CONTRA-SELECTION IN ENGLAND 377 



same child would have been fifteen or twenty years ago. Nevertheless, our 

 health figures, mental and physical, demonstrate steady deterioration. 

 Indeed, in the figures given above for the increase of feeble-mindedness and 

 insanity, the rise is so startling that hardly any one dare believe it to be 

 true, and every possible excuse is made to detract from the validity of 

 statistics. In conclusion, let me give the rough figures for recruiting in the 

 national services. The Army has lowered its standard of physique period- 

 ically since 1885 ; while in the Boer War one man in three was fit for service, 

 the normal rejections today stand at four out of five, despite the hideous 

 amount of unemployment which should bring large numbers of virile men 

 to this service. 



The Navy, while accepting men of low stature, necessarily requires a 

 certain degree of toughness — rejections for this service are nine out of every 

 ten candidates. For the last nine years the Commissioner of Police has 

 used every means to attract more men into the force. It is with us a popu- 

 lar service and only youths of acknowledged superiority venture to apply. 

 The tests concern not only health but also intelligence, education up to the 

 highest elementary school class, and necessarily also, character. For the 

 period quoted, ninety-five out of every hundred applicants have been re- 

 jected on grounds of unsuitability. 



England has the longest record of contra-selection, and until recently 

 her wealth and scientific philanthropy have put her population furthest 

 probably of any from natural selective agencies. Other civilized countries 

 should take warning by the result before, with them also, the inevitable 

 degeneration has gone to the lengths which our health statistics show. 



REFERENCES 



(1) Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. 1904-5. (Col. 



2175.) Eyre & Spottiswoode, London. 



(2) Ministry of National Service. Report upon the Medical Examination of Men of 



Military Age, November 1, 1917 to October 1, 1918. H. M. Stationery Office, 

 1920. 



(3) Sixty-sixth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, Part I, 1912. H. M. Stationery 



Office. 



(4) Reports on Recruiting (Army) 1885-95. 



(5) Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feebleminded, Vols. 



VI, VII (Col. 1202). H. M. Stationery Office, 1908. 



(6) Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee. H. M. Stationery Office 1929 (27-216). 



(7) Tredgold, A. F., M.D., M.R.C.P., F.R.S., Ed.: "The Place of Inheritance in Pre- 



ventive Medicine." Congress Report. Royal Sanitary Institute, July, 1926. 



See also Reports of Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health and Board of Edu- 

 cation 1928-30 and the Commissioners of Police 1927-1928. 



