The Editor: The Birth Rate of Methodist Clergymen 459 



more childless families of clergymen 

 who married twice than was to be 

 expected. If hese figures have any 

 validity, they suggest that the child- 

 lessness (where not due to the death of 

 all children) is due to sterility of the 

 husband and not to barrenness of both 

 wives. It is to be hoped that someone 

 who has records of a larger number of 

 cases where two marriages were childless 

 will test them by this method and 

 throw light on the problem of involun- 

 tary childlessness — a problem of great 

 importance to eugenics. 



galton's conclusions 



It would be worth while for someone 

 to send a questionnaire to clergymen, 

 and find out to what extent their small 

 families are due to economic causes, 

 and to what extent health is responsible. 

 Sir Francis Galton's report^ would seem 

 to attribute a larger part to physical 

 causes than has been done in the 

 present paper. From a study of 196 

 eminent English divines, he reached 

 the conclusion: "That they are not 

 founders of families who have exercised 

 a notable influence on our history, 

 whether that influence be derived from 

 the abilities, wealth, or social position 

 of any of their members. That they 

 are a moderately prolific race, rather 

 under than above the average. That 

 their average age at death is a trifle 

 less than that of the eminent men 

 comprised in my other groups. That 

 they commonly suffer from overwork. 

 That they usually have wretched con- 

 stitutions, . . . ;" indeed, he is in 

 another paragraph "compelled to con- 

 clude that robustness of constitution 

 is antagonistic, in a very marked degree, 

 to an extremely pious disposition." 



Wretched constitutions do not seem 

 so characteristic of the modern clergy- 

 men as they were of the divines studied 

 by Gal ton. Perhaps the minister today 

 is not so "extremely pious," or perhaps 



with very bad health he cannot keep 

 up the work involved in a pastorate. 

 At any rate, the facts presented in this 

 paper all seem to indicate that the size 

 of the family among the most prominent 

 American Methodists is due more to 

 voluntary limitation than to any other 

 single cause. 



With the low salaries paid to min- 

 isters, it is remarkable that the amount 

 of limitation is not greater. The clergy- 

 men are making a larger eugenic con- 

 tribution to the race than are most 

 other groups of similar standing — a fact 

 probably accounted for in part by their 

 inherent emotional nature and in part 

 by the influence of their religr'ous 

 idealism. If more adequate salaries 

 would encourage a higher birth rate in 

 the ministerial profession, it is earnestly 

 to be hoped that the church will rise to 

 the occasion. 



Table I 



All families of "once married" had a duration 

 of twenty years or more. All families of 

 "twice married" had a duration of fifteen years 

 or more for the second marriage. 



Mean family of "once married," 3. 12, a = 2.06. 



Meanfamilyof "twicemarried, "3.73,0" = 1.32. 



« Gallon, Francis. Heredity Genius, pp. 270, 274, etc. New York, 1877. 



