6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ment, reform, and intelligent reconstruction in obedience to the needs 

 of a new political and social era ; thirdly, the attainment of a clearly 

 expressed, rational, and well-developed system of Public Interna- 

 tional Law ; and, fourthly, the reduction of the irregular, and sometimes 

 chaotic, or arbitrary, rules of so-called Private International Law, 

 as adopted in different states, to a uniform system, the same for all 

 states. 



THE ALLEGED Al^TAGOOTSM BETWEEN GEOWTH 

 KEV> EEPEODUCTIOK 



Br Kev. ANTOINETTE BEOWN BLACKWELL. 



THE supposed law of inverse relations between growth and repro- 

 duction was first announced, I think, by Dr. Carpenter; but 

 adopted independently by Mr. Spencer, whose elaborate, forcible ar- 

 guments have done much to convince many physiologists that a prin- 

 ciple so well established may be accepted without further question. 

 But the underlying facts are so various, complex, and unsolved, it is 

 by no means impossible, or even improbable, that some new element 

 yet to be introduced into the premises may partially modify or even 

 reverse the necessary logical conclusion. 



The following are Mr. Spencer's main points, gathered from his 

 " Principles of Biology," and stated in his own condensed language : 

 " Genesis, under every form, is a process of negative or positive disin- 

 tegration, and is thus essentially opposed to that process of integra- 

 tion which is one element of individual evolution." ^ 



*' When the excess of assimilative power is diminishing in such a 

 way as to indicate its approaching disappearance, it becomes needful, 

 for the maintenance of the species, that this excess shall be turned to 

 the production of new individuals ; since, did growth continue until 

 this excess disappeared through the complete balancing of assimilation 

 and expenditure, the production of new individuals would be either 

 impossible or fatal to the parent." ^ 



" We cannot help admitting that the proportion between the aggre- 

 gative and separative tendencies must in each case determine the 

 relation between the increase in bulk of the individual and the increase 

 of the race in numbers." ^ 



Up to this point one may freely admit the antagonistic relations 

 alleged ; but, when, in his article on " The Psychology of the Sexes," 

 Mr. Spencer asserts that "a somewhat earlier arrest of individual 

 development in women than in men is necessitated by the reservation 

 of vital force to meet the cost of reproduction," there are so many 

 not yet discounted conditions to be considered that the position cannot 



^ Vol. i., p. 216. 2 p, 237. 8 Vol. ii., p. 426. 



