AMERICAX MEX OF SCIENCE 



793 



The a^e at marriage is highest in the 

 Scandinavian nations; it is lowest in the 

 Slav nations; it is as low in France, with 

 its small birth rate, as elsewhere. In 

 England in the case of first marriages the 

 husband is one and a half years older than 

 the wife, in France, nearly four and a 

 half years older. The age at marriage for 

 first marriages has increased in England 

 by about three fourths of a year since 

 1896, before which date the registrar-gen- 

 eral regards the records as inaccurate. 

 The ages of the consorts at first marriages 

 have increased from 26.59 and 25.08 in 

 1896 to 27.46 and 25.81 in 1911. The 

 average a^e at which widowers marry has 

 increased from 44.49 to 46.42 ; for widows 

 from 40.58 to 41.74. In the quinquennial 

 period 1876-80, 7.8 per cent, of the hus- 

 bands and 21.7 per cent, of the wives were 

 under twenty-one, in 1911 these percent- 

 ages had decreased to 3.9 and 13.3. The 

 professional and well-to-do classes marry 

 later than the average; thus in England, 

 the ages of the men and women are, re- 

 spectively, about 32 and 27 years, as com- 

 pared with about 26 and 24.5 years for 

 the artisaai and laboring classes. It thus 

 appears that American scientific men 

 marry at a somewhat earlier age than the 

 professional classes in England and their 

 wives are of about the same age. 



The table shows that the size of family 

 of the parents of the scientific men the 

 fraternity of the scientific men decreases 

 decidedly as the age of the mother at mar- 

 ria,ge increases. It is about five and a lialf 

 when the mother is under twenty ; it de- 

 creases to four and a lialf when she is 

 between twenty-five and thirty and to 

 scarcely over two and a, half when she is 

 between thirty and fort3^ The decrease 

 would be somewhat greater if barren mar- 

 riages were included ; but it is altered in 

 the opposite direction by the fact that the 

 larger family has the better chance of 

 giving birth to the scientific man. The 

 decrease in the size of familj' with the 



advancing age of the father is less, and 

 depends mainly on the fact that older 

 husbands are likely to have older wives. 

 The age of the wife tends to increase about 

 one year as the age of the husbajid in- 

 creases by two years. According to the 

 New South Wales statistics, admirably 

 compiled by T. A. Coghlan," the size of 

 the family is five when the mother marries 

 at 21, and a.s the age at marrias^'e increases 

 to 24, 28 and 32, the size of the family de- 

 creases to approximately four, three and 

 two. In the case of the scientific men the 

 family is 2.59 when the mother was 20 to 

 24 years old at marriage and 2.44 when 

 she was 25 to 29. It is only two in the 

 fifteen cases when she was under twenty. 

 A comparison of these figures with those 

 for the larger families of the preceding 

 generation is significant, as they seem to 

 show the condition when the family is 

 small and limited. Under these circum- 

 stances there is but slight difference in the 

 number of children when a woman marries 

 at ages from 15 to 29. After thirty, how- 

 ever, there is a marked decrease, the size 

 of family being 1.6 for women marrying 

 between 30 and 34 and only 0.6 for those 

 marrying between 35 and 39. Less than 

 half of those marrying between 35 and 

 39 had children and none of those who 

 married at the age of 40 or older had 

 children. 



The families from which our scientific 

 men come had on the average 4.7 children, 

 and those scientific men who are married 

 and whose families are complete have on 

 the average 2.3 children, these figures in- 

 cluding all the children born. Sir Francis 

 fralt^^n^ found that a group of abimt 100 

 English scientific men (excluding barren 

 marriages) had, en the average, 4.7 chil- 

 dren, and their parents 6.3, and remarks: 

 "This implies a diminution of fertility as 



fi"The Decline in the Birth Rate of New South 

 Wales." Svflncv, 1903. 



T "English Men of Science," London, 1874, New 

 York, 1875. 



