THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 175 
stances who give thought to the larger aspects of perpetuating 
their kind. With people of good inheritance it is a question of 
family prosperity versus the general weal. And it is so easy to 
find a reasonable justification for pursuing the former to the neg- 
lect of the latter. There are people in plenty willing to die for 
their country, but when it comes to raising children for it,—that 
is a different matter. 
It is to be feared that the so-called Neo-Malthusian doctrines 
which are becoming so widely diffused nowadays are having more 
effect in extinguishing good inheritance than in checking the large 
families which are so frequently associated with a squalid exist- 
ence and a high death rate. As its name implies the Neo-Mal- 
thusian movement is an outgrowth of the general doctrine enun- 
ciated by Malthus in his celebrated Essay on Population. In the 
words of one of its chief exponents, Dr. C. V. Drysdale, ‘‘Neo- 
Malthusianism is an ethical doctrine based on the principle of 
Malthus that poverty, disease and premature death can only be 
eliminated by control of reproduction, and on a recognition of the 
evils inseparable from prolonged abstention from marriage. It 
therefore advocates early marriage, combined with a selective 
limitation of offspring to those children to whom the parents can 
give a satisfactory heredity and environment so that they may 
become desirable members of the community. It further main- 
tains that a universal knowledge of contraceptive devices among 
adult men and women would in all probability automatically 
lead to such a selection through an enlightened self-interest, and 
thus to the elimination of destitution and all the more serious 
social evils, and to the elevation of the race.” 
This is quoted from the second edition of the author’s book, 
The Small Family System, which contains perhaps the best general 
statement of the Neo-Malthusian doctrine, with an able plea in 
its behalf. Like many other Neo-Malthusians, Dr. Drysdale sees 
in family limitation what is perhaps as near to being a panacea 
for all social ills as any one measure that could possibly be applied. 
To the adoption of Neo-Malthusian practices is attributed a 
large part of the decrease in mortality which during the last half 
