EFFECT OF WAR ON CRIME, 



MARRIAGE AND INSANITY 



War Decreases Crime and Insanity — It Increases the Marriage Rate, but De- 

 creases Birth Rate and Also Infant Mortality — Its Effect on Illegitimacy 



PROFESSOR J. A. LINDSAY 

 has published in The Eugenics 

 Review for October, 1918, some 

 valuable facts bearing on the 

 much discussed, and but little investi- 

 gated question — the relation of war to 

 eugenics. He first takes up the mere 

 matter of the number of persons killed 

 and the time necessary to repair the 

 losses. Here Professor Lindsay quotes 

 Savorgnan who published a detailed 

 calculation in a recent number of 

 Scicntia, arriving at the conclusion that 

 England will require ten years, Ger- 

 many twelve. Italy thirty-eight and 

 France sixty-six years before recoup- 

 ment can be expected. 



"It is probable that the views here ex- 

 pressed do not err on the side of optim- 

 ism, and they serve to bring out in lurid 

 light the va.st holocaust of the nations 

 which is now in progress. There has 

 been nothing like it since the Black 

 Death of the fourteenth century, which 

 is believed to have carried off twenty- 

 five million victims. F. Savorgnan's 

 general conclusion is that about the 

 year 1930 Germany and England will 

 have made good their losses in man- 

 power, but that Italy will require much 

 longer, and that the prospect before 

 France is very grave, as her popula- 

 tion before the war was practically sta- 

 tionary. He thinks the difftculty of 

 France will be partially met by a large 

 immigration of Italians and Spaniards, 

 who are traditionally prolific, and who 

 will ally themselves with French 

 women, the tendency being towards the 

 formation of a solid Latin block. 



"The population of England and 

 Wales, according to the usual computa- 

 tion, increased a little more than a mil- 

 lion in the course of the seventeenth 

 centurv, nearlv three millions in the 



course of the eighteenth century and 

 no less than twenty-three millions in 

 the course of the nineteenth century. If 

 this rate of increase should continue, it 

 is reckoned that 300 years hence Eng- 

 land and Wales would have a popula- 

 tion of 1,400,000,000! There is evi- 

 dently here matter for serious thought." 



THE MARRIAGE RATES INCREASE 



"Closely related to the question of 

 man-power, as affected by the war, are 

 the questions of marriage rates, birth 

 rates, and death rates. As regards the 

 marriage rate, it is well known that in 

 early days of the war "war marriages" 

 were numerous and popular, the mar- 

 riage rate for the quarter ending Sep- 

 tember 30, 1915, being the highest ever 

 recorded for England and Wales, viz., 

 21.8 per 1,000, and for the whole year 

 19.4 per 1,000, as compared with 15.4 

 per 1,000, the average figure for the pre- 

 vious ten years. Sir Bernard Mallet 

 has calculated that between August, 

 1914, and June, 1917. there were in 

 England and Wales 200,000 people mar- 

 ried who, but for the war, would have 

 remained single, and in Scotland 8,000 

 such persons. In Ireland there was no 

 increase in the marriage rate. The mo- 

 tives for war marriages are various and 

 of varying degrees of validity. Senti- 

 ment, the outflow of female sympathy 

 for men risking their lives, in the de- 

 fense of their country, accounted for 

 some. Parental caution regarding finan- 

 cial security was naturally less stringent 

 in war time. But motives more defi- 

 nitely eugenic were also at work. The 

 desire for heirs, fears for the extinction 

 of ancient families — such motives oper- 

 ated and were worthy of respect. Nat- 

 urally, the high marriage rate could not 

 be maintained and soon tended to fall. 



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