H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 207 
and group psychology since social traditions and class consciousness as 
well as personal passion are concerned, which helps to explain the lack of 
response to the appeals of the enthusiastic eugenist. 
That reduction in fertility has been of long standing is strikingly illus- 
trated by Crum’s *” study of the New England genealogies, in which he 
finds a progressive reduction in the size of the family and an increase in 
the proportion of childless marriages. 
| Average | Percentage | 
Period | sizeof | of Childless | 
| Family | Wives | 
1750-1799 64° | el 
1800-1849 | 4-9 4+] 
1850-1869 | 3-5 5:9 
| 1870-1879 2-8 8-1 
The decline among the professional classes in Britain, even when varia- 
tions in age and length of marriage are allowed for, is a marked feature of 
the census of 1911. Of the other classes, miners, agricultural and other 
labourers have families above the average size, artisans are about the 
general average, while textile workers and other factory operatives have 
smaller families. The divergence between the different social classes was 
less marked in 1850 and reached a maximum in the nineties. 
The differential death rate, chiefly due to infant mortality, to some 
extent modifies the initial differences in fertility; while the high fertility of 
the agriculturist is largely opposed by the low marriage rate and the relative 
infertility of the upper classes is exaggerated from the same cause. Both 
total and effective fertility are affected by female occupation, which tends 
to restrict the number of births, and also to increase the infant mortality 
owing to the absence of maternal care for a large part of the day. Such 
occupations are most common in the case of wives of textile operatives, 
themselves accustomed to factory and mill life from a relatively early age, 
and among the wives of the labourers in the towns. 
The influence of differences in effective fertility in changing the distri- 
bution of the population among different social classes can be seen from 
a comparison of two tables, the first of which gives the percentage of each 
social class among the married couples, and the second the percentage of 
these classes among the surviving children from such parents.*8 
ee Cis Distribution per cent. 
Couples Surviving 
(Parents) Children 
| Upper and Middle : 10-0 7-2 
Distributing J - 16-0 14-1 
Skilled Artisan . . 24-6 24-8 
_ Mixed Occupations a 17-0 17-6 
Unskilled Labourers. | 17-1 18-1 
Textile Trades il 3-1 3-1 
Miners : 8-7 10-7 
Agricultural Labourers ; 35 4-4 
100-0 100-0 
47 Crum, Quarterly Journal, American Statistical Association, 1914. 
4 Census of England and Wales, 1911. 
