CHAPTER IX 



THE SELECTIVE BIRTH-RATE ITS EFFECTS 



The general results of our inquiry cannot be mistaken. 

 In the British Isles certainly, and probably in Western 

 Europe generally, the best elements of the population 

 are increasing, if they increase at all, at a much slower 

 rate than the less worthy stocks, and, in some cases at 

 any rate, the better classes are actually diminishing in 

 number. 



Let us proceed to ask what must be the inevitable 

 effect of this wrongly -directed selective birth-rate. 

 Natural selection, in mankind no less than in the rest 

 of organic nature, improves the breed by eliminating 

 the unfit and leaving the better-equipped individuals 

 to become the parents of the next generation. If, 

 contrary to nature, we reverse this process, deterioration 

 is certain and immediate, and the race must eventually 

 give way before a more naturally selected or wisely 

 bred nation. Pestilence and famine have taken their 

 toll in former ages, but while they have slain their 

 thousands preponderatingly among the lower, weaker 

 stocks, the falling birth-rate is preventing tens of 

 thousands among the best and most worthy elements 

 of the people from coming into existence. We have 



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