524 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



If we assume the unspecified addition to average one and a half 

 children we find that the 242 marriages have yielded, or are intended 

 to yield, a total of 619 children and an average of 2.56 children per 

 marriage. 



If we take the typical decade 1890-99 we get the following results: 



107 Limited Marriages, 1890-1899 



Children living to the age of five 1 2 3 4 5 



Marriages 25 23 34 15 6 4 



Number of completed families ('no more expected')... 22 17 19 9 4 4 



Not recorded or doubtful 1 3 5 2 1 - 



More expected 2 1 4 3 1 - 



Number of children expected where indicated — 1\ 9 1 - - 



This gives 118 living children (excluding deaths of any after five 

 years) and 12 or 13 expected, whilst in 11 cases unspecified additions 

 to the families are anticipated, and 12 cases are doubtful. If one addi- 

 tional child is allowed for each doubtful case and one and a half for 

 each unspecified case, this would give 159 children as the fruit of 107 

 marriages and of 211 parents (allowing for second marriages, in which 

 cases only three persons are concerned in two marriages). This indi- 

 cates that the offspring of each limited marriage (judging from the 

 period named) is almost precisely one and a half children per marriage. 

 The average number of children to be expected from each marriage, in 

 England and Wales twenty-five years ago, was at least three times 

 as great ! 



Information as to the causes which had led to limitation was not 

 specifically asked for. But in many papers a large number of valuable 

 details were supplied. Taking all the limited marriages (242) we 

 find the causes indicated as follows: 



Causes of Limitation 



Economic 38 



Sexual ill-health , 13 



Other ill-health or heredity 19 



Disinclination of wife 9 



Death of wife 6 



Not stated 114 



Several causes 43 



242 



The death of a parent, of course, is a cause of limitation in another 

 sense from that elsewhere employed in this paper. 



Analyzing these last again, we find the following causes assigned: 



Economic 35 out of 43 



Sexual ill-health 11 



Other ill-health or heredity 19 



Disinclination of wife 15 



Death of parent 2 



Other causes 5 



43 

 43 

 43 

 43 

 43 



