THE BIRTH-RATE 125 



fit able men into positions of influence and responsi- 

 bility, in government, profession, or business. But it 

 is of far more importance in the long run to secure 

 able, trustworthy, healthy men and women as the pro- 

 genitors of the generations to come. Their qualities 

 will be inherited, and permeate the nation the more 

 rapidly the higher is their relative rate of reproduction. 

 Till about the year 1875 no artificial selection seems 

 to have arisen. Heron has shown that, in 1851 in the 

 well-to-do parts of London, the rather higher average 

 age at marriage was enough to explain the slightly 

 smaller birth-rate. Early marriages swell the birth-rate 

 in two ways. They increase the average number of 

 children born to each couple, and they diminish the 

 average interval between succeeding generations. But, 

 till recently, the much higher death-rate in the poorer 

 districts more than compensated for the slightly higher 

 birth-rate. Large families were the rule in all sections 

 of the community, and natural as well as economic 

 causes tended to favour the better stocks. Since 1875 

 a serious change has arisen. In the generation now 

 growing up, large families are rare in the upper classes 

 of the community and among the higher ranks of the 

 skilled artisans ; but they are still usual in the thrift- 

 less ranks of unskilled labour and among the feeble- 

 minded men and women still at large in our midst. 

 Only one generation has yet suffered, and the results 

 are only now appearing. Perhaps there is still time 

 for repentance and safety. But the calculation of the 

 numerical effect of a selective birth-rate, with which we 

 began this chapter, shows that no time is to be lost. 

 If present tendencies are unchecked, the quality of the 



