mental Diseases
states positively that it is a well-recognized fact that drunken-
ness is frequently responsible for the lowest form of congenital
idiocy. As evidence of the hereditary effects of alcohol Horsley
and Sturge quote the following from the report of the Royal
Commission on the Feeble-Minded: "Examining out of many
family histories one hundred and fifty cases of mental defect in
which he was able to satisfy himself that he had collected historic
data, Dr. Tredgold, physician to the Littleton Home for Defective
Children, found in 46.5 per cent of the families a history of well-
marked alcoholism; in 38.5 per cent of the cases combined with
neuropathic inheritance." In a study of the histories of two
hundred and fifty feeble-minded children Dr. Potts found a his-
tory of alcoholism in one hundred and four of them. Eighteen per
cent had a history of tuberculosis in addition to alcoholism and
1 1 .87 per cent were both alcoholic and insane. " It is quite plain,"
says Dr. Potts, "that in combination with other bad factors it
[alcoholism] is a most unfavorable element, while maternal
drinking, and drinking continued through more than one genera-
tion are potent influences in mental degeneracy."
Both the conclusion of Dr. Potts and his attitude toward the
problem are typical of the reasoning so commonly exhibited in the
treatment of alcohol in relation to heredity. Apparently it did
not occur to Dr. Potts, or to Horsley and Sturge that the facts
282 THE TREND OF THE RACE
presented could be interpreted in any other light. All that is
directly proven by the statistics is that alcoholism in parents is
frequently correlated with various kinds of neuropathic traits in
the children. How this correlation is to be explained the statistics
do not tell us. It is quite possible that the correlation may be due
to the fact that people whose heredity disposes them to idiocy,
insanity and other nervous disorders are those in whom inebriety
is most likely to develop. One might pile up volumes of statistics
such as we have quoted without really establishing the fact that
alcoholic habits are a cause of hereditary defect. The problem is
not so simple as is commonly represented. In the first place we
must eliminate the influence of the unfavorable environment
under which the children of alcoholics are so frequently brought
up, and this in most cases is no easy task. And then there is the
further question of ascertaining whether the use of alcohol is the
cause of degeneration or its effect, or whether both may not be
the outcome of other factors.
It will be instructive therefore to approach the subject from a
different angle and enquire into the heredity of the victims of
alcohol in order to find if they show any traces of nervous derange-
ment which may have disposed them to the excessive use of drink.
Dr. Branthwaite has furnished evidence that about two-thirds of
the inmates of the Inebriate Reformatories of England and Wales
were mentally defective. The data collected by Dr. Branthwaite
together with other data obtained elsewhere have been subjected
to a statistical investigation by Barrington, Pearson and Heron in
their Preliminary Study of Extreme Alcoholism in Adults. A
Second Study on the same subject based on additional material
was published two years later by Heron. The general conclusion
of these writers is that extreme alcoholism is a symptom of
pathological inheritance. Victims of chronic alcoholism which is
sufficiently severe to lead to segregation in a reformatory show,
as a class, a relatively high degree of mental defect, emotional
instability, and poor education. Heron remarks, in speaking of
the female inebriates studied by him, although most of his state-
ments apply equally well to the other sex, that "A large proper-
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 283
tion of the women begin to drink practically at the earliest age at
which they can obtain access to alcohol, and the amount of mental
defect among those who have been drinking for many years is
only slightly greater than that among those who are at the begin-
ning of their alcoholic career. There is a close relationship be-
tween the intensity of alcoholism and the mental conditions of
the inebriates but no relationship with their physical condition.
All this lends support to the view that the mental defect of the
inebriate is not a gradual growth; it is born, not bred; that ine-
briety is more an incident in the life of the inebriate than the
cause of his mental defect."
This conclusion which is coming to be quite widely adopted
receives strong support from the investigations of Stocker which
are described in his book on Alkoholpsy chosen. 1 Stocker was a
physician in the psychopathic clinic at Erlangen, Germany, and
he endeavored to follow up the histories of the various cases of
alcoholic delirium that were confined in the institution. He
went into the homes of the patients wherever possible, got into
friendly relations with their families, and obtained whatever
information he could regarding the early life of the patients and
especially any symptoms of disordered mentality they may have
manifested previous to their use of alcohol. At the same time he
informed himself as fully as possible concerning the ancestry and
other relatives of the person in question. Stocker was able to get
fairly complete data in regard to ninety of the hundred and fifteen
cases represented in the asylum. Thirty-four of these cases had
more or less regular fits of epilepsy, and in all but two of these the
author found epileptic symptoms before the patients started to
use alcohol in excess. In the vast majority of the remaining cases
including chronic alcoholic mania, dementia prsecox and other
disorders there was a history of nervous or mental derangement
before the alcoholic habit was acquired. And hi most cases also
there was a neurotic taint in the parents or other near relatives.
But the point that seems evident from the data is that these
victims of alcoholism were not so much deranged because they
1 G. Fischer, Jena, 1910.
284 THE TREND OF THE RACE
were alcoholic, but they became alcoholic because they were
previously abnormal. It may be said that they were born ab-
normal because their parents were addicted to alcohol. But if
we were to enquire into the history of the parents the same
question would arise: Were they alcoholic because they were
degenerate or degenerate because their parents were alcoholic?
And so we might go back generation after generation and we
would probably find much the same conditions that prevail in the
stock at the present time. The question of paramount impor-
tance is: What started the neuropathic strain of alcoholics in the
first place? Presumably it started somewhere from a relatively
normal stock. Was the start due to alcohol? This is of course
posssible; we may say that it is not improbable. But proven it is
not. And it cannot be proven by the kind of statistics usually
appealed to hi support of the commonly received opinion. Most
of these statistics are drawn from institutions for the care of
epileptics, insane asylums, homes for the feeble-minded, and
institutions for the care of chronic inebriates or dipsomaniacs.
From the nature of the case we are dealing with a portion of the
population with a defective inheritance which may manifest
itself in many ways. Medical authorities are of the opinion,
generally speaking, that the tendency to drink is an inherited
one. And this strong tendency to drink is very frequently
accompanied by, and is perhaps a result of a neuropathic taint.
As Dugdale says in his book on the notorious Jukes family,
"fuller investigation tends to show that certain diseases and
mental disorders precede the appetite for stimulants and that the
true cause for their use is the antecedent hereditary or induced
physical exhaustion."
If we could start with two lots of people of equally good inheri-
tance and allow to one the use of alcoholic stimulants and with-
draw them from the other, and then after a few generations
compare the average progeny of the two lots, we might, after
making allowance for the differences of direct environmental
influence affecting the children, arrive at some probable conclu-
sions as to how alcohol influences heredity. We do not find these
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 285
conditions realized to any considerable degree. However, there
has been found little correlation between the amount of drunken-
ness in any city or country and the number of defective people.
Dr. Bevan Lewis and Dr. Sullivan have shown that in England
the inland or agricultural communities had the least amount of
drunkenness and a high ratio of pauperism and insanity, while
mining and manufacturing communities which were the most
intemperate had a very small ratio of pauperism and insanity.
This fact, while contrary to what one might expect in the light of
the fact previously cited, may not be indicative of anything in
regard to the hereditary effects of alcohol. The better endowed
may have migrated into the cities, leaving the poorer stock to
perpetuate the race in the country, and there may have been
various other social forces that would work in the same direction.
The situation illustrates how dangerous it is to take statistics at
their face value, and to base conclusions on them without a
knowledge of the various possible factors which may account for
the results.
One of the most systematic investigations of the subject that
has appeared in recent years is the Study of the Influence of
Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of the Offspring
written by Elderton and Pearson, and published by the Eugenics
Laboratory of London. The material investigated consisted of a
school in Edinburgh and some special schools in Manchester.
The parents of the school children were carefully studied and their
habits as regards alcohol accurately ascertained. In the data
from the Manchester schools the parents were classed as either
temperate or intemperate, but a closer grading was made of the
Edinburgh parents who were grouped into teetotalers, sober,
suspected to drink, drinks, has bouts of drinking. The children
were graded as to height, weight, health, eye-sight and mental
ability. Then a comparison was made between these character-
istics and the habits of the parents. It was found (i) that in both
Edinburgh and Manchester there was a higher death rate among
the children of the alcoholic parents, and that the alcoholic
parents had more children, so that the net family was about the
286 THE TREND OF THE RACE
same in the two classes. (2) The mean weight and height of the
children of alcoholic parents were slightly greater than the weight
and height of the children of the sober parents, but as the age of
the former children is slightly greater, the correlations when
corrected for age show a slight advantage in favor of the children
of the sober. (3) The general health of the children of the alco-
holic parents appears a little better than that of the children of the
sober, perhaps because the more delicate children of the former
died to a greater extent in infancy. There was actually more
epilepsy in the children of the sober. (4) The vision was slightly
better in the children of the alcoholics. (5) The intelligence of
the children from the two classes of parents was so nearly the
same that the difference was not significant.
Although these results were based on a study of over a thou-
sand school children, it is quite possible that fuller data would
establish a different conclusion. The outcome, as Elderton and
Pearson admit, was quite contrary to what one might reasonably
expect, and it naturally evoked considerable criticism. Most of
the criticisms were beside the mark and were successively met
by the different replies which were made by Pearson and Elderton
and by Pearson. Without entering into a discussion of the
several points raised in this more or less acrimonious controversy,
mention may be made of two objections which were much stressed
by the critics of the memoirs in question. It was urged that the
portions of the population dealt with were not representative of
the people at large, and hence any conclusions drawn from the
investigation would be of no value. The Edinburgh population,
according to Saleeby, consisted of " the slums hi the North Canon-
gate," although a list of the trades represented by the parents
showed a fairly typical series of occupations for the working
classes. In the Manchester school "one child in each family,
whether the parents were temperate or intemperate, was mentally
defective." In view of the strong hereditary character of mental
defect, it is very probable that the Manchester parents represent
a selected group rather strongly tainted with hereditary disa-
bility.
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 287
But granting these groups dealt with are not representative
of the general population, this fact is irrelevant, as Pearson has
urged, so long as it has not been shown shown that for each group
the alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents do not belong to heredi-
tarily differentiated classes. Pearson claims that his critics have
not shown that this is the case, and he has furnished evidence that
so far as wages and choice of trades are concerned, there is no
marked difference between the alcoholic and non-alcoholic sec-
tions. It may be urged, a priori, that if a group which works
against a handicap of alcohol attains an efficiency equal to that
of another group not so handicapped, the former must be the
better hereditary material, but we have no statistical proof of
this in the present case.
Where we are dealing with the parents of defective children,
as in the Manchester data, there is of course the possibility,
especially in the light of the experiments of Stockard, that the
sober parents produce defective children because they are of
defective stock, while a part of the alcoholics do so because they
are alcoholic. These possibilities are mentioned not as a criticism
of the memoir in question, but as showing the extreme difficulty of
solving biological problems which are complicated by so many
social factors. As the studies of extreme alcoholism have jhown,
extreme alcoholism itself serves to distinguish biologically one
class from another. In view of the graded character of mental
defect at what point does alcohol cease to have this segregating
effect? An occasional or moderate use of alcoholic beverages is
perhaps no more indicative of mental peculiarities than being a
teetotaler, if as much. But as the use of alcohol increases it comes
to be more of a mark of a hereditarily defective stock. It is not
improbable that, as Pearson suggests, the parents of the Edin-
burgh and Manchester school children failed as a rule to develop
that degree of alcoholism which is associated with mental defect.
The apparent discrepancy between the results of the First Study
and the Studies on Extreme Alcoholism is explained on the ground
that "the mentally defective became extreme alcoholists, ine-
briates in constant conflict with the police because the mental de-
288 THE TREND OF THE RACE
feet is antecedent to their alcoholism. But because the bulk
of the mentally defective became criminal or alcoholic it does not
follow that every alcoholist is mentally defective, and will breed
mentally defective children."
Another objection to the conclusions of Elderton and Pearson
is that in no case was it certain whether or not the parents began
their alcoholic habits before the birth of the offspring. It is a fair
presumption, from what is known of the persistence of habits in
human beings, that the parents who were alcoholic after their
children became of school age were in most cases more or less
alcoholic before their children were born. Of course the alcoholic
habits of people are subject to much variation, and some parents
may have used alcohol before their children were born and after-
ward became sober, and in other parents the alcoholic history may
have been just the reverse. To the extent that such changes
occur, whatever correlations may exist between parental alco-
holism and the characteristics of offspring would not be revealed
by the statistical methods employed. The presence of fluctua-
tions in the alcoholic habits of parents would naturally weaken
the correlations that might exist between alcoholism of parents
and peculiarities of their children. These correlations would be
further weakened by the fact that the classes compared were not
as sharply defined as would be desirable. The teetotalers were
unfortunately very few in number and for statistical treatment
they were usually grouped with the sober or those who drank but
little. For the same reason the small group of those "suspected
to drink " were combined with the drinkers.
The investigation of Elderton and Pearson is of a type that it is
desirable to see extended to further data. If the results do not
justify a final verdict, and the authors make no sweeping claims
for the general applicability of their conclusions, the fault lies in
the inherent difficulty of the problem rather than in the imperfec-
tions of the methods employed. The authors set about investi-
gating a particular set of data bearing on a most important prob-
lem, and they stated their precise findings and some conclusions
that could and some that could not be drawn from their data. If
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 289
the authors obtained mainly negative results it is unscientific to
berate them for this fact, or to bewail the circumstance that their
findings may have given comfort to the friends of alcohol.
We may pass briefly over the studies of Laitenen, MacNicholl,
and Bezzola since they have subjected to a critical overhauling
by Pearson and shown to be based on faulty methods of investiga-
tion. Laitenen's data do not inform us whether the father or
mother or both parents were alcoholic, which is a very unfortu-
nate omission when one is dealing with problems of heredity.
Weights of the children of abstainers, moderate drinkers (those
taking no more than a glass a beer a day) and drinkers were taken
by the parents at monthly intervals from birth to eight months of
age. The babies of the drinkers averaged somewhat less (4.4 per
cent for boys, 3.6 per cent for girls) than those of abstainers, the
offspring of "moderates" occupying an intermediate position.
Although when eight months old the abstainers' children were
heavier than those of the moderates, and these again heavier than
those of the drinkers, increase in weight, however, was quite as
rapid in the children of the drinkers when comparison is made
with the original weight. These results have very little signifi-
cance for any problem of heredity since we know little of the
social and nothing of the racial differences of the several classes.
The fact that the age at marriage for the abstainers is consider-
ably greater than that of drinkers might, since young mothers
produce small babies, be a factor in accounting for the relatively
slight differences in weight between the offspring of the drinking
and abstaining parents.
Bezzola contends that relatively more idiots and imbeciles
are conceived in Switzerland during the period of vintage and at
other times at which unusual amounts of alcohol are drunk, but
as the excess at most is only three births out of some seven hun-
dred it is entirely without any statistical significance.
MacNicholPs data, despite its imposing quantity, yields no
evidence of the r61e of heredity which any critical student of
genetics would think of basing any conclusions upon. Maternal
or paternal inebriety are not distinguished, and no attempt is
2QO
made to separate the effect of the children's use of tobacco and
liquor, which he claims are deplorably prevalent, from the effects
possibly due to heredity. The papers of MacNicholl belong to
that very large class of literature on the hereditary influence of
alcohol which neglects nearly all of the elementary precautions
which are absolutely essential for attaining reliable results.
From the kind of data we have on the hereditary effects of
alcohol in human beings it is difficult to come to any positive
conclusion. And there is a much less confident tone in the utter-
ances on this subject among more recent authorities on heredity
than there was several years ago. It is commonly recognized that
in certain families there is a bent toward alcoholism. This no
more proves that such a trait is the result of the liquor habit than
the reappearance of kleptomania proves that this failing is the
result of parental thieving. What caused the original appearance
of the bent toward alcoholism we do not know. Neither do we
know in most cases what causes the first appearance of feeble-
mindedness and the hereditary forms of epilepsy and insanity.
When the attempt is made to follow the history of these maladies
we usually uproot a strain of defective inheritance which runs
back and back farther than we can trace it. The Jukes, the Tribe
of Ishmael, the KaUikak family, the Zero family and the Nam
family all have much the same melancholy sort of history. All
show alcoholism and degeneracy going hand in hand. It is
reasonably certain that much alcoholism is the product of degen-
eration. That it is a common cause of the first appearance of
degenerate strains is of course possible, if not probable. But
our present knowledge of the subject does not justify us in assert-
ing that such a conclusion is anything more than a good working
hypothesis.
There is no question in eugenics more important than that of
the origin of defective strains of human beings. How much light
might be thrown on the problem by statistical investigation, if
undertaken in the right way, I shall not presume to predict, but
so far as the hereditary influence of alcohol is concerned the most
promising method consists in experiments on animals. In this
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 291
way conditions may be controlled, check experiments carried on,
and data obtained that are free from a multitude of possible
interpretations. Heredity in human beings is essentially the same
as heredity in animals, and should it be found quite generally
that alcoholism in the lower animals is productive of heritable
defects, it is very probable that the same conclusion could be
applied also to man.
The only other substance which evidence points to as probably
causing injury to human germ plasm is lead. In 1860 Constan-
tine Paul reported that women workers in lead have an unusually
high number of abortions, stillbirths, and children who are
unhealthy and die early. Much more indicative of a true hered-
itary influence is the fact that, when the father alone worked in
lead a high percentage of abortions or early deaths occurred in the
offspring. Of 32 pregnancies in women who were not lead work-
ers but whose husbands were exposed to lead there were twelve
abortions or stillbirths, and of the 20 children born alive, 8 died in
the first year, 4 in the second and 5 in the third.
The bad effects of plumbism have been discussed by several
writers (Ballard, Lewin, Rennert, Bourneville, Roques, Oliver)
but in most cases the reports dealt with maternal plumbism, or
with data in which the maternal and paternal effects are not
distinguished. It has been shown that lead is absorbed by the
foetus from the mother and that it may also pass to the offspring
through the mother's milk. In maternal plumbism, therefore,
the offspring are doubtless directly injured by the lead itself.
Even when women who have discontinued work in lead con-
tinue to have an unusually large number of abortions the result
may be due either to persistence of the poison in the mother's
blood, or to the general impairment of their health as a result of
the poison.
According to Oliver, "the effects of lead in this particular
direction [i. e., on offspring] are worse when both parents are
affected, next when it is the mother alone who has been brought
under the influence of lead; but there is evidence to show that
lead impregnation of the male is extremely prejudicial to the
2 9 2 THE TREND OF THE RACE
offspring. Rennert has attempted to express in statistical terms
the varying degrees of gravity of the prognosis of cases in which
at the moment of conception both parents are the subjects of lead
poisoning, also where one alone is affected. The malign influence
of lead is reflected upon the fcetus and on the continuation of the
pregnancy 94 times up to 100 when both parents have been work-
ing in lead, 92 times when the mother alone is affected, and 63
times when it is the father alone who is working in lead. ... In
his studies upon hereditary degeneration and idiocy, Bourneville
places house-painters in the unenviable first rank of the occupa-
tions followed by parents of mentally weak children." (Diseases
of Occupation, 202-203.)
These results, while not very conclusive as to permanent
injury to the germ plasm, are naturally suggestive of such action.
The possibility of true heritable modification being produced
by lead has been tested by Cole and Bachhuber 1 on fowls and
rabbits and by Weller on guinea pigs. Cole and Bachhuber
administered lead only to the males. The offspring of the poi-
soned male rabbits showed less weight and a higher mortality
than the offspring of normal individuals. In the fowl it was found
that eggs fertilized by poisoned cocks failed to develop much more
frequently than those fertilized by normal males, and the chicks
from poisoned male parentage had a higher mortality both before
and after hatching.
Weller found that the offspring resulting from mating poisoned
male guinea pigs with normal females were about 20 per cent less
in weight than the controls, that more of them died during the
first week and that the survivors showed a general retardation.
Thus far we are not in possession of facts indicating that injury
due to lead is carried beyond the first generation. If the results
of male plumbism are due to injuries to the chromatin material of
the sperm cells it seems probable that they would be transmitted
to subsequent generations. Analogy with the effects of male
alcoholism in guinea pigs would also support this conclusion.
Further work on this important problem is much to be desired.
x Proc. Sex;. Exp. Biol. Med. 12, 24-29, 1914.
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 293
It is important to carry experiments through several generations
and to experiment with a large number of substances and upon a
variety of forms of life. If we knew the conditions under which
new variations arise in plants and animals the information
would not only be of great importance in relation to problems of
heredity and evolution, in general, but it would be of especial
value to the student of the trend of our own racial development.
The evidence that the toxins of disease may unfavorably
affect the inheritance of human beings is at present very inade-
quate. In the light of such facts as have just been discussed such
an influence would seem probable a priori. The disease whose
hereditary effects are the most obvious is syphilis, which may be
transmitted from parent to offspring through one or two genera-
tions and possibly more. It is not necessary to describe the disas-
trous consequences to offspring resulting from this terrible
malady. It is only too well known as a very potent cause of abor-
tions, stillbirths, early deaths, and much misery to those to whom
it does not mercifully prove fatal. The transmitted effects of
parental syphilis, however, are mainly due to the infection of the
offspring by the organism, Spirochceta pallida, which is now
demonstrated to be the cause of this disease. Whether syphilis
produces a true blastophthoric effect is a matter very difficult to
ascertain, because such an influence would be so closely associated
with the direct results of the disease itself. There is no evidence
at present available which would warrant us in regarding syphilis
as the cause of defective inheritance in the proper significance of
this term.
The same conclusion may be drawn for tuberculosis, malaria
and other diseases which are often rather loosely spoken of as
"racial poisons." It may be more or less probable, a priori,
that they may permanently impair human germ plasm and give
rise to strains with a degenerate inheritance, but our knowledge
on this important problem is still too meager to justify positive
statements.
294 THE TREND OF THE RACE
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Barrington, A., and Pearson, K. A Preliminary Study of Extreme Alcoholism in
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Bunge, G. von. Die zunehmende Unfahigkeit der Frauen ihre Kinder zu stillen,
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Cole, L. J., and Bachhuber, Z. J. The Effect of Lead on the Germ Cells of the
Male Rabbit and Fowl as Indicated by their Progeny. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol.
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Cole, L. J., and Davis, C. L. The Effect of Alcohol on the Male Germ Cells Stud-
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Combemale, F. La Descendance des Alcooliques. These de Montpellier, 1888.
Paris, 1887.
Crothers, T. D. Inebriety and Heredity, Hartford, 1886. See also Jour. Am.
Med. Ass. 15, 531-33, 1890, and Brit. Med. Jour, n, 659-61, 1909.
Davis, N. S. Summary of the Effects of Alcoholic Liquors on the Degeneracy of
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Demme, R. Ueber erbliche Uebertragung des Alkoholismus, etc. Wiener med.
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Elderton, E., and Pearson, K. A First Study of The Influence of Parental Alcohol-
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Abstinenz oder Massigkeit. Grenzfragen Nerv-und Seelenlebens, H. 74, 1910.
Gee, W. Effects of Acute Alcoholism on the Germ Cells of Fundidus heleroditus.
Biol. Bull. 31, 379, 1916.
ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 295
Gordon, A. Parental Alcoholism as a Factor in the Mental Deficiency of Children;
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1911 and 34, 58-65, 1912.
Heron, D. A Second Study of Extreme Alcoholism in Adults. Eugen. Lab. Mems.
17, 1912.
Hodge, C. F. Action of Alcohol on Dogs as Regards Non-viability and Malforma-
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Sci. Mon. Mar. and Apr., 1897, and Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Prob-
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Hoppe, H. Alkohol und Kriminalitat. Grenzfragen des Nerv-und Seelenlebens.
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146-50, 1910-11; also Jour. Inebriety, Boston, 32, 105-10, 1910. 1st Al-
koholismus eine Ursache der Entartung? Arch. f. Kriminalanthrop. u. Krim-
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Munich, 1912.
Horsley, V., and Sturge, M. D. Alcohol and the Human Body. Macmillan Co.,
London, 1907, 5th ed., 1915.
Laitenen, T. Ueber den Einfluss der kleinen Alkoholgaben auf die Entwicklung
der Tuberculose im tierischen Korper mit bes. Beriicksichtigung der Nach-
kommenschaft. Beitrage zur path Anat. u. allg. Path. 51, 267-278, 1911. See
articles in Zeit. f. Hyg. u. Infektionskrank. 58, 139-164, 1907. Brit. Jour.
Inebriety, Oct., 1909. Verh. 10 antialk. Kongress, 1904; Internal. Monatschr.
z. Erforsch. d. Alkoholismus, 20, 193-98, 1910.
Laquer, B. Massigkeit und Enthaltsamkeit. Alkohol und Nachkommenscaft.
Wiesbaden, 1913.
Legrain, M. P. Heredite et Alcoolisme. O. Doin. Paris, 1889.
MacNicholl, T. A. Alcohol and the Disabilities of School Children. Jour. Am.
Med. Ass. 48, 396-98, 1907; also art. in Med. Temperance Rev., 1905, p. 246,
and 1909, p. 53.
Mjoen, J. A. Alkohol, Entartung und Rassenhygiene. Internat. Monatschr. f.
Erforsch. d. Alkoholismus, 25, 317-331, 1915. See art. in Alkoholfrage,
Berlin, n. F. n, 327-336.
Nice, L. B. Comparative Studies on the Effects of Alcohol, Nicotine, Tobacco
Smoke and Caffeine on White Mice, i ; Effects on Reproduction and Growth.
Jour. Exp. Zool. 12, 133-152, 1912.
Oliver, T. Diseases of Occupation. Methuen, London, 1908; Lead Poisoning and
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Paul, C. fitude sur ITntoxication lente par les Preparations de Plomb, de son
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Pearson, K. The Influence of Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of
the Offspring: A Reply to the Cambridge Economists. Questions of the Day
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Pearson, K., and Elderton, E. M. A Second Study of the Influence of Parental
296 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of Offspring. Being a Reply to Cer-
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Ploetz, A. Die Bedeutung des Alkohols fur Leben und Entwicklung der Rasse.
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Potts, W. A. et al. The Relation of Alcohol to Feeble-Mindedness. Brit. Jour.
Inebriety, Jan., 1909. See also, 1. c., 10, 66-68, 1912-13.
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Sichel, M. Der Alkohol als Ursache der Belastung. Neur. Zent. 29, 738-748, 1910.
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U. S. Brewers' Association Year Book, 1914, Chapter on Alcohol and Heredity.
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Internal. Congr. Med. 1913, London, 1914, Section 12, Pt. 2, 161-167.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ALLEGED INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH
AND AGE OF PARENTS UPON OFFSPRING.
OUR information on the subjects treated in the present chapter
is in a most unsatisfactory state. It is with some hesitation that
I have ventured to discuss them at all, but on account of their
importance for the general problem of human evolution it was
thought that it might be useful to treat them briefly, even though
little more was done than to exhibit the imperfections of our
knowledge and to point out some of the pitfalls into which the
unwary have so frequently fallen.
In regard to the influence of order of birth upon offspring
there is one conclusion which we may feel warranted in drawing
with some confidence. The first born children are apt to be
lighter in weight and shorter in height than those of later births.
Nothing is involved in the establishment of this conclusion
beyond the collection and comparison of data on the weight
and size of newly born infants and there is no reason to doubt the
generality of the conclusion just expressed. Dr. Matthews Dun-
can gives the following data on the weights and lengths of infants
according to the order of their birth :
Birth Rank
i
2
3
4
5
6
7 and over
Average
Weight in Ibs
7.20
19.20
7-31
IQ.24
7-35
19.30
7.19
18.96
7-45
19.27
7-32
18.96
7.3i
18.99
7.26
19.19
Length in inches
Pearson submits the following table on the weights of 2,000
babies, excluding twins and illegitimate births, from the records
of the Lambeth Lying-in Hospital:
Birth Order
i
2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
1 1 and over
Mean Weight
Boys
7.01
6.76
7-36
7.08
7-4i
7-33
7.70
7-36
7.91
7-32
7-59
7-6S
7.92
7.88
7.40
7-iS
Girls
297
298
THE TREND OF THE RACE
The lengths of the same series of babies were found to be
as follows:
Birth Order
i
2
3~4
5-6
7-8
p-/o
Handover
Mean Length
Boys. .
20.62
20.27
20.82
20-33
20.80
20.51
20.95
20.43
20.98
20.36
20.99
20.41
21. 14
20.73
20.81
20.38
Girls
These sets of tables, and there is considerable additional
evidence to the same effect, indicate that the first born infants
of both sexes are lighter in weight and shorter than the second
born, and that there is a general increase according to order of
birth until near the close of the child-bearing period. The reason
for the relatively small size and weight of the first born may lie
in the fact that the mothers are, on the average, young, and also
in the circumstance that their organization is not so well adapted
to child bearing as it becomes after one or more births. It is well
known that the first birth is usually the most difficult. There is a
relatively larger number of stillbirths among the first born.
Taking the records of 48,843 births among the professional and
upper classes, Ansell found the proportions of stillbirths distrib-
uted as follows:
Order of Birth
i
2
3
4-6
7 and over
Still births per 1,000 born alive. ...
40
2O
ic. e
17.4
20. Q
According to Ansell there is a greater mortality among the
first born in the first year of life. From the records of the 48,843
births just mentioned he obtains the following data:
Order of Birth
/
2
3
4-6
7 and over
Deaths in i st year per i ,000 living births .
82.2
70
69
78.3
97-4
Additional evidence in the same direction is furnished by
Pearson from the records of the artisan classes from several
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC.
299
English towns. The following table gives the death and delicacy
rates of 3,000 babies born in Bradford:
Order of Birth
I
2-3
4-5
7-6
8-9
10-11
12+
Death rate in ist year
16. 2
12.4
I?
14. -z
17.4
17. 7
z-z . *
Delicacy rate in ist year. . . .
3-9
4.2
5-7
6-5
6
8-3
9
Both combined
20. i
16.6
18.7
20.8
23.4
26
42.3
Data from births in Sheffield yield closely parallel results :
Order of Births
i
2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
11-12
13+
Total births
636
12.9
691
ii. 6
1156
"5
843
10.6
Si8
12.6
334
16.2
143
ii. 9
IOI
24.8
Death rate in ist year per 1,000 births
All of these results show that the death rate of infants is rela-
tively high for the first born and that it tends to decrease succes-
sively with the second and third and sometimes the fourth or
fifth born, after which there is a rise in the death rate which is
particularly high after the birth of the twelfth or thirteenth child.
That the greater mortality of the first born is due to the same
causes which give rise to reduced size and weight is a conclusion
which, although having a certain amount of plausibility, it would
be rash to adopt, at least as an explanation of the whole difference
between the death rate of first and later born children. The first
born would naturally suffer more from the ignorance and inex-
perience of their mothers and there are other factors which would
affect unequally the various children of a family. Biological and
social factors may both affect the death rate of the first children
of a family, and it is a matter of great difficulty to assign to each
its proper role. Whatever may be the reasons why the first born
are handicapped in the first year of life, it is of much interest to
ascertain if this handicap persists in later years. Pearson and
some of his co-workers have maintained that this initial disadvan-
tage is correlated with a greater liability to tuberculosis, insanity
and other afflictions of adult life. As an illustration of the method
300
THE TREND OF THE RACE
employed by Pearson and his colleagues we may consider the
First Study of the Statistics of Pulmonary Tuberculosis which gives
data on the order of birth and size of family of 381 tuberculous
patients from the Crossley Sanitorium at Frodsham, England.
The assumption was made, which could not be far from the
truth that only one patient was drawn from a single family, and
since there were 381 families represented, each of which must have
contained a first born member there must have been 381 individ-
uals among the families represented who were first born-children.
Since the size of the families was ascertained the numbers of
second, third and subsequent born could readily be calculated.
If we divide the tuberculous patients in the first, second and third
born, etc., in the same ratio in which these classes occur in the
members of the tuberculous families in general, we obtain a series
of numbers which may be compared with the members of first,
second, third, etc., born among the tuberculous patients which
were actually found. The following table gives the expected
frequency of tuberculosis patients and the actual frequency in the
groups representing the various orders of birth:
Over
Order of
i
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
IO
II
12
13
'4
14
Birth
No. of cases
observed. .
"3
79
4i
52
39
18
18
9
3
3
3
I
I
i
o
No. of cases
calculated. .
67.1
64.4
58-5
SO.Q
43-5
32.6
22.2
IS-I
10
6.2
3-7
2.6
1.6
i.i
1.6
The table indicates a great preponderance of the tuberculous
among the first born. Comparisons of the distribution of tuber-
culous patients with the relative proportions of first, second and
subsequent born among the population of New South Wales
showed the same excess of the tuberculous among the earlier
born individuals.
Dr. Heron has come to the conclusion that insanity is especially
prone to attack the first born members of a stock. In Goring's
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 301
excellent work on The English Convict it is claimed that crimi-
nality develops in the first born to a much greater extent than it
does in the later born members of the stock from which the crim-
inals are derived. Pearson confirms the deductions of Heron and
Goring for insanity and criminality, and he has adduced data to
show that the first born are unusually liable to albinism, imbecil-
ity, epilepsy and cataract.
A number of writers have attacked the findings of Pearson
and his colleagues on the ground that they are based upon a
statistical fallacy. Greenwood and Yule have arrived at a quite
different ordinal distribution of the relative number of individuals
in the members of the families of the marked individuals. When
we are dealing with cases of insanity or tuberculosis in which we
start with individuals, say in institutions, it is obvious that all
members of the marked person's family are not equally apt to be
found in the segregated class. There is an age at which insanity
and tuberculosis is more than likely to appear and the chances are
decidedly against two persons from the same family being con-
fined at the same time, there being an especially strong bias
against the members who have not reached adult life. Recently
Pearson's methods have been attacked by Dublin and Langham
of the Statistical Bureau of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company of New York. These authors contend that Pearson's
method "is based unequivocally on the assumption that the
distribution according to order of birth of the pathologic com-
munity from which his 'marked' or affected subjects are ob-
tained is identical with the distribution of the sibships of these
subjects. For if that be the case he can use the distribution of
the sibships of the affected as a norm in comparing with it the
distribution of the affected, in the effort to show that actually
the early born among his subjects preponderate beyond all ex-
pected proportions. We shall endeavor to show that, when there
is no weighing according to order of birth among the individuals
affected, the distribution of the affected or that of the pathologi-
cal community represented by them is not in any case compar-
able with that of their sibships. We propose to take the distri-
302 THE TREND OF THE RACE
bution of a normal population, and, supposing all members of it
to be liable to some disease in equal proportions, obtain from it
the distribution of the sibships of the affected by order of birth
which is to be expected on the assumption made. We shall find
that the distribution of the sibships is by necessity so different
as to account for practically the whole difference found by Pear-
son."
Here we have differences of opinion among statistical experts
regarding a purely mathematical problem, quite apart from any
biological or social factors which may possibly be involved in it.
Dublin and Langham have arrived at precisely the same theoret-
ical distribution of 381 tuberculous patients as Greenwood and
Yule found. The statistics show that there is still a preponder-
ance of first born among the tuberculous, but it is so much less
than that estimated by Pearson that the authors do not consider
it especially significant.
Pearson has replied to Greenwood and Yule and his argument
would affect the criticisms of Dublin and Langham also claiming
that their method, when applied to the kind of material which is
investigated leads to incorrect results. We shall not attempt to
enter upon a discussion of the details of the mathematical ques-
tions which are the subject of controversy. There is occasionally
a surplus of first born over the expectation as estimated by the
methods of Greenwood and Yule as is the case with tuberculosis,
criminality and insanity. Characteristics found to occur fre-
quently in small families will naturally be found in a relatively
large percentage of first born offspring. As Pearson remarks,
"Certain types of parental degeneracy seem incapable of pro-
ducing more than one or two children at most, and the children
of such parents are themselves feeble. But, if any small families
are thus selected, we shall increase the number of early-borns in
the diseased population, for such small families have no late-
borns."
It may very well happen that the first-borns may be relatively
abundant in a diseased or defective stock, although they may not
be relatively less frequent among the sibships of the affected stock
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 303
than among the affected persons themselves. This would be the
case if the affected families were small. It is very desirable to
have data on the relative position of the affected person in indi-
vidual families of two, three, four, five, etc., persons so that it
could be ascertained whether or not within the limits of families
of a given size the marked individuals occur in preponderating
numbers in any given position. Data grouped in this way would
enable us to avoid several pitfalls incident upon handling mass
statistics. In the data of Weeks on the order of birth of epileptics
there is, as Pearson states, "no excess of the eldest-born in the
individual families; if there be any excess it is in the interme-
diates. Thus, if we may trust this data, which are slender, there
is no weighting of the first-born in the case of epilepsy unless it
arises from the weighting of small families." Treating the data
by the methods employed in other cases Pearson finds an excess
of epileptics among the first born. "We must, I think, conclude,"
he remarks, "by recognizing that, while there is a weighting in
epilepsy, this is due to a selection of families rather than to a
selection of the elder-born in each family." How far the rela-
tively large proportion of first-borns in Pearson's data on other
defects may be due to the selection of small families is, of course,
uncertain. It is of value to know, however, whether the relative
preponderance of the first born in pathological stocks is due to the
smallness of the family. As Pearson remarks, "We are shooting,
so to speak, at the entire population of first borns, and a bias with
regard to selection of weaker families may come in, in much the
same way as families up to six or seven may be the sign of healthy
parents, and so the offspring will be less liable to disease. This
idea cannot be excluded. But in itself it indicates how inadequate
is the proposal to treat the problem only within families of con-
stant size."
However it happens that the first born in the population in
general comes to be selected for defect or disease, the reduction
of the size of families leading to an increase in the relative propor-
tion of first born individuals will inevitably cause an exaggeration
of several undesirable hereditary traits. In so far as the birth
304 THE TREND OF THE RACE
rate is allowed to take its natural course large families offer some
evidence of physical vigor whatever they may indicate as to
mentality. A general reduction of the birth rate has, therefore,
its dangers, at least for the physical vigor of the population, since
it would probably involve a greater proportionate reduction of
healthy and vigorous stocks.
It would indeed be unfortunate if a reduction of the birth
rate in the larger families would lead to the reduction of the
best members of the stocks in addition to the loss of physical
vigor otherwise involved. Whether ordinal position in the family
except in the matter of weight, size and infantile death rate, is
per se a handicap is a question which most of our data do not
enable us to decide. The fact that there is a greater percentage
of deaths among the first born than there is among the second or
third born does not prove that the second or third born member
of any particular family is less likely to die than the first born.
The large percentage of deaths among the first born may be due
to the fact that a large proportion of early deaths occur in families
containing only one or two children. The data do not prove that
in families in which three or four children are born the later
children have any greater expectation of life than the first. As
we have already pointed out fecundity is correlated with longev-
ity. Families limited by the early death of one or both parents
would naturally show a high death rate on account of the prob-
ability that the offspring would inherit a diminished vitality. On
the other hand, large size of family very commonly has a very
undesirable relation to infant mortality, despite the vitality of
the stock from which large families come. This is due in part at
least to economic causes and in part to the correlation between
mental subnormality (this does not imply reduced physiological
vigor) with a high birth rate. Where large families occur among
intelligent and thrifty people as they did a century ago, there is
much less correlation between size of family and a high early
death rate. The following table from data collected by Dr. A. G.
Bell is instructive in this connection:
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC.
305
Relation of Duration of Life to Size of Family
Number in family
Total
persons
Percentage dying at age groups indicated
Under
20
20-40
40-60
60-80
80+
i
4i
85
126
313
584
694
683
396
168
58-5
42.4
47 6
36.1
35 5
33-o
32-8
33-6
46.4
22 .O
24.7
23-8
25-5
24-5
25.2
22.2
21 .2
17-3
4-9
18.8
M-3
19.2
18.3
17.7
17.9
18.4
13-1
9-7
9-4
9-5
14.4
15-9
16.9
17-4
17.9
17.3
49
4-7
4.8
4-8
5-8
7-2
9-7
8.9
5-9
2.
i and 2
3 and 4
5 and 6
7 and 8
9 and 10
ii and 12
13 and more
100.0%
2,964
35-2%
1,044
23-4%
693
17-7%
525
16.4%
486
7-3%
216
The table deals with 2,964 members of the Hyde family of
America and is noteworthy in showing the high early death rate
among families with but one child, and a gradual decrease of
early death rate with increase of family up to families of eleven
or more children. There is also a marked increase in the percent-
age of offspring living to advanced ages (60+ and 80+) as the
families become larger in size. The poor showing of the very-
largest families may be due to causes which have been already
discussed. Miss Elderton has remarked that the high death rate
among the early born in families or twelve or more "largely
disappears if we exclude mothers of bad habits."
Data on the problem whether the first born are handicapped
by the mere fact of their ordinal position in the family are very
inadequate. Dr. Chase studied the physiques of 58 sets of broth-
ers who entered Amherst College and found that the first born
were strongest in four cases, the second born strongest in twelve
cases, the third born strongest in twenty-eight cases. The
students entered college at about the same age and were tested
in the same way, but the small number of cases handled makes it
unsafe to draw general conclusions. Pearson found that within
306 THE TREND OF THE RACE
families of a given size the first and second born show as a rule a
preponderating amount of albinism, criminality and tuberculosis.
Mongolian idiocy was found to characterize in a rather striking
manner the last born of the family.
When we investigate the incidence of any quality in regard to
order of birth in individual families we are not entirely free from
statistical pitfalls, if we start with material segregated in institu-
tions. If we take individuals of a certain age, say 20, which are
confined in a sanitorium, then if the numbers of families are
increasing in the population at large the individual will be more
apt to be the eldest of a recent family than the younger member
of an old family. This possible source of error was pointed out
by Mr. Cobb who says:
"It has hitherto been assumed that if a person of given age is
selected at random from amongst fraternities of a given size then
all positions in that fraternity are equally likely. But this is
not the case. If the number of births has been increasing he is
more likely to be one of the older members of his fraternity, and
if the number hasbeen decreasing he is more likely to be a younger
member. For while the number of births is increasing there are
more children born every year who belong to the first half of their
fraternities than who belong to the second half."
In most countries there are more births per annum than
previously and a steady increase in the number of families. But
granting that this would give us an apparent increase of the first
born of any particular age there is a compensating tendency
brought about by the declining birth rate. Along with an in-
creasing number of people there has been a reduction of the
percentage of the later born owing to the increasing restriction of
the size of the family. Consider a random group of 20 year old
individuals from families of twelve members. Will not this be
more apt to represent the last members of the old families than
the first members of families that were started later. Suppose
that of the families starting in 1825, one in ten contained a
twelfth child, which lived for 60 years. Suppose also that of the
families starting in 1875 only one in one hundred had a twelfth
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 307
child that lived for 35 or more years. Now, suppose that in 1910
we select a group of individuals from the families of twelve in the
population. It is obvious that our group would contain many
more of the twelfth born from the old families than from the later
ones. It is evident from these considerations that when we sim-
plify the problem of handicapping the first born by considering
the ordinal position of the marked member within families of a
particular size, we do not avoid all statistical pitfalls. Our data
collected by the methods generally employed would be affected
by increase of population and decline of the birth rate, to say
nothing of other possible factors.
Mention may be made of one circumstance which might make a
real difference between the first and subsequent members of a
family, and that is inherited syphilis. It is a well-known fact
that the early born are most seriously injured by this disease.
The not uncommon history of a syphilitic family is first the
occurrence of one or more abortions, then the birth of weakly
children and finally the production of children who are com-
paratively healthy. The inclusion of any considerable number
of such family histories would tend to cause the first born to
occupy an unenviable position. Since syphilis predisposes the
patient to tuberculosis there would tend to be an exaggeration
of the latter disease and probably also insanity and other patho-
logical defects among the early born.
So far as pure heredity is concerned we should naturally
expect the first born to have the same endowments as the sub-
sequent members of the family. Primacy of birth as Auerbach
remarks is "Rein vererbungstechnischer Begriff." Whatever
effects may be due to maternal immaturity or the difficulties
incident upon bearing the first child are to be regarded as somatic
phenomena which there is no reason to believe produce any
inherited effect. How long it takes for initial handicaps which
are observed to preponderate in first born children to be out-
grown, or whether they are ever outgrown, we are unable to
decide.
Those who occupy the position of first rank in their families
3 o8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
may take comfort in the fact that their claims to superiority
are not without their champions. Indeed some of the papers of
which Pearson is a joint author suggest that in some respects the
first born may have an advantage over their successors. Beeton
and Pearson in their investigation of the age at death of over
i, ooo pairs of sisters and brothers found that the earlier born had
on the average a longer life. The ages at death were as follows:
Elder Younger
Sisters 59-9 2 4 55-66;
Brothers 5 8 -5 6 o 54-575
The study was based on the longevity of adults who have
reached maturity, thus eliminating the effect of infant or child
mortality. In a study of 1,051 pairs of brothers and 733 pairs
of sisters where it was possible to ascertain the interval between
the births it was found that the greater the interval the less
is the expectation of life of the younger member of a pair. "A
brother born ten years before another brother has probably
seven years greater duration of life; a sister born ten years before
another sister has about six years longer duration of life."
This conclusion is not exactly opposed, however, to the doctrine
of the inferiority of the first born, especially at birth. As only
adults were considered in Beeton and Pearson's studies the
earlier born had passed the first ordeals of life and their greater
early death rate may have rendered them relatively more hardy
than their less stringently selected younger siblings.
In an article entitled "The Long-Lived First-Born" the editor
of the Journal of Heredity presents a study of longevity accord-
ing to birth rank of 802 individuals most of whom were over 90
and all of whom were over 80 years of age. A relatively large
number, 217 out of 802, or 27.05 per cent of first born children live
to be aged; a smaller percentage of aged occur in the second born,
118 out of 786, or 15.01 per cent and a still smaller percentage
of aged occur in the third born, 104 out of 765, or 13.59 P er cent,
the succeeding birth ranks showing only a slight further decrease.
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 309
Of the aged individuals studied there were "some living and some
dead." This is an unfortunate circumstance, since it tends to
bring an undue relative proportion of the first born in the ad-
vanced age group. It is fair to assume, since we have no informa-
tion to the contrary, that some of the aged had younger siblings
who might also have become aged and hence helped to swell the
ranks of the later born offspring. Were all the children of the
families given time to qualify for the advanced age group it is not
at all evident that the first born would be represented in the
highest percentage of cases.
It is in the field of intellectual activity that the first born have
most often been said to distinguish themselves. The claim is
made that the first born are more variable than their successors,
and while they produce a larger number of defectives and crimi-
nals they also give rise to a larger number of men of genius. Gini
has shown that the first born predominate among the professors
in Italian universities. The matter was investigated by sending
questionnaires to the professors; 445 replies were received of which
416 related to families of two or more. The distribution of the
professors according to birth rank may be seen from the following
table:
Birth Rank of Italian Professors
a
No of Professors from
b
iooa
Birth Rank
Families of 2 or More
Expected No.
b
i
141
87.4
161
2
82
87.4
QO
60. Q
8}
4... .
4C
<4.2
c . .
g
6-7
44
70
8-q. .
20
10.8
70
10+
7
13 .4
416
415-7
/0.
"*??.
(Lu
3 io
It is not stated on what basis the expected numbers in the
third column were calculated. Granted that these numbers are
free from criticism the number of first born is strikingly larger
than the expected proportion. Professor Gini is cautious about
stating to what extent the superior attainments of the first born
depend upon social considerations such as " the desire of parents
to see their eldest child occupy a position that will reflect honor
upon the family," and various other factors that are in no way
related to biological influences.
Galton in his studies of British men of science found 26 eldest
sons, 15 youngest sons and 36 of intermediate position. Similar
findings for 50 eminent men are reported by Yoder. Havelock
Ellis in his study of the birth order of British men of genius gives
the following table showing the position of the genius in the
family:
Ordinal Rank of Men of Genius in the Family
Size of Family
Eldest
Intermediate
Youngest
2
i<
o
12
j
1C
6
ii
4. .
10
16
3
(. t .
IO
18
7
6
8
20
6
7 . .
ic
14
<
8
2
17
4
o.. .
8
7
4
10
<
IO
3
ii
3.
12
2
12
I
IO
2
13.. .
I
4
2
Id..
O
c
2
Over 14
I
o
4
Here again the honors fall predominantly to the first member of
the family, but whether the reasons are mainly biological or social
remains in doubt. 1
1 Confirmatory results are yielded by Cattell's studies of the birth ranks of
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 311
Closely associated with the effect of order of birth upon off-
spring is the problem of the influence of parental age. This topic
has received more or less attention from the time of Aristotle to
the present. Various opinions have been put forth with a degree
of confidence which is often in inverse proportions to the ade-
quacy of the evidence upon which they were based. The subject
is more difficult than appears upon the surface, and, like the one
that has just been discussed, presents many pitfalls. Without
troubling ourselves with theories which are unsupported by
statistical data let us consider some of the more important
contributions to the solution of our problem.
With the increasing age of parents there is apparently an
increased percentage of abortions and stillbirths 11 we except the
offspring of .very young mothers. Data from Paris and Buda-
Pest are given in the following table from Prof. Gini:
Relations of Age of Parents to Percentage of Abortions and Stillbirths
Age of Mother
Paris, 1903-1009
Biida-Pest, 1903-1904
Legitimate
Illegitimate
Legitimate
Illegitimate
Miscar-
riages
Stffl-
births
Miscar-
riages
Still-
births
Miscar-
riages
Still-
births
Miscar-
riages
Still-
births
i? 20. .
5-03
4.68
S-46
6. 15
7-39
6.65
11.77
1.72
2-37
2.62
3-Si
4-33
6.07
6.67
5-i4
6.21
7-05
8.23
6.83
9.21
8.76
2.41
2.88
3-68
3-80}
4-I4J
5.07}
9-49 J
6.25
8.05
ii .42
14.09
17.49
1.61
i .90
2.61
3-45
5-39
6-39
11.03
10.98
9.62
8.20
3-n
3-73
4-37
4-95
6.6r
20-24
2S 2Q. .
30-34. .
3C-JQ. .
4044. .
45 or over
Here it is shown that with the exception of some irregularities
in the first horizontal column giving the percentage of miscar-
riages and stillbirths of mothers below 20 years of age, there is
a general increase in the percentage of both miscarriages and
stillbirths as the age of the mother increases. Both kinds of
American men of science (Sci., Mar. 5, 1917), and by the (as yet unpublished)
researches of two of my students.
312
THE TREND OF THE RACE
mortality are higher for illegitimate than they are for legitimate
births. More extensive data on the proportion of stillbirths per
hundred births are afforded by the next table:
Mortality of Infants According to Age of Mother
Age of Mother
Austria
Norway
France
Legitimate
Illegitimate
Legitimate
Illegitimate
Under 17
2.1
i-7
1.9
2.2
2.8
3-9
4.0
3-o
34
3-9
4-
4-
2
?
2.09
1.66
2-39
4-17
4-52
2.97
4.86
10. 14
6.9
4-7
4-2
4-2
4-3
6.9
6.6
17-20
20 2^.. .
25-30
35-4 |
40-45J
45-50 1
50+ J
Statistics from other localities show much the same trend
as those which have been presented. That stillbirths increase
in frequency as the fathers become older may be due not to the
age of the father but to the fact that the mothers' ages are corre-
lated with those of their husbands. Where the age of the mother
is eliminated the offspring of old fathers do not have a much
higher ratio of stillborn than those of younger men. There is also
an increase of deliveries requiring surgical help as the mothers
become older, exception being made again of first births.
The effect of the order of birth is here a complicating factor.
First births, irrespective of parental age, show a large percent-
age of fatalities. This fact accounts for most of the high mor-
tality among the children of very young mothers. The following
table from Professor Gini is instructive in showing how the
percentage of stillbirths is affected by eliminating the effects of
order of birth:
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 313
Table Showing the Influence of the Age of the Mother on Birth Mortality,
Eliminating and not Eliminating the Effect of Order of Birth
Age of Mother
Saxe-Meinungen (1878-89)
Taking birth mortality
when mother is 35-49 at 100,
birth mortality at other
ages is
&
Luxemburg (1901-03)
Taking birth mortality when
mother is 35 and up at 100
birth mortality at other
ages is
Berlin (1893-97)
Taking birth mortality for
all births at 100, the
birth mortality according to
the age of the mother is
Not eliminating
order of birth
Eliminating
order of
birth
Not eliminating
order of birth
Eliminating
order of
birth
Not eliminating
order of birth
Eliminating
order of
birth
66
68
68
80
100
210
32
42
54
77
IOO
ng
60
50
54
69
88
[123
\
liSO
42
38
44
63
87
127
157
57
73
83
97
120
157
227
61
80
94
102
114
128
165
40-4S
45 and |
upwards J
When the effect of order of birth is eliminated there remains a
very considerable correlation between the age of the mother and
the percentage of stillbirths. On the other hand, when the
influence of maternal age is eliminated there is after the first
birth little relationship between birth order and ante-natal
mortality.
There is no reason to suppose that these effects of age depend
upon influences which may be properly described as hereditary.
They may be expressive of changes in the maternal organization
rather than any primary differences among the offspring. The
same may be said for the relation between age of parents and
height and weight of their children. The younger mothers tend
to bear the smallest children. When we deal with large numbers
of cases it is found that there is a slight increase of height and
weight as the age of mothers increases. A part of this is due to
the very evident increase of giant births (over 4000 gr.) with
increasing age of the mothers. (See Prinzing, Med. Statistik,
p. 52.) As Gini has shown, the apparent influence of age on the
size of offspring is really due mostly to order of birth. "The age
of the mother," he says, "has no decisive influence of its own on
the dimensions of the foetus; the increase which is found in these
314
THE TREND OF THE RACE
dimensions is simply due to the fact that the greater the age of
the mother the greater is the number of previous deliveries, and it
follows that if the women married as soon as they were capable
of bearing children we should expect, with a rise in the fertility,
an increase in these dimensions in the foetuses." (Problems in
Eugenics, II, 117-18.)
With advancing age of parents there is in general a higher death
rate of children in the first year of life. There is, however, a
preliminary descent from the earlier ages due probably to the
high death rate of the first born. The statistics studied by
Ewart show that the infant mortality falls "until the twenty-
fourth year is reached and then slowly rises again," reaching
its maximum in mothers of over 40 years of age. This is indi-
cated in the following table:
Infant Mortality According to Maternal Age
Age of Mother
No. of Births
Deaths in ist Year
Per 1,000 Births
Under 19
isa
26
171
2024 I nc
6
66
132
25-29 "
396
316
66
74
1 66
170
2C-2Q " .
I CQ
24
220
Over 40 Inc. . . .
36
12
33
After the initial fall the rise in the infant death rate with in-
creasing years of the parents is very striking. Data from New
South Wales from 1893 to 1900 dealing with 277,799 confinements
show a similar fall to the 2oth year of the mother's life, and a
gradual rise with later years, the infant mortality of mothers
above 40 being over four times as heavy as in mothers of 20.
When first births alone are tabulated there is a similar fall until
the 2oth year is reached, after which there is a rise, as is indi-
cated by the following table based on 56,247 first births:
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 315
Mortality of First Births According to Age of Mother (Gini)
Taking Mortality from 19-21 Years as 100, the
Age of Mother Mortality of the Respective Ages Becomes
19 or less 118
20 80
21-22 no
23-24 120
25-26 125
27-28 141
29-34 228
35-39 209
40+ 480
It appears to be evident that when we make allowance for the
unusual difficulties of the first birth, the increase of infant mor-
tality as the age of the mothers increases is due mainly to ma-
ternal age and not to the birth rank of the children. Birth rank
per se after the first one or two births has little apparent relation
to infant mortality.
It is contended that parental age is related not merely to
infant mortality, but to mortality of later ages as well. Gini
states on the basis of returns from Budapest (1903-08) that the
percentage of children who die before the death of one of the par-
ents diminishes with the rise of age at marriage of the father and
increases with the rise of age at marriage of the mother when it
is more than 20 years. Data from New South Wales also indicate
that women who marry later, despite the shorter duration of their
marriage and their diminished expectation of life, actually witness
the death of more of their children than do women who marry
younger. As a very large part of the greater mortality of the
children of late married mothers is due to infant mortality it is
doubtful how much the later life of the children is really affected.
Ewart gives some statistics of the relation between age of the
mother and the height and weight of children when they have
reached six years of age. The six year old children of very young
3 i6 THE TREND OF THE RACE
mothers (20 or less) are shorter and lighter than the children of
mothers a few years older. In mothers over 25 the height and
weight of children diminished with advancing 'age. A somewhat
similar relationship is seen in children at 13.5 years. The data of
Professor Ewart, since they deal with only a few hundred cases of
mixed stocks, are entirely inadequate to solve the problem of how
age of parents affects the offspring in later years. In such an
investigation there are several sources of fallacious conclusions.
Consider for instance the presence of a number of Italians in the
population studied. The Italians are characterized by short
stature and they are prone to marry early. The children of
young mothers would be apt to include a relatively large propor-
tion of Italian stock. Now if we compare the height of these
children in later life with the average height of children of older
parents we might be misled into attributing to parental age a
characteristic really dependent upon race. Children of older
parents are, other things equal, members of larger families than
children of young parents. Large families tend to characterize
stocks in the lower walks of life in which the surroundings are less
hygienic and in which conditions for growth are less favorable
than among people with small families. By taking a random lot
of children begotten by old parents we should get a proportion-
ately large number of children from large families, especially since
the relatively recent reduction of the birth rate has occurred
mainly through preventing the arrival of those who would be later
born children. Selecting the children of old parents, therefore,
incidentally involves also a selection of stocks and to a certain
degree also a selection of environments. These sources of erro-
neous interpretation of statistics, to say nothing of others
must be borne in mind in the study of our problem.
Mr. Redfield has reported investigations on the influences
of parental age on longevity of offspring which led him to con-
clude that children begotten when their parents are old live
longer, on the average, than children who are the product of their
parents' earlier years. He has calculated the length of life of all
the great men of whom he could obtain a record of the birth
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 317
ranks, and finds that the sons of old fathers live longer than the
sons of young fathers. He also studied the longevity of 1,104
persons from families of four or more children who lived to adult
life. From these persons "among whom those having high birth
ranks were brothers and sisters of those having low birth ranks,
it was found that there was a very uniform increase in length of
life as birth ranks grew higher," an addition of four years to the
age of the father added one year to the life of the child.
In regard to the parentage of great men, Redfield remarks:
"It may be argued that the sons of old men are necessarily the
sons of long lived parents, while the sons of young men are the
sons of both long lived and short lived parents, and consequently
cannot be expected to live so long on ari average." This objec-
tion, while sounding reasonable, Redfield attempts to show is
fallacious. In order to do so he selected from the Redfield gene-
alogy "every family which had four or more sons who reached
maturity and who did not lose their lives because of war or
accident." The average life of the different sons is indicated as
follows:
Eldest Son 2nd Son yrd Son 4th Son
Years 60.85 69.14 69.85 71.14
"There can be no selection in this case," says Redfield, " because
the different sons of the family are sons of identical parents, and
not sons of different or selected parents."
Despite the plausibility of his contention I cannot feel sure
that Redfield has succeeded in avoiding our deceptive enemy, the
statistical fallacy. If he has averaged together the ages of sons
belonging to fathers of certain age groups without regard to date
of marriage or other circumstances, he may have obtained quite
misleading results. Young parents marry early and older parents
as a class must contain many who married late and whose four
children, therefore, belong to the later part of their reproductive
period. It is possible to have a number of families in each of
which the age of successively born children regularly diminishes
and yet when the ages of the children are averaged together there
3 i8 THE TREND OF THE RACE
would be a regular average increase of age according to the order
of their birth. Let us consider families of four children the
fathers marrying at the ages of 20, 25, 30, and 35. Suppose these
fathers, by virtue of differences in inherited vitality, live to the
ages of 40, 45, 50, and 55 years, respectively. Suppose also that
at intervals of five years each father has a son who lived to be
several years older than himself. We may represent the ages of
the four fathers A, B, C, and D at the time of the birth of their
sons in the upper horizontal column and the ages of the sons
begotten at these respective ages immediately below.
Age of son
B
-j
40 39
38
37
40
Age of son
C
45
44
43
7C
42
4O 4<
Age of son
D
50
49
48 47
40 4?
CO
Age of son
55
54 53
52
Averages of sons 40 42 44 46 48 50 52
In the cases of these four families thus arbitrarily chosen the
sons in each family have a diminished duration of life as the age
of their fathers increases, but their average ages give an entirely
misleading indication of the relation of parental age to longevity
of offspring. In our table the older fathers produce the older sons,
but the influence of age per se is to reduce the son's expectation of
life. Of course, the supposition we have made is very artificial
and arbitrary, but it will make it clear, I think, that the data
which Redfield presents do not necessarily prove his case, or
obviate the objection which he admits might plausibly be urged
against his conclusions. The arbitrary assumption may be not
far from the truth, however, since stocks which marry early,
such as unskilled laborers, do not have as great longevity as
stocks which, like the professional classes, marry late in life. 1
The chief thesis of Redfield's book on The Control of Heredity
1 And it must not be forgotten that the decline in the general rate of mortality
tends to give the later born members of a family a greater expectation of life.
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 319
is that able sons are predominantly the off spring of fathers who
were old at the time of their son's birth or else that the more
recent ancestors of the able sons were of advanced age. This
general principle, according to Redfield, can only be accounted for
on the ground that children inherit the mental power which their
parents have acquired. Since older parents have reached a higher
degree of intellectual development than younger parents their
children, it is held, will consequently tend to be of superior
mental ability. To breed a race of high intellectual power early
marriages should be discouraged and children should be pro-
created by parents who have attained their best physical and
mental development. "Children of young parents," we are told,
"are lacking in physical stamina and mental power. They are
reckless, careless, sometimes vicious and frequently drift into
drunkenness and crime. From this class comes the principal
part of our criminals, paupers and prostitutes."
It is quite evidently an exaggeration to say that the principal
part of our criminals, paupers and prostitutes come from youth-
ful parents. People who furnish our supply of these undesirables
tend to reproduce early it is true; they also tend to keep on
reproducing after the people of superior status have begun to
limit their families. There is no adequate reason for concluding
that youth of parents per se is responsible for the degenerate
heredity of the offspring. These people marry early or reproduce
young because they are of poor stock; they are not necessarily of
poor stock because they marry young.
We may make a parallel statement in regard to the parents of
superior men. Redfield tells us that men of ability come from
parents who are above the age of the parents of the rank and file
of humanity. This is to a considerable extent true of the age
at marriage of stocks from which great men are apt to arise.
As a glance through such works as Galton's Hereditary Genius,
Ellis' Study of British Genius, Galton and Schuster's Noteworthy
Families, or Cattell's articles on the Families of American Men
of Science 1 will show, the parents of distinguished men belong
1 Sci. Mon, 4 and 5, 1917.
320
THE TREND OF THE RACE
to a class who marry comparatively late. It does not follow that
men attain unusual ability because their parents were relatively
mature at the time these men were born. The correlation between
ability and parental age is probably due mainly to the later mar-
riages of stocks of superior hereditary ability.
Naturally if ability is a product of parental age we should
expect that the later born members of a family would most fre-
quently become distinguished. It is not difficult to amass a con-
siderable number of cases in which this is true. The evidence
compiled by Redfield, however, may be offset by the data gath-
ered by Ellis in the Study of British Genius to which reference has
already been made. The relation of frequency of genius to
parental age is given by Ellis as follows:
Genius and Parental Age.
Age of Father
Under
20
2O-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60
and over
No. of fathers. . .
Percentage
2
6
9
3
45
15
81
27
59
19
44
14
30
10
13
4
8
2
8
2
The ages of the fathers of 100 cases of Gal ton's British men of
science were as follows:
Age of father.
Number. .
20-
i
25-
15
34
35-
22
40-
17
45-
7
The average ages of Galton's, Ellis' and Yoder's list of fathers
(the latter based on 39 cases) were 36, 37.1, and 37.78 years
respectively. These differ but little from the averages of fathers
of men of professional and allied classes given by Ansell in 1874,
viz., 36.5. Geniuses are evidently not the product of senility to
any very considerable degree. Within the several families, so far
as our rather incomplete statistics go, actually more of them fall
into the ranks of the ist born (and hence the production of the
earlier years of the father's life) than in any subsequent birth
rank.
Mention may be made of the studies of Professor A. Marro
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 321
which have often been quoted in discussions of this subject.
Among the parents of 456 criminals it was found that both young
and old parents produced more criminals than were born from
people of maturity (20-40 years). Thieves predominate among
the children of young parents while swindlers and those guilty
of crimes of violence were more common among the children of
parents of over 40 years. Studies of the intelligence of 917
school children in relation to the age of their fathers gave a high
percentage with good intelligence from fathers below 25 years.
The children of young mothers (21 years or less) were found to
produce about as high percentage of intelligent pupils as the
children of young fathers. The very superior children, however,
were somewhat more frequently born of parents of mature age.
Children of old parents made in general the poorest showing.
However, the children of old fathers made the best record in
respect to conduct at school, but curiously enough the children
of older mothers were the worst of all. It is noteworthy that
the relation between intelligence of offspring and age of parents
is just the reverse of what it is claimed by Redfield, and the
relation of crime to parental age seems to be at variance with
the findings of Goring who found that criminals were especially
frequent among the first born.
There is so much opportunity for social factors to affect such
results as were found by Marro that any real biological influence
of parental age is not apparent. Grouping of parents into young
and old necessarily involves to a certain degree a selection of
stock. This circumstance together with the environmental factors
which are also more or less different for the children of old
and young parents may influence to a considerable degree the
intelligence and conduct of school children and even proclivities
to crime in later years.
Undue frequency of births is undoubtedly correlated with
the high early death rate of children. Data compiled by Ansell
from well-to-do English families showed that where the interval
between births was less than a year the infant mortality was
nearly twice as great as when the interval was between one and
322 THE TREND OF THE RACE
two years, and over twice as great when the interval was over
two years. There was also a slightly greater death rate between
the first and fifth years when the intervals between births were
short, but the differences were slight. Ewart has adduced data to
show that frequent births handicap offspring both physically and
intellectually even at six years of age. The initial inferiority
of children resulting from too frequent births is probably due
in large part to the reduced vitality of the mother. The rela-
tively poorer intellectual development which has been noted
(and our data on this score are hardly sufficient to warrant a
general conclusion) may be due largely to the selection of stocks.
The people who exercise no control over the rapidity of their
multiplication are not apt to produce children who excel in tests
of intellectual development.
It is uncertain that any of the agencies considered in the present
rather unsatisfactory chapter cause any changes that may prop-
erly be called hereditary. They may influence offspring, possibly
throughout life, but it is probable that their effects are mostly
purely somatic. It is possible that parental age, for instance,
might influence selective fertilization, or the selective elimination
of embryos. Since an old body affords an environment for the
germ plasm different in many ways from that afforded by a young
body, it is not improbable that this circumstance might be re-
flected in the trend of germinal variability. It might be con-
jectured that whatever causes the vitality of our bodies to run
down with advancing years might also affect the germ plasm in
a deleterious manner. But there is little use at present in indulg-
ing in mere conjectures. Experiments on animals may throw
light on some of these matters about which we are now in com-
plete ignorance.
REFERENCES
Ansell, C. Statistics of Families, London, 1874.
Auerbach, E. Kurzsichtigkeit und Erstgeburt. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 9, 762-763,
1912.
Bell, A. G. The Duration of Life and the Conditions associated with Longevity.
Washington, D. C., 1918.
INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 323
Boas, F. The Growth of First-Born Children. Science, n. s. i, 202-204, 1895.
Chase, J. H. Weakness of Eldest Sons. Jour. Heredity, 5, 209-211, 1914.
Cobb, J. A. The Alleged Inferiority of the First-Born. Eugen. Rev. 5, 357-359,
Dublin, L. I., and Langman, H. On the Handicapping of the First-Born. A
Criticism of Professor Pearson's 1914 Memoir. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 14,
Eckles, C. H., and Palmer, L. S. Some Problems in Heredity. Influence of Paren-
tal Age on Offspring. Jour. Ag. Research, n, 645-658, 1917.
Ellis, H. H. Essays in War Time, Boston and N. Y., 1917: A Study of British
Genius, London, 1904.
Ewart, R. J. The Influence of Parental Age on Offspring. Eugen. Rev. 3, 201,
1911; The Influence of the Age of the Grandparent at the Birth of the Parent
on the Number of Children Born and their Sex. Jour. Hyg., Cambridge, 15,
127-162, 1915.
Gallon, F. Inquiries into Human Faculty, London, 1883: English Men of Science:
Their Nature and Nurture, Macmillan Co., London, 1874.
Gini, C. Contributi statistic! ai problemi dell' Eugenica. Riv. Ital. di Sociol. 16,
fasc. III-IV, 1912. The Contributions of Demography to Eugenics. Prob-
lems in Eugenics, London, 1913, 75-171. Superiority of the Eldest. Jour.
Heredity, 6, 37-39, 1915-
Grassl. J. Das zeitliche Geburtsoptimum. Soz. Med. u. Hyg. 2, 606-611 and 3,
539-549, 1907-
Greenwood, M., and Yule, G. U. On the Determination of Size of Family and of the
Distribution of Characters in Order of Birth from Samples Taken Through
Members of Sibships. Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 77, 179-197, 1914.
Hibbs, H. H. et. al. Infant Mortality: Mortality among Infants Classified Ac-
cording to Age of Mothers. Investigation at Boston, Mass. Russell Sage
Foundation, N. Y., 1916.
Hansen, S. The Inferior Quality of First-Born Children. Eugen. Rev. 5, 252-259,
1913; Ueber die Minderwertigkeit der erstgebornen Kinder. Arch. Ras. Ges.
Biol. 10, 701-722,1914.
Jones, C. E. A Genealogical Study of Population. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 16, 201-
219, 1918.
Macaulay, T. B. The Supposed Inferiority of the First-Born. Statistical Fallacies,
17, pp. 4, Montreal. See also Am. Breeders' Mag. 2, 165-175, 1911.
Marro, A. I Caratteri dei Delinquenti. Bocca, Rome, 1887. La Puberta, Bocca,
Turin, 2d ed. 1900; Influence of the Age of Parents on the Psycho-physical
Characters of the Children. Problems in Eugenics, 118-136, 1912.
Niceforo, A. La Misura della Vita. Riv. di Antropol. 18, 1913.
Pearson, K. On the Handicapping of the First-Born. Eug. Lab. Lect. Ser. 10,
1914. A First Study of the Statistics of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Studies in
Nat. Deterioration, 2, 1910.
Ploetz, A. Zusammenhang der Sterblichkeit der Kinder mit dem Lebensalter
der Eltern, etc., Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 8, 761-63 ,1911. See 1. c. 6, 33-43,
1909.
Popenoe, P. The Long Lived First-Bom. Jour. Heredity, 7, 395-398, 1916.
3 2 4 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Redfield, C. L. The Control of Heredity. Monarch Book Co., Chicago and Phil-
adelphia, 1903; Dynamic Evolution, Putnam's Sons, N. Y., 1914.
ReV6sz, B. Der Einfluss des Alters der Matter auf die Korperhohe. Arch. f.
Anthrop. 32, 160-167, 1906.
Rivers, W. C. Primogeniture and Abnormality: A Possible Fallacy. Eugen. Rev.
6, 58-61, 1914.
Strahan, S. A. K. Marriage and Disease, Appleton and Co., N. Y., 1892.
Seigert, F. Der Mongolismus. Ergeb. neuren Med. u. Kinderheilkunde, 6, 565-
600, 1911.
Vaerting, M. Das giinstigste Zeugungsalter fur die geistige Fahigkeit der Nachkom-
men., C. Kabitsch, Wiirzburg, 1913, pp. 63. See alsoNeue Generation, 1914
and 1916.
Velden, F. von den. Der Einfluss des Heiratsalters auf die Beschaffenheit der
Nachkommenschaft. Polit.-Anthrop. Rev. 8, 1908; Die Minderwertigkeit der
Erstgebornen. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 5, 526-530, 1908; Allerlei Fragen der
menschlichen Fortpflanzungshygiene; Einfluss von Geburtenzwischenraum
Unehelichkeit und Spaterzeugung auf die Konstitutionskraft der Kinder.
Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 7, 57-64, 1910.
Weinberg, W. Zur Frage der Minderwertigkert der Erstgeborenen. Med. Reform,
1 8, Nr. 23; Kurtzsichtigkeit und Erstgeburt. Arch. Rass. Ges. Biol. 10, 326-
327, IQI3-
Westergaard, H. Die Lehre von der Mortalitat und Morbiditat. Fischer, Jena,
1901.
CHAPTER XIV
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENT.
" A few good and healthy men, rather than a multitude of diseased
rogues; and a little real milk and wine rather than much chalk and
petroleum; but the gist of the whole business is, that the men, and
their property, must both be produced together not one to the loss of
the other. Property must not be created in lands desolate by exile of
their people, nor multiplied and depraved humanity, in lands barren
of bread." Ruskin, The Queen of the Air.
IT is obvious that many of the most potent of the factors
which influence the inherited qualities of man are the result of the
great industrial development which has taken place during the
past century. To give an adequate account of the complex and
indirect ways in which the growth of modern industry has affected
the development of the race is at present an impossible task.
Even most of the simpler problems cannot be solved with the
data at present available, and where the immediate result of
certain forces seems fairly obvious there are commonly secondary
and more indirect effects to be considered which stand in various
relations with, and sometimes in direct antagonism to, the
primary ones.
The magnitude and rapidity of the changes which industrial
development has effected in the institutions of mankind tend to
divert attention from the more obscure biological problems with
which they are associated. It will perhaps be useful to formulate
some of these problems, although we may not be able to contrib-
ute much to their solution.
Among the more immediate effects of industrial development
are (i) the increase of population in many countries which has
been rendered possible by the creation of additional occupations
and the expansion of trade; (2) the growth and multiplication of
325
326 THE TREND OF THE RACE
industries which greatly affect the differential death rate of
relatively large numbers of the population; (3) the growth of
cities with the resulting subjection of their inhabitants to a
changed and often deleterious environment and mode of life;
(4) the effect of economic factors on the marriage and birth rates
of different stocks; and (5) the possible influence of altered
environmental factors on the trend of germinal variability.
We shall consider briefly these different topics, although
it should be borne in mind that they are closely interrelated.
The striking increase of the populations of civilized countries
during the igth century is in large part due to the application of
science to industry which has increased enormously the wealth
with which nature has been compelled to reward the labors of
man. To a large extent also this increase of population has
resulted from the reduction of the death rate which has followed
the advances made in medicine, surgery, and especially those
branches of hygiene which are concerned with the control of
infections and epidemics. But whatever progress is made in the
art of saving life, the population of a country must obviously be
limited by the resources furnished by nature for human subsist-
ence. The yield of nature has been greatly increased by the
application of scientific discovery. Improvements in mining,
manufacturing, agriculture and transportation make it possible
for the earth to support a greatly increased number of inhabi-
tants, and human population even now comes sufficiently'near
obeying the law of Malthus to respond to the opportunities thus
created for its maintenance.
Through the increase of numbers which industrial development
has made possible those races and peoples among whom such
development has reached a higher stage are enabled, by war or
otherwise, to prevail over races and peoples on a lower industrial
level. The Anglo-Saxon has doubtless been aided in extending
his domain on account of the very rapid growth of the population
of Great Britain which followed upon the unprecedented develop-
ment of her industries. The great economic development of
Germany, by creating opportunities for her people at home and
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 327
thereby checking her losses to other lands through emigration,
has constituted a great element of strength to the empire, that
might have resulted in an accelerated expansion of her dominion
and a further increase of her population had the outcome of the
war been more in accordance with her plans. Such effects of in-
dustrial development are the first results which follow upon the
natural response of life to an increased means of support. But
while increased production of wealth allows more individuals to
gain a subsistence and may lead to national expansion, it sets into
operation several influences which may deteriorate the quality of
the expanding people. At the same time other tendencies are
brought into play whose effect on the people is in the direction of
racial improvement.
One complex set of factors may be grouped under the general
heading of occupational selection, or the differential death rate
among the employees of various industries. It is well known that
the average expectation of life varies greatly among those engaged
in different occupations. A considerable mass of data on this
subject has been compiled in the census reports of several coun-
tries and by life insurance companies. The racial effects of
occupational selection depend upon what relations exist between
innate qualities and the choice of means of livelihood. Were those
who follow different trades and professions recruited indifferently
from all types it would be of no racial significance how rates of
mortality are distributed. But people not only select occupa-
tions, but occupations select people. Different occupations
demand various degrees of intelligence, reliability and diligence,
to say nothing of different physical qualities, such as strength,
endurance and quickness. There is no likelihood that a born
dullard will become a captain of industry and a weakling by
nature is not apt to qualify as a stevedore or structural iron
worker. To a considerable extent the choice of an occupation is a
fortuitous matter, depending upon tradition, education and the
kinds of industry represented in a given time and place. Occupa-
tions are frequently changed, especially those requiring little
skill and training. But notwithstanding a large element of purely
328 THE TREND OF THE RACE
fortuitous circumstance, there is doubtless a certain correlation
between the kind of employment followed and inborn quality.
As a result of the nature and diversity of industry, human beings
are forced into lines of activity which very materially shorten life
or cause a high percentage of accidental deaths. The differential
death rate associated with various occupations is therefore a
matter affecting the character of our racial inheritance.
The racial effects of occupational mortality vary greatly from
industry to industry. In many cases the result is doubtless
dysgenic. Dangerous trades which draw workmen of skill and
capacity are racially bad. The high mortality among locomotive
firemen, iron workers, glass blowers, workers in porcelain, lead
and copper represents a loss of an inheritance of at least good
average quality. Occupations which draw and exterminate the
more incompetent types may on the other hand be regarded as a
racial benefit.
Statistics on the average expectation of life of the followers of
different trades and professions cannot always be accepted as an
index of the relative healthfulness of the occupation in question.
Those pursuits which are entered upon relatively late in life, such
as the learned professions, tend to show an increased expectation
of life because cases of death before the professional career is
begun are not included. The average duration of life among
casual laborers is decreased by the occurrence of many deaths in
the ages below 20 years, but this would not be the case among
clergymen or physicians. An index of occupational mortality
which is better than the average age of death is afforded by the
mortality at various ages of life.
The actual death rate among the followers of any occupation
is a result of two sets of factors: (i) Those concerned with the
occupation itself, and (2) those depending upon the kind of
human material the occupation selects. Of the first, the whole-
someness of the occupation itself is of prime importance. Many
trades cause a slow poisoning of those engaged in them. The
disastrous results that follow work in lead industries have already
been commented on. Phosphorus poisoning is not uncommon
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 329
Mean Annual Death Rates per 1,000 Males of Different Occupations in
England and Wales, 1900-02
Age Groups
Occupations
25-35
35-45
45-65
Clergymen
2.72
4.00
ic. 53
Physicians
5-58
io.<;6 ,
23-87
Schoolmasters
3 .64
5-54
15.76
Farm laborers
4- 34
6.36
Innkeepers
13.87
22. <Q
35.00
Coal miners
5.08
7-97
23.22
Tin miners
13. 34
27.14
51.64
Carpenters
4.76
8.30
20.03
File makers
Q. 7O
18.06
40.04
Fanners
4.O7
=: .00
14.82
Potters
C.AQ
14.01;
3Q. 12
Fishermen
8.44
12.44
18.63
Barristers
4.88
7- 59
18.20
General shopkeepers
11.08
20.71
30.17
among the makers of matches, and many other industries take a
high toll of their operatives as is shown by Oliver in his Diseases
of Occupation and in his Dangerous Trades.
Other bad effects are due not so much to the occupation itself
as to other circumstances associated with it, such as poor ventila-
tion, dust, liability to contagion, and incitement to intemperance
as is evinced by the high mortality of innkeepers and tavern
keepers in England. Undoubtedly one of the chief factors in
mortality is remuneration. Upon this depends the character of
the lodging occupied, the quality of food, proper medical atten-
dance during illness and many other advantages of a more in-
direct kind. Other things equal, in industry, the poorer the pay
the higher the death rate, although it is of course only a part of
the truth to say that the high death rate is because of the poor
pay.
330 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Excluding a few dangerous or particularly unsanitary employ-
ments it is probable that the most potent factor in occupational
selection is furnished by the quality of human material employed.
The character of the men and women engaged is dependent upon
their heredity and previous history. Undoubtedly, through no
fault of their own, multitudes of human beings of good inheritance
but born in unfavorable surroundings, deprived of educational
advantages, and stultified by early hard labor are forced into the
ranks of the unskilled and poorly paid laboring class. The rela-
tively high death rate of such individuals is racially disadvan-
tageous. But undoubtedly the ranks of casual and unskilled
laborers are recruited much more than those of skilled trades and
professions from individuals who have not been blessed with
inherited gifts. If we consider for a moment the almost inevitable
industrial fate of the rank and file of those who are mentally below
par it will become evident that conditions could scarcely be
otherwise. The subnormal individual usually fails to acquire
anything more than the mere rudiments of education. He is
generally lacking in initiative and enterprise; and since weakness
of character is the usual concomitant of defective intellect, he is
not apt to exhibit those qualities of persistence, reliability, and
application which contribute so greatly to the industrial value
of an employee.
One effect of industrial development which cannot fail to
affect in one way or another the inherited qualities of mankind is
the unprecedented growth of cities which has occurred during the
last hundred years in the most advanced nations of the earth.
The following table presents a bald outline of the percentage of
population of several countries living in cities of 10,000 or more
inhabitants at three periods, 1800,1850 and 1890.
In all these countries the growth of cities has been relatively
fast as compared with the increase of the rural population. In
England and Wales where there was a large urban population in
the beginning of the igth century the relative increase in the size
of cities is about as rapid as in most other countries. In fact, the
English census of 1891 reports an actual decrease of population in
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 331
Percentage of Urban Population of Different Countries
England and Wales
1800
21 . 3O
1850
30.4^
l8(}O
61 73
Belgium
12 C
20.8
34.8
Prussia
7 2S
10.63
30.
u. s
1.8
12 .
27.6
France
Q. C
14.4
2? .0
Russia. .
2 . 7
C . 3
Q.3 (i880
271 out of 632 districts in England and Wales since the previous
enumeration; in 202 of these there had been a decrease also in the
decade from 1871-81. In Ireland the urban population has
increased while the population of the country as a whole has
diminished, the urban population in the last half of the igth
century nearly doubling its ratio to the rural. In France whose
population has increased but little (2-3 million since 1840) the
cities have rapidly grown, while the rural population has de-
creased by over 2^ million.
The United States has had an exceptionally rapid increase
in urban population, as the following table indicates:
Growth of Cities in the United States
Percentage of Population in Cities of
8,000 Inhabitants or Over
3-35
3-97
4-93
4-93
6.72
Date
1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840 8.52
1850 12.49
1860 16 . 13
1870 20.93
1880 22.57
1890 29 . 20
1900 32 . 90
1910 38.80
33 2
THE TREND OF THE RACE
Considering the percentage of people living in towns of 2,500
or more inhabitants, the urban population in the United States in
1910 was 46.3 per cent and it is not improbably over 50 per cent
at the present time. In several states over one-half the popula-
tion lived in cities of 8,000 or more in 1910. It is evident that this
country, despite its large size and the great extent of its agricul-
tural industries, is fast following in the wake of the older nations
of Europe in the urbanization of its population. In some parts,
especially in New England, where the' land has become partly
exhausted or is relatively arid, the rural population in recent
years has shown an actual falling off.
The growth of cities is due to the following causes: (i) natural
increase of their population, (2) migration, and (3) the incor-
poration of outlying suburbs. These three factors vary enor-
mously in different times and places. Gillette has attempted to
estimate the relative share which each of these factors has played
in the recent growth of cities in the United States. He separates
the migrants into those from rural districts and those from foreign
countries and presents the following table indicating the propor-
tion derived from these different sources:
Sources of Urban Growth in the United States
Factor
Number
Per Cent
Incorporation
02 4. ,000
7.8
Immigration
4,84.0,000
41
Natural Increase..
2,426,000
20 <i
Rural Migration
3 ,6 37,000
2Q 7
Total
11,826,000
100 o
These figures cannot be more than a rough approximation to
the truth owing to the lack of precise and extensive data on the
movements of the population. It may be noted that natural
increase is responsible for only a relatively small part of the urban
growth in this country, and it is equally noteworthy that a
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 333
relatively large proportion of our city population is composed of
people of foreign birth. The great tide of immigration that comes
to our shores tends to lodge chiefly in our cities and large num-
bers never get beyond the original port of entry. New York
which receives by far the largest number of arriving aliens had in
1910 a foreign born population of 1,927,703 or 40.4 per cent of her
total inhabitants. The proportion of foreign born and their
immediate descendants in our cities has increased rapidly in
successive decades. In the Abstract of the Thirteenth Census of
the United States it is stated that "Of the aggregate urban popu-
lation this is, the population of incorporated places of 2.500
inhabitants or more, including New England towns of that size
of the United States in 1910, 41.9 per cent were native whites of
native parentage, 29 per cent native whites of foreign or mixed
parentage, 22.6 per cent foreign-born whites and 6.3 per cent
negroes. In the rural population, on the other hand, 64.1 per
cent were native whites of native parentage, only 13.3 per cent
were native whites of foreign or mixed parentage, and 7.5 per
cent were of foreign born whites, while negroes constituted 14.5
per cent. Thus the foreign born whites and their children con-
stituted fully one-half (51.6 per cent) of the urban population and
only about one-fifth of the rural" (p. 91, 1916).
It is in New England and the Middle Atlantic States and
some states of the north such as Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Mich-
igan and Wisconsin that the foreign born constitute an especially
large part of our city population; the south in general has been
less affected by foreign immigration. The native born population
of native white parents is in many cities decidedly in the minority.
Thus this element in New York constituted hi 1910 only 19.3 per
cent, in Chicago, 20.4 per cent, in Boston 23.5 per cent, in Phila-
delphia, 37.7 per cent, in Milwaukee, 21.1 per cent, and in San
Francisco, 27.7 per cent. Our larger cities especially of the
east and north are becoming populated by foreigners and their
immediate descendants. In view of the fact that this condi-
tion obtained to a considerable extent for several decades and
that a considerable proportion of those counted as native Ameri-
334
THE TREND OF THE RACE
cans of native stock are in fact the descendants of foreign im-
migrants two or three generations back, it is evident that the
proportion of old American stock in most of large cities is very
small.
It is a matter of interest to ascertain something of the racial
origin of those who are replacing the native American in our
cities. Natives of different countries vary greatly in their tend-
ency to choose an urban in preference to a rural habitat. The
way in which the people of different nations distribute themselves
may be seen in the following table taken from the Census report
for 1910:
Proportions of City Dwellers A mong Natives of Different Countries
Number Per Cent
Urban
Rural
Urban
Rural
Total population
42,623,383
9>745,6Q7
8,571,364
880,613
1,144,997
1,669,315
661,182
82,078
1,458,775
1,049,390
1,233,804
169,469
130,714
49,348,883
3,77o,i89
3,220,477
340,670
207,254
832,018
589,551
35,340
273,687
293,735
436,778
5i,477
60,770
46.3
72.1
72.7
72.1
84.7
66.7
52.9
69.9
84.2
78.1
73-9
76.7
68.3
53-7
27.9
27-3
27.9
15-3
33-3
47-i
30.1
15-8
21.9
26.1
23-3
3-i7
Total foreign born
European
Great Britain
Ireland
Germany..
Scandinavia . .
France
Russia and Finland. .
Italy.. .
Austria and Hungary
Balkans. ....
Asia.
It is evident from the above table that the natives of Russia
and southern Europe flock into our cities in greatest relative
numbers, while the northern European stocks with the notable
exception of the Irish and to a less extent the natives of Great
Britain tend to settle more frequently in the country. According
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 335
to the Census Report for 1910, "The only countries whose natives
show a lower proportion residing in urban communities in 1910
than is shown for the white population of the U. S. (44.2 per cent)
are Norway, Montenegro, and Mexico, and of these Mexico is the
only one for which the percentage (34.2) was lower than that for
the native whites of native parents (36.1 per cent)."
The general city-ward migration of the population has had a
marked influence on the negro population of the nation, a fact of
no small consequence for the biological fortunes of that race.
In the decades ending in 1890, 1900 and 1910 the percentage of
negroes living in cities of 2,500 or over was 19.8, 22.7 and 27.4,
respectively. In the Southern States the negro population, like
the white, is largely rural (over 75 per cent), but it is becoming
gradually urbanized like the white race and at about the same
rate. In the north, however, the negro becomes decidedly urban.
In the New England States in 1910, 91.8 per cent of the negroes
lived in cities; in the Middle Atlantic States the urban percentage
was 81.2 per cent, in the Atlantic East North Central States 76.7
per cent, in the West North Central 97.7 per cent. New York
with its 91,709 negroes and Washington with its 94,446 are the
two largest negro cities in the U. S. Next in order come New
Orleans (89,262), Philadelphia (84,459), Baltimore (84,749),
Memphis (52,441), Atlanta (51,902), Richmond (46,733), Chicago
(44,103), St. Louis (43,690), Nashville (36,523).
In the cities of the north, as a rule, the negro population has
increased at a greater rate relatively to the number of negroes
30 years ago, than in the south, due largely to the fact that before
and during the war the negro population was largely confined to
the south. It is noteworthy, however, that in some of the colder
cities such as St. Paul, Minneapolis and Milwaukee the negro
population remains very small, less than 2 per cent.
How do cities affect those who dwell in them? The general
effect of city life in the past, and to a considerable extent up to
the present, has proven to be deleterious to a large part of their
inhabitants. As destroyers of humanity they have ranked among
the most potent. "Anthropologically," says Nordau, "the large
336 THE TREND OF THE RACE
town is ruinous. The large town is a far shining light house
whose lamp consumes a mighty deal of fuel." In cities humanity
is exposed to unnatural conditions of life. Frequently inhabitants
are crowded together, with an inadequate supply of fresh air,
exposed to increased risks of contagion and inducted into habits
of vice that deteriorate their posterity as well as themselves. The
effect of these untoward agencies is reflected in the rate of mor-
tality which is generally higher in urban than in rural commu-
nities. We cannot, however, in all cases accept the mortality rate
of cities as a reliable index of their healthfulness. As a measure of
the actual influence of the city upon the duration of life it may be
too high or too low. The presence of hospitals and asylums,
orphanages and homes for the aged occasion a rise in the general
death rate. On the other hand, barracks and institutions of
learning, which contain many people at an age when the death
rate is low, tend to produce an unduly favorable impression of the
general salubrity of the city in which they occur. The same
influence is exerted by the various industries which create a
demand for the employment of men and women in the prime of
life. On the whole, the death rate in cities tends to be abnormally
low, because there are, as a rule, relatively more people of adoles-
cent or middle age than in the country. The presence of many
children of an early age naturally raises the general death rate,
and where the birth rate has declined, as it has done to so great an
extent in many cities, the general death rate becomes corre-
spondingly reduced. A city may for various reasons have a very
low death rate and nevertheless be a very unwholesome place
in which to live.
Notwithstanding the causes which tend to reduce the rates
of urban mortality as they are commonly expressed, the death
rates of cities generally have been, and in some countries still are,
greater than that of adjacent rural communities. This is shown
for the United States in the following table giving the death rates
of urban and rural communities in the registration area:
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 337
Death Rates of Urban and Rural Communities in the United States
Date 1900
Rural 15.2
Urban 18.9
Date 1912
Rural 12.5
Urban 14.7
As a rule the larger the city the higher has been the death
rate. In the United States, according to the nth census, the
death rates of cities of different sizes were as follows:
1905
14.4
17.1
1913
12.7
15.0
1906
13-7
17.4
1914
12.3
14.5
1907
14.0
17-5
1915
12.3
14.2
1908
13-3
15-9
1916
12. 9
15.0
1909 1910 1911
13.0 13.4 12.7
15.4 15.9 15.1
1901-05 1906-10
14.1 13.4
17.4 16.3
Death Rates According to Size of Cities
Size of City
Death Rate per 1,000
Population per A ere
10,00015,000
17.86
2 .4.3
1^,000 2^,000. .
10.41;
2.70
2^,000-^0,000. .
21. 8l
4.67
50,000100,000
22.43
O.O4
Over 100,000
23.28
is. is
Similar relations are shown in the towns of New England.
Death rate of New England Towns
_. . Ratios to the New England
L>1 ' stnct rate taken as 100
Rural 94
Cities of 10-25,000 95
" " 25-50,000 105
" " 20-100,000 110
" " 100,000 1 16
The relatively rapid fall of urban death rates as compared with
the rural is illustrated by the following table:
338 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Death Rates of the City and State of New York
Date
Deaths in City
Rate
Rate per Rest of State
1898-1900
67,qi6
20. i <
ic. 2C
IQOI IQOQ. .
71,684
18.6
IC.l
19061910
7 5,868
16.8
IS. 8
IQII IQIC. . .
74,668
14.4
ic. 6
IQI4. .
74,8O3
14.0
ic. 4
IQI 1 ?. .
76,IQ3
It .O
1C. 2
1016. .
77,8OO
13 .0
ic. 7
Part of this decline in New York City, says the Report of the
New York Department of Health for 1919, "should be attributed
to the migration from other communities and immigration from
foreign countries, of large numbers of young adults who increased
the population, but being in the healthiest age of life, contributed
a smaller number of deaths than their proportion to the total
population. When corrections are made for age composition,
however, the advantage turns in favor of the country."
Crude and Standardized Death Rates in New York State and City
Crude Death Rate for IQII
State of N. Y 15.6
City of N. Y 15.3
Rest of State. . 16
Standardized Rate
15-8
17-3
14.1
And in 1915, according to the report quoted; "the essentially
greater healthfulness of the smaller communities and the rural
districts of the state compared with the metropolis hitherto
obscured by the difference in the age make-up of their population
'stands out in a standardized rate of mortality for 1915 for the
state outside of New York City of 13.4 still two points, or 13 per
cent below that of the metropolis."
In Europe urban growth and migration have been studied more
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 339
extensively and intensively than in the United States, and a vast
literature has been accumulated on these subjects. Up to the
last quarter century the urban death rates generally exceeded the
rural, but more recently, however, the death rate in cities has
decreased more rapidly than in the country, so that in several
countries the urban rate has become the lower of the two.
This fact may be illustrated by the following table showing the
decline of the death rate in some of the principal cities and
countries of Europe:
Decline of Urban and Rural Death Rates in Europe
1881-85
1886-90
1891-95
1896-00
I90I-O5
1906-09
I9IO
London 20 . 9
19.7
18.9
23.0
22.0
25-1
30-8
29.6
32.1
22.4
28.3
28.8
24.4
18.8
18.7
21 .2
22-3
24.1
25 -5
27.1
3i-8
20.5
25.8
27-4
23-3
18.5
17.7
19.2
20.7
21 .1
21.6
24.4
27.9
18.1
23-9
25.0
21.2
16.1
16.0
18.0
19.6
19.1
19.8
22.6
26.2
17-0
21.
23-7
19.9
14.4
14-7
17.7
19.2
17-3
19.4
19.6
25.O
15-4
17.9
21. 1
17-5
13-7
I3-S
l6-7
17.9
16.6
18.4
iS-5
14-7
iS-i
19.9
16.2
England and Wales 19 .4
Paris 24 . 4
France 22.2
Vienna 28 . 2
Budapest 3 1 5
Prague 32.7
Hungary . . . 3 3 . i
Berlin 26 . 5
Munich 30 . 4
Breslau 3 1 3
Germany 25 . 3
In the German Empire the death rates for cities of over 15,000
or more inhabitants have averaged lower than for the rural dis-
tricts since the seventies, although in Prussia the cities did not
take the lead until the nineties.
Death Rates of City and Country in Germany
1877-81
1882-86
1887-91
1892-96
I897-OI
In cities over 15,000
2? .71
25.83
23 .46
21 .71
20.46
In empire
27.5
27.3
25. 2
24.0
22.4
340
THE TREND OF THE RACE
In Italy the death rates of the four largest cities fall below that
of the Kingdom. The death rates of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and
The Hague average lower than that of Holland, and those of
Petrograd and Moscow lower than that of Russia in general.
The favorable showing made by European cities in comparison
with the country is, however, deceptive. While the reduction of
the death rate in cities, is mainly due to improved hygiene and
sanitation and while cities often afford advantages in the form of
superior education and better medical aid that tend to reduce the
death rate more than in the country, their relatively lower death
rate is largely the result of their different age composition. Tak-
ing the large cities of Germany as an example, the age composi-
tion as compared with the rest of the empire was in 1900, accord-
ing to Bailed, as follows:
Age Composition of Cities and Country in Germany
No. per 7,000 Inhabitants
Under 16 yrs.
16-30
30-50
50-70
over 70 yrs.
In large cities..
3cx
?oi
264
III
19
In rest of Empire ....
380
2^4
226
131
29
The relatively small number of children and old people in
cities, and the large proportion of people in the most healthful
period of life naturally tend to lower the death rate relatively
more than in the country. That the favorable showing of cities is
largely due to their age composition is shown by the fact that
when we consider the average mortality of the corresponding
ages of life in urban and rural communities the urban mortality
generally exceeds the rural. This will be clear in the case of
Germany by comparing the following table with the previous
ones.
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 341
Deaths per 10,000 in Germany (Mombert)
In Large Cities
i8g6
1898
1000-01
Died in ist yr
2,727
M53
93 1
6,596
2,220
1,048
882
6,663
2,322
1,073
899
6,861
Died in i to 15 yrs
Died in 15 to 60 yrs
Died in 6o+yrs
Outside Large Cities
Died in ist yr
2,45
998
892
6,885
2,053
932
850
6,797
2,134
930
879
7,207
Died in i to 15 yrs
Died in 15 to 60 yrs
Died in 6o+yrs
The statistics of Ballod show that for males of all ages and for
females with a few exceptions in advanced age groups, the average
duration of life in Prussia was greater in the country than in
the cities.
Average Duration of Life in Prussia
Age
Males
Females
City
Country
City
Country
o.
38-71
5*-M
47.61
39-12
35-24
31-34
24.14
17.86
12.32
7.89
42-75
54-74
5!- 2 4
42-97
39-71
35-14
27.24
19.94
I3-40
8.08
43-65
55-45
52.09
43-69
39-71
35-86
28.37
20.94
14.09
8-52
45-20
55-53
52-09
43-85
39.88
36-04
28.52
20.83
i3-7i
8.19
c.
10
20.
2C. .
3O. .
4.O.
<O. .
60
7O. .
342 THE TREND OF THE RACE
The life tables for 1880-81, 1885-6 and 1895-6 showed for
most age periods, except those of old age, that the death rate in
general decreased with the size of the city and was markedly less
in the rural districts. (Bailed.) In Berlin in the years 1890, 1895
and 1890, although the crude death rate was lower than it was in
Prussia, there was a shorter average duration of life.
In certain regions the rural districts may be actually more
unwholesome than the city. During the last few decades many
cities have made remarkable records in the improvement of their
sanitary conditions. And infant mortality which until recently
continued in most cities to be inexcusably high has been rapidly
reduced in the last decade. It is not surprising that many rural
districts which have been relatively backward in adopting meas-
ures for improving the health of their inhabitants should have a
death rate higher than that of near-by cities. The health record
of cities has improved more rapidly than that of the country
because there was more room for improvement; and we may look
forward to much greater advances in the near future. But despite
the great progress which has actually been made, and the exist-
ence of statistics which so often place the health of the urban
population in too favorable a light, there is little doubt that cities
have been and still are deleterious to the physical welfare of
their inhabitants.
Besides their enhanced death rate, the unwholesomeness of
cities is indicated by a number of other symptoms. As has been
pointed out in a previous chapter, their birth rate is generally
below that of the surrounding country, and where the crude urban
birth rate exceeds the rural, it is usually owing to the presence
of a relatively large proportion of women of child-bearing age in
the city population. The average number of children per married
woman of 15-45 years of age is, in most places, lower in the cities
than in the country. Suicides are notoriously more prevalent in
cities, their frequency diminishing with the size of the city. Cities
usually show also a relatively high percentage of crime. Prosti-
tution is prevailingly an urban vice, and associated with this is, as
has been discussed in Chapter VII, a relatively high percentage
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 343
of venereal disease, a percentage which becomes relatively greater
with the increased size of the city and which cannot fail to have a
marked effect on individual and racial vitality.
Cities generally exceed the neighboring country in the pen-
centage of illegitimacy, the proportion of stillbirths, the relative
number of married women who are sterile, the proportion of
mothers unable to nurse their children, and in the prevalence of
alcoholism and addiction to drugs. All these facts are indicative
of the deteriorating effects to which city populations are subject
and which cannot fail to affect either the average longevity of the
stock or its power of perpetuation.
Further indications of the effects of the city are afforded by
the extensive statistics on the fitness of recruits for military
service. Where compulsory military service is in vogue and
where all classes are subjected to examination, the data yielded is
of much value. The percentage of recruits meeting the require-
ments for military service in Germany for 1907 and 1908 is given
in the following table which shows the proportions accepted from
cities of different sizes and from the country:
Percentage of Recruits Qualifying for Military Service in Germany
Size of City
1907
1908
Cities over i ,000,000
71 .4
28.2
" 500,0001,000,000. . . /
70. Q
44.0
" 200 000500,000.. .
^O I
40 8
" 100,000200,000
47 -0
48.2
" 50,000100,000
ex. 8
ci. <c
Country
58.0
C7.7
According to Bindewald the superiority of rural recruits is
not dependent upon occupation since it obtains within the limits
of each trade or profession. He cites the following statistics of
the percentage of those meeting the military requirements:
344
THE TREND OF THE RACE
Fitness of City and Country Recruits
City Recruits
Country Recruits
Acceptable
Unacceptable
Acceptable
Unacceptable
Teachers
49-4
46.6
66.4
60.9
50.6
59-4
33-6
39-1
59-7
50.2
71.1
66.2
40-3
49.8
28.9
33-8
Shoemakers and allied trades
Smith and metal workers
Laborers
The most recent investigations of Burgdorfer have yielded
results equally unfavorable to the city recruits. 1
Many of the causes of reduced urban vitality are obvious, such
as relatively poor air, especially in the congested areas. The
water supply, formerly so frequent a cause of epidemics, has been
improved in so many large cities that it is very commonly supe-
rior to that of the country. The milk supply, notwithstanding
much improvement in recent years, is still sufficiently bad to be
a potent factor hi urban infant mortality. The greater readi-
ness with which epidemics are carried in crowded areas is doubt-
less one of the chief causes of high urban mortality. Without
dwelling upon statistics of the urban and rural death rates from
different diseases, it may be stated that, on the average, the
death rate from tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, whooping
cough, scarlet fever, enteritis, and especially pneumonia is much
more heavy in cities than in the country.
Cities have proven to be consumers of men; they are vortices
into which are drawn ever larger proportions of our race. It
becomes therefore a matter of the greatest importance to ascer-
tain upon what hereditary classes cities exercise their most
destructive effect. The question involves a consideration of two
problems, (i) the effect of urban life on the death rate and birth
rate of different hereditary stocks, and (2) the hereditary char-
acteristics of migrants to the cities as compared with those of the
population in general. Granting that cities are potent consumers
of humanity, do they destroy the superior hereditary types more
1 Ann. deutschen Reichs, 1909, 888-909; 1910, 873-878.
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 345
rapidly than the inferior ones, and do they attract the better or
the poorer stocks from the surrounding country?
Probably the treatment of these questions which has suc-
ceeded in arousing the most discussion in Hansen's work Die
drei Bevolkerungsstufen. Hansen divides the population into
three classes: (i) the landowners from nobles owning estates to
the peasants with small holdings, (2) the middle class consisting
of officials, professionals, artisans, merchants, and (3) the prole-
tariat and day laborers and people in general with scanty means
of subsistence. Needless to say these are not well-defined groups
and that there is a continual transfer from one group to another.
The first class, the country dwellers, according to Hansen, con-
stitute a large proportion of the rural contribution to the city
population. It is this class that has the highest birth rate. Their
surplus as a result of economic pressure flows to the cities where
it supplies the second class with most of its members. Here they
are subjected to conditions of life which enhance the death rate
and reduce the birth rate so that, notwithstanding the superior
economic status which they acquire, they rapidly diminish in
number. Urban immigrants, according to Hansen, are of better
average quality than those who remain to carry on agricultural
pursuits. It is this rural influx that keeps up the vitality of urban
populations, and is mainly responsible for urban growth. Many
cities, were they dependent upon natural increase alone, would
suffer an actual loss of population. Dr. Boeckh has estimated
that the fertility of the city born in Berlin is not high enough to
perpetuate the stock. Paris for a long time has not been self-
sustaining. Lagneau calculated that were it not for immigration
its population would decrease 50 per cent in each generation.
Where cities grow through their own birth rate their increase is
dependent upon the fertility of the proletariat, since the middle
class is generally not self-perpetuating. Between the recruits
coming from other classes and its own fecundity the third stratum
perpetuates itself even under the unfavorable conditions into
which it is forced through economic pressure. But through
overcrowding, poor food and other destructive agencies, it tends,
346 THE TREND OF THE RACE
according to Hansen, to degenerate. The children, poorly
nourished and brought up with inadequate education, recruit the
army of vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells that forms so heavy a
burden upon the productive members of society. Thus cities,
according to Hansen, are racially destructive. They cause a
gradual deterioration of their inhabitants and constitute a potent
factor in the decline and fall of empires.
Views similar to those of Hansen have been set forth by Am-
mon. This writer differs from Hansen in that he does not consider
that the rural migrants become at once members of the middle
class. The majority begin at the lower rounds of the ladder,
becoming servants, janitors, waiters, teamsters, etc., and sub-
sequently work up into the skilled trades and higher professions.
During this period they are subjected to the rigid operation of
natural selection. The less intelligent and forceful brachycepha-
lic types are eliminated in a few generations. The dolichocepha-
lics tend to succeed both in the struggle for wealth and position
as well as in the more literal struggle for life. As a result, cities
tend to become composed of a relatively high percentage of the
dolichocephalic type. The anthropometric studies of Ammon
upon the population of Baden have yielded results supporting
this conclusion, inasmuch as he finds that the urban population
is more dolichocephalic than the rural, and that the successful
types are more dolichocephalic than those of inferior status.
But in the long run, city life proves fatal even to the victors in
the struggle. Ammon who shares the very prevalent German
persuasion regarding. the long headed, blond "Germanic" type,
naturally looks upon the process of urban migration as destruc-
tive of the best elements of the race. The rural population it is
which is the source of national vitality. "Der Bauernstand ist
nicht ein Stand wie jeder beliedige andere, der sich durch Zugang
neuer Krafte erganzt, sondern er ist eben der Vorratsbehalter,
der Jungbrunnen der Menschheit, er hat die Nachschube fur alle
anderen Stande zu liefern, in denen die Menschen nach dem
natiirlichen Laufe der Entwickelung sich verbrauchen und
zerstoren."
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 347
There is no doubt that the opinions expressed by Hansen and
Ammon have been widely influential in Germany and have
stimulated interest in the agrarian policies carried out in that
country. Militaristic writers, and we must count Hansen and
Ammon among them, have viewed with much concern the
relatively poor showing which cities have made according to
recruiting statistics and the records of urban birth rates. In
numerous German discussions of the subject that appeared before
the Great War we find frequent allusion to the "Wehrkraft" or
" Wehrfahigkeit," which it was feared might not retain its relative
superiority in face of the portentous fecundity of the Slavic
neighbors of the empire. The situation which has called forth so
many lamentations from Germany obtains to almost as great
an extent in most other civilized countries, although its military
aspect has caused much less uneasiness. The questions raised by
Hansen and his followers are of the most serious consequence to
mankind in general, and it should constitute a part of the program
of institutions dealing extensively with vital statistics to collect
the data required for their solution.
The views of Hansen, Ammon and their followers have elicited
a great deal of adverse criticism on a number of points. The fact
urged by Kuczynsky that cities often have a fairly high birth
rate and a death rate lower than that of the country is by no
means a proof that cities are self-perpetuating. Weber cites as
a fatal objection to Hansen's theory the circumstance that in
Germany "in several years the ratio of births to deaths has been
larger in the great cities than in the Empire as a whole, and in
recent years the two ratios have been about the same." It is,
however, only an apparent paradox to say that a surplus of births
over deaths does not indicate that city populations are self-per-
petuating. The immigration of people from 20-40 years of age
reduces the death rate and tends to increase the birth rate. How
much of the urban increase is due to the fecundity of immigrants
from the country is not known. A very considerable part of the
population of cities, and a larger proportion of the population of
large cities, according to the principle announced by the statisti-
348 THE TREND OF THE RACE
cian Von Mayr, is of outside origin. But until more is known of
the relative fertility of those born in the city and those who come
in from the country it cannot be ascertained to what extent the
populations of cities are really self-sustaining. As stated pre-
viously the population of Paris and that of Berlin is not reproduc-
ing itself. The remarkably low birth rate of several cities of
Switzerland renders it probable that the same conclusion holds
for them also. Ballod has attempted to show, on the basis of
studies on the average duration of life in Germany, that in several
large cities the population would show a small deficit were it not
for the influx of people from the outside who help to swell their
birth rate. The same conclusion is drawn for ten of the most
urban districts of France. Estimates of the real natural increase
of cities present many difficulties and in most cases data are not
available for a separate estimate of the births of the native and
the immigrant elements of the city population. Ballod's calcula-
tions were based on statistics compiled in the last two decades of
the iQth century, since when there has been a considerable
decline in urban birth rates. Death rates have also declined so
that comparisons with present day conditions cannot be made
without an extensive reinvestigation. We are reasonably safe in
saying, however, that several cities would not sustain themselves
at the present time if it were not for immigration from the outside.
The rapid fall of the urban birth rate has affected most the
classes upon whose intelligence, initiative and energy the rank of
a people mainly -depends. It is a very difficult task to estimate
the eugenic worth of city immigrants as compared with that of
the native city born; data on the subject as well as opinions are
conflicting. With more accurate and extensive demographical
bookkeeping this important question could doubtless be def-
initely settled. But however the stream of urban migration
compares with the rest of the race, the process of diminishing the
capable and enterprising elements of the community is appar-
ently intensified in cities, and especially large cities.
One important consequence of the development of modern
industry is the increasing employment of woman and the growing
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 349
emancipation of women from economic dependence upon man.
What are the racial effects of this movement is a question which
has naturally attracted much attention and elicited much dis-
cussion. A solution of the question involves a number of sub-
sidiary enquiries as to the effect of the changing industrial status
of women .upon the marriage rate, death rate and fecundity of the
different hereditary classes of their sex.
Among women, as among men, those engaged in skilled labor
or in professions marry later than those in ordinary employment.
In Prussia, according to Prinzing, the average age of marriage is
low among factory workers (24.6-25.5) and cigar makers (23.5),
a little higher among shop girls (25.8), seamstresses (26) and
waitresses (24), and higher still among teachers (29). The
English textile worker marries before the shop girl, and the latter
before the trained employee. The higher the status the less
frequent also are the marriages. The development of industry by
creating opportunities for an independent career for women
tends to induce the more capable to enter upon those pursuits in
which we find a low marriage rate. The proportion of married
women is usually greater in the country, where only a relatively
small number of women are working for wages than it is in cities.
The stream of cityward migration is frequently composed of
more women than men.
The influence of the industrial mill upon the physique of the
throngs of young women that seek an independent livelihood is
only too frequently far from wholesome. The fatigue, poor
housing conditions and nervous strain to which they are subject
deprive many of the natural inclination to marry or render them
less apt to be chosen as wives. But the baneful influence of
industrial development is not so much its effect upon the physical
welfare of womankind in general, as its tendency to divert the
better endowed from the duties of motherhood.
Besides the effect of employment of women upon marriage we
must reckon with its influence upon women after they are mar-
ried. The proportion of married women who are employed in
gainful occupations is of course much smaller than in the un-
350 THE TREND OF THE RACE
married, and it tends as a rule to be large where the wages of the
husband are low. In many industrial towns and cities it is
common for both husband and wife to be employed in the same
industry. When the wife is employed outside the home, infant
mortality is generally found to be higher than when she looks
after her own household. The employment of married women
thus has its effect upon the death rate and brings into play a form
of selection whose racial effects may be good or ill as a number of
attendant circumstances determine.
Besides the influence of industrial development upon the birth
rate and death rate of different hereditary classes, there is the
possibility of important effects upon the production of variations
in the germ plasm. If germinal variations arise in response to
changes in the environment it is highly probable that the pro-
found influence which industrial development has exerted upon
the conditions under which people live and work may have
produced some modifications in the inherited qualities of the race.
Economic conditions not only have their effect upon the preva-
lence of alcoholism, but they lead to an abnormal congestion of
population under conditions unfavorable for healthy living and
thereby increase the prevalence of many diseases which may
possibly produce permanent changes in the germ plasm. Statis-
tics on the causes of death in cities bring out clearly how different
are the biological conditions to which the urban dweller is exposed
as compared with those which surround his rural compatriot. As
we have pointed out in a previous chapter, we are ignorant of
how environmental changes affect the germ plasm of human
beings. We can only say that since our industrial development
has so greatly modified the environment of large masses of man-
kind it is not improbable that more or less change has thereby
been produced in the germ plasm of the race.
The course of evolution in man has been influenced to no small
degree by the migration of peoples, whether this has occurred as
the result of conquest, or by the more orderly method of peaceful
invasion. People ever tend to overflow their boundaries as
a result of the pressure coming from their increase in numbers.
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 351
While migration sometimes occurs for the sake of religious liberty,
or in order to escape from a despotic political regime, the chief
driving force is usually want of the necessities of life. It would
require a volume to discuss adequately the role which migrations
have played in the evolution of man, and no attempt will be made
to point out more than a few aspects of the problem. When one
people invades the territory of another, either type may supplant
the other, or they may combine to form a hybrid stock. In
modern times especially, the effects of migration are complicated
with the problem of the influence of racial amalgamation. This
is particularly the case in a country like the United States
where the problems of immigration are more pressing than in
almost any other place on the globe. It is to this country that
our few remarks on immigration will be mainly confined.
The United States has long been the great "melting pot" of
the nations. Formerly our immigration was mainly from the
north of Europe, consisting of English, Scotch, Irish, Germans,
Scandinavians, mostly members of the great "Nordic race."
This source of supply has now failed to furnish more than a small
proportion of our immigrants. For some decades our influx from
abroad has consisted mainly of Russians and Southern Euro-
peans, Greeks, Italians, Portuguese, Southern Slavs, Turks,
Bosnians, Rumanians and Armenians. On the West coast we
have received a considerable number of Chinese, Japanese,
Hindus, Filipinos and other peoples in lesser numbers. Some of
the latter elements will assimilate slowly, if at all, with our native
population, but those arriving on our eastern shores, although
they tend to form segregated groups in our cities and elsewhere,
will probably become amalgamated in the course of a few genera-
tions in the great melting pot.
Naturally the biological effect of this influx of foreigners
depends largely on their hereditary qualities. While there is
no doubt that many of our immigrants are of excellent stock, it
has been seriously doubted if the great mass of Greeks, southern
Italians, Portuguese, Syrians and Turks measure up to the
general intellectual level of the peoples of Nordic stock which
352 THE TREND OF THE RACE
constituted the great bulk of our population of a couple of decades
ago. There is little in the achievements of these people either
here or in their native land to remove this doubt. It is of course
easy to make excuses for the shortcomings of people of inferior
educational status. One may argue, as indeed many do, that we
cannot demonstrate that such people are not of as good mental
inheritance as the best of the Nordic race. On the other hand
no one has ever shown that they are.
There is the further question of how our immigrants compare
with the general average of people of their native country. Those
who wander forth to seek their fortune in another land are fre-
quently spoken of as unusually hardy, physically vigorous, and
enterprising. Under certain conditions this may be true. But it
is extremely doubtful if our present immigrants are especially
selected for their virile qualities. They represent for the most
part the poorer classes of wage earners from the old world. In
too many cases they are the failures that seek an escape into a
new field of opportunity. Thousands are induced to come here
by the lurid accounts of America's golden opportunities which
have been presented to them by the agents of transportation
companies who have combed Europe for possible passengers.
Mine and factory owners caring nothing for the racial and social
effects of their action, but solicitous only for the profits to be
derived from a plentiful supply of cheap labor, have encouraged
immigration to the utmost and have exercised their strong
political influence to lower the standard of admission.
We forbid the entrance of the feeble-minded, epileptic, insane,
paupers, criminals, prostitutes and anarchists, but we are far
from detecting all of these undesirables, and we receive a large
mass of sodden stupidity, which escapes falling into the lowest
class of mental defectives. Undoubtedly we would gain much by
a more rigid scrutiny of our immigrant population. It would be
especially desirable if mental tests could be applied to all arriving
aliens so as to exclude at least everybody below the level of a
high-grade moron. It would also be desirable to have a mental
rating of foreign peoples to the end of discouraging or preventing
INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 353
entirely the entrance of the inhabitants of certain countries. The
needs of employers for cheap labor are of very minor consequence
when compared with keeping the blood of the nation free from
contamination by inferior breeds of humanity. Considerations
of blood and not dollars should dictate the immigration policy
of our country. In the long run the eugenic policy will prove the
most valuable economically as well.
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1900.
Boeckh, R. Die Berliner Sterblichkeitstafeln und die Methoden ihrer Berechnung.
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Brooks, R. C. Bibliography of Municipal Administration and City Conditions.
Municipal Affairs, i, No. i, pp. 224, 1897 and 1. c. 5, 1-346, 1901. (The latter
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Miiller, Amsterdam, 1911, 1912, two parts.
354 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Galton, F. The Rektive Supplies from Town and Country Families to the Popula-
tion of Future Generations. Jour. Roy. Stat. Soc. 36, 19-26, 1873.
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Hansen, G. Die drei Bevolkerungsstufen. Munich, 1889.
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CHAPTER XV
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION
"If we are right in believing that the religious instinct is the only
force strong enough to influence mankind, consciously or uncon-
sciously, to consider the race as distinct from the individual, it is clear
that the character of the national religion, the correctness of the
biological principles its teaching embodies, the devotion, fidelity and
number of its adherents, will be the real criterion of success or failure."
W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham, Heredity and Society, p. 54.
THE part which religious beliefs and practices have played in
the evolution of mankind is undoubtedly one of no small im-
portance. Man is not only a political animal ; he is also a religious
animal. From the remotest periods of history human behavior
has been subject to the guiding influence of belief in some kind of
supernatural agency. These beliefs often afford a powerful aid to
the maintenance of the solidarity of the group which is so im-
portant an aid in inter-tribal or inter-national struggles. In fact
many Darwinians attribute the development of the religious
impulses of man to their value in subordinating the egoistic
tendencies of human beings to the interests of their social group.
One of the most prominent advocates of this view, Mr. Ben-
jamin Kidd, remarks: "In the religious beliefs of mankind we
have not simply a class of phenomena peculiar to the childhood of
the race. We have therein the characteristic feature of our social
evolution. These beliefs constitute, in short, the natural and
inevitable complement of our reason; and so far from being
threatened with eventual dissolution they are apparently destined
to continue to grow with the growth and to develop with the
development of society, while always preserving intact and
unchangeable the one essential feature they all provide for con-
duct. And lastly, as we understand how an ultra-rational sanc-
tion for the sacrifice of the interests of the individual to those
355
356 THE TREND OF THE RACE
of the social organism has been a feature common to all religions
we see, also, why the conception of sacrifice has occupied such a
central place in nearly all beliefs, and why the tendency of reli-
gion has ever been to surround this principle with the most
impressive and stupendous of sanctions." Religion viewed from
this standpoint has a distinct biological value and hence natural
selection would tend to favor the development of those impulses
and emotions which make man a religious animal.
There is perhaps no better illustration of the aid which religion
affords in the process of group selection than its effect upon the
birth rate. And it is a significant fact that militarists of the
Bernhardi type who bewail the loss of man power which results
from the falling birth rate are very solicitious for the maintenance
of religious beliefs on account of their influence in checking the
artificial restriction of births. A religion that emphasizes the
injunction to be fruitful and multiply may do much to counteract
the limitation of the family which so often results from egoistic
motives.
Undoubtedly the relatively high fecundity of the Catholics is
due in part to the strong stand taken by the church against any
artificial interference with the propagation of life and to the
encouragement which she gives to her adherents to bring into the
world a plentiful supply of human beings to recruit her ranks.
In general the birth rate of Catholic countries is higher than
it is in countries which are mainly Protestant, although this is
probably not due to religion alone. In France, although it is
largely Catholic, the birth rate is low, but it is relatively higher
in districts such as Finisterre (27.1) and Pas de Calais (26.6) in
which the proportion of Catholics is large. The same situation
obtains in Germany where, according to Borntraeger, the Catho-
lic districts are more prolific than the Protestant, and the places
where the free-thinking elements preponderate have the lowest
birth rate of all. In Prussia the fecundity of marriages according
to the religion of husband and wife is shown in the following table:
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 357
Children per Marriage in Prussia, 1875-90, According to Religion of
Contracting Parties
Creed of Fathers
Creed of Mothers
Evangelical
Catholic
Jewish
Evangelical
4-35
3-34
i-S8
3-30
5-24
1.38
1.78
1.66
4.21
Catholic
Jewish
It may be seen from this table that the greatest number of
children (5.24) are born from marriages in which both parties are
Catholic. Marriages between people of different faiths is asso-
ciated with a marked reduction of the size of the family.
The recent studies of von Schrenck have shown that the birth
rate of the Protestants in Riga has fallen to 15-16 per 1,000. With
a death rate of 19.5 per 1,000 the natural increase of the popula-
tion has practically stopped, and were it not for the Catholics
and the adherents of the Greek church, both of whom have a high
birth rate, it would probably decrease in number. The women of
Catholic Ireland rear a larger number of children than those of
England and Scotland whose population is mainly Protestant.
Webb states that from 1881-91, while the birth rate was falling
in England, the Irish birth rate (measured in terms of the fertility
of marriages) rose 3 per cent and in Dublin 9 per cent.
The English towns with the highest birth rate are those with
the highest proportions of Catholics and Jews. Mr. Booth has
pointed out that in Leeds which contains a large Catholic and
Jewish population the birth rate is relatively high (23.2), while
in Bradford, which is located near by and has much the same
industries, the birth rate is much lower (19.3). The seven most
prolific boroughs in London are just those having the highest
proportions of Catholic and Jewish inhabitants. And among
people so similarly situated as the landed gentry of England
we find that while the number of children per family fell from 7.1
358 THE TREND OF THE RACE
in 1831-40 to 3.7 in 1871-90, the number of children per Catholic
family in the latter decade continued large, viz., 6.6.
In Canada there are marked inequalities in the birth rates of
different regions according to the prevailing religion of their in-
habitants. Quebec which is almost entirely Roman Catholic has
a notoriously high birth rate of 37.2. Nova Scotia which has a
high proportion of Catholics has a birth rate of 25, while Ontario
with a larger Protestant population has a birth rate of 22.6.
Manitoba and British Columbia with birth rates of 15.9 and 14.9
respectively, are mainly Protestant, but there are several other
circumstances which tend to lower the birth rate of these prov-
inces so that the influence of religion may not be more than a
minor factor.
Those states of our own country in which the Catholic popula-
tion is large have a high birth rate. In Rhode Island according to
Hoffmann "it is shown by the census [of 1905] that of 33,727
married Protestants of all nationalities, 24,514 or 72.7% were
mothers, and of that number 9,213, or 27.3% were childless. Of
34,160 Roman Catholic married women of all nationalities,
27,438, or 80.3% were mothers and 6,722, or 19.7% were without
children." And there is much evidence that a high Catholic
birth rate prevails throughout the nation in general.
As has been pointed out previously, the birth rate of different
components of our population varies greatly according to nativ-
ity. Our recent immigration which comes largely from southern
Europe contains a high percentage of adherents to the Roman
church. Owing to this immigration and the high fecundity of
Catholic stocks the Catholic church in several states has come to
number more members than all other denominations combined.
The once Puritan state of Massachusetts contained in 1906,
1,100,000 Catholics and only 450,000 adherents of all Protestant
sects. New York numbers 2,300,000 Catholics and Illinois over
1,000,000 while the largest Protestant denomination in each of
these states contained 300,000 members.
The adherents of a religious body hi any country may in-
crease (i) through the immigration of foreign members, (2)
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 359
through the acquisition of new converts, and (3) through the
birth rate. In the United States the growth of the Catholic
church is mainly through the first and third of these methods. It
is evident that the Protestant constituents of our population are
not increasing so rapidly as the Catholic, if indeed their own birth
rate would provide any increase at all. Should present tendencies
continue, and if the Catholic church resists the agencies which
tend to undermine the faith of its adherents, the majority of our
population will soon come under the sway of this great religious
organization.
We shall not discuss the social and political consequences which
would follow from such an event. Undoubtedly they would be
great, and they would indirectly have a decided influence upon
the course of our racial development. The immediate conse-
quence to the race would be the replacement of the Nordic
stocks, such as the English, Scotch, Scandanavians, Danish and
northern German elements, by peoples from southern and middle
Europe. Many of the latter stocks are of good native quality,
but there are others from the more southern and southeastern
parts of Europe whose relative inherent worth is at least open to
suspicion. At any rate, the stocks which promise to gain ground
in the United States are different in many features of natural
temperament and disposition, if not in intellectual development,
from the present average of our population. Their relatively
high birth rate, while dependent to a considerable degree on other
circumstances, such as education, economic status, traditions,
etc., is undoubtedly influenced strongly by their religious beliefs.
We must therefore reckon upon religion as one of the potent
forces which are changing the racial composition of the inhabit-
ants of this country.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that among people such as
the Japanese in whom the duty of fecundity is impressed with all
the force which religious sanction can bring to bear, religion
becomes a powerful factor in racial expansion. Among the
Japanese, religion has a peculiar potency because of its close
association with patriotic feeling. Where religion lends its sup-
360 THE TREND OF THE RACE
port to the realization of national ambition for power and pres-
tige, as it has so frequently done in the history of the world, it
creates a stimulus to strife and a menace to the peaceful relations
of mankind.
One of the ways in which religion may affect the inherited
qualities of mankind is through the persecution of those who do
not subscribe to prevailing beliefs. While religious persecution
has been more or less in vogue for long ages, it is only occasionally
that is has been practiced on a scale sufficiently extensive to make
it an important influence on racial inheritance. Both Catholic
and Protestant Christianity show an unenviable record for perse-
cution which has scarcely been equalled in the known history of
any pagan religion. The men of superior intellect and force of
character who during the inquisition have fallen victims to the
zeal of intolerant devotees of the current creed number many
thousands. Llorent (Hist, de V inquisition, torn, iv, pp. 371-372)
states that the Spanish Inquisition alone burnt more than 31,000
persons and condemned 290,000 to other forms of punishment.
According to Lecky (Hist, of Rationalism in Europe, vol. 2,
pp. 40-41) "the numbers of those who were put to death in the
Netherlands alone, in the reign of Charles V, has been estimated
by a very high authority at 50,000 and at least half as many
perished under his son." In the i7th century over three hundred
thousand Protestants were said to have been put to death in
various ways, and an equal number emigrated. The loss of large
numbers of the Huguenot stock as a result of persecution has
generally been adjudged a great damage to the French people,
although other nations may have been benefited by receiving the
refugees which escaped imprisonment or death. Without dwell-
ing further on the gruesome history of persecutions during the
Christian era, or upon the persecutions which have occurred from
time to time under various non-Christian religions, it may be said
that the racial effects of this pernicious practice have probably
been on the whole dysgenic. Galton, in speaking of the persecu-
tions in Spain, says that "It is impossible that any nation could
stand a policy like this without paying a heavy penalty in the
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 361
deterioration of its breed." Weak, timid and sequacious people
are not apt to be singled out for championing an unpopular cause,
or for defending what is considered a dangerous heresy. As
Lapouge remarks, "the persecuted are the superiors of their
persecutors"; they are apt to be the bold spirits who are willing to
brave personal danger for what they deem to be the truth. And
any country in which persecution has been vigorously carried on
for a long period of years cannot fail to lose a large proportion of
its best inheritance.
Another dysgenic effect of religious selection is occasioned
by the celibacy of the clergy, which has grown up especially in the
Catholic church. Whatever may be said of the eugenic worth of
the women who take the veil, the men who become priests or
monks are above the average level of intellect. De Candolle in
his Histoire des sciences et des savants has cited a long list of
eminent men who were sons of Protestant clergymen and who
would not have been born had the institution of celibacy pre-
vailed in the Protestant churches. Of the 101 scientists who were
foreign members of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, 14, or over
13 per cent, were the sons of pastors. As Lapouge has pointed
out, a large proportion of eminent Jews are the sons of rabbis.
For a long time the church afforded one of the most promising
careers for men of exceptional intellect and character. To the
extent to which such men were committed to a celibate life, the
race suffered a loss of a valuable inheritance. Since the popula-
tion of the Catholic world has sustained this loss for many cen-
turies the cumulative effect of such a dysgenic process could
scarcely fail to be considerable.
An effect of religion more widespread than the one just dis-
cussed is the tendency of the adherents of a particular cult to
marry only within the limits of their own fold. Thus arises what
Mr. Gulick would designate a form of "segregate breeding"
whose effect is analogous to that of geographical isolation. Any
isolated group tends, through continuous inbreeding, to become
more and more nearly homozygous in successive generations.
For this reason and perhaps others also, groups of a given species
362 THE TREND OF THE RACE
tend, when isolated so that they do not interbreed or interbreed
only at rare intervals, to diverge in character.
Membership in a religious organization acts as a barrier to
check free intercrossing. Catholics usually marry Catholics,
Jews generally marry Jews for reasons of religion as well as of
race, and Protestants not only generally marry Protestants, but
they commonly marry within their own particular sect. "In
Prussia," according to Mayo-Smith, "during the period 1875-90,
94.77 per cent of the Protestant men, 88.20 per cent of the Catho-
lic and 94.79 per cent of the Jewish, married women of the same
religious confession."
Formerly the tendency to marry within the fold was much
stronger than now. The Quakers expelled members who married
into other denominations. And in denominations in which
outside marriages were not forbidden, the general sentiment
deterred most of the members from marrying persons of different
religious views. The customs of limiting marriage to members of
a group tends eventually to produce a uniform type with char-
acteristics somewhat different from those of other inbred groups.
A multiplicity of sects each discouraging marriage outside its own
organization tends to break up a people into a multiplicity of
types, each of which tends to become more and more uniform in
character as time goes on. Where sects are small in numbers this
may well produce noticable results in a few generations.
When we compare the present influence of religion with the
influence which it is feasible for it to exert we cannot fail to
become conscious of a painful discrepancy. Protestant Chris-
tianity has practically failed to affect the practice of its adherents
in regard to one of the most fundamental of duties. And the
Catholic church which has attained a measure of success in
checking the restriction of births, gives indiscriminate encourage-
ment to the fecundity of all classes whether their heredity is good
or bad. The Right Rev. Monsignor W. F. Brown in setting forth
the attitude of the Church before the National Birth Rate Com-
mission declared that the State cannot lawfully forbid the mar-
riage of the physically defective or even the feeble-minded. If
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 363
the probable issue of the mating of feeble-minded persons be
feeble-minded children the Church might advise abstention from
procreation, but there would be no rightful authority, either
within the Church or out of it, for preventing such couples from
disregarding this gentle advice, as they would be practically
certain to do.
There is a strong tendency on the part of clerical teachers
to base their advice concerning marriage and the perpetuation of
life upon scriptual texts or traditions handed down from the
Church Fathers, without considering matters of heredity or racial
welfare. A standpoint determined by an appeal to authority is
apt to be little affected by the adyancement of knowledge: it
practically deprives knowledge of its most important function
which is the better guidance of conduct. It is especially unfortu-
nate that a religious organization which really has some influence
upon the birth rate of its adherents should so generally fail to
exert its power to promote the improvement of the inherited
qualities of mankind. It is gratifying to find, however, that
some of its more progressive leaders have here and there lifted up
their voices against the perpetuation of inferior strains of human-
ity, although they are as yet like voices crying in the wilderness.
REFERENCES
Booth, M. Religious Belief as Affecting the Growth of Population. Hibbert
Jour. 13, 138-154, 1914-
Calkins, G. N. Fertility of Marriages According to the Religious Creeds of the
Contracting Parties. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 3, 244-247, 1892-93.
Forberger, J. Geburtenruckgang und Konfession. Berlin, 1914.
Gallon, F. Hereditary Genius, London, 1869; Inquiries into Human Faculty,
1883; Essays in Eugenics, London, 1909.
Krose, H. A. Die Ergebnisse der Konfessionszahlung. Stimmen aus Maria Laach.
1902, Heft 4; Konfessionsstatistik Deutschlands, Freiburg, 1904. See also
Allg. stat. Archiv, 8, 267-292, 624-645, 1914.
Kidd, B. Social Evolution. Macmillan Co., London and N. Y., 1894.
Lecky, W. E. H. History of Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols., London, 1865.
Reichardt, E. N. The Significance of Ancient Religions in Relation to Human
Evolution and Brain Development, London, 1912.
Webb, S. The Decline in the Birth-Rate. Fabian Tract, No. 131, '.
CHAPTER XVI
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT
"O, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood."
Tennyson, In Memoriam.
"As an agency making for progress, conscious selection must re-
place the blind forces of natural selection; and men must utilize all the
knowledge acquired by studying the process of evolution in the past
in order to promote moral and physical progress in the future. The
nation which first takes this great work thoroughly in hand will surely
not only win in all matters of international competition, but will be
given a place of honour in the history of the world." Leonard Dar-
win, Presidential Address before the First International Eugenics
Congress.
IN the course of the discussions in the previous chapters there
is one question which must have occurred to the reader on more
than one occasion : What are the changes that are actually taking
place in the inherited endowments of man? Can we prove by
observation, statistics or otherwise that the race is either improve-
ing or deteriorating?
There is conclusive evidence that in many countries the present
population differs in certain physical features from the population
of one or more generations ago. One chief reason for this is that
the ethnic composition of peoples is subject to comparatively
rapid fluctuations. In several rapidly growing countries such as
England, Germany, Austria and the United States, emigration
immigration and differential fecundity have produced many
changes in the last few decades. In most cases, the characteristics
in which modifications are demonstrable are physical traits such
as stature, cephalic index, and color of hair and eyes, which stand
in a very doubtful relation to progressive or retrogressive devel-
opment.
364
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 365
We sometimes find a diminishing stature alluded to as an
index of phvsical degeneracy. In several localities the stature
of the population has decreased. It is unusually low, for instance,
in many English towns (Beddoe), and Ripley has stated that
in Europe in general it is lower in the cities than in the country.
In other localities, as in parts of the United States, the stature
of population has increased. Undoubtedly heredity is a large
factor in the changes of stature which have occurred in many
places, but where we find stature diminishing we are by no means
justified in attributing it to a hereditary degeneracy of the
inhabitants.
Many physical characters of man are affected considerably by
environmental agencies. The latter are especially prone to
influence strength, longevity, rate of growth, the prevalence of
various diseases, and to a less extent, stature and weight. Condi-
tions of life, especially in large industrial centers, have changed in
such a way as greatly to affect the physique of a large part of the
inhabitants. The relatively low stature of city dwellers is prob-
ably due largely to this cause, but, as Ammon has pointed out,
there may be in certain cases an urban migration of taller stock.
To a certain extent environment may account for the degener-
ate condition so frequently observed in the teeth of civilized
races. Platschick found dental caries in 92 per cent of 12,018
individuals examined, and Rose discovered among 5,600 recruits
for the German army only 5 per cent whose teeth were entirely
sound. The cooked foods, and especially the sweets, which are
consumed from childhood on doubtless contribute to this condi-
tion. Many observers have commented on the excellent teeth
possessed by the primitive races and by men who lived in previous
epochs. Professor D. J. Cunningham, for instance, in his testi-
mony before the Committee on Physical Deterioration stated
that "it is an obvious fact that the teeth of the people at the
present time cannot stand comparison in point of durability with
those of the earlier inhabitants of Britain." Professor Dolomore
also stated before the same committee that " in ancient British
skulls not only is the arrangement good, the jaws are well devel-
366 THE TREND OF THE RACE
oped, the teeth placed in a normal arch, but caries, if present, is
of slight extent, indeed mere specks."
It is not improbable that, as Kingsley 1 has pointed out,
many dental irregularities and maladjustments are the result of
racial crossing. With more or less independent variability of
jaws and teeth it often happens that the teeth are unduly crowded
in small jaws or are otherwise out of normal relations. It is a
common opinion among those who have written on the subject,
that while food and other environmental conditions are potent
causes of dental deterioration, the withdrawal of natural selection
has been an important contributory cause also. This conclusion
is not improbable, but it is not capable at present of statistical
proof.
Along with the deterioration of teeth there seems to be a
correlative tendency to the loss of hair. Baldness is much more
common with us than among primitive races. Although this is
commonly ascribed to wearing hats, recent studies of the inher-
itance of baldness have shown that this common infirmity de-
pends largely on ancestry and that the influence of hats has been
greatly exaggerated. Baldness has never been associated with
general degeneracy. On the contrary it is a not unusual ad-
junct of distinguished personality. The loss of hair may be
bewailed partly on account of a certain protective value which
it continues to possess, and still more on aesthetic grounds,
but further progress toward universal baldness would probably
not prove a serious drawback. We have all but lost the use of
some of our ear muscles and entirely lost the use of others, but
we are no worse off in our present mode of life. Our little toe
is said to be degenerating and there are probably several minor
structures in the same situation. A further degeneration of the
vermiform appendix would probably be a positive advantage.
It is a fairly general opinion which has a considerable following
in medical circles that the physique of modern civilized woman
has become rather seriously weakened in the last few generations.
One index of this is the increasing difficulty experienced in bearing
1 A Treatise on Oral Deformities, 1880.
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 367
children. Dr. A. Bluhm states that in the Grand Duchy of
Baden "since 1871 to 1879 artificial premature births have
increased eight-fold, perforation three-fold, and embryotomy
has doubled; moreover the number of Caesarian sections, which
are generally intended to avoid perforation and embryotomy,
have increased nine-fold." This is not due, according to Dr.
Bluhm, to an increased tendency to perform operations. "Arti-
ficial premature birth, on the one hand and perforation and embry-
otomy on the other are two species of operations, one precluding
the other. If the number of premature births increases, the
numbers of perforation and embryotomy should fall. If both
rise this points of necessity to an increase in the inability to bear."
The ease with which the women of primitive races bear children
has often been remarked upon. It is not improbable that the
matter has usually been exaggerated. 1 The after effects of this
facile child bearing have not often been followed up to determine
how it affects the future health of the mother. Child-bearing is
easier among women who are used to a moderate amount of
physical labor. Undoubtedly the life of modern women, espe-
cially those of the more well-to-do classes, is not favorable to easy
child bearing. The form of the pelvis is unfavorably influenced
by a sedentary life. The employment of large numbers of young
women in sedentary occupations such as stenography, office work,
etc., cannot fail to multiply the troubles of childbirth. It is
difficult to estimate, however, the extent to which environment is
responsible for the present difficulties of parturition. The form
of the pelvis is a transmissible characteristic. The frequency of
narrow pelvis has been found by Rose to vary considerably in
different parts of Germany; those regions in which this defect is
common are found to have the largest number of children who
were artificially fed. This investigator also found that breast-
fed children were superior in later life to those artificially fed, in
weight, character of teeth, intelligence and general physical
development.
If difficulty of bearing children depends upon a hereditary
1 See Ploss-Bartels, Das Weib, 8th ed. 1905.
3 68 THE TREND OF THE RACE
conformation of the pelvis which is correlated, in a measure,
with other physical defects, the influence of obstetrical skill
will probably result in saving from elimination the progeny of
large numbers of imperfectly developed women and thereby
storing up more troubles for the future. As Dr. Schallmayer
has remarked, "The more successfully obstetrics develops, the
more necessary will it become for future generations."
Another much discussed physical defect of modern woman is
her frequent inability to nurse children. Dr. A. Bluhm who has
made an exhaustive investigation of the subject estimates that in
Germany only about two-thirds of the women are able to supply
their infants with sufficient milk for their needs. Those who have
lived among primitive peoples have frequently commented on the
almost universal ability of mothers to feed their children at the
breast. Dr. Ogata, according to Hegar, states that in Japan
women nurse their children almost without exception, even in the
large cities. And among Europeans the women of previous
generations nursed their children much more frequently than the
women of the present time.
While many women are disinclined to nurse their children,
at least for very long, in these days of artificial substitutes for
mother's milk, there is no doubt that a large and increasing pro-
portion are incapable of discharging the normal function of
lactation, however much they may desire to do so. It is difficult
to discover how far the environment of modern woman is respon-
sible for this change. The fact that the proportion of women
unable to nurse their children is usually greater in cities than in
rural districts points to the potency of environmental influences.
Hereditary defects of lactation would not be eliminated so rapidly
as under the regime of primitive life, and it is not improbable
that the diminishing action of natural selection in relation to
lactation has permitted a certain amount of atrophy of this
function.
Inability to nurse children tends to run in families, and, as
Bunge and others have shown, it is often associated with parental
alcoholism, tuberculosis and a general neuropathic inheritance.
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 369
Bunge 1 concludes as a result of his statistical studies, "if the
father is a drinker, the daughter loses the ability to nurse her
child, and this ability is irretrievably lost for all future genera-
tions. The incapacity to produce milk is no isolated phenom-
enon. It is coupled with other symptoms of degeneration,
especially with lack of resistance to maladies of all sorts, tuber-
culosis, nervous troubles and dental caries. The children become
insufficiently nourished, and the degeneration increases from
generation to generation and finally leads, after endless suffering,
to the extinction of the strain."
Although other studies have yielded results which are not
quite so favorable to Bunge's thesis as are the results of his own
investigations, there is a considerable amount of additional data
confirming the association of parental alcoholism and defective
lactation. The interpretation of this relation, which has been
the subject of no little controversy, is rendered more difficult
by the influence of social factors, to say nothing of certain sources
of statistical error due to the way in which the data are amassed.
Bunge's conclusions cannot be said to have received rigid proof,
but his investigations justify a strong suspicion that alcohol may
have been the cause of diminished lactation and various other
defects associated with the atrophy of this function.
Discussions of the racial degeneracy of mankind generally
emphasize the alleged increase of insanity, feeble-mindedness
and other forms of mental defect. But the question whether
mental defect is increasing or decreasing is one which at present
cannot be decided with entire certainty. Taking statistics at
their face value we should be compelled to conclude that in most
civilized countries mental defect is increasing quite rapidly, but
our conclusion would rest upon an insecure foundation if we failed
to consider probable causes of error in our statistical data.
Let us see what statistics actually teach us: In 1880, according
to the U. S. Census Report for that year, there were 40,942
insane in hospitals and asylums in the United States, or 81.6 per
1 Bunge, G. v., Die zunehmende Unfdhigkeit der Frauen ihre Kinder zu stillen,
6th ed., Munich, 1909.
370 THE TREND OF THE RACE
hundred thousand of the population. In 1890 the insane in
hospitals were 74,028, or 118.2 per hundred thousand. In 1904
the insane in hospitals had increased to 150,151, or 183.6 per
hundred thousand, and in 1910 they had further increased to
187,791, or 204.2 per hundred thousand.
In the census enumerations for 1880 and 1890 an effort was
made to ascertain the number of insane not in hospitals. In
1880 the number was estimated at 51,017, or 101.7 P er hundred
thousand. The census estimate of 1880 made use of cases re-
ported by physicians who returned about 17 per cent of the cases
in addition to those discovered by the census officials. This
source of information was not made use of in any subsequent
census, and this fact accounts in part for the reduced number of
cases outside of hospitals appearing in the census report for 1890.
Before 1880 there were no separate enumerations of the insane
in hospitals and outside, but general estimates were made of the
total number. The numbers per hundred thousand of the popula-
tion were in 1850, 57.3; in 1860, 76.5; and in 1870, 97.1.
The proportions of mentally deranged persons reported in
England and Wales per hundred thousand of the population are
shown in the following table:
Number of Insane per 100,000 in England and Wales
1859 186. 7 1904347 . i
1869239.3 1905350.9
1879275.4 1906353.1
1889296.5 1907354.8
1899 329.6 1908 366.7
In New Zealand the proportions per hundred thousand were
reported as follows:
1886 265 . o 1901 344 . 7
1891 278.2 1906 354.1
1896311.3
Ireland shows an increase from 250 per hundred thousand in
1875 to 499 per hundred thousand in 1903, while in Scotland the
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 371
insane increased from 275 per hundred thousand in 1884 to 353
per hundred thousand in 1902, and to about 362 per hundred
thousand in 1907. Prussia shows a similar increase; while the
population of Prussia increased by one- third between 1875 and
1905, the number of insane in institutions increased fourfold, and
in Bavaria with about the same proportionate increase of popula-
tion the insane in institutions had increased more than threefold.
Other European countries show much the same increase in the
reported numbers of the insane. But we cannot conclude that
the above statistics constitute a true index of the actual increase
of insanity. There are many reasons for believing that the in-
crease of insanity is much less than is indicated by the figures
quoted if we grant (which some deny) that insanity has increased
at all during recent years.
As facilities for the care of the insane have increased and
improved a larger proportion of the insane come to be cared for
in institutions. The number who remain scattered through the
general population is inaccurately reported, if it is reported
at all in the enumerations of the insane. The further back we
go, the smaller is the percentage of insane segregated in institu-
tions, and hence the less complete is the enumeration.
Estimates of the proportion of insane in institutions to these
outside have been made in Prussia in 1871, 1880, 1895 and 1905.
They give the following results:
Proportions of Insane in Institutions in Prussia
1871 21 per cent of all insane
188029 " " " " "
1895-53 " " " " "
1905-55 " " " '' "
It is probable that much the same situation would be found
in most European countries and in the United States; hence the
statistics of the rapid increase in the numbers of insane in institu-
tions need not be so disquieting as they at first appear.
A further source of apparent increase of the insane is the
fact that, as conditions for the care of these unfortunates im-
372 THE TREND OF THE RACE
prove, there is a diminution of their death rate, and hence a
greater proportion of the insane are found living at any given
time. Varying standards as to the degree of mental alienation
which may be held to warrant commitment introduce further
complications. It is probable that more of the milder forms of
insanity are now placed under custodial care than formerly and
that more are certified as insane in statistical enumerations.
Then it must be borne in mind that the changes in the age com-
position of the population which have taken place in the last half
century, leading to an increasing proportion of adults in which
insanity is more likely to develop would of itself produce an
increase in the number of insane per 100,000 of the population
quite irrespective of any increased proclivity to insanity at any
particular period of life. While it is not improbable that, as
many alienists believe, insanity has actually been on the increase
in recent times, the conclusion cannot be established by the data
on the subject which are at present available.
Statistics on feeble-mindedness show that there has been a
steady increase in Ihe number of feeble-minded in institutions
in proportion to the general population. But one obvious reason
for this is the fact that we have more adequate provision than
formerly for the institutional care of these unfortunates. As
a rule only the lowest grades of the feeble-minded, and by no
means all of these, are segregated in institutions. The proportion
of feeble-minded in general who are in institutions compared with
the number at large in the community is not high. There are
indications, as is pointed out elsewhere, that this class is in-
creasing on account of its relatively high birth rate. If our data
concerning the relative birth and death rates of the feeble-minded
and normal elements of our population were to show that the
latter were being outbred by the former, the difference would be
sufficiently alarming, even though statistical proof of how fast
the feeble-minded are increasing, were lacking.
Some writers have attributed the alleged increase in crime
in recent years to the increase in the kind of inheritance that
predisposes people to criminal conduct. From what we know
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 373
of the relation of crime to mental defect, it is reasonable to expect
that if the latter were to increase, it would tend to make crimes
more common. Crime has a sociological as well as a biological
and psychological basis, and the variations that occur in the
amount of crime at different times and in different countries are
correlated in large measure with social, economic, educational and
other factors which fluctuate greatly at different times and places.
Whether or not most crimes are increasing or decreasing is by no
means easy to ascertain. This is especially the case in our own
country, owing to the unreliable nature of our statistics.
Homicide, according to the statistical data we possess, has
been for several years on the increase in the United States, but
it has decreased in most of the countries of Europe. Statistics
for different crimes show varying trends, but the general situation
in Europe has probably been on the whole improving. That
there has been an increasing hereditary predisposition to crime
in any country is a conclusion quite unwarranted by any data
at present available.
When we consider suicide, however, the evidence points
unequivocably to the increase of this crime, if we may call suicide
a crime, in nearly all countries of the civilized world. In the
United States Mr. Hoffman has found that in 100 of our largest
cities the suicide rate had increased from 11.7 per 100,000 in 1890
to 20.3 per 100,000 in 1915. In France the suicide rate has more
than trebled since 1830, and in Prussia it has more than doubled.
In England and Wales it increased from 77 per million in 1890 to
104 in 1905. There is much variation hi the suicide rate in the
different countries of Europe, but its increase has been so general
and so marked in most countries as to give rise to much specula-
tion as to its probable cause. The growing frequency of suicide is
often regarded as connected with the alleged increase of insanity
and nervous disorders, and hence as symptomatic of racial
deterioration. It is also explained as the results of our changing
environment which is commonly held to be productive of more
nervous strain than in previous years. Race, religion, economic
pressure, health and various other circumstances profoundly
374 THE TREND OF THE RACE
affect the disposition to suicide, so that it is not safe to ascribe the
increasing suicide rate mainly to our deteriorating inheritance,
although it is not improbable that the latter factor is one of
importance. Many families have been described in which there
has been a strong and apparently hereditary bent toward suicide.
But from the nature of the case it is scarcely feasible to compare
the relative strength of nature and nurture in leading people to
end their lives.
A number of writers who have discussed the possible degener-
acy of the human species have derived much comfort from the
decreasing death rate and the increasing average duration of life.
W. Kruse, for instance, in a long article on this theme (Entartung,
Zeit. soz. Wiss., 6, 359 and 41 1, 1903) comments on the decreasing
death rate of Germany and upon the decreasing morbidity of the
German army, after which he exclaims "Wo bleibt da die Degen-
eration? " This rather nai've performance really contributes very
little to the solution of the problem. Mortality and morbidity
have been so profoundly affected by advances in hygiene that
they would be bound to decrease, even in face of an extensive
deterioration in native vigor.
The problem of the alleged increase of degenerative diseases
has elicited a good deal of discussion and opinion in the subject is
still much divided. In a paper on The Increasing Mortality from
Degenerative Maladies 1 by E. E. Rittenhouse of the Equitable
Life Insurance Society of the United States it is claimed that the
mortality from such diseases is becoming greater for all ages of
life, although it is relatively higher for the advanced age periods.
"In sixteen cities the mortality rate from heart, apoplexy and
kidney affections alone has increased in thirty years from 17.94
to 34.78, or 94 per cent; during ten years (1900-1910) it increased
from 29.4 to 36.78, or 18 per cent. In New Jersey (1880-1910) it
increased from 16.5 to 34.3, or 108 per cent." It is shown that the
death rate in advanced ages over 45-54 has increased in these
same cities and also in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and
probably in other cities and states with less adequate statistics.
1 Pop. Sci. Man. 82, pp. 376-380, 1913.
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 375
The death rate of the total population aged 40 and over has in-
creased in Massachusetts and New Jersey during 30 years (1880-
1910) 5.3 or 21.2 per cent, in 16 cities 8.1 or 25.3 per cent, and in
10 states from 1900-1910, 89 or 3 per cent. The author concludes
that "while the average length of life has advanced, the extreme
span of life has not done so in fact, the indications are that is
has been shortened."
These are disquieting statistics, but we must be careful in
interpreting them. As Dublin has pointed out, the increasing
mortality after middle age in this country may be largely ex-
plained by the increasing proportions of foreigners and their
immediate descendants, among whom the average expectation
of life is considerably lower than among the native population of
native parentage. As an inspection of Glover's life tables will
show, the differences in the mortality rates of the native and the
foreign born become greater with advanced ages, although they
have become reduced in extreme age. That the decreasing
longevity in advanced age groups is not a general characteristic
of modern civilization as indicated by a comparison of the life
tables of several countries of Europe. Taking the expectation of
life at sixty years as an index of vitality in old age we find in
France a slight increase from 1861-65, when it was 13.55 years,
to 13.58 years in 1877-81, and a further increase in 1898-03 to
13.81 years. The increased expectation of life at sixty years in
Germany is shown as follows:
Expectation of Life in Germany at 60 Years of Age
Dates 1871-81 1881-90 1891-00 1901-10
Expected years of life 12.11 12.43 12.82 13.14
Denmark shows a steadily increasing expectation of life at
sixty years from 1835-44 to 1900 and Norway shows a gradual
increase since 1856 and Sweden since 1861. The expectation of
life at sixty years in England fell somewhat from the middle of
the 1 9th century to 1881-90 after which it has increased about
two years. For the past thirty to forty years people of the old-
age groups have been living slightly longer on the average also in
376 THE TREND OF THE RACE
Australia. In the more advanced ages the expected duration of
life has shown a smaller amount of increase, but in a number of
countries even the man of eighty may count on living a little
longer than he would a few decades ago.
The increase in the degenerative diseases of later life in the
United States is probably due, to a considerable extent, to the
increase of our foreign stocks which show a strong tendency
to segregate in cities where they live under conditions which
frequently dispose them to an early break down. It is a debatable
question, especially in view of the varying categories of the
diagnosis of disease, whether degenerative diseases are on the
increase in the civilized world, and it is further a matter of un-
certainty how far our industrial development and increasing
urban life may tend to accelerate the development of these
afflictions.
The most discussed problem in relation to the increase of
degenerative diseases is that of the alleged increase of cancer.
The problem is of particular importance since cancer ranks very
high among the causes of death in adults, especially those of
over 45 years of age. Many medical writers have become con-
vinced that cancer is on the increase. Certainly the mortality
statistics of most civilized countries attribute an ever increasing
proportion of deaths to this cause. Taking the statistics of cancer
mortality for Massachusetts, for instance, we find the following;
Proportions of Deaths from Cancer in Massachusetts
Years Cancer Death Rate per 100,000
1856-60 23 . 3
1866-70 32.8
1876-80 45 . i
1886-90 59 . 2
1896-90 69 . 2
1906-10 86 . 9
1911 92.6
1912 94.0
1913 99-4
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 377
Without citing similar statistics which may be derived from
other states and most countries of the globe, it may be asked
if these data really suffice to prove that cancer is actually in-
creasing. In interpreting most statistics of the increase of cancer,
allowance must be made for the changing age distribution of the
population. Both the decline of the birth rate and the increasing
duration of life make the proportion of people of middle age and
beyond relatively higher. Hence a larger proportion of the
population would now be liable to be affected by cancer than in
previous years.
Undoubtedly this circumstance explains a part of the statistical
increase of cancer, but it does not suffice to explain all of it.
Willcox in fact attributes only about one-third of the reported
increase to this cause. If we study the death rate for any partic-
ular age, say 55, estimating the proportion dying of cancer to all
the population of that age we frequently find that the cancer
death rate has increased materially in the last few years. This is
true for most ages in the United States between the periods
1903-07 and 1908-12 according to the United States Census.
Data from the life insurance companies of Austria over the
period from 1876 to 1900 fail to show any consistent trend of
cancer mortality for most age groups.
Dr. F. L. Hoffmann on the basis of his extensive and valuable
collection of statistics on cancer mortality from several countries
has concluded that there is an actual increase of cancer which
cannot be explained either by changes in age distribution of the
population or by improvements in the accuracy of diagnosis.
Professor Willcox, however, has made a critical study of the prob-
lem and has come to a quite different conclusion. Most of the
statistical increase of cancer which cannot be explained by the in-
creasing proportion of people of middle or old age may be ac-
counted for, according to Willcox, by improvements in diagnosis,
and the greater proportion of deaths which are now certified by
competent physicians. The layman seldom reports cancer as a
cause of death. Where physicians are relatively plentiful more
deaths from cancer are put on record. Fewer deaths are now
378 THE TREND OF THE RACE
attributed to old age, and the deaths ascribed to "unknown
causes" in the American registration states had decreased hi 1915
to less than one-tenth of the number reported hi 1900. In the
same area and period the deaths from "tumor" had decreased to
about one-fourth of their previous figure. It is evident that
many deaths removed from these categories help to swell the
cancer death rate.
King and Newsholme, as a result of their studies of the cancer
statistics of Frankfort-on-the-Main, came to the conclusion
hi 1893 that "the increase in cancer is only apparent and not
real, and is due to improvement in diagnosis and more care-
ful certification of the causes of death. This is shown by the
fact that the whole of the increase has taken place in inaccessible
cancer difficult of diagnosis, while accessible cancer easily diag-
nosed has remained practically stationary." Willcox made a
further study of the Frankfort statistics for the period between
1890 and 1913, thereby gaining access to a much larger amount of
material (over 9,000 deaths) than that studied by King and
Newsholme. He found, in agreement with these authors, that
the reported increase of cancer was due to cancers located hi
inaccessible parts, the death rate from accessible cancer showing
no general increase since the beginning of the original investiga-
tion hi 1860. He points out that hi England and the United
States the death rate from appendicitis, despite much successful
surgery, has increased almost as much as the death rate from
cancer, owing probably to the fact that appendicitis was for-
merly diagnosed as some other malady. The conclusion of Prof.
Willcox's careful analysis of the problem is that "The cumulative
evidence that improvements in diagnosis and changes hi age
composition explain away more than half and perhaps all of the
apparent increase in cancer mortality rebuts the presumption
raised by the figures and makes it probable, although far from
certain, that cancer mortality is not increasing."
Our available data on the recent changes which have occurred
in the physical or mental characteristics of the race, are, I believe,
insufficient to afford any positive proof of decadence. Even if
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 379
rather extensive changes had taken place it is doubtful if the fact
could be established by the kind of records which have been
compiled. We can only judge of the present trend of our bio-
logical development by a study of the forces which are now pro-
ducing modifications in the inherited qualities of mankind. In
our study of these forces it has been found that some of them are
working in the direction of racial improvement, while others are
quite evidently having an opposed influence. 'What the re-
sultant effect will be can be determined only by some estimate of
their relative potency. How these forces are working, we have
discussed in previous chapters and our main conclusions may be
stated somewhat categorically as follows: The one agency which
appears to be most clearly working toward racial improvement is
natural selection. At any rate there is a large amount of evidence
that it is favoring the maintenance of physical vigor and keenness
of mind. Sexual selection is in a more doubtful position. To a
certain extent it retains what might be considered its primitive
function of denying the privilege of parenthood to the poorer or
uglier individuals of the species, but the more capable and inde-
pendent spirits, especially among the women, are coming to be
denied this privilege also. The influence of group selection
as manifested in war and otherwise, may also retain some of its
original racial benefits, but, under our present regime, its dys-
genic effects not improbably outweigh whatever it may contrib-
ute to racial improvement. The general influence of reproductive
selection or differential fecundity is quite evidently pernicious.
It tends to extinguish the posterity of the most capable and to
fill the world with the subnormal and inefficient, thereby con-
stituting the most serious menace of all the forces which are
influencing human heredity. Religious selection while formerly
eliminating through persecution many of the better minds and
while still continuing the racial evil of a celibate clergy in the
Catholic church, now exercises its effects mainly upon the birth
rate of different stocks. Its influence in maintaining the high
birth rate of the Jews who are certainly endowed with an unusual
degree of intelligence and energy is rapidly waning and the
380 THE TREND OF THE RACE
differential fecundity it now helps to maintain is mainly in favor
of elements which, for the most part, have not demonstrated a
superior inheritance. The manifold racial effects of industrial
development are in many respects bad. Industry may intensify
the action of natural selection in eliminating persons whose
physique and intelligence are below the general level, but, on the
other hand, its influence on differential fecundity may more than
counteract its tendency to racial improvement. Its effect in
encouraging celibacy in increasing numbers of capable and self-
reliant women who qualify themselves for an economically inde-
pendent career promises to be a serious racial danger. Education
itself, the basis of so much of our advancement, has proven, up to
the present, a dysgenic agency. Its devotees commonly fail to
reproduce themselves, and since education is becoming extended
to more and more of those who are capable of acquiring it the
racial damage thus caused is correspondingly increased.
The effect of our modern life upon the trend of germinal varia-
bility, is as we have pointed out before, a subject about which
we know little. Alcoholism while helping to dispose of a number
of undesirables, is open to grave suspicion as a cause of defective
inheritance. The same suspicion may reasonably be entertained
concerning a number of other unfavorable influences which now
affect a large proportion of humanity, in so far as these involve
the toxic action of drugs, diseases or bad air.
When we attempt to gain a comprehensive view of the forces
which are changing human inheritance it becomes apparent that
those forces which have been called into action as a result of the
development of our culture are in large part racially destructive.
We cannot say that they are entirely so because there are counter
tendencies which sometimes arise. All those agencies which bring
about the present well-marked correlation between sterility and
success in life tend to rob the race of its best inheritance. It is
chiefly the primitive evolutionary factors which operate among
the lower animals that are making for racial improvement in man.
Civilization brings in its train so many factors that undermine
its own biological foundations that, from the racial standpoint
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 381
at least, we may well ask with E. Carpenter, "Is Civilization a
disease? " If it is a disease it is one which has apparently proven
fatal to many nations in the past. Without venturing to discuss
the various explanations of the downfall of civilizations it may be
said that, so far as insight can be obtained in the racial changes
that have accompanied this process of decay, the ethnic stocks
which were responsible for the cultural advancement, that oc-
curred became gradually bred out and replaced by the blood of
alien peoples. Decadence from within was often the prelude to
conquest from without, but whether the old stock was replaced by
conquering invaders, peaceful immigrants, or the progeny of
slaves, the result was in many respects the same.
In the present book we have made what is perhaps a very
inadequate effort to diagnose some of the racial maladies that
affect our own day and generation. It is only by recognizing these
and understanding the methods of their working that effective
means can be taken to keep them in check. Rather feeble at-
tempts have been made to curtail the propagation of mental
defectives, through sterilizing or segregating some of the worst of
these undesirable elements. This practice carried on much more
extensively than it has been would undoubtedly relieve society
of an immense burden. But the elimination of our worst defec-
tives would not meet the most serious difficulty which consists in
the loss of those stocks which carry our best inheritance. It is
doubtful if the pecuniary rewards which have sometimes been
advocated for increasing the birth rate of desirable parents
would prove very effective. There is much to be said im favor of
making parenthood voluntary in all classes so as to restrict the
birth rate among the people who occupy the rather broad belt
between the obviously defective and ordinary mediocrity. This
of itself would lead to a greater relative fecundity among those of
superior inheritance, and so long as restriction is not carried far
enough to prevent all increase of the population, the result would
doubtless be eugenically and socially desirable. Through reduc-
ing the death rate the natural increase of several countries has
become more rapid, despite the diminishing numbers of births.
382 THE TREND OF THE RACE
For most civilized countries, therefore, the necessity for further
restriction of the birth rate must sooner or later become impera-
tive. If this should occur mainly in people of better endowments
who already have a low birth rate the deterioration of our racial
inheritance will go on at an accelerated pace.
The birth rate of different stocks would become more nearly
equalized by economic reforms which would effect a more equi-
table distribution of wealth and by the greater diffusion of educa-
tion which would be favored by such reforms. An ignorant and
poverty-ridden proletariat will multiply rapidly through sheer
lack of restraint. It is a most fortunate circumstance that the
third estate continues to include many people of excellent heredi-
tary qualities; in course of time, however, they tend t,o rise and
become sterile, and thus the great breeding ground from which
they emerged is impoverished. It is the very inadequancy and
incompleteness of this sifting process which has thus far tended to
keep racial deterioration in check. A social system in which
human beings are rewarded by education and position according
to their inborn capacity has often been held up as a desideratum.
But lest the racial effect of such a regime should prove to be
more destructive than our present system, some means must be
instituted for encouraging race suicide among those to whom
Nature has been grudging in her distribution of desirable endow-
ments.
It is doubtless feasible to do much through education toward
the accomplishment of this purpose, but the advantages conferred
by elimination, however extensively it may be carried out, are of
less value than those resulting from an increase in the highest
types of inheritance. The best blood of a nation is its most
priceless possession. It cannot be increased by any artificial or
arbitrary methods as these would not commend themselves to
modern ethical standards. Education to whose influence many
dysgenic effects may now be justly charged is, after all, the essen-
tial basis for the realization of any project of racial improvement.
To be effective it must include the inculcation of a sense of
responsibility for the hereditary qualities of future generations.
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 383
Education is eugenically of value as making possible the develop-
ment of a "eugenic conscience" which is now sadly lacking in
most people of culture. It is a hopeful sign that here and there
among people who have inherited a generous measure of desirable
traits eugenic considerations have led to the rearing of larger
families. On the other hand, many who are aware that they
carry a hereditary taint refrain from transmitting a possible
affliction to their posterity. With a higher standard of education
and a diffusion of the sense of obligation to transmit socially
valuable qualities conditions might conceivably be changed so
that a greater relative fecundity would come to characterize the
more vigorous, intelligent and public-spirited members of the
community. Those who have been most fortunate in the posses-
sion of hereditary gifts should feel that upon them rests an un-
usual obligation to see that their qualities are not allowed to
perish from the earth. The race has its fate in its own hands to
make or to mar. Will it ever take itself in hand and shape its
own destiny?
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INDEX
Abderhalden, E., 294
Ability, mental, inheritance of, 98-117
Abortion, prevalence of, 166, 168-172;
causes of, 165, 166
Adrian, C., 267
Agassiz, L., race mixture in Brazil,
248, 249
Age of parents, influence of on offspring,
297, 298, 311-322
Albinism, 18, 186; inbreeding and, 241
Alcohol, hereditary effects of, 269-296,
368, 369
Alcoholism and defect, 31-34, 200, 201,
276-290, 380
Allendorf, H., 353
Alsberg, M., 383
Ambros, R., inheritance of psychical
characters, 116
Ammon, O., 353; natural selection in
man, 189, 190, 203; urban migration,
346, 347, 365
Anglo-Polynesian hybrids, 255, 256
Ansell, C., effect of order of birth on
offspring, 298, 322; of birth intervals,
321
Arner, G. B. L., 267
Aschaffenburg, G., 94
Ashby, H. T., on infant mortality, 190,
200
Assortative mating, 229-231, 236
Auerbach, E., on effect of order of
birth on short sight, 307, 322
Babcock, E. B., and Clausen, R. E., 26
Bachhuber. See Cole.
Baelz, Dr., on Japanese-Caucasian
crosses, 252
Bagehot, W., on military selection in
primitive man, 214
Bailey, W. B., 141; on racial influence
of cities, 159
Bajenoff, Prof., 56
Baldwin, J. M., social heredity, i
Balfour family, 102
Ball, J. D., and Thomas H., intelligence
of female offenders, 88
Ballantyne, J. W., 294
Ballod, C., on rural and urban death
rates, 162, 340, 341, 342, 348, 353
Barr, M. W., mortality of defectives,
29, 187; heredity in epilepsy, 40, 70,
280
Barrington, A., and Pearson, K., inherit-
ance of vision, 22, 26; extreme alco-
holism, 282, 294
Bateson, Wm., 26
Bauer, L., 353
Baxter, J. H., on vitality of blond
and brunette recruits, 184
Beale, L., 178
Beanblossom, M. E., 96
Beddoe, J., 203; stature of city dwellers,
365
Beeton, M., and Pearson, K., inheri-
tance of longevity, 188, 189, 203, 308
Beeton, M., Yule, G. U., and Pearson,
K., inheritance of longevity, 188,
203
Bell, A. G., heredity of longevity, 203,
322; heredity of deafness, 245; size
of family and death rate, 304, 305;
marriage of the deaf, 230
Bemiss, S. M., effects of consanguinity,
244, 267
Berkeley, H. L, drunkenness of parents
and idiocy of offspring, 281
Bernhardi, Gen., 356; on biology of war,
205
Bertillon, J., on the declining birth
rate, 132, 133, 141; marriage rates
and status, 233
Besant, A., law of populations, 179
385
386
INDEX
Bezzola, D., on alcohol and heredity,
289, 294
Bindewald, G., on rural and urban
recruits, 343, 344, 353
Binet tests, 88, 89, 90, 92
Birth rate, decline of, 118-142; 381-383;
causes of decline, 143-180; rural and
urban, 132-133, 152-163, 342, 345-
350
Bjerre, P., 72
Blaschko, A., 179, 203; on prevalence
of venereal diseases, 167
Bleicher, H., 353
Bleuler, E., 94
Bliss, G., 236
Bluhm, A., on obstetrics and race
deterioration, 367, 383; on alcohol
and ability to nurse children, 294,
368
Blumer, J. C., 236
Boas, F., 116, 323; on Indian-white
crosses, 252, 256, 267
Bock, sex selection among Dyaks, 225
Bodart, G., on mortality of army
officers, 208; mortality in war, 211
Bodart, G., and Kellogg, V. L., 221
Boeckh, R., birth rate of Berlin, 345,
353
Boies, H. M., 94
Bonhoeffer, K., 97, 294; heredity of
prostitutes, 89; on tramps and
vagrants, 92, 93
Booth, M., religion and birth rate, 357,
363
Borntraeger, J., on falling birth rate
of Germany, 122, 123, 141, 162;
on birth rates of Catholics and Prot-
estants, 356
Bourneville, D. M., 294; lead poisoning
and progeny, 291, 292
Bradlaugh, Ch., 179
Branthwaite, W., defectiveness of alco-
holics, 282, 294
Brentano, L., 141
Bridgman, O., 96
Brigger, G., 97
Bronner, A. F., 96
Brooks, R. C., 353
Brower, D. R., and Bannister, H. M.,
death rate of the insane, 186, 187
Brown, W. F., on birth control, 262,
263
Bryce, J., on race crossing, 250
Bunge, G. von, on alcohol and heredity,
294, 368, 369
Burgdorfer, F., on rural and urban
recruits, 344
Burrows, Dr., heredity in insanity, 45
Calkins, G. N., fecundity of religious
sects, 363
Campanella, T., 8
Cancer, alleged increase of, 376-378
Cannon, G. L., and Rosanoff, A. J.,
heredity of insanity, 50-53, 71
Carpenter, E., 381
Carr-Saunders, A. M., 203
Castle, C. S., 236
Castle, W. E., 26; inbreeding hi Dro-
sophila, 240; in rats, 241
Cattell, J. Me K., families of American
men of science, 138, 139, 141, 187,
318; effect of parental age on off-
spring, 310
Cauderlier, G., 141; on prosperity and
birth rate, 173
Ceni, C., 294
Chambers, T., 221
Chase, J. H., physical development and
order of birth, 305, 323
Children, decreasing proportion of in
the U. S., 119, 1 20
Children's Bureau, 145, 192
Chromosomes, 16
Church, W. S., 70
Cities, effect on population, 132, 133,
152-168; 330-35
Claasen, W., 383; prevalence of syphilis,
167
Clark, L. P., and Stowell, W. L., death
rate of the feeble-minded, 187, 203
Clarke, W., 96
Clausen, R. E., 16
Clouston, M., heredity in insanity, 46
INDEX
387
Cobb, J. A., on alleged inferiority of
the first born, 306, 323
Cole, L. J., and Bachhuber, L. J., on
the influence of lead on progeny,
292, 294
Cole, L. J., and Davis, C. L., 276,
294
Collet, C. E., 236
Collins, M., 72
Combemale, F., 294
Commander, L. K., quoted, 143
Conklin, E. G., n, 26
Constable, F. C., hereditary genius
and poverty, 100, 116
Copeland, E. B., 221
Correns, C., 15
Cotton, H. A., 71
Cowdery, K. M., 96
Crackanthorpe, M. H., 141
Crafts, L. W., 70
Crafts, L. W., and Doll, E. A., 96
Crime and heredity, 73-97; increase of,
372, 373
Crothers, T. D., 294
Crum, F. S., decline of native American
stock, 126, 141, 353
Cunningham, D. J., teeth in ancient
British skulls, 365
Dallemagne, J., 04
Danielson, F. H., and Davenport, C.
B., inheritance of feeble-mindedness,
11-13, 24; n marriage selection in
the Hill Folk, 230
Darwin, C. R., 09, 102, 184, 269; on
inbreeding and cross breeding, 239;
on military selection, 206, 207; on
natural selection, 181, 214; on sexual
selection, 222-224, 236
Darwin family, 103, 247
Darwin, G. H., on cousin marriages,
247, 267
Davenport, C. B., 26, 60, 70; on inher-
itance of skin color, 18; heredity of
ability, in; effects of inbreeding,
240, 245, 246; marriage selection,
236, 267
Davenport, C. B., and Muncie, E. B.,
7i
Davenport, C. B., and Weeks, D. F.,
inheritance of epilepsy, 41-44
Davis, Dr., on mentality of female
offenders, 89
Davis, N. S., 294
Deaf -mutism, inheritance of, 244-246;
effect of consanguinity on, 244-246;
tendency toward elimination, 186
Debret, F. J., 203
De Candolle, A., 116, 203; on eminent
sons of clergymen, 361
Degeneration, 2-5, 64-69
D6ghilage, P., 179
Dgjerine, J., 70
Delasiauve, L. J. F., heredity in epi-
lepsy, 40
Delinquency and defect, 89-92
Demme, R., on progeny of drunkards,
280, 281, 294
Devine, E. T., 97
Diem, O., 71
Doll, E. A., 96
Dolomore, Prof., on teeth in ancient
British skulls, 365, 366
Donkin, H. B., 95, on feeble-mindedness
in criminals, 87
Doran, R. E., 72
Doud, C. M., 128, 141
Down, Langdon, 29
Drahms, A., 95
Drosophila, inherited defect in, 69;
inbreeding of, 240,241
Drysdale, C. V., on Neo-Malthusian-
ism, I7S-I79
Dublin, L. I., on increase of degener-
ative diseases, 375, 383
Dublin, L. I., and Langman, H., on
influence of order of birth on off-
spring, 301, 302, 323
Dudfield, R., 179
Dugdale, R., 94; on the Jukes, 81, 82,
284; on alcoholism, 284
Duke, E. See Duncan.
Dumas, on civilian death rate in war,
210
3 88
INDEX
Dumont, A., 179; birth rate and status,
i73
Duncan, B. S., and Duke, E., on fer-
tility of native and foreign born
women, 126; on infant mortality
and wages of fathers, 191, 192
Duncan, Mathews, on order of birth
and size of offspring, 297
Dunlop, J. C., on birth rate and occu-
pation, 134, 135, 141
Dunn, H. P., 383
East, E. M., and Hays, H. K., inbreed-
ing in corn and tobacco, 239,
240
East, E. M., and Jones, D., on cross
breeding and vigor, 242
Eckles, C. H., and Palmer, L. S., 323
Elderton, E. M., 26, 141; on birth rate
and social status, 134, 170-172;
on size of family and death rate,
305; on urban and rural birth rates,
161
Elderton, E. M., and Pearson, K., 203;
on alcohol and heredity, 278, 285-
288, 294
Ellis, H., 9, 72, 95, 179, 319, 320, 323;
on ancestry of criminals, 81; intel-
ligence of female offenders, 88;
genius and insanity, 113, 114, 116;
on birth rank and eminence, 310;
on sexual selection in man, 226, 230,
236
Engelmann, G. J., 141
Environment and heredity, 2, 19-26,
27; and crime, 73, 74, 80, 86, 92, 94
Epilepsy, inheritance of, 18, 29, 40-44,
278-281; and crime, 76, 77, 80, 81,
89, 93; and birth rank, 303
Esquirol, J. E. D., 45, 46
Estabrook, A. E., 70, 95, on the Jukes,
82-85
Estabrook, A. E., and Davenport,
C. B., the Nam family, 245
Eugenics, 3, 60
Eugenics Record Office," 10, 28, 61, 64,
82
Ewart, C. T., on fertility of defectives,
130,131,383
Ewart, R. J., effect of parental age on
offspring, 315, 316, 323; on effects of
birth intervals, 322
Fahlbeck, P. E., 141, 179
Falkenburg, 353
Farr, W., 10
Fay, E. A., heredity of deafness, 245;
marriage of deaf mutes, 230
Feeble-mindedness, 18; heredity of,
29-44; and crime and delinquency,
80, 81, 84-94; increase of, 372; death
rate and, 29, 187, 188; relation to
consanguinity, 243-245
Feer, E., 267
Fehlinger, H., 267
Felice, R. de, 179
Ferdy, H., 179
F6r6, C., on degeneracy, 65-67, 70
Fernald, M. R. et al., 88
Fernald, W. E., on intelligence of
convicts, 87
Ferrero, Madame, on instinctive crim-
inals, 75, 95
Ferri, E., 95
Finch, E., 267
Finck, H. T., 224, 236
Fircks, A., von, 150
Fischer, A., 383
Fischer, E., on Boer-Hottentot hybrids,
252, 255, 267
Flexner, A., 96, intelligence of pros-
titutes, 89
Flood, E., and Collins, M., 72
Florian, E., and Cavaglieri, G., 97
Fol, H., on assortative mating, 236
Forberger, J., 179, 363
Forel, A., 95, 294
Franklin, B., on American families
in the i8th century, 126
Fraser, K., and Watson, on syphilis and
mental defect, 63, 64
Fiirbringer, P., on sterility, 165
Gachte, H., on low birth rate of French
intellectuals, 178
INDEX
389
Gallichan, W. M., sexual selection in
man, 235, 236
Galton, F., 9, 13, 323, 354, 363; on
nature and nurture, 23-26; on death
rate of men of science, 187; hereditary
genius, 72, 99-103, 108, 114-116,
318, 320; insanity in twins, 55, 56;
eminence and order of birth, 310;
dysgenic effect of religious persecu-
tion, 360, 361; assortative mating,
229
Galton laboratory, 8, 10, 22
Galton, F., and Schuster, E., on note-
worthy families, 101-103, 116, 319
Gee, W., effect of alcohol on fish sperm,
271, 294
Geissler, A., 179
George, H., on hereditary ability, 98,
99
Germ plasm, continuity of, 13, 14
Gillette, J. M., on growth of cities, 332,
354
Gilliland, A. R., 97
Gilmore, C. F., sexual selection in
man, 228
Gini, C., on birth ranks of Italian pro-
fessors, 309, 310; effect of parental
age on offspring, 311-315, 323
Goddard, H. H., 70, 95, 96; heredity
of feeble-mindedness, 30-32, 34, 35;
feeble-mindedness and syphilis, 62
Goethe, J. W., 115; quoted, in; frail
infancy of, 193
Goldschmidt, R., 26
Goldstein, J., 179
Gonorrhcea, as cause of sterility, 165,
167
Gordon, A., 295
Goring, C., on hereditary insanity,
54, 71; on criminal anthropology,
77-80, 95; on birth rank of criminals,
300, 301
Gould, B. A., on mulatto recruits,
252, 253
Gowers, W. R., on hereditary epilepsy,
40,41
Grabe, E. von, 96
Grant, M., 384; on race crossing, 249,
250
Grassl, J., 197, 323, 354
Greenwood, M., 173
Greenwood, M., and Yule, G. U., on
alleged inferiority of first born, 301,
302, 323
Grotjahn, A., 179, 180, 384
Gruber, M., 384
Gruhle, H. W., 96
Guillon, J., 354
Gumplowicz, L., 221
Guttstadt, A., venereal disease in city
and country, 166, 167
Guyer, M. F., 9; on syphilitic insanity,
48
Haecke, H., 236
Hagedoorn, A. L., 270
Haines, T. H., on defective criminals,
87; on juvenile delinquents, 90, 91
Hamburger, M., 185, 186
Hamilton, A. Me L., on hereditary
epilepsy, 40
Hammond, W. A., on hereditary epi-
lepsy, 40
Hansen, G., on deteriorating effect of
cities, 345-347, 354
Hansen, S., effect of order of birth on
offspring, 323
Harris, J. A., 236
Hart, H., mentality of criminals, 88
Hartley, C. G., 236
Hauck, A. A., and Sisson, E. O., intel-
ligence of delinquents, 91
Haycraft, J. B., 210; on mortality of
whites and blacks from malaria, 183
Hayhurst, E. R., 354
Headley, F. W., 9; effects of war, 216
Healy, Wm., 96. See also Spaulding
Hegar, A., decrease of lactation, 368,
384
Heredity, principles of, 10-26; in man,
8, 9, 17-26, 27-72; versus environ-
ment, 19-24
Heron, D., 29, 36, 37; variability of
mental defect, 36, 37; inheritance of
39
INDEX
mental defect, 47, 54, 60, 61, 70, 71;
on "anticipation," 60; on mating
with defectives, 61; decline of birth
rate in London, 132, 141; defective-
ness of alcoholics, 282, 283, 295;
order of birth and insanity. 300
Herpin, T., on hereditary epilepsy, 40
Heymans, G., and Wiersma, E., on
psychic inheritance, 106, 116
Hibbs, H. H., et al., 323
Hickman, H. B., 96
Hill Folk, 31-34, 36, 70, 94, 13, 230
Hill, G. Chatterton, 9
Hill, J. A., on decrease of American
stock, 128
Hirsch, A., mortality of races from
malaria, 182
Hirsch, W., 72
Hodge, C. F., alcohol and heredity, 271,
295
Hoffmann, F. L., on the declining birth
rate, 126, 141; race crossing, 252;
on mulattoes, 252, 254, 263, 264, 267;
religion and birth rate, 358; increase
of cancer, 377; 384; increase of
suicide, 373
Holle, H. G., on war, 219-221
Holmes, S. J., 141, 384
Homicide, increase of, 373
Hopkins, M. A., birth control, 179
Hoppe, H., 295
Horsely, V., and Sturge, M. D., alco-
hol and heredity, 281, 295
Howard, G. E., primitive marriage
selection, 224, 225
Howe, S. G., on consanguinity and
idiocy, 244
Howerth, I. W., 221
Hughes, Amy, marriage and birth
rates of Mt. Holyoke graduates, 137
Hunt, S. B., brain weights of mulattoes,
253
Hunt, W., 384
Huntington's chorea, inheritance of,
18, 57; death rate from, 186
Hurst, C. C., inheritance of musical
ability, in
Hutchinson, Woods, 384
Huth, A. H., marriage of near kin, 244,
246, 267
Huxley, T. H., struggle for existence
in human society, 215
Immigration, 332-335, 351-353
Immigration Commission, on birth
rates of native and foreign bora
women in the U. S., 127, 128, 156-
159
Industrial development, racial effects
of, 325-354
Infant mortality and natural selection,
187, 190-203, 278; relative to birth
rate, 148, 163-165, 175, 178
Insanity, heredity of, 18, 44-72; increase
of, 369-372
Iseman, Dr. M. S., 180; on prevalence
of abortion, 169, 170
Ivanow, I., on the influence of alcohol
on sperm cells, 271
Jaederholm, F. A., 70. See also Pear-
son, K.
Jager, G., 13
James, C. A., genius and insanity, 114
Jenks, A. E., on fertility of mixed
peoples, 256-260, 267
Johnson, G. R., 97
Johnson, R. H., 9, 141; on marriage
selection, 236
Johnson, S., on birth rate and employ--
ment, 134
Jones, C. E., 323
Jones, D. See. also East.
Jordan, D. S., on dysgenics of war, 206-
209, 221; on infant mortality, 198
Jordan, H. E., 204; on war, 207, 208,
221; on fertility of mulattoes, 254,
267
Jukes family, 81-86, 94, 95, 130, 140,
200, 201, 230, 284, 290
Kallikak family, 30-32, 36, 130, 140,
200, 201, 230, 245, 290
Kammerer, P. G., 97
INDEX
391
Kaplan, D. M., syphilis and epilepsy,
63
Karpas, M. J., 97
Keeble, F., and Pellew, C., on crossing
and vigor, 242
Keller, A. G., 180
Kellicott, W. E., 9
Kellogg, J. H, 384
Kellogt, V. L., on military selection,
209, 212, 213, 221
Kelly, T. L., 96; on delinquent boys,
89,90
Kelsey, C., 9, on negro-white crosses,
253
Kelynak,T. N.,7o
Kennicott, G. F., 354
Kiaier, A. N., 141
Kidd, B., on the biological function of
religion, 355, 363
Kieman, J. C., on degeneracy, 67-68
King, H. D., on inbreeding in rats, 241
King, G., and Newsholme, A., on the
alleged increzse of cancer, 378, 384
Kingsley, N. W., effect of race crossing
on teeth, 366
Kite, E. S., 30
Kneeland, G. G., 97
Knibbs, G. H., on alleged ages at mar-
riage, 145
Knowlton, Fruits of Philosophy, 179
Koeppe, H., 204
Kohlbrugge, J. H. F., racial influence
of cities, 354
Korosi, J., 354
Kraus, F., 267
Krose, H. A., 363
Kruse, W., on degeneration, 374
Kuczynski, R., urban and rural birth
and death rates, 347, 354
La BruySre, J. de, quoted, 73
Lafora, G. R., 70
Lagneau, C. S., birth rate of Paris,
345
Laitenen, T., alcohol and heredity,
289, 295
Lamarckism, 2, 12-14
Lamb, mentality of delinquents and
criminals, 88
Lapouge, G. V. de, forms of social
selection, 3, 354; on military selection,
211-213; n race mixture, 249; on
religious persecution, 361
Laquer, B., 295
Laubach, F. C., 97
Laurent, E., 267
Lead poisoning and progeny, 291, 292
Lecky, W. E. H., on religious selection,
360, 363
Legrain, D. M., on the progeny of alco-
holics, 280, 295
Lewis, Bevan, on alcoholism, 285
Lindsay, G. A., selective death rates
from diseases, 183, 204
Link, H. C., 97
Llorente, J. A., religious persecution,
360
Lombroso, C., 72, 92, on criminal an-
thropology, 73-77; on genius and
defect, 113
Lessen, mortality from haemophilia, 186
Lotsy, J. P., on variation, 270
Love, K., on hereditary deafness, 246
Lundborg, H., on hereditary deafness,
72, 245
Lydston, G. F., 95
Macaulay, T. B., 323
Mac Dougall, D. T., production of
variations in (Enothera, 270
Mac Nicholl, T. A., on alcoholism, 289,
290, 295
Mallet, B., 221
Malthus, T. R., law of, 122, 175, 326
Malzberg, B., 88
March, L., 180
Marie, A., and Meunier, R., 97
Marriage, age and rate, of 144-151,
232-234; marriage selection, 222-
237
Marro, A., effect of parental age on
offspring, 320, 321, 323
Martin, H., on alcoholic heredity and
defect, 280
392
INDEX
Marvin, D. M., 236
Maudsley, H., inheritance of insanity,
45, 71; genius and insanity, 113
Mayflower descendants, birth rate of,
128, 129
Mayo-Smith, R., on fecundity of re-
ligious sects, 362
Mayr, G. von, 10, on city migrants, 348;
age at marriage and occupation, 150
McCord, C. P., 97, mentality of female
delinquents, 88
McCulloch, Rev. O. C., on the Tribe
of Ishmael, 85
McDonald, A., 70, 79
McDonald, D., pigmentation and dis-
ease, 184, 204
McDougall, Wm., i
McKim, W. D., 9
Meisner, H., 384
Mendel's law, 15-19, 28, 32-44, 69,
in, 112, 241-245
Mercier, C. A., heredity in insanity, 47
Merz, P. A., 88
Metcalf, M. M., on amalgamation of
races, 266
Meunier, R., 97
Miner, J. B., 96
Miscegenation, 6, 238, 247-268
Mitchell, P. C., 221
Mjoen, J. A., 295
Moebius, P. J., 384
Moenkhaus, W. J., inbreeding in
Drosophila, 240, 241
Mombert, P., 141; urban and rural
birth rates, 162, 163, 164
Moore, F., on delinquency and mental
defect, 88
Moreau de Tours, 56; hereditary insan-
ity, 45, 46; degenerate inheritance,
65, 70; on genius and insanity, 113
Morel, B. A., hereditary epilepsy, 40,
on degenerate inheritance, 54, 64, 70,
73
Morgan, T. H., 26; on unit factors, 69
Morris, on race crosses, 253
Morrow, Prince, sterility and syphilis,
166
Mosby, T. S., 95
Mott, F. W., heredity in insanity, 46,
71; syphilitic insanity, 48; on so-
called law of anticipation, 58-60
Mulattoes, 249, 252-255; physique
of, 252-254; intelligence of, 261-264,
fertility of, 252-255
Murphy, H. D., on standards of mar-
riage selection, 231, 232
Myres, J. L., 384
Nam Family, 31, 94, 130, 140, 230, 244,
290
Nasmyth, G. W., 221
Natural selection, 2, 3, 7, 29, 181-204,
379
Nearing, N. S., birth and marriage
rates of female graduates, 137, 138,
142
Nearing, S., birth rate and status, 133,
142
Negro, 266; intelligence of, 261-264;
fecundity of, 152, 154, 156; mortality
of, 182, 183; urban imigration, 335
Neo-Mathusianism, 171, 174-179
Nettleship, E., 267
Newman, G., 204
Newsholme, A., 10, 142; on infant and
child mortality, 197, 204
Newsholme, A., and Stevenson, T. H.
C., 142, 144; and Yule, G. U., 204
Nice, L. B., 295
Niceforo, A., 323
Nicolai, G. F., 221
Nicolson, F. W., birth rates of Wesleyan
graduates, 136
Nisbet, J. F., 72, 236
Noggerath, E. J., sterility and venereal
disease, 165
Noguchi, H., syphilis in mental de-
fectives, 63
Nordau, M., quoted, 335, 336
Norton, J. K., 88
Nott, J. C., inferiority of mulattoes, 253
Novicow, J., military selection, 206,
221; race crossing, 251, 252
Nussbaum, M., 13
INDEX
393
Oettingen, A. von, Moralstatistik, 10
Ogle, W., marriage rates and economic
conditions, 146, 180
Oldenberg, K., 142
Oliver, T., lead poisoning and progeny,
291, 292, 295; dangerous trades, 329
Ordahl, G., 95, 96; on juvenile delin-
quents, 90
Ordahl, L. E., 95
Orschansky, J., 70
Owen, R., 13
Paddon, M. E., 97
Paine, Trios. , on heredity of ability, 98
Pangenesis, 11-13
Parent-Duchatelet, A. J. B., intel-
ligence of prostitutes, 89
Parker, C. H., mental tests of the unem-
ployed, 92
Parmelee, M., 95, 97
Paton, S., on heredity of insanity, 45
Paul, C., on lead poisoning and prog-
eny, 291, 295
Pauperism and mental defect, 92-94
Pearl, R., 26, 221; hereditary effects of
alcohol on fowl, 274-276
Pearson, K., biometric studies, 8, 9,
26; on heredity and environment,
22, 26; on mental defect and Mendel-
^ sca ) 36, 37, 53; on "anticipation" in
heredity, 59; on mating with defec-
tives, 61; on infant mortality, 195,
196; on sexual selection in man, 229,
236; on birth rate and status, 134,
142; on handicapping the first born,
2 97~35j 3 2 3; n natural selection in
man, 181, 185, 188, 189, 204; on
hereditary effects of alcohol, 286-
289, 295
Pearson, K., and Jaederholm, G. A., 70
Penta, P., on parentage of criminals, 81
Peters, W., 117
Pforringer, alcohol and heredity, 271
Phillips, J. C., birth rates of Harvard
and Yale graduates, 135, 136
Piff, T., 180
Pintner, R., and Toops, H. A., 97
Plate, L., 26
Platschick, C., dental caries in recruits,
365
Ploetz, A., 180, 296, 384; inheritance
of longevity, 192-195, 204, 323
Ploss-Bartels, race crossing and beauty,
252; child bearing in savages, 367
Pollitz, P., 95
PoUock, H. M., and Morgan, W. S.,
354
Popenoe, P., 26, 142; long life of the
first born, 308, 309, 323; on inbreed-
ing, 241
Popenoe, P. and Johnson, R. H., 9, 232
Potts, W. A., alcoholic inheritance and
feeble-mindedness, 281, 206
Poulton, E. B., 13
Powys, A. O., on longevity and fecund-
ity, 188, 204; on infant mortality,
197, 204, 221, 313
Prinzing, F., 142, 197, 204, 221, 313;
ages at marriage, 236, 349, preva-
lance of venereal infection, 165,
167
Prostitution and mental defect, 88, 89
Punnett, R. C., 26
Quatrefages, A. de, on race crossing,
254, 267
Radestock, P., 72
Rath, C., 95
Rauber, 13
Ravenstein, E. G., 354
Redfield, C. L., effects of parental age
on progeny, 316-320, 324
Rehm, O., 71
Reibmayr, A., 117; beauty of race hy-
brids, 252
Reichardt, E. N.', 363
Reid, G. A., 9, 210; racial influence of
alcohol, 276, 296; of disease, 182
Religion, racial effect of, 3, 355-363,
379, 38o
Rennert, O., lead poisoning and prog-
eny, 291, 292
Rentoul, R. R., 9
394
INDEX
Reuter, E. B., on the mulatto, 261-264,
267
ReVesz, B., 324
Ribakoff, F. Y., 296
Ripley, W. Z., 204, 354; stature of
city dwellers, 365
Rittenhouse, E. E., increase of degener-
ative maladies, 374, 375
Ritter, W. E., 221
Rivers, W. C., on inferiority of the first
born, 324
Robertson, J., infant mortality and
income, 192
Robinson, W. J., on prevalence of
abortion, 170; birth control, 176, 179
Roemer, H., 71
Rohleder, H., 268
Romanes, G. J., 14
Roosevelt, T., 221; on race suicide, 179
Rosanoff, A. J., 63; 71. See also Can-
non.
Rosanoff, A. J., and Orr, F. J., inheri-
tance of insanity, 51-53, 58, 71
Rose, C., teeth of recruits, 365; increase
of narrow pelvis in women, 367
Ross, E. A., quoted, 124
Rossey, C. S., 95
Rott, Dr. F., 221
Rowntree, B. S., 97; age at marriage
of skilled and unskilled workers,
150, 151,
Rubin, M., and Westergaard, H., age
of marriage and status, 150, 234, 236
Rudin, E., 71
Ruskin, J., quoted, 325
Russell, B., quoted, 118
Rutgers, J., 180
Sadayuki, K., 197, 204
Saleeby, C. W., 9; infant mortality and
selection, 201, 202; alcohol and
heredity, 286, 296
Salisbury, Lord, family of, 102; on
natural selection, 189
Savage, Sir Geo., on law of "anticipa-
tion," 59
Savorgnan, F., 221
Sayer, Dr. E , on fertility of defectives,
13, 131
Schallmayer, W., 10, 384; on racial
effect of war, 218, 221; on obstetrics
and natural selection, 368
Schlub, H. O., 56, 57
Schoolcraft, H. R., on marriage selec-
tion among Indians, 225
Schrenk, von, fecundity of religious
sects in Riga, 357
Schultes, Dr., 56
Schultz, A. P., on race mixture, 249, 250
Schuster, E., 54
Schuster, E., and Elderton, E. M., on
inherited ability, 106, 107, 109, 117
Seigert, F., 324
Sergi, G., 384
Sexual selection in man, 222-237, 379
Shinn, M., marriage rates of female
graduates, 232, 236
Shull, G. H., on crossing corn, 239
Sichard, on the parentage of criminals,
81
Sichel, M., 296
Sisson, E. O., on juvenile delinquents,
91. See Hauck.
Smith, M. R., 237
Snow, E. C., natural selection in man,
198, 204
Sollier, P., alcohol and heredity, 279,
296
Sontag, on war, 220
Sorley, W. R., 384
Spaulding, E. R., 97; and Healy, W.,
on delinquency and defect, 91
Spencer, H., 2; on decreasing fertility,
142; on selection in war, 205
Spiller, G., 268
Sprague, R. J., 142
Spratling, W. P., on hereditary epilepsy,
41,72
Stainer, E., 70
Starch, D., hereditary ability, 108, 116
Stanley, H. M., 237
Stature, 18
Stearns, A. W., mentality of criminals,
8?
INDEX
395
Steinmetz, S. R., 204, 237; philosophy
of war, 213, 216, 218, 221
Sterilization of criminals and defec-
tives, 381
Stockard, C. R., hereditary effects of
alcohol, 272-276, 287, 296, and Craig,
272, 296, and Papanicolou, G. N.,
272, 296
Stocker, W., inherited defects in alco-
holics, 283
Stranhan, S. A. K., 237, 324
Strohmayer, W., heredity in insanity,
54, 72
Sturge, M. D., 296. See Horsley, V.
Suicide, increase of, 373, 374
Sullivan, W. C., 285, 296; infant
mortality and maternal alcoholism,
200; alcohol and hereditary epilepsy,
280
Sumner, F. B., iii
Swift, M. J., 237
Syphilis, as a cause of insanity, 48, 62-
64; as a cause of sterility, 165-168,
307; as cause of degeneracy, 293,
37
Talbot, E. S., on degeneracy, 67, 68,
384
Tanzi, E., inheritance of insanity,
45
Tarde, G., 95; on criminals, 77
Tarnowsky, P., 95; on the parentage of
criminal women, 81
Taylor, J. W., 180
Teggart, F. J., iii
Tennyson, A., quoted, 364
Thacker, A. G., 221
Theilhaber, F. A., 142
Thorn, D. A., 72
Thomson, J. A., 26, 221
Thompson, W. S., 142
Thomdike, E. L., 117; on training and
mentality, 105
Thurnwald, R., 354
Thwing, C. F., 237
Tocher, J. F., pigmentation and in-
sanity, 184
Topinard, P., 77; on race crossing, 250,
251; on brains of mulattoes, 253
Torelle, E., effect of alcohol on sperm
of star-fish, 271
Toulouse, E., 45
Tower, W. L., on production of varia-
tions, 270
Travis, T., on young malefactors, 91, 92
Tredgold, A. F., 269; progeny of feeble-
minded parents, 34, 70; alcoholism
and heredity, 281
Tribe of Ishmael, 31, 85, 86, 94, 130,
201, 290
Tschermak, E., 15
Tuberculosis, 182, 183; hereditary
diathesis of, 185
Turck, H., 72
Twins, identical and ordinary, 23-25;
insanity in, 55-57
Unit characters and unit factors in
heredity, 68, 69
Urquhart, A. R., data on inheritance
of insanity, 47
Vaerting, M., 324
Variation in man, 8, n, 21
Vecchio, G. S. del, 142
Velden, F. von den, 324
Venereal diseases and birth rate, 165-
168; and war, 211, 212
Verrijn-Stuart, C. A., 354
Virgilio, on the parentage of criminals,
81
Voisin, A., on inbreeding, 244, 268
Vries, H. de, 12, 13, 15
Wagner, K., on war, 220, 221
Walford, C., 354
Wallace, A. R., sexual selection and
social reform, 235, 237
Wallas, G., quoted on race crossing,
238
Wallin, J. E. W., 78
Walter, H. E., 26
War, 3, 122-124, 205-221
Ward, L. F., 100
Warner, A. G., 97
396
INDEX
Wassermann reaction, 168; in mental
defectives, 62-64
Watson, H. F., on syphilis and mental
defect, 62
Webb, S., on family limitation, 173,
180, 363; and Webb, B., 97
Weber, A. C., racial influence of cities,
iS3, iS4, iS9, 160, 354
Wedgewood, J., 103, 246
Weeks, D. F., heredity of epilepsy, 41-
44, 72, 303
Weidensall, J., 95
Weinberg, W., 204, 268, 324
Weismann, A., on heredity, 13, 14,
26; on inbreeding, 240
Weller, C. V., effect of lead on progeny
of guinea pigs, 292, 296
Westergaard, H., 204; 296, 324, mar-
riage rates and occupation, 150, 234
Westermarck, H., on marriage selection
in primitive peoples, 224, 237
Wey, Dr., on mentality in criminals,
8?
Whetham, W. C. D., on war, 213, 221
Whetham, W. C. D., and Whetham,
C. D., 10, 142, 355; on pauper pedi-
grees, 94; on the fertility of defec-
tives, 130
Whipple, G. C., Vital statistics, 10
Wiersma, E., 106, 116. See Heymans.
Wigmore, J. H., 95
Willcox, W. F., on the decreasing
proportion of children, 120, 142; on
the alleged increase of cancer, 377,
378, 384
Williams, J. H., delinquency and defect,
po
Wilmarth, Dr. A. W., on fertility in
defectives, 130
Wilson, H. J., 384
Wilson, J. G., 268
Wolf, J., 180
Woltmann, L., 10
Woodruff, C. E., 142; on the extinction
of mulattoes, 253
Woods, F. A., heredity in royalty, 108,
109, 117; in the Hall of Fame, 109,
117
Woods, M., 296
Wright, J. F , 237
Wulffen, E., 96
Yoder, H. H., birth rank and genius,
310, 320
Young, A. A., on the declining birth
rate in New Hampshire, 125, 126, 142
Yule, G. U., 142; on the effect of order
of birth on offspring. See also Green-
wood.
Zampa, R., 96
Zero family, 31, 84-86, 230, 290
