Heredity and Conduct 101 



which it is prevalent has been freely repro- 

 ducing itself. If we try to attribute the 

 increase to the ' thranged ' state of modern 

 life, we have only to consider the rapid in- 

 crease of imbecile children. [Diagram.] 



The percentage of the mentally defective 

 among the pauper population is also in- 

 creasing rapidly. This spread of the degene- 

 rate is not due to harder modern conditions 

 of life, for these conditions are substantially 

 better than they were 50 or 100 years ago. 

 It is due to two facts : 



1. That the action of natural selection has 

 been largely suspended ; the physically and 

 mentally unfit are now tended and provided 

 for in a manner quite unknown 100 years ago. 



2. The relative fertility of the fit and unfit 

 in the community has changed widely since 

 1877. A hundred years ago you hung a 

 rogue if you caught him. Nowadays you 

 provide him with soup-kitchens and night- 

 shelters up and down the country, and leave 

 him to propagate his kind at will. 



To cite an often-quoted German case : 

 One woman, a thief, a drunkard, and a 

 tramp, had 709 traceable descendants ; of 

 these 1 06 were illegitimate, 142 tramps and 

 beggars, and 64 lived on charity ; 181 of her 

 female descendants were women of ill-fame. 

 Of the total tribe 7 were murderers and 76 

 convicts ; and altogether, in 75 years in trials, 

 almshouses, and prisons, the tribe cost a 



