PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 61 



the average robustness of constitution, or innate 

 healthiness of the race, for a larger proportion of 

 sickly ones are living amongst us. In our day a 

 greater number of parents suffer from phthisical, 

 scrofulous and other taints than in days gone by, 

 and these and other taints are passed on to their 

 children. 



So far we have seen what of necessity follows from 

 our biological premises, but it is also possible, I 

 think, to show by statistics that already very observ- 

 able deterioration has taken place. 



Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 



If we examine one of the reports of the Registrar 

 General for births, deaths and marriages, we shall 

 gain pretty full information concerning the deaths 

 from disease, accident, old age, etc., that have 

 occurred during the last thirty or forty years. 



Increase of Constitutional Weakness. 



In Report 54, Table 17, the annual death-rates 

 from various causes per million of population are 

 given, and arranged in groups of five years from 

 1858 to 1890. We have there a history of thirty 

 years, and even in that time a notable change in this 



