INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 



305 



Relation of Duration of Life to Size of Family 



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 



