PHYSICAL EVOLUTION 217 



is lower. The explanation of this, no doubt, is that, among 

 the well-to-do, children are taken greater care of, with the 

 result that the infant death-rate is lower. This is the case 

 in England also. The great infant mortality, especially in 

 our big towns, is due very largely to the ignorance and 

 poverty of the parents, in some cases to their cruelty. Though 

 no exact figures are available, we may feel quite sure that of 

 the children of the well-to-do a far smaller percentage die in 

 their first year, the reason being that they are better cared 

 for. I cannot accept the explanation given by Professor Karl 

 Pearson. 1 "The death-rate," he says, "rises continuously and 

 uniformly with increased fertility." The meaning of which, if 

 I understand it correctly, is that there is more weeding out of 

 the children of large families through physical defects than 

 among those of small. The truth, I believe, is that large 

 families are as a rule found in the poorer classes, and con- 

 sequently are more likely to suffer from want of care. Even 

 if it should be found that among the more wealthy the infant 

 death-rate is higher in the case of large families, it seems likely 

 that the explanation is not a physiological one, but rather that 

 maternal care, having to distribute itself over a number, is less 

 effectual in warding off the many dangers to which children ase 

 exposed. 



We see, then, that though the competition under modern 

 civilised conditions is not a life and death struggle the most 

 unsuccessful need not starve yet many of the children of 

 those who fail die as infants owing to the ill-success of their 

 parents. This ill-success is very often due to the lack of 

 certain moral qualities which are indispensable in civilised life, 

 and as these moral defects in the parents are in many cases 

 transmitted to their offspring, there is through this high 

 mortality among the children of the very poor a constant 

 elimination of those who are deficient in character a subject 

 to which I shall have to return. 



We have now seen how great is the amount of infant mortality. Estimate 

 But we are not yet in a position to estimate the stringency of ^^ P er " 



1 See Prof. Karl Pearson's paper in Natural Science, May 1896. eliminated 



