ioo Appendix III 



We have, then, two opposing factors 

 natural selection and selection of the most 

 fertile, who may be the most unfit. Both 

 these processes can be largely controlled by 

 human institutions, and it is one of the 

 gravest problems of both individual and 

 communal conduct to realize to what extent 

 our actions will tend to check or foster these 

 two tendencies. 



Next let us turn to the second division of 

 the subject : how do these laws of inheritance 

 of fertility and of selection apply to the present 

 state of affairs ? 



If we consider the general birth-rate of this 

 country, we find that since 1877 it has been 

 steadily declining. Some of this decline is 

 due to lessened infant mortality and increas- 

 ing longevity, but a part of it to actually 

 decreased fertility. 



We might hope, however, that if fewer 

 beings come into the world, they are, at 

 least, born of the healthier, saner, and thriftier 

 classes. The very reverse is the case. The 

 birth-rate of the better type of working man 

 has been falling off more rapidly than the 

 birth-rate of the nation as a whole. [Illus- 

 trated by diagrams.] 



Let us compare this state of things with 

 the increase of lunacy in the population at 

 large. Lunacy is one of the things which we 

 may quite definitely accept as an inherited 

 character. The stock in the community in 



