) 



AMERICAN MEN ^^E 



807 



men who are unmarried or who have no 

 children or but one, as compared with 

 scientific men with larger families. There 

 is but slight difference in their perform- 

 ance. The similarity may be due to a 

 balance of various conditions, and is also 

 in part accounted for by the fact that men 

 marrying at the average age of 29.5 years 

 have in large measure had such original 

 ideas as they may hope to have and have 

 in the main determined their careers. As 

 a matter of fact those who are unmarried 

 furnish fewer men than the average to thic. 3. The percentage of families of American 

 two more distinguished groups while thosi of science of each size, compared with the 



with six or more children supplv a large^ ^ <^^^^^" ^^^ ^"^ ^"^"^^ ^"^^ '^'^^'^' ^" 



. Tij ^1 ^ ^ . ' .,. decade 1891-1900, 



number. If the figures for scientific me 



with the largest families could be regarde/'. The Causes of the Declining Birth- 



as valid, it would be indicated that th( Rate^ 



ai-e the ablest and most successful, but There is a biological adaptation which 



the same time furnish the largest share mits the average fertility of women to 



the group who have dropped out of t,ix)ut twelve children, and social conditions 



first thousand, perhaps owing to the Ciave led to one half of the women of ehild- 



cumstance that scientific work must bearing age being unmarried. The further 



neglected to support the children. Jdecrease of the average family to three or 



the differences are too small and the f four in the case of American scientific 



ilies are too few to permit any cor men or college graduates to two must be 



sions except that under existing condit due to infertility or to voluntaiy limitation. 



there is no appreciable correlation bet^ Both causes have been recognized' since the 



the distinction of a scientific man am time of the writing of the book of Genesis ; 



size of family from which he come both have doubtless increased in force in 



which he has. This fact itself is, hoA^ the course of the nineteenth century. It 



of considerable social significance, ' "" 



material handicap of the lai|er f 



is balanced by improved chaiacter^ 



greater efforts or by the superior o^ 



of the men coming from andrsupj^^^ 



the large family. In his studyjof " ^^- 



ity in Royalty" F. A. WoodI fin.'^^ 



there is a direct correlation betw^^" 



tellectual and moral qualities fed ^^^^ 



moral qualities and size of siAivi'^"^" 



ily. In this case the larger Stnil "ot 



a burden for the parents. It is rt^'^^le 



to assume that if the cost of child '"^^<^ 



be borne by society for wlio.sabe they 



exist, there would be largei ni '^"^ ^^ 



children having superior inl|rit ^ility. 



is generally believed that the principal 

 cause of the small size of the modern fam- 

 ily is voluntary limitation. A definite an- 

 swer is supplied by information given to 

 me by 461 leading scientific men, as shown 

 in Table XX. 



Of these completed families 176 were not 

 voluntarily limited, while 285 were so bm- 



1 From an article printed in the Independent, 

 September 27, 1915, being the abstract of an 

 address given at the First National Conference^ on 

 Kace Betterment, The writer had at that time 

 made an extensive study of vital statistics, with 

 special reference to birth-rates and related prob- 

 lems, but the collection of such statistics has been 

 interrupted and their interpretation nu 

 by the war. 



uado difficult 



