^^^^^^^^^^^^an^i nth nnnnngwanfeSmren^^^^^^^^^^i^l^ 



We now turn to certain papwrs (ItMiling with these ix>int8. The first paper 

 we have to notice is entitle<l : "The Ilelative SuppHes from Town and Country 

 Families to the Popuhition of Future CienerationH"; it wa« the first paj)er 

 Galton reaJ Ixsfbre tlie Statistical Society of London'. 



"This is an iiu|uiry into the relative fertility of the labouring classen of urban and rural 

 populatioHN, not lui regards the number of children brought into the world, but an regards that 

 portion of them who are destined to live and become the parents of the next generation. It la 

 well known that the jKipulution of towns decays, and has to be recruitwl by immigrants from 

 the country, but I am not aware that statistical measurement has yet lieen attempted of its 

 rate of decay. Thi.s inquiry is part of a larger one, on the projKtrtionate supply to the popu- 

 lation from the various soi-ial clivsses, and which has an obvious bearing on invc-stigations into 

 the intluonces that tt^nd to dctcM'iorate or to improve our race If the poorer diuw*-*, that is to 

 say, those who contuiti an undue projx)rtioii of the weak, tfie idle, and the improvident, con- 

 tribute an undue .supply of population to the next generation, we are justifietl in ex|XH'ting that 

 our race will stetuiily (li'teriorat»>, so far as that influence is concerned. The particular branch 

 of the (|ucstion to which 1 address myself in this memoir is very important, lx.'cauHe the niore 

 energetic of our race, and therefore those whose breed is the most valuable to our nation, are 

 attracted from the country to our towns. If, then, residence in towns seriously interferes with 

 the maintenance of their race, we should expect the breed of Englishmen, so far as that in- 

 fluence is concerned, to steadily deteriorate." (p. 19.) 



It will be seen that Galton makes two great assumptions: (o) that the 

 population of the town decays, and {h) that the most energetic of our race 

 are attracted to the towns. Now there is no doubt that a considerable number 

 of energetic men do come from the country into the towns, but also many 

 weaklings and the general human refuse ahso migrate, and it is not at all 

 clear where the balance of gain may lie. If there be a large contingent of the 

 loafing, })auper and even criminal sections of the community who liave come 

 from country to town, the want of fertility in the town may be in part due 

 to this selection. 



Captain John Graunt in his "Observations on the Bills of Mortality," 

 166'2, was perhaps the first to assert that the town was recruited from the 

 country, but he had the marked experience of London being rapidly refilled 

 after great plague.s. Galton got Dr Farr to provide him with the size of 

 family of 1000 mothers between ages 23 and 40 from Coventry, and the 

 same series of mothers from the rural di.stricts of Warwickshire; the former 

 were the wives of factory hands, and the latter of agricultural labourers. 

 He does not say, however, whether the wives of the factory hands were 

 employed or not, and he does not know whether the ages at marriage of the 

 town wives were differentiated from those of the rural wives. Now the town 

 rettu'ns show 510 wives under 32 and the rural returns only 466. It follows 

 therefore that the town wives were younger in the selection made than 

 the rural wives; or (juite apart from the possibility of an evil iiiHuence of 

 town-life on fertility, we might well anticipate that the 1000 town wives 

 would .show fewer children. Accordinijlv, I reconstructed Galton's table, 

 by consiilering the ages of the wives and reducing the town and country 



' Journal, March 1873, Vol. .\xxvi, pp. 19-26. Galton was elected to the ikxnety in 

 1860 and s.rve<l on the Council from 1869 to 1879. 



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