FERTILITY OF SOCIAL CLASSES 335 



mortality among the children of the higher officials, wealthy 

 merchants, etc., on the one hand, and that among the children 

 of the labouring classes on the other, is at the most a difference 

 in the ratio of 1 : IJ for those who inhabit large cities, and con- 

 siderably smaller for the country populations."^ We might, 

 indeed, deduce this fact from the phenomenon presented by the 

 German and Polish populations to-day ; the Poles are far more 

 fertile than the Germans, and their death-rate is also higher. 

 But the higher death-rate does not suffice to compensate for the 

 higher birth-rate, and a net excess of fertility remains to the 

 Poles after all deductions are made. The same phenomenon is 

 witnessed in the respective birth and death rates of the upper 

 and lower classes. Accepting the figures given by Dr. Schall- 

 mayer^ concerning the relative proportion of the death-rate of 

 the upper classes (by which we mean those who have enjoyed 

 secondary and higher education) and of the lower classes — 

 namely, 1 : 1} — we find that, glancing only at the figures pre- 

 sented by the city of Paris, the proportion in which the birth- 

 rate among the categories classed as " very poor " and " poor " 

 stands to those classed as " very well-ofi," " rich," and " ex- 

 ceptionally rich," is that of 1 : 1^ approximately. So that we 

 may reckon that, for every 100 persons bom in the first two 

 categories, 75 are bom in the wealthy categories ; but for every 

 100 deaths in the first two, there are 80 deaths in the latter ; 



^ W. SchaUmayer, Vererbung und Auslcse im Lehenslauf der Volher, 

 p. 166. Jena, 1903. 



2 Lest it be objected that it is invidious to cite Dr. SchaUmayer in 

 particular, we would reply that his conclusions are based on a conscien- 

 tious and thorough examination of statistics relating to the proportion of 

 the mortality-rate among different classes of the population, tabulated by 

 Professor Conrad (Die Bevolkerungsstatiatik, Jena, 1902), by Professor 

 Westergaard (Mcnialit'dt und Morhilitdt, Jena, 1902), by Seutemann, 

 Korosi, and numerous others. The closer examination of this most 

 important question necessitating details for which space is here lacking, 

 we can but reproduce a judgment based on the diligent scrutiny 

 and analysis of numerous statistics; which consequently merits our 

 attention. 



