THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 131 
Whetham remarks! that, ‘‘Feeble-minded women, whether 
married or unmarried, are remarkably fertile. The workhouse 
records frequently note that five, six, or seven children have been 
born before the mother is twenty-five years of age, and she herself 
may have commenced child-bearing at fifteen years of age or even 
younger. Most of these children inherit the mental condition of 
their parents, and where both parents are known to be feeble- 
minded, there is no record of their having given birth to a normal 
child. In one workhouse there were sixteen feeble-minded women 
who had produced between them one hundred and sixteen chil- 
dren with a large proportion of mental defect. Out of one such 
family of fourteen, only four could be trained to do remunerative 
work.” 
“With regard to the fertility of feeble-minded stocks, it has 
been pointed out that the feeble-minded children from the degen- 
erate families, who use the special schools in London, come, some- 
times two or more at a time, from households averaging about 
seven offspring, whereas the average number of children in the 
families who now use the public elementary schools is about four.” 
In England until recently (the evil is still not entirely abated) 
there has been a very effective system for encouraging the prop- 
agation of feeble-minded stocks. Girls born in the workhouse 
were kept as public charges in homes or industrial schools until 
they were 16, when they were turned loose upon the world. With 
their generally poor inheritance combined with unfavorable 
conditions for developing whatever germs of mentality or strength 
of character they may have possessed, it is no wonder that a large 
number will be less than the average size of the families from which we draw our 
100 individuals at random. The assumption that averages arrived at by these two 
methods are comparable is a fallacy which is very common in writings on eugenics, 
and it is one that very easily escapes notice. In the present case, if the size of the 
families from which mental defectives came were compared, not with the average 
size of normal families, but with the average size of the families from which normal 
individuals came (which is a very different thing) the results would, other things 
equal, be indicative of differences in the fecundity of the two stocks. It may be 
that the comparison was made by the latter method in the investigation referred to, 
although it is not so stated. 
1 Introduction to Eugenics, p. 26. 
