PHYSICAL DEGENERACY OR RACE SUICIDE '? 517 



tion, the one comprising those who took thought for the morrow and 

 the other comprising those who did not. Such an exact contrast is, 

 of course, unattainable. But it so happens that we do possess, over a 

 term of nearly forty years, the number of children born in one large 

 sample of the population, selected, it might almost be said, solely by 

 the characteristic of thrift. The Hearts of Oak Friendly Society, the 

 largest centralized benefit society in the kingdom, has now over 272,000 

 adult male members. This membership belongs to all parts of the 

 United Kingdom, of which it may be said to represent about 3 per cent., 

 or no inconsiderable sample. No one is admitted who is not of good 

 character and in receipt of wages at least 24s. per week, a figure which 

 excludes the agricultural laborer, the unskilled worker in town or 

 country, and even (outside London) the lowest grades of skilled 

 artisans. The society consists, in fact, of the artisan and skilled 

 mechanic class, with some intermixture of the small shopkeeper and 

 others who have risen into the lower middle class. Among its provi- 

 sions is the ' lying-in benefit/ a payment of 30s. for each confinement 

 of a member's wife. Unfortunately, we do not know either the relative 

 proportions of the members who are married, or the average age of the 

 wives. There is, however, no reason to think that the proportion of 

 married members has appreciably changed, whilst it is believed that 

 the average age of the members as a whole has risen from about 33 

 to 37.52; and it may possibly be inferred that there is a corresponding 

 increase in the average age of the wives. Judging from the evidence 

 of the Scottish census of 1855, 6 we might in such an event have expected 

 a falling off in the births, due to this assumed difference of age, of at 

 most 15 per cent. Now, what are the facts? From 1866 to 1880 the 

 proportion of lying-in claims to membership rose slowly from 2,176 

 to 2,472 per 10,000. From 1881 to 1904 it continuously declined, 

 until in the latter year it reached only 1,165 per 10,000 members. 

 The birth rate among the population of a million and a quarter persons, 

 distinguished from the rest, so far as is known, only by one common 

 characteristic, that of thrift, has fallen off between 1881 and 1901 by 

 no less than 46 per cent., or a decline nearly three times as great as 

 that during the same period in England and Wales. Taking the whole 

 period of decline, from 1880 down to the latest year for which I have 

 the statistics, 1904, the falling off is over 52 per cent. A smaller so- 

 ciety, the Royal Standard Benefit Society, having 8,225 members and 

 giving a similar benefit, shows similar results. Between 1881 and 

 1901 the proportion of members claiming the lying-in benefit fell off 

 by more than 56 per cent. If the members of the Hearts of Oak 

 Friendly Society and the Royal Standard Benefit Society had had pro- 



8 See the figures given in ' Fertility, Fecundity and Sterility,' by J. Mat- 

 thews Duncan, 1871; and those in 'Natality and Fecundity,' by C. J. and J. N. 

 Lewis, 1906, pp. 18, 26 and 33. 



