THE SELECTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR 207 



during war, are often tempted into vice and are prevented from 

 marrying during the prime of life. On the other hand, the 

 shorter and feebler men, with poor constitutions, are left at 

 home, and consequently have a much better chance of marrying 

 and propagating their kind." 



Where there is universal military service the best of the youths 

 are taken for recruits and are withdrawn from opportunities for 

 marrying during the period when they are forced to bear arms. 

 Barrack life, at least until recently, has led to the increase of 

 venereal disease which has always been one of the chief evils 

 of military life. Hospital admissions from the armies of Great 

 Britain, United States and several other countries have been 

 frightfully high. The disastrous consequences of venereal infec- 

 tion in later married life need not be dwelt upon. Matters are 

 rapidly improving, however, in this regard, and the recent statis- 

 tics of the American Army afford a remarkable example of what 

 may be accomplished. Should the venereal peril be overcome 

 perhaps the chief evil of army life would be abolished. In a 

 system of military conscription which takes young men of but 

 20 years of age and keeps them in training for two or three years 

 it is claimed that the effect of delaying marriage would not be 

 significant. In most cases, however, the returning recruit is 

 more or less delayed in making the economic preparation for 

 marriage, so that this event may take place considerably later 

 than it otherwise would have occurred. 



What would seem, a priori, to be the effects of war from the 

 principles of heredity and selection Dr. Jordan attempts to sub- 

 stantiate by an inductive study of what the after effects of war 

 have actually been. In their volume on War^s Aftermath D. S. 

 Jordan and H. E. Jordan give the results of their studies of the 

 effect of the Civil War on the population of Virginia. Their 

 studies consisted of an intensive investigation of two counties, 

 and a more cursory survey of several others, "the whole checked 

 up by the opinions of fifty-five Confederate veterans of excep- 

 tional character and intellir^ence." I quote some of the chief 

 conclusions drawn from the work: 



