390 



CAROLINE H. ROBINSON 



BIRTH RATES AND OMISSIONS IN THE RECORDS 



As regards the deficit in the figures for the latest classes caused by the 

 fact that some births had not yet occurred when the records were taken, 

 one may conclude from table 2 that this deficit does not exceed one or two 

 tenths of a child per marriage and in the latest classes only. 



In addition the questionnaires, drafted for other purposes, sound as if 

 only children of school age were wanted. Thus what (few?) children there 

 were who died young may some of them be omitted from per capitas here 

 given. Also late marriages not yet recorded and an estimate of 24 children 

 from 17 men, of whom 12 were known to have married (but children not 

 reported), and of 9 children from 9 married women whose families are not 

 reported make it probable that the per capita per male graduate should be 

 raised from 1.7 to 1.8 (table 1). But a similar rise is less likely for the 



TABLE 2 



Children 



female per capita of 1.3. However, 1.8 and 1.3 are thus minimum per 

 capitas. 6 Alumni who had to be requestioned to get a reply turned out to 

 have less children per marriage by 50 per cent (women) and 20 per cent 

 (men). 



BIRTHS TO WOMEN BY INTELLECTUAL RANK 



Before proceeding with the general analysis of the births by age at mar- 

 riage and so forth, let us note whether fertility was injured by female 

 intellectuality. 



Men who get into Who's Who have more children than their perhaps 

 duller classmates. 7 So a determined assault necessitating the handling 

 of 20,000 items, chiefly class-room grades, has been made upon the question 

 whether something similar holds for women too. For the lack of children 



6 Inquiries additional to the first questionnaire had to be made in nearly one quarter 

 of the cases. 



7 Ibid., p. 339. Also Frederick Adams Woods, Science, Nov. 4, 1927, p. 429. 



