6 THE LAW OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



concerned are least in the mood for such precautions, 

 and assumes that the readiness to adopt these precautions 

 increases in direct proportion with the absence of the 

 need for them ; while the desire to avoid having a single 

 heir is assumed to increase steadily with the acquisition 

 of wealth and position which should, apparently, tend to 

 make the arrival of an heir desirable and keenly desired. 



On the other hand, all the phenomena of the fluctuating 

 birthrate may be satisfactorily explained as the effects 

 of a natural law, the action of which can be clearly traced 

 among unicellular organisms, throughout the vegetable 

 and animal kingdoms and throughout human society. 



It is true that commissions have sat in Australia, 

 France and England to investigate the problem, and that 

 their reports have been in favour of the accepted view ; 

 but the blight of preconceived opinions was upon all 

 their works. The National Birthrate Commission in this 

 country, for example, had before them ample evidence 

 in support of the view that there has been a vast decline 

 in fertility due to natural causes ; while the evidence 

 upon which they based their report in favour of the 

 opposite hypothesis is quoted in this work as providing 

 the strongest possible confirmation of the interpretation 

 they rejected. It is a mistake to suppose that an indi- 

 vidual acquires as a commissioner an analytical faculty 

 and sound judgment as to the value of evidence which 

 he did not possess in a private capacity that one who 

 has shown no aptitude for grappling with a problem in 

 the latter role acquires the necessary capacity as soon 

 as he assumes the former. Fifty indifferent cooks will 

 not make one good cook. Fifty mediocre musicians do 

 not, when taken collectively, constitute a great artist. 

 And to gather together forty or fifty individuals, not 

 one of whom has shown the ability to deal with the 



