EUGENIC AND DYSGENIC EFFECTS OF WAR 241 



war through the modification of the population's composition by sex, age, 

 and civil state; through the diffusion of venereal diseases, etc. 



The matter of the birth-rate during the war must therefore be studied 

 together with that of the birth-rate of the post-war period. 



The question of the diffusion of venereal diseases in connection with the 

 war was given special attention by Dr. Szel and Dr. Rosset. 



Prof. Wurzburger, Dr. Burgdorfer, and Prof. Hersch examined closely 

 what part of the decrease found in the birth-rate of the post-war period as 

 compared with the period before the war, may be considered an indirect 

 and transitory effect of the war. 



All these researches, although partial, tend to prove that war does have 

 a decisive effect on the birth-rate, and to show that the influence it exerts on 

 the race may be effected through this means in no less a degree than through 

 the death-rate. Therefore, we shall never be able to judge, even approxi- 

 mately, the eugenic or dysgenic effects of the war, until such time as we shall 

 have examined what, if any, selective character the birth-rate decrease of 

 war-time and its increase of the post-war period, have. So far as I know, 

 up to the present time but a few researches have been made on this matter. 

 In Italy they have been carried on by Profs. Gini, Savorgnan, and Pieraccini. 

 These researches lead one to believe that, side by side with the unfavorable 

 selective factors represented by the removal from their families of the more 

 robust individuals enlisted in the army, there are compensatory factors which 

 leave us doubtful as to the ultimate result of the selection effected by war 

 through the reduction of the birth-rate. Definitive researches may be made 

 by studying the characters of the individuals born during the war, first in 

 the schools and later, as concerns the males, when they reach the age for 

 military service, and are subjected to medical examinations. 



THE DEATH-RATE AFTER THE WAR 



The endurance of the children born during the war is manifested partic- 

 ularly through their death-rate, so that also from this view-point the study 

 of the post-war death-rate assumes a special importance, in as much as it 

 represents both an aftermath of the war itself (mortality of the disabled, 

 deaths due to venereal diseases), and a reaction to its conditions. Syste- 

 matic researches on this point, so far as I know, have not as yet been made. 



In examining the course of post-war phenomena, and in comparing it with 

 that of the pre-war period, we must obviously be careful not to apply the 

 post hoc, ergo propter hoc criterion. Often the variations which followed in 

 the post-war period are but the manifestation of tendencies already in ac- 



