68 DAR WINISM AND RA CE PRO GRESS. 



external conditions are on the whole improving, and 

 the same fact may be observed in the expectancy of 

 women, who certainly have not been placed under 

 more unfavourable external conditions. Calculations 

 from other periods of years would be here of great 

 value, in order further to eliminate the effects of 

 climatic changes, etc., and it must be remembered 

 that the figures which are the basis of all statistics 

 are only approximate to, and never exactly represent, 

 the true condition of things. For these reasons, it 

 seems important to pursue statistical investigations 

 still further, and to examine the returns of other 

 nations in order to determine whether or no their 

 facts are similar to ours. 



In the meantime, we may view, and not without 

 inquietude, the probability that our statistics, as far 

 as they go, indicate that racial deterioration has 

 already begun as a sequence to that care for the 

 individual which has characterised the efforts of 

 modern society. The biologist, from quite another 

 group of facts, has independently arrived at conclu- 

 sions which render this view in the highest degree 

 probable 



