366 



The Journal of Heredity 



The rate lur 191() wa> 14.9 per l.UUU. 

 being 4.5 per 1,000 below the pheno- 

 menally high rate of 1915, and the fig- 

 ures for 1917, so far as they have l>een 

 ascertained, indicate a further decline." 



THE HIRTH KATE DECLINES 



'■\\ ar. for obvious reasons, tends to 

 depress the birth rate. In invaded and 

 devastated regions the whole machinery 

 of family life is disorganized, and the 

 birth rate falls to one-half or even less 

 of the normal figure. This has been 

 the case in parts of France, Poland, and 

 elsewhere. In Havaria the birth rate of 

 20.7 per 1,000 in 1913 fell to 15.8 per 

 1.000 in 1915. In England and Wales 

 the rate of the last quarter of 1915 was 

 19.5 per 1,000, the lowest on record. 

 Thereafter there was a rise in the rate, 

 we may presume as the consequence of 

 "war marriages," which for the quarter 

 ending September 30, 1916. stood at 

 21.7 per 1,000. For the whole year 1916 

 the rate was 20.9 per 1,000, being 4.6 

 per 1.000 below the average of the de- 

 cennium 1905-14, and 1.0 per 1,000 be- 

 low the rate for 1915. Sir Bernard 

 Mallet calculates the reduction of na- 

 tality in this country due to the war at 

 12% in 1916, as compared with 1914, 

 and points out that most of the bellig- 

 erent countries have suffered much 

 more severely. Whether the progres- 

 sive decline in the birth rate which has 

 been operative in this country for half 

 a century will continue after the war 

 cannot be affirmed with certainty, but 

 probability points in that direction. How 

 far this tendency is evil is a question 

 ufXJU which there is at present much 

 (lifTerence of opinion." 



INKA.NT .MOKTALITV I)I-:CRE.\SES 



"Infant mortality has shown a re- 

 markable decline in England and Wales 

 during the war. The rate for 1916 was 

 91 per 1.000 births, being 19 per 1.000 

 below the rate for the j)rcceding year, 

 and 22 per 1.0(X) below the average of 

 the decennimn n>06-15. Until we sec 

 whether this decline will be maintained, 

 it is somewhat premature to specidate 

 on its causes which are not clear." 



"Experience in France after the war 

 of 1870. and in .\mcrica after the Civil 



W ar. slunvs that the diimnutiou in 

 crime in time of war is followed by a 

 large recrudescence of crime in the 

 after-war period. The causes of this 

 increase are sufficiently obvious. The 

 relaxation of military discipline, the re- 

 action from the privations of war, the 

 breaking up oi homes, the uncertainty 

 of employment, impatience with the 

 monotony of industrial life — such fac- 

 tors are obvious and must be reckoned 

 with as tending to crime. War is a 

 good school <jf the virile virtues, but it 

 is hardly a school to inculcate increased 

 resi)ect for the lives, property and 

 rights of others." 



JL'VK.NILE DELINQUENTS 



"While crime generally has notably 

 declined during the war. it is disquiet- 

 ing to find tiiat there has been an in- 

 crease of juvenile delinquency. From 

 luigland, Scotland, and France, there 

 is the same report of an increase in 

 the number of first offenders." 



WAR DECREASES IXS.ANITY 



"A very unexpected feature of war- 

 time has been the decline of insanity. 

 That this decline is real and not merely 

 statistical seems to be the opinion of 

 those best qualified to judge. Robert- 

 son of Edinburgh is of opinion that the 

 war has acted as a mental tonic. He 

 could trace no increase in insanity due 

 to the war. but regarded dabbling in 

 spiritualism as dangerous to certain 

 mental types. Easterbrook of Crichton 

 Royal found only 19 cases of insanity 

 due to "grief." and was of opinion that 

 war had "only exposed and accentu- 

 ated inherent weakness." Carre of 

 Cilasgow rei)orted only nine cases of in- 

 sanity i\uc to the war. Robertson 

 thought that the fall in the female stat- 

 istics was due to women not being so 

 "shut in" as before. Graham of Bel- 

 fast reported a decrease in the number 

 of insane and expressed the view that 

 "it is not the great tragedies oi life that 

 sap the force of the brain and wreck 

 the psychic organism. On the contrary, 

 it is the small worries, the deadly monot- 

 ony ol a narrow and circuuT^'ribed 

 existence." 



