574 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



they do is an economic necessity. This is sadly true; but it is the 

 biologist's business to insist on considering things biologically, not 

 economically. Besides, everyone knows that the conditions of work 

 are modifiable, and that they have been in many cases greatly 

 improved. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that biological in- 

 efficiency is terribly expensive, and is itself cause as well as effect 

 of social strain. Biological efficiency is the silver, at least, of our 

 national wealth. 



Here we may refer to the counter-thrust that one of the most 

 obvious mis-differentiations of woman is that seen in the absurd 

 attempts to over-educate her. Now this is much more than a jibe. 

 For here we are confronted with the alleged relatively great in- 

 fertility of types and stocks of high intellectual and social efficiency — 

 for it is urged that the infertility is the nemesis of higher education 

 and of individuation generally. Herbert Spencer argued that re- 

 productivity decreases as individuation increases; and there is a 

 considerable body of biological evidence in support of this generalisa- 

 tion. It must be observed, however, that we have no proof that high 

 individuation directly lessens fertility. What the evidence from the 

 animal kingdom shows is this, that when birds, for instance, were 

 evolved with relatively big brains and strong parental care, it was 

 possible to survive with very much smaller families. Those types 

 that varied towards better brains and more parental care on the 

 one hand, and towards economised reproductivity on the other, 

 were naturally the survivors. But it was not necessarily the height- 

 ened individuation that directly lowered the rate of multiplication. 

 It must be observed, also, that part of the reduced fertility may be 

 due to hyper-nutrition and the like, to the frequent absence of love- 

 marriages, to selfish celibacy and selfish non-maternity. 



It is conceivable that the endeavour of self-realisation at a high 

 level of culture may be so strenuous that it induces conditions 

 tending against the making of good wives and mothers, but it can 

 hardly be maintained that the deplored results are inevitable or 

 intrinsically connected with the education. To admit that artificial 

 and alterable conditions may tell against what the Germans call 

 full motherhood and strong children is a very different matter from 

 admitting that higher education for women is, biologically con- 

 sidered, bad for the race. Let us look into education later. 



While one must keep on inquiring into a possible direct physio- 

 logical connection between high individuation and low fertility, one 

 need not make a bogy of what has not been proved. 



Besides, we cannot but suspect that what is really wrong when 

 individuation seems to be operating disadvantageously from the 

 racial point of view is that the individuation is not all-round 

 enough. One is apt sometimes to forget the splendid old grand- 

 mothers who were as able and intellectual and as highly individu- 



