WILL NOT MORALITY 



NECESSARILY IMPROVE? 



The Correlation Between Morality and Net Fertility Found in Royal Families 



May Be True in All Classes of Society — Decline in the Birth 



Rate Brings in New and Favorable Factors 



Frederick Adams Woods 

 Lecturer on Biology. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 



THE writer of the article in the 

 October number of the Journal 

 OF Heredity, "Will Morality 

 Disappear?" Mr. Paul Popenoe, 

 quotes my conclusion drawn from 

 "Heredity in Royalty," which is that, on 

 the average, those who were superior 

 morally had the largest families of chil- 

 dren reaching 21 years or more, while 

 the morally inferior were less fertile. 

 He also states, "While this single inves- 

 tigation is not adequate proof of the 

 correlation between morality and net 

 fertility, yet the result is no more than 

 one would expect. There are many 

 reasons, both medical and economic, 

 why the children of the more vicious 

 and depraved naturally die in greater 

 numbers; and if they do, then the evo- 

 lution of a higher moral state has been 

 brought about partly by selective 

 breeding." 



The writer continues, "Royal fami- 

 lies furnished particularly good ma- 

 terial to test the problem, because there 

 has probably been no artificial restraint 

 of the birth rate there ; reasons of policy 

 make monarchs desire to have as large 

 families as possible." 



I agree that royal families furnished 

 particularly good material to test the 

 problem, but not "because there has 

 probably been no artificial restraint of 

 the birth rate there." The material is 

 good because here enough is known 

 about the individuals to compare the 

 numbers of the offspring of own 

 brothers and own siisters. Even if the 

 total became restricted in modern times. 

 it would merely lead to a smaller total 



for all living royahy ; it would not per 

 se affect the quality. 



It is the inability to compare and 

 contrast the numbers of brothers' off- 

 spring with brothers' offspring and sis- 

 ters' with sisters' that makes most of 

 the seemingly pessimistic evidence much 

 less significant to the problem of the 

 evolution of morality than is commonly 

 supposed. 



For instance, Popenoe quotes Gal- 

 ton, who made a study of famous 

 divines and found them to be a "mod- 

 erately prolific race, rather under than 

 above the average." But are they not. 

 I ask, as prolific as the average of 

 their own social class, or, better still, 

 are they no t more prolific than the 

 worst of their own close blood rela- 

 tions? 



It is probable that within each so- 

 cial group internal forces of selection 

 and survival are working towards im- 

 provement of the quality of the group. 

 The total quantity of the best groups 

 may be diminishing. There can be no 

 question but that the birth rate among 

 America's biologically best has of late 

 rapidly declined. If it should keep on 

 declining, the end of course is obvious. 

 But many unsuspected correctors arise 

 in nature when new factors are intro- 

 duced into the struggle for existence. 



new forces at work 



Hitherto, until within a very few 

 years, voluntary restriction of parent- 

 hood was comparatively seldom prac- 

 ticed. Now that it is practiced to a 

 far greater extent than formerly, a 



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