LARGE FAMILIES 



In Normal Stock, Those of Nine and Ten Children Are Found by Alexander 

 Graham Bell to Show the Fewest Premature Deaths and the Largest Per- 

 centage of Longevity — Family of from Six to Eight Children Seems 

 to be Most Favorable to Longevity of Mother — Conclusions 

 Drawn from Slum Statistics Are Misleading 



THOSE who preach birth control 

 are responsible, it is to be feared, 

 for the gradual creation of an 

 idea that large families are an evil. 

 This idea is false and dangerous. For 

 the sake of eugenics, it is important 

 that it be not spread. It is being 

 created by such statements as the fol- 

 lowing:^ 



Unregulated childbearing means a progres- 

 sive decline in the mother's health accompanied 

 by progressive debility in her offspring. 



Ample proof of this statement — if proof 

 were needed for such a simple truth — is fur- 

 nished by the investigation conducted by 

 Dr. Alice Hamilton into the child mortality 

 among 1,600 families in the Hull House dis- 

 trict, Chicago. It was found that, as the 

 number of children increases, the death rate 

 goes up, so that in families having eight or 

 more children, for example, the mortality 

 among them is two and one-half times as high 

 as in homes where the number of children does 

 not exceed four. 



Similarly, tables compiled by the Children's 

 Bureau at Washington in its "Johnstown Sur- 

 vey" bring out graphically the grim fact that 

 the large families lauded with such vociferous- 

 ness by the advocates of large armies only 

 serve to fill the ranks in our hospitals and 

 the rows in our graveyards. 



The two studies quoted deal with 

 large families in a class of the popula- 

 tion characterized by economic straits 

 and frequent destitution. If a father 

 is barely able to support two children 

 with the necessities of life, if the chil- 

 dren inherit from both parents inferior 

 physique, if the parents are deficient in 

 intelligence, it is pretty certain that fre- 

 quent childbirths will mean frequent 

 child deaths for that family. In such a 

 family it would be much better if only 

 a few children were born. 



But to argue from such a case that 

 large families in any class of the com- 



1 Birth Control Review, 1, p. 12. New York (104 Fifth Avenue), February, 1917. 



2 The data can be found in the Beinn Bhreagh Recorder (xx, p. 201), a copy of which is on 

 file at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Bell is preparing to pubHsh the whole investigation 

 shortly. Thanks are due to him for permitting this use of his figures in advance of publication, 

 and to Sewall Wright for preparing the two graphs. 



299 



munity mean progressive debility in 

 offspring is certainly illogical. 



In fairness it must be said that those 

 who preach the desirability of few off- 

 spring do not always make this argu- 

 ment directly. More frequently, per- 

 haps, it is only inferred from their 

 statements. Constant repetition, with- 

 out qualifications, of the declaration that 

 large families mean high infaiit mor- 

 tality and weakened children, naturally 

 creates the impression that such a 

 statement holds good in all classes of the 

 population. It is the purpose of this 

 note to sound a warning against such a 

 misunderstanding. Large families in 

 the slums may be considered undesir- 

 able; unregulated child-bearing for any 

 woman may even be considered unde- 

 sirable ; but this does not make it unde- 

 sirable to know the biological facts 

 about large families, separated from the 

 influence of poverty. 



It is doubtless true that in the Hull 

 House district, where many children 

 have feeble and unintelligent parents 

 and lack the necessities of life, a large 

 family means weakness. But the re- 

 verse is true in normally sound stocks, 

 in sections of the population which have 

 average intelligence, physique, and pros- 

 perity. Abundant evidence could be 

 cited to support this statement. One 

 of the most striking bits is that recently 

 worked up by Alexander Graham Bell. 



Dr. Bell has for some years been mak- 

 ing a study of facts contained in the 

 published genealogy of the Hyde family 

 in America, with special reference to the 

 longevity of its members. One of his 

 more recent tabulations' shows the 

 duration of life of sibs (full brothers and 



