136 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



while in the town of Hastings and the county of Sussex, 

 two essentially " residential " neighbourhoods, the birth- 

 rate is 15.9 and 20.5 respectively. In the mining 

 areas the men are well paid, and there is usually no 

 industrial work to tempt the women from their home 

 duties. At the same time, it must be noted that there 

 is a very high rate of infant mortality. 



As an indication of relative wealth and prosperity, 

 let us take the percentage of domestic servants in the 

 population. 1 The corrected birth-rate of Bethnal Green 

 the district of London where fewest servants are to 

 be found fell off by 12 per cent between 1881 and 

 1901 ; that of Hampstead, where many domestic 

 servants are kept, fell off by 36 per cent, exactly 

 three times the amount. Clearly neither poverty nor 

 employment of women in factories can be called in 

 here to account for the alteration. 



For purposes of comparison, the birth-rates of the 

 districts of London were tabulated in grades of average 

 poverty. The three " rich " boroughs of Hampstead, 

 Kensington, and Paddington have a birth-rate of about 

 20 per thousand, the nineteen intermediate boroughs, 

 of about 24 per thousand, while the poorest group of 

 seven boroughs gives 30 per thousand. Truly the 

 lean kine are eating up the fat kine ! When it is 

 remembered that many of the poorer classes live even 

 in Hampstead, Kensington, and Paddington, it will be 

 seen that the average difference between the birth-rate 

 of the richer and poorer classes is probably much 

 greater than the figures indicate. It must be observed 



1 Heron, "On the Relation of Fertility in Men to Social Status," Drapcr't 

 Memoirs, London, 1906. 



