132 



THE TREND OF THE RACE 



proportion of these girls drift into immoral lives. They fre- 

 quently return to the workhouse to have their children who, after 

 being raised at public expense, are then liberated to repeat much 

 the same performance. 



The relation between fertihty and social status has been studied 

 by a number of investigators. Heron found in London that the 

 districts which afford evidence of prosperity have a low birth rate, 

 while districts in which indications of poverty are common have a 

 high birth rate. It was estimated that while the death rates in the 

 latter districts were higher than in the former, the difference was 

 not great enough to counteract the greater fecundity of the poorer 

 classes. Moreover, Heron showed that sixty years ago the 

 relative fecundity of the classes dealt with was the reverse of what 

 it is at the present time. Bertillon ^ gives the following tabulation 

 of the birth rates per thousand women between 15 and 50 years of 

 age in various sections of four European cities : 



Fertility of Women in Different Districts of Large Cities 



While the figures given may not exactly represent the birth 

 rates of these districts, they doubtless form a fairly close approxi- 

 mation of them. The birth rate of Paris and Berlin measured 

 by the number of annual births per thousand married women is 

 shown in the following table: 



1 Bull. Inst. Intemat. Stat., 11, 163-176, 1899. 



