THE BIRTH-RATE 61 



which gives an account of everyone in the country 

 who has attained a certain modest position of promi- 

 nence. It may be taken as typical chiefly of the higher 

 ranks of the professional and official classes. Among 

 the details furnished the date of marriage and the 

 number of children frequently occur. Thus it is 

 possible to investigate the number of children born 

 on the average to marriages which produce children 

 at all at different periods. 



Excluding for the moment clerical and military 

 families, it was found for the remainder that 143 fertile 

 marriages solemnized before 1870 gave a total of 743 

 children, an average of 5*2 to each marriage. For 

 marriages entered on after 1870, the number was 1264 

 children to 410 couples, an average of 3*08. Since 

 some of the marriages before 1870 were affected by 

 the causes which came into operation about 1875, 

 these numbers probably or certainly underestimate 

 the difference in the average number of children. It 

 should be noted too that the numbers refer to children 

 alive at the date of entry, not to the total number of 

 children born. 



In the families of the clergy, we find that the corre- 

 sponding average numbers are 4*99 and 4*2. Thus 

 clerical families are less affected than others of their 

 own social class. 



On the other hand, the corresponding numbers for 

 the children of those who have served in the regular 

 army are 4*98 for the first period, and 2-07 for the 

 second. While the average number of children in 

 military families forty years ago was the same as the 

 number in clerical, it has now sunk to less than half, 



