248 H. R. HUNT 



whole? About 118,279 American soldiers, who enlisted from the continen- 

 tal United States exclusive of Alaska and the Canal Zone, died during the 

 World War. The total male population of the continental United States 

 with the age limits of twenty-two to forty-nine years, inclusive, in 1917 was 

 about 21,376,125. If we treat all the deaths in the army as though they 

 occurred among men who were twenty-two to forty-nine years of age, the 

 percentage dying in the male population of the continental United States . 

 would be .55 ±.001 per cent (.96 ±.057 per cent exceeds .55 ±.001 per 

 cent by .41 ±.057). The difference is 7.2 times its probable error and is 

 therefore decidedly significant. However, the above deaths in the United 

 States army were not confined to the ages twenty-two to forty-nine years, 

 but occurred among men ranging from fifteen to forty-nine. Thus, the 

 .55 per cent estimate is too high, so that the Harvard mortality exceeded 

 the deaths for the United States as a whole by more than .41 per cent. 

 Thus it is clear that the graduates of Harvard suffered a higher mortality 

 rate than the male population of the United States of comparable age. This 

 was biologically unfortunate because the Harvard group was doubtless 

 on the average inherently superior in mental ability to the general run of 

 males. 



In conclusion we may say that the trends in enlistment and in death rates 

 brought out by this study were probably of a dysgenic character. Such a 

 study should not lead to dogmatic statements concerning the biological con- 

 sequences of all wars. Some of them may have been, and doubtless were, 

 racially beneficial, particularly those fought by primitive man in prehistoric 

 days. Whatever its biological consequences, war is a social and moral evil 

 which should be eradicated as rapidly as possible. If this study has contrib- 

 uted anything to that end, it has been worth while. 



