232 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



the community and among the more far-seeing 

 and provident classes. French statistics show 

 that the birth-rate is less in proportion to the 

 standard of comfort. At present the birth-rate in 

 France is said to be below the death-rate in all 

 sections except manufacturing centres. Among 

 academically educated Americans the average 

 number of offspring is less than two. 



There seems no doubt as to the ominously rapid 

 multiplication of the relatively unfit. " Degener- 

 ate stocks under present social conditions are not 

 short-lived ; they live to have more than the normal 

 size of family/' They have at present a better 

 chance to survive and multiply than ever before. 

 Especially in Britain do the weeds spread quicker 

 than the flowers. The feeble-minded are prolific ; 

 certain kinds of degenerates are prolific ; the 

 thriftless are prolific. From a study of 150 de- 

 generate families, Dr. Tredgold found that the 

 average number of children in a family was 7'3, 

 not including those still-born, instead of the normal 

 average of four. 



Let us be as generous as we can. An unpro- 

 mising bud may burst into a fine flower : John 

 Bunyan's father was a tinker. But every one is 

 agreed that there should be no breeding from 

 epileptics, lunatics, paralytics ; should not this 

 list be added to ? l Is it not a pity, for instance, 



1 In his Robert Boyle Lecture on " The Scope and Importance 

 to the State of the Science of National Eugenics " (2nd ed., 1909) 

 Prof. Karl Pearson says : " If we realise the antinomy which 

 Eugenics brings to our notice between high civilisation and racial 

 purgation, we ask : How can the dominant fertility of the fitter 

 social stocks be maintained when natural selection has been sus- 

 pended ? I do not think any wise man would be prepared with a 

 full answer to this question to-day. There i.-i i}0 sovereign remedy 



