426 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



in Man, we find, with many fluctuations due to other 

 causes, a steady tendency to decrease of fertility, im- 

 plying a diminution of waste, and a better organisation 

 of life. 1 



5. Now, the further the birth-rate falls, the smaller is 

 the field in which natural selection can be exercised. And 

 yet the higher types are well maintained, and within the 

 highest type the forward movement is most rapid of all. 



1 How far does this process continue in human species ? Is it the case 

 that as civilisation advances, the waste of life is less ? The question is of 

 the greatest interest, but cannot be answered by considering fertility 

 alone. 



If we compare one nation or one grade of civilisation with another, the 

 birth-rates alone will not be sufficient, since in many cases population is 

 notoriously increasing, while in others, and particularly in the lower 

 races, it is diminishing, and even dying out. Moreover, as to the birth- 

 rate itself, no trustworthy figures exist for non-European peoples. 

 Another method of investigation would be to find in any given nation the 

 proportion of children who actually survive to a marriageable age. But 

 here again, anything like accurate information would be limited to 

 civilised nations. 



Looking, however, to the actual facts, scanty as they are, we observe 

 first, that among European countries, the most backward are those in 

 which infantile mortality is highest. According to Mulhall (Dictionary 

 of Statistics, p. 178) the number of children out of 1,000 who complete 

 the fifth year of life is : 



In Russia 425 



Spain 571 



Austria 614 



as against : 



In France 751 



Denmark 755 



Belgium 756 



England 762 



Scotland 780 



Sweden 783 



Ireland ' . 837 



Norway 838 



It agrees with this that the birth-rate per marriage is also highest in 

 Russia, where it is 57 as against 4*2 in England and 3*0 in France. 



In France, with the birth-rate per family mentioned, population is 

 practically stationary, the increase having been '08 per 1,000 in the five 

 years 1891-5. (Newsholme's Vital Statistics,^. 15.) 



This affords us a rough measure of the wastage of life in a modern 

 civilised country, which corresponds fairly well with the figures for be- 

 tween four and five thousand Danish families given in Professor Karl 

 Pearson's Chances of Death. (Essay on Reproductive Selection, p. 98.) 

 In these figures, the average gross fertility of families in the pro 

 fessional, commercial, and artisan class is given, compared with the net 



