102 TABOO AND GENETICS 



— say from twenty-two to twenty-five years of 

 age — and a two-year interval left between the 

 three in the interest of both mother and children, 

 it puts woman in an entirely different relation 

 toward extra-reproductive activities than man. 

 It does imply a division of labour. 



In general, it would seem socially expedient 

 to encourage each woman to have her own three 

 children, instead of shifting the burden upon 

 the shoulders of some other. If such activities 

 of nursing and caring for the very young can be 

 pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some 

 women who find them distasteful would be much 

 more useful to society at other work. But let 

 us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously 

 advantageous for children of normal, able 

 parents to be cared for in the home environment. 

 In a biologically healthy society the presumption 

 must be that the average woman has some three 

 children of her own. Since this obviously 

 includes nurses and governesses, we see at once 

 the futility of the oft-proposed class solution 

 of hiring single women to care for the children 

 of the fortunate. If such a servant is unde- 

 sirable, she is not hired ; if normal, in a biolo- 

 gically healthy society she would have her own 

 children. 



The female handicap incident to reproduction 

 may be illustrated by the case of Hambletonian 

 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a 



