Woods: Decline of Autocracy 41 
Since this period, the downward slope 
of the wave has been marked for all 
degrees of autocracy. The reason why 
the second 450 years shows more auto- 
crats of the greatest magnitude is 
because the sixteenth century falls in 
the second or modern portion. If we 
compare the last two centuries with 
the two preceding, we find the ratio- 
weights all heavier for the earlier period, 
as shown in the table 8.9 to 6.1; 15.9 to 
10.2; 26.6 to 14.2, and 28.4 to 22.2, as we 
descend from the ten greatest to the 
forty greatest of the dictators. This is 
substantiated by a comparison of the 
three recent centuries with the three pre- 
ceding, for again, the ratios are without 
exception heavier for the earlier period: 
SECM LOMO cease ato. Loras 2O4e tor Zino 
35.9 to 31.3. Comparing these two 
sets of ratios, the conclusion is war- 
ranted that it is especially during the 
last two centuries that the decline in 
autocrats is noteworthy. 
These figures are much too consis- 
tent not to mean something very 
definite. Regard also the percentages 
for the distribution of all autocrats 
from the eleventh century to the nine- 
teenth. Omitting fractions, these per- 
centages run: 30, 52, 50, 41, 32, 26, 21, 
14, 18. From the twelfth century on- 
ward each figure is smaller than the 
one before, with a slight exception in 
that for the nineteenth century. 
Autocrats were proportionately most 
numerous in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries. Great autocrats reached the 
acme of their power in the sixteenth, as 
did also the gods of war. Perhaps it all 
may mean that we are at the bottom of 
a wave that will rise again, but if the 
records of recent generations are an indi- 
cation of forces that are destined to be 
continuous, then in a few generations 
to come, at least one of the concomitants 
of war, the great monarchical autocrats, 
will have ceased tofunction on this planet. 
New Eugenics Society in Hungary 
The Hungarian Commission for 
Race-Hygiene, founded in February, 
1914, was reorganized in 1917 as the 
Hungarian Eugenics Society and is 
now publishing a bi-monthly journal 
called Nemezctvédelem (Protection of 
the Race). A communication from its 
acting vice-president, Dr. Geza von 
Hoffmann, formerly Austro-Hungarian 
consul in Berlin and at one time a resi- 
dent of the United States, tells of the 
growing eugenic movement in Hungary. 
He states that the Hungarian govern- 
ment has been carrying on an active 
campaign for the increase of eugenic 
knowledge by means of pamphlets, pos- 
ters, placards, and popular lectures, 
both in civilian centers and in military 
establishments. 
“Much stress is laid upon the posi- 
tive side of the question,’ he observes, 
“7. e., the propagation of the fit, and 
no steps have yet been taken to cut off 
the propagation of the unfit.” 
