ioo Malthusianism & Law of Population 



The professional classes are, on the other hand, so over- 

 whelmed with prudence that they marry late as a rule, 

 and do everything possible to limit the number of their 

 families. 



Of the various plans suggested, the Bill for the 

 segregation of the feeble-minded is the only possible. 

 Such measures as sterilisation are absurdities — the 

 emanation of faddists and undeserving of considera- 

 tion. The prevailing spirit of altruism would never 

 permit the attempt to cure a social disease by the pro- 

 duction of mutilation and further extension of abnor- 

 mality in the individual. Moreover, it must be re- 

 membered that the so-called feeble-minded individual 

 is often a " sport." I have known more than one 

 family where the brothers and sisters of these were 

 much above the average in intelligence and mental 

 capacity. So that we do not know all regarding 

 this subject. I feel convinced when once we have 

 attained to a perfect environment for all the members 

 of the State, from infancy onwards, and for the mother 

 previous to the advent of the child, that ere long we shall 

 eliminate the causes which induce " feeble-minded- 

 ness," and that before many generations are over the 

 Act shall have become a dead letter owing to the 

 complete elimination of the " unfit." 



[I am greatly indebted to Messrs. T. and T. Clark for 

 their kind permission to quote the foregoing tables from 

 Paulin's work : " No Struggle for Existence?} 



