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 



