244 HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



and later the system of apprenticeships of the gilds 

 had similar effects. Definite laws also prevented 

 the poor, vagabonds, and Twastrels from marrying. 

 The more or less unconscious intention, as well as the 

 result of such social regulations, w^as to maintain the 

 population near the optimum by delay of marriage 

 until a certain standard was reached, and also to 

 limit reproduction on the part of those least fit in a 

 social sense. There are now no corresponding restric- 

 tions on the marriage of the wage-earning classes, 

 with the result that they soon attain their maximum 

 income and marry earlier than the professional classes, 

 whose maximum earning-power comes much later in 

 life. Maternity benefits and doles furnish a further 

 incentive to multiply. It is probable that the re- 

 sulting tendency to increase in numbers out of due 

 proportion to higher classes has the effect of lowering 

 the standard of living of the working classes, because 

 it is a phenomenon of over-population. Here we 

 see how questions of quality and quantity of popula- 

 tion are inextricabty interwoven. 



Carr-Saunders considers that populations have 

 normally been stable throughout human history, and 

 that rapid increase in numbers is the exception. In 

 England, during the period 1 880-1 91 3, the average 

 income per head increased from 100 to 134 in real 

 wages. Hence there was no over-population in the 

 country, as a whole, during this period of rapid 

 growth in population. From 1840 to 1880 the birth- 

 rate remained stationary.* Then the decline set in, 

 and the birth-rate dropped gradually to about two- 

 thirds its former value. This decline is regarded as 

 a response to economic conditions, the earlier rapid 

 rate of increase having ceased to be economicalh^ 



* According to Dean Inge, between 1800 and 1900 the popula- 

 tion of England increased 300 per cent., while it only increased 

 30 per cent, between 1700 and 1800. 



