Medicine and Eugenics.
THE PROPHYLAXIS OF HEREDITARY SYPHILIS AND ITS EUGENIC EFFECT.
(Abstract.)
By Dr. H. Hallopeau.
Syphilis is strongly _dysgenic_; it causes the production of profoundly
damaged children; in preventing it the physician co-operates
effectively with eugenic action. In order to prevent the propagation
of this disease we must have recourse to _administrative prophylaxis_,
_prophylaxis by persuasion_, and _prophylaxis by medical measures_.
_Administrative prophylaxis_ must act especially by multiplying
gratuitous consultations and in securing, as far as possible, hospital
treatment for persons affected by transmissible lesions, especially for
prostitutes.
To the physician belongs the duty of acting by _persuasion_ in pointing
out to syphilitics that they have no right to have children so long as
they are liable to transmit their disease to their offspring.
We must abort syphilis if it is in the stage of primary invasion:
this invasion is not, as was believed until recently, confined to
the chancre and its accompanying swellings; it includes all the
intermediate stage; in order to destroy the tripanosomes we must use
repeated injections of _benzosulfoneparaminophenylarsinate of soda_,
commonly known as _hectine_ (Mouneyrat), the only specific medicament
which is well borne locally.
Results similar to those we have just shown are obtained by making,
in a given region, two or three injections of salvarsan. However, the
comparison between the two medications is altogether in favour of that
by hectine. Indeed, experience proves that the secondary generalization
is noticeably more frequent after injections of salvarsan, and,
besides, these are far from being always painless. We have made known
to the Académie of Medicine a case in which, within 48 hours, they
caused the death of a young man in good health. Several similar cases
have since been notified, particularly by Dr. Gaucher. Confidently
believing in the axiom "Primo non nocere," we explicitly declare
ourselves adversaries of a practice which brings such accidents in its
train.
In the secondary stage, we must have recourse simultaneously to various
specific agents.
Procreation may be permitted when six months after the abortive
treatment Wasserman's reaction, after several trials, has given
uniformly negative results.
The physician thus accomplishes a profoundly eugenic work in favouring
and accelerating the production of unspoilt children.
THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE GERM-PLASM.
(The New Alcohol Legislation in Norway.)
(Abstract.)
By Dr. Alfred Mjoën.
The injurious effect of alcohol depends not only upon the amount
taken, but also upon other factors, as, _e.g._, upon its dilution,
and upon the kind of nourishment taken with it. There can be no doubt
that alcohol under a certain percentage neither injures nor can injure
either the somatic cells, or what is more important for race-hygiene,
the germ cells. And, on the other hand, it must be regarded as proved
that alcohol over a certain percentage is injurious to the quality of
the offspring, not alone where the mother drinks (influence upon the
embryo), but also where the father alone is a drinker (destruction
of the germ). The latest investigations in this field confirm this
assumption.
There is, it is true, a middle class of beverages whose influence
upon the germ-plasm (posterity) has not been established, or can be
established at all. As a general rule, one may lay down the rule: _The
injurious effect of an alcoholic beverage upon individuals or race
increases from a certain percentage progressively with its increasing
contents of alcohol._
Therefore, I propose to divide alcoholic liquors into classes, and to
deal with them according to the amount of their contents of alcohol,
_i.e._, according to their injuriousness.
All casks, bottles, etc., coming into the market are to be furnished
with the class-mark (_e.g._, I., II., III., branded upon the cord).
For example, in the case of beer, the first class (under 2-1/4%), shall
be obtainable everywhere. For this class there will be claimed, besides
a reduction of duty, also a facility for sale and some concessions.
Class I. (up to 2-1/4%) will be charged with 2 ore; Class II.
(2-1/4--3-3/4%) with 8 ore; and Class III. (3-3/4--5%) with 15-16 ore
per litre. Beer over 5% or 5-1/2% will be prohibited([3]).
[Footnote 3: This proposal was favourably received by the Norwegian
minister Knudsen, and brought before the Storthing as a Government
measure. The proposal has been accepted as part of the election
programme of the Radicals, the Socialist Democrats, and all total
abstinence organisations.]
The class system permits of a simple, cheap, and practicable control,
and, indeed, a control which is not confined to the brewery or to
any single stage of preparation, but which follows the article over
the whole country from its origin to its consumption. When alcoholic
drinks are marked with their class and placed under State control, the
consumers will themselves easily exercise the control. And the public
will gradually become accustomed to form an opinion upon the influence
of the various articles upon the working capacity and the health, not
only of the individual, but also of the family and the race. State and
country authorities will, with State-controlled classes, more easily
see justice done on all sides. This last advantage will, naturally,
only avail in those lands where the permission to sell alcoholic
liquors is vested in the local authorities. The progressive class
system will also give the State, the municipalities, and also private
labour organisations an opportunity to support those restaurants
and inns which supply nothing but pure and harmless liquors, and
consumption will undergo a slow and gradual change to the lightest
drinks.
At the present time the lightest kinds of beer are too heavily taxed
in comparison with the heaviest kinds, and the latter in turn are too
heavily taxed in comparison with brandy. From the point of view of
race-hygiene, the fight must be directed especially against the fourth
and most dangerous class, namely, all kinds of brandy (prohibition or
Ivan Bratt's system), as well as against the mixed wines, which are so
often adulterated and injurious.
ALCOHOLISM AND DEGENERACY.
Statistics from the Central Bureau for the Management of the Insane of
Paris and the Department of the Seine from 1867 to 1912.
(Abstract.)
By M. Magnan,
_Chief Physician to the Central Bureau, Member of the Academy of
Medicine_,
And Dr. Fillassier.
From 1869 to 1912 the number of sick persons received at the Central
Bureau of the St. Anne Asylum has gone on steadily increasing:
occasionally signs of a falling off are noticed, quickly compensated by
the number of entries for the following years.
Among these patients a great number are driven to the asylum by the
abuse of alcoholic drinks. Some of these are simple alcoholics, _i.e._,
those who owe their insanity entirely to excessive drinking; the others
make up the numerous group of degenerates, who are for the most part
descendants of alcoholics, and on whom fall all the forms of physical,
intellectual, and moral degradation.
For these last, alcohol has been but the touch of the trigger which has
put in action their disposition towards insanity; the attack of mania,
when past, leaves revealed psychic troubles, which, but for the turning
of the balance by alcohol, would have remained in the latent condition,
but which, once developed, remain often for a much longer time; so
we see the increase in the number of these patients--occasional
drunkards--keeping pace with that of chronic alcoholics.
These will specially call forth the interest of the members of the
Eugenic Congress. From the clinical point of view they exhibit
great importance; for showing as they do all the episodic syndromes
of degeneracy, all the mental forms of it may be seen--maniacal,
melancholic, idiotic: insanities polymorphous or systematic, fixed
ideas, monomanias connected with words or numbers, every sort of
phobia, obsession, impulse, and symptomatic manifestation of great
importance. When their objective lies in sexual perversion, theft,
arson, murder, etc., these various states raise the most delicate
questions whether from the point of view of philosophy, psychology,
sociology, or forensic medicine.
This class of society, in the grip of this poison, is unfortunately
not sterile; their miserable descendants come to dock in the asylum;
so much so that if we mass together the various elements, if we add
the unfortunates permanently disabled, such as epileptics, and the
increasing crowd of feeble-minded, idiotic, tuberculous children, the
mind recoils aghast at the gravity of the danger. The necessity of
an implacable war against alcoholism, which crowds our asylums, our
hospitals, and our homes with insane persons, and sends a constant
stream to our prisons and reformatories--such a war must be the
principal aim of the Eugenics Congress.
For long the evil genius of mankind, alcoholism has to-day laid its
clutch on women, and the admission figures now show their numbers on
the increase every year.
Such are the lessons which may be learnt from the report of Magnan and
Fillassier.
EUGENICS AND OBSTETRICS.
(Abstract.)
By Dr. Agnes Bluhm, _Berlin._
1. Among the agencies under social control which impair the racial
qualities of future generations, an important place is taken by the
Science of Medicine, especially by Obstetrics. For the increase of
obstetrics increases the incapacity for bearing children of future
generations.
2. The great difference in the capacity for bearing children between
the primitive and civilized races depends only in part on the lessened
fitness of the latter due to the increase of skilled assistance.
3. Incapacity for bearing children can be acquired; it develops,
however, abundantly on the grounds of a congenital predisposition.
4. In so far as the latter is the case, obstetrics contributes towards
the diffusion of this incapacity.
5. The most serious obstacles to delivery are effected by deformities
of the pelvis, in at least 90% of which heredity plays a part. In this
connection, rickets, the predisposition to which is inherited, takes
the foremost place.
6. German medical statistics make it appear probable that incapacity to
bear children is on the increase.
7. Medical help in childbirth brings, undoubtedly, numerical advantage
to the race, but it endangers the quality of the race in other ways
than through the fostering of unfitness for bearing.
8. The danger of the increase of incapacity for bearing through the
increase of assistance in childbirth can be combatted:--
(_a_) Through the renunciation of descendants by women unfitted to bear
children.
(_b_) Through an energetic campaign against rickets, to which only the
predisposition can be inherited.
(_c_) Through the permeation of obstetrics with the spirit of eugenics,
so that the obstetrician no longer proceeds according to a settled rule
(living mother and living child), but in each separate case takes into
consideration the interests of the race.
HEREDITY AND EUGENICS IN RELATION TO INSANITY.
(Abstract.)
By F. W. Mott, M.D., F.R.S.,
_Physician to Charing Cross Hospital and Pathologist to the London
County Asylums._
What is insanity? Every case of insanity is a biological problem,
the solution of which depends upon a knowledge of what a man was
born with--Nature--and what has happened after birth--Nurture. The
increase of registered insanity in London; the causes of the increase.
(1) The standard of insanity has been raised. (2) The increase of
accommodation for reception of the insane. The diminishing death rate
in asylums causing a progressive accumulation. The diminished number of
recoveries. (3) The large proportion of old people admitted to asylums
formerly in the infirmaries.
_Nurture._--The correlation of pauperism, insanity and
feeble-mindedness, alcohol, syphilis, and tuberculosis in relation
to insanity and feeble-mindedness. Congenital mental deficiency as
distinguished from hereditary mental deficiency. Chronic poisoning of
the blood by these agencies in relation to a lowered specific vitality
of the germ cells. Environment in relation to mental energy and will
power.
_Nature._--The study of pedigrees in hospital and asylum patients
showing the importance of heredity in nervous and mental diseases.
The nature of the neuropathic tendency; its transmission in different
forms of nervous and mental disease in successive generations. Its
latency and re-appearance in stocks. Relation of neurasthenia to the
neuropathic taint. Conclusions arrived at in relation to heredity
and insanity from a study by a card system of 3,118 related persons
who are at present, or who have been, in the London County asylums.
Among the 20,000 inmates at present resident, 715 are so closely
related as parents and offspring or brothers and sisters. Nature is
always trying to end or mend a degenerate stock if left to itself.
Analysis of data regarding first attack of insanity in 464 parents
and their 508 offspring; the signal tendency to the occurrence of the
disease in a more intense form and at an earlier age in the offspring.
This "antedating" or "anticipation" in relation to Nature's process
of elimination of the unfit. Nearly 50 per cent. of the offspring
affected 20 years earlier than the parent. The same found in uncles
and aunts with nephews and nieces, only not nearly so marked. Seeing
that the unfit are at present able to survive; does nature end or mend
degenerate stocks, or have the lines of neuropathic inheritance only
been partially cut off by this tendency to "anticipation"? What we want
to know is: What is the fate of all the offspring of an insane parent
or parents; for there are a great many facts which show that a disease
may be latent and re-appear in a stock when the conditions of mating
or environment are unfavourable? A collection of pedigrees is required
which will prove conclusively that the offspring of insane parents,
who are free from the insane manifestations during adolescence, will
breed children who will not become insane. Supposing it were shown
that cases discharged as recovered had the seeds of insanity, by the
fact that their progeny were feeble-minded, epileptic, or insane, it
would be a clear indication of taking measures to prevent them handing
on the disease. Recurrent insanity--the birth of children in the sane
intervals. Analysis of pedigrees with a dual neuropathic inheritance
of maternal and paternal stocks compared with single neuropathic
inheritance. Conclusion that a child born of neuropathic inheritance in
both ancestral stocks stands, on an average, the chance of being insane
four times as great as when only one stock is affected. Are there any
types of insanity especially liable to be transmitted in the same form
or another form? The prediction of the racial value of an individual
inheritance can only be predicted by a study of what a man was born
with--Nature, and what happened after birth--Nurture.
THE PLACE OF EUGENICS IN THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM.
(Abstract.)
By H. E. Jordan,
_Chairman of the Eugenics Section of the American Association for the
Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality._
The Science of Eugenics deserves a place in the medical curriculum for
three reasons. Firstly: Medicine is fast becoming a science of the
prevention of weakness and morbidity; their permanent not temporary
cure, their racial eradication rather than their personal palliation.
Eugenic conduct is undeniably a factor in attaining the speedy
achievement of the end of racial health. Eugenics, embracing genetics,
is thus one of the important disciplines among the future medical
sciences. The coming physician must have adequate training in matters
relating to heredity and Eugenics. Secondly: as the general population
becomes better educated in matters of personal and racial health and
hygiene it will more and more demand advice regarding the prevention
of weakness in themselves and their offspring. The physicians are
logically the men who must give it. Thirdly: physicians will be more
efficient public servants if they approach their work with the Eugenic
outlook on life.
Instruction in Eugenics, in the form of a number of special lectures
on the subject, is already given in some of our medical schools. This
indicates at least that the need is felt and the importance of such
knowledge to the best physician recognised. Since not all of the better
medical schools give such courses, however, we may infer that there are
obstacles in the way. What is the nature of these?
One such may be the lack of adequate preparation on the part of the
students in the fundamentals of biology to properly comprehend the
import and application of Eugenic facts. This obstacle is speedily
being removed; for considerable biological training is already a
medical course prerequisite. But there may be a lack of properly
prepared teachers to present this subject to even properly prepared
medical students. This obstacle is also fast disappearing. Once the
demand for this kind of help is voiced, there will appear properly
trained teachers to instruct physicians.
Another obstacle may be raised by short-sighted and self-seeking
physicians, for whom less illness and weakness may mean less work and
a reduced income. But this is, perhaps, only a relatively very small
factor in, and also only a passing phase of, the opposition, and will
soon correct itself.
The most encouraging prospect for this new scheme of activity is the
deep interest shown by young medical students in matters of heredity
and Eugenics.
A HEALTHY SANE FAMILY SHOWING LONGEVITY IN CATALONIA.
(Abstract.)
By Professor I. Valenti Vivo.
I. A healthy family showing longevity in Catalonia: the greater part of
them died over 60 years of age from acute sickness. All belonged to the
districts of Barcelona and Gerona. A record of their ability in medical
science, art and agriculture, their average fertility.
II. Communication on Biometrika: Licentiates in medical science, 50
scholars, 1910: 70 in 1912. Dates: Cephalic index, stature, span,
dynamometer, age, district.
SOME REMARKS ON BACKWARD CHILDREN.
(Abstract.)
By Dr. Raoul Dupuy.
When we speak of a backward child, we mean any subject which is
arrested or retarded more or less completely in its bodily, psychical,
and sensorial evolution, in consequence of congenital and acquired
lesions, or simply in consequence of physiological troubles, which
concern, either at the same or a different time, the brain and
the glands of internal secretion (the thyroid, the hypophysis,
the suprarenals, and the genital glands). The cerebral lesions,
practically incurable in the present state of science, produce "atropic
backwardness" the functional troubles of the brain, or those caused by
the glands of internal secretion, which can be modified by "combined
organotherapy" produce dystrophic backwardness. We also, however, find
mixed types, half of the one and half of the other, which are similarly
susceptible of improvement. The number, and above all the variety of
the types of dystrophic backwardness, makes a general classification
of them impossible. The study of their bodily, psychical and sensorial
anomalies proves that in most of the manifestations of backwardness
and immaturity, these children present perversions of evolution which
have a common bearing on the development of body, mind and spirit.
Although apparently different from one another, these backward persons,
whether the mischief be corporal, psychical or sensorial, show
pathological peculiarities, which prove that the cause of their various
dystrophies have a similar origin, and that they often arise from
defective function of the sympathic system which appears to be brought
into action by the internal glands. The backward children consist
of intoxicated, under-grown or anæmic persons, who, besides, suffer
from retention of substances, which ought normally to be eliminated,
chiefly the chlorides and phosphates (in cases of apathy) or the hyper
excretion of the same substances (in cases of instability). Moreover,
the combined organotherapy ought to be considered as a "perfect
touchstone" of dystrophy, and if applied according to certain rules,
it gives results which are more complete and more certain than thyroid
organotherapy by itself. It goes without saying that a special training
is necessary for the intellectual "backwards"; but before any attempt
at education, it is necessary to treat their bodily deficiencies, and
to place them in the special schools with the boarding system, where
they will be under the eye both of the doctor and of the teacher.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL
EUGENICS CONGRESS,
LONDON,
July 24th to July 30th, 1912,
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
SOUTH KENSINGTON.
* * * * *
CATALOGUE
OF
THE EXHIBITION.
* * * * *
CHARLES KNIGHT & CO., Ltd.,
227-239 Tooley Street, London, S.E.
References in the Index refer to the Alphabetical Enumeration in the
margin of each page of the Catalogue.
* * * * *
The Exhibition Committee desire to take this opportunity of expressing
their thanks to the Exhibitors for the loan of their exhibits. They
desire specially to acknowledge the courtesy of Professor von Gruber
for giving permission to make use of Translations from the Catalogue of
the International Congress of Race Hygiene held in Dresden last year.
INDEX TO EXHIBITS.
A
Ability, Administrative, Pedigree shewing Descent of, I. 1
Inheritance of, as exemplified in the Darwin, Galton, and Wedgwood
families, O. 5
Abnormal Germ Production, _see under_ Germ Production
Abnormalities observed in Drunkard's Children, C. 92
Abortions and Premature Births in various Callings, C. 101
Administrative Ability, Pedigree shewing Descent of, I. 1
Age-intervals, separating various Generations of Mannheim families, C. 39
Age of Parents
Conjointly with Numerical position in Family, in relation
to Infantile Mortality, C. 51
at Death, and Marital gross and net Fertility, C. 7
and Mortality of Children up to 5 years, C. 9-10
and Mortality of Children up to 20 years, C. 7-8
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF UTAH
JOHN A. WIDTSOE, A.M., Ph.D., Chart shewing Inheritance
of Physical and Mental Qualities and Defects, and of
Literary Ability, from a Polygamous Family in Utah, N. 1
Alcohol and Degeneration, C. 91-3
Effect of, on Human Offspring, C. 96
Experiments with, on Animals, in Small Quantities, C. 95
Frequency and Intensity of harmful Influences through, relative,
Urban and Rural, C. 88
Injury from, to Reproductive functions, C. 89-90
Alcoholic, Epileptic, Sexually-immoral Man, and Neurotic and
Sexually-immoral Woman, Offspring of, D. 9
Intoxication, Acute, effect of on Origin of Feeble-mindedness, C. 97
Man, and Feeble-minded Woman, Offspring of, D. 10
and Migrainous Woman, Offspring of, D. 13
Alcoholism, Paternal, effect of, on Suckling-capacity of Daughters, C. 93
Inter-connection with, of Tuberculosis, Nervous Diseases, and Psychoses
of Offspring, C. 94
_Alytes obstetricans_, _see_ Midwife Toad
"All London," Booth's Classification of, Comparison of, with the Normal
Classes, O. 3
AMERICAN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION, EUGENICS SECTION (C. DAVENPORT, ESQ.).
Charts _re_ Defectives, Classification and Statistics of, P.
Ancestors, Theoretical Number of, C. 115
Ancestral Loss, Phenomenon of, C. 96
Animals, Experiments on, with Small quantities of Alcohol, C. 95
Arab v. Spaniard, Segregation Inheritance of Eye-colour, K. 4
Archduchess Maria ... of Tuscany, Pedigree of, C. 112
Association of Characters in Heredity in Sweet Peas, M. 6 & 7 (_a & b_)
Atrophy, Progressive Muscular, C. 13
Australia, Birth and Death Rates in, H. 25
B
Bavaria, Breast-feeding in relation to Infant Mortality in, C. 60, 70
"Belvidere," Pedigree of, C. 110
Berlin, Birth and Death Rate for, H. 28
Fertility in, decrease in, _circ._ 1869-1910, C. 126-129
Birth-curve, general, and that for Feeble-minded Children compared, C. 97
Birth-frequency in relation to Habit of Breast-feeding, C. 72, 73
Birth-interval, in relation to
Breast-feeding, length of, C. 63
Average length of, C. 63, 64
Health of Offspring, C. 58
Infantile Mortality, C. 57, 58
Vitality of Child, with and without, Breast-feeding, C. 65
Birth-place, Locality and Size of, in relation to Military Fitness,
Germany, C. 26-30
Birth-rate, in relation to
Breast-feeding, duration of, C. 72, 73
Wealth, C. 118-122
Rising, Countries with, H. 21-4
Stationary, Countries with, H. 17-20
Birth and Death Rate
in Australia, H. 25
in Berlin, H. 28
in Europe and Western Europe, H. 30-1
in France, H. 7
in the Netherlands, H. 10
of Toronto, City of, H. 27
of United Kingdom, and of German Empire, H. 5, 6
of Various Countries, relation between, H. 1-31
Birth and Death Rates and Infant Mortality, relation between, H. 1-31
for New Zealand, H. 26
in Protestant Countries, H. 11-13
Birth-rates, and _corrected_ Death-rates, relation between, H. 2
Births _per_ Couple essential to prevent Decay of Nations,
C. 123 _et præoi_
Premature in Various Callings, C. 101
Restriction of, C. 125-128
Blindness, _see_ Colour-blindness _and_ Night-blindness
Blood-relationship of Parents and Health of Offspring, C. 108
Intensification of Characters in, C. 106-7
Blue Andalusian Fowls, Mendelian Inheritance in
Gametic Purity in Illustration of Theory of, O. 1 (_f_)
Without Dominance, O. 1 (_e_)
Booth, C., Classification by, of "All London," Comparison of, with the
Normal Classes, O. 3
Breast-feeding, in relation to
Birth-intervals, Length of, and average Length of, C. 63, 64
Cancer, C. 71
Infant Mortality
Birth-Interval and, C. 59-62
Female Labour and, C. 99
Capacity for, of Daughters as affected by Paternal Alcoholism, C. 93
as Evidence of Hereditary Constitution in relation to Infant
Mortality, C. 79-82
and Number of Children, C. 61
Duration of, in relation to
Average number of Carious Teeth, C. 74, 75
Birth rate, C. 72, 73
Frequency of Rachitic disturbances of development, C. 78.
Infant Mortality, C. 74
in Conjunction with Numerical Position, C. 60
Physical development, C. 76
School Reports, average, C. 77
Habit of, in relation to Birth-frequency, C. 72, 73
as running in Families, and Infant Mortality, C. 62
C
Canada, _see_ Toronto
Cancer, Breast-feeding in relation to, C. 71
Cataract, Hereditary, L. 4
Charts Explaining Method of Collecting and Recording
Data, D. 15 (_a_ & _b_)
Childbirth, increasing Frequency of Surgical Operations in connection
with, Racial significance of, C. 48 (1-6)
Childless and Fertile Couples, Physical Condition of, contrasted, C. 45
Children, _see also_ Infant Mortality, Numbers, Numerical Position, &c.
of Drunkards, Abnormalities observed in, C. 92
Health of, in connection with Blood-relationship of Parents, C. 108
Mortality of,
Death-age of Parents in relation to,
up to 5 years, C. 9, 10
up to 20 years, C. 7, 8
illegitimate, C. 104, 105
Number of children in relation to, C. 60
Number of, Average in each Generation, Mannheim, C. 38
in Paris, in relation to Wealth, C. 119
Cleopatra, Pedigree of, showing Inbreeding, C. 114
Colour-Blindness, Congenital, Pedigree with unusual features, L. 1
Colour-Changes in Skin of Fire-Salamander, according to placing on Yellow
or Black Earth, C. 1, 2
Colours, Recombination of in Poultry, Mendelian experiments shewing, M. 3
Comparison of Mr. Booth's Classification of "All London," with the Normal
Classes, O. 3
Conceptions and Conception Losses, Numbers of, and Explanations,
C. 52 (1-4)
Congenital Colour-Blindness, Pedigree with unusual features, L. 1
Hereditary Nystagmus, L. 3 (_a_ & _b_)
Constitution, _see_ Hereditary _do._
Consumption in three Generations, Male Infant Mortality, E. 5 (_c_)
Copenhagen, Fertility of Marriages, Occupation, and Wealth for, C. 122
Countries with
Rising Birth-rate, H. 21-4
Stationary Birth-rate, H. 17-20
Country, _versus_ Town Fertility, in Prussia, C. 126, 128
Cross-Fertilization in Maize, C. 111
Crossing of Races
Fertility and Health in relation to, C. 117
Inbreeding and, C. 106, 107
D
Darwin, Charles,
Home of, Down House
Study-rooms of, at Down
Etching of Large, by Haig, B. 7
Photograph of Small, in which "The Origin of Species" was
written, B. 6
Water-colour Drawing of, by A. Goodwin, B. 8
Letters of (Two) on "Worms and their Habits," B. 9
Portraits of Engraving, by Flameng after Collier, B. 4
Portraits of
Painting, by W. W. Ouless, B. 1
Photograph, by Maull and Polyblank, B. 3
on his Horse, Tommy, B. 5
Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, and his son, Erasmus, Portraits of
(Silhouette), A. 2
Darwin, Mrs., Portrait of (Silhouette), A. 3
DARWIN, WILLIAM E., and LEONARD, B. 1 to 9
Darwin, Galton, and Wedgwood Families, Inheritance of Ability as
exemplified by, O. 5
Daughters, Suckling Capacity of, as affected by Paternal
Alcoholism, C. 93
DAVENPORT, C. B., P.
Death-rates, _see also_ Birth-, and Death-rates of Married and Divorced
Persons, and of Widows, compared, C. 102
Deaths, in relation to Conception losses, C. 52, 53
Defect, Transmission of, Pauperism due to, E. 1-6 (_d_)
Defective and Pauper families, Tendency to Inter-marriage between, E. 2
Defectives
Classification of, Charts of, P. 1
Statistics of Charts, P.
Degeneration, Alcohol and, C. 91-3
Delirium tremens, Epilepsy, and General Paralysis, Frequency of, in
Prussian Lunatic Asylums, C. 38
Denmark, Fertility in, in relation to Wealth, C. 121, 122
Number of Children in, in Families of Different Classes, 1901, C. 121
Descent, _see also_ Heredity, Inheritance, _and_ Mendelism
of Qualities in a Population (after Galton), O. 4
Standard Scheme of (after Galton), O. 2
Development as affected by Duration of Breast-feeding, C. 74-8
Diseases, Variation of, England and Wales, H. 9
Down House, Home of Charles Darwin Study-rooms in
Large, Etched by Haig, B. 7
Small, Photograph of, B. 6
Water-colour of, by A. Goodwin, B. 8
Drunkard's Children, Abnormalities observed in, C. 92
DRYSDALE, C. V., H. 1-30
Dutch conditions as to Fertility in relation to Marriage, Wealth and
Occupation, C. 122
Dying-out of Higher grades of Society, C. 34
Large Scale of, C. 36
Quick process of, Catastrophic changes inaugurating,. C. 38-43
E
Earth, Colour of, as affecting Skin-colour in Fire Salamander, C. 1-2
England and Wales
Birth- and Death-rate and Infantile Mortality for, H. 9
Fertility of Married Women in, H. 9
Illegitimacy in, H. 9
English _v._ Gipsy, Inheritance of Racial form of Nose, K. 1
Engraving by Leopold Flameng of Collier's Portrait of C. Darwin, B. 4
Environment, Colour changes in Skin due to, C. 1-2
Epilepsy, Frequency of, in Prussian Lunatic Asylums, C. 88
Epileptic, Alcoholic, Sexually-immoral Man and Sexually-immoral Woman,
Offspring of, D. 9
and Feeble-minded Parents, Offspring of, D. 2, 4, 5, 7 (_a_ & _b_)
Man and Choreic Woman, Offspring of, D. 11
of Low Grade, condition of Relatives of, D. 13
and Normal Woman, Offspring of, D. 12
Parents, Offspring of, D. 1
Unmarried Mother, Offspring of, D. 6
Epileptics, Village for, of New Jersey State, at Skillman, D. 1-15
Etching by Axel Haig of Darwin's large Study at Down, B. 7
European States, Decrease of Fertility in some, C. 129
European _v._ American Red Indian, Inheritance of Racial form of
Nose, K. 2 (_a_ & _b_)
Segregation Inheritance of Eye-colour, K. 3
Eye, Lens of, Reconstruction of, out of Iris, C. 49
of Vertebrate, Development of, C. 49
Eye-colour in Mankind, Mendelian descent of, Pedigree shewing, I. 3
Racial Segregation of, K. 3-5
Eye-disease, Destructive, and Mental Defect in same Stock, E. 1
Eye-sight, Defects of, L. 1-4
F
Families brought back to the Land, North Germany, C. 23-5
Frequency of Tuberculosis in, C. 15
Faulty position of Child at Birth, in relation to
Stillbirth, C. 48 (5 & 6)
Feeble-minded
Children, Birth-curve of, compared with general Birth-curve, C. 97
Parents, Offspring of, D. 8
Mated with Epileptic, Offspring of, D. 2, 4, 5, 7 (_a_ & _b_)
Woman, and Alcoholic Man, Offspring of, D. 10.
Feeble-mindedness, Incest, and Offspring, D. 3
Origin of, Acute Intoxication in relation to, C. 97
Female Labour and Infant Mortality, C. 99-101
as affecting Reproduction, C. 99, 100
Fertile and Childless Couples, Physical Condition of, contrasted, C. 45
Fertility, Age of Parents at Death in relation to, C. 7
and Health in relation to Crossing of Races, C. 117
in relation to High Mental Endowment
in France, C. 124
in Holland, C. 123
Legitimate, in Berlin, Decrease of: Two-children System, C. 127-9
of Marriages, Occupation, and Wealth for Copenhagen, and Dutch
Conditions, C. 122
of Married Women, England and Wales, H. 9
Want of, in French and German towns, C. 125-9
and Wealth, C. 118
in Denmark, C. 121, 122
in Munich, C. 120
Field-workers in America, Charts collected by, P.
Fire Salamander, Colour-changes in Skin of, when placed on Yellow or on
Black Earth, C. 1-2
First-born _see also_ Numeral position alleged Inferiority in, C. 64.
and Later-Born, Infantile Mortality among, C. 56
Myopia in high degree and frequency of, C. 54
Fitness for Military Service in relation to Birth-place, locality and
size of, and to Parental occupation, C. 26-30
Foetus, effect on, of Lead poisoning, C. 98
France, Birth- and Death-rates for, since 1781., H. 8
Departments of, Fertility in relation to Wealth in, C. 118
Fertility in, in relation to High Mental Endowment, C. 124
Total Population and Birth- and Death-rates for, Variation in, H. 7
Towns of, Want of Fertility in, C. 125
G
Galton, Darwin, and Wedgwood Families, Inheritance of Ability as
exemplified by, O. 5
Galton, Samuel Tertius, his son Erasmus, and three daughters, Portraits
of (Silhouette), A. 4
Galton, Sir Francis, Portrait of, by Charles Furze, A. 1
Gametic Purity in Mendelian Heredity, Theory of
Illustrations of in
Blue Andalusian Fowls, O. 1 (_f_)
Mice, O. 1 (_d_)
General Paralysis of the Insane, Frequency of, in Prussian Lunatic
Asylums, C. 88
Generations of Mannheim Families
Age-intervals separating, C. 39
Average number of Children in each, C. 38
Number attained by, C. 38
Germ-cells, effect on, of Lead-poisoning, C. 98
Germ Production, Abnormal, Disturbance of Normal Sex proportion as
symptom of, C. 44
Germany, _see_ Berlin, Munich, & United Kingdom
Recruits in, cause of Unfitness in those qualified for one year and in
general, C. 33, 34
GRUEBER, PROF. von, C. 1-123
H
Hæmophylic family, Pedigree of, C. 12
Hair Peculiarities, Heredity of
Curled hair, C. 5
Lock of White hair, C. 6
Health and Fertility in relation to Crossing of Races, C. 117
of Married persons, importance to, of Marriage, C. 102
of Offspring in relation to
Birth-interval, C. 58
Blood-relationship of Parents, C. 108
Heart and Vessels, effect on, of Syphilis, C. 85
Hereditary Cataract, L. 4
Changes in _Alytes obstetricans_, C. 3-4
Congenital Nystagmus, L. 3 (_a_ & _b_)
Constitution as evidenced by power to Breast-feed, in relation to
Infant Mortality, C. 79-82
Night-blindness with Myopia, L. 2
Heredity, _see also_ Descent, Inheritance & Mendelism
among Moral Imbeciles, C. 17
of Hair peculiarities
Curling, C. 5
White lock, C. 6
of Particular Taints, Distribution of amongst nearest
Relatives, C. 16-19
Principles of, Charts of, P.
Higher grades of Society
Dying out of, C. 34
Large Scale of, C. 36
Urban, C. 37
Quick process, Catastrophic changes inaugurating, C. 38-43
Holland, _see also_ Dutch, & Netherlands
Fertility in, in relation to High Mental Endowment, C. 123
HOPE, E. W., PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT, CITY OF LIVERPOOL, F. 1-3 (_f_)
Human Races, _see also_ Races
Crossing of, Inbreeding and, C. 106-7
Interbreeding of Different, results of, K. 3
Hybrids resulting from Cross-fertilization, C. 111
Hybridization in Maize, C. 111
I
Illegitimacy in England and Wales, H. 9
Illegitimate Children, Mortality of, C. 104, 105
Imbeciles, Moral, Heredity among, C. 20
Inbreeding and Crossing of Races, C. 106
among Pathological, harm of, C. 109
in Reigning families, C. 112-14
Incest, and Feeble-mindedness, D. 3
Infantile Mortality in relation to
Age of Parents, C. 51
Birth Interval (_see also_ that head), C. 57, 58, 66
Long or Short, C. 65
Breast-feeding, _see under_ Breast-feeding
Birth- and Death-rates, relation between, H. 1
Female Labour, C. 99-101
Hereditary Constitution, C. 79-82
Marriage of Parents, C. 104, 105
Numerical position in family, C. 50, 60
in Princely families, C. 53
in England and Wales, H. 9
in the Netherlands, H. 10
in New Zealand, H. 26
in Protestant Countries, H. 11-13
in Roman Catholic Countries, H. 14-16
Tuberculosis, and Pauperism, relation between, E. 5 (_a-e_)
Inheritance of Ability, as exemplified in the Darwin, Galton, and
Wedgwood Families, O. 5
in Polygamous Utah family, of Physical and Mental Qualities and
Defects, and of Literary Ability, N. 1
Segregative of Racial Form of Nose, K. 1-2 (_a_ & _b_)
Insanitary Property in Liverpool, Model of, F. 1
Photographs of, and of New Dwellings erected on demolition
of, F. 3 (_a_ & _b_)
Insanity (_see also_ Lunatics), Consumption, and Infant
Mortality, E. 5 (_b_)
Interbreeding of Different Human Races, results of, K. 3
Inter-marriage, _see also_ Marriage between Pauper and Defective
families, Tendency to, E. 2
Intoxication, Alcoholic, Acute, in relation to Origin of
Feeble-mindedness, C. 97
L
Land, re-settlement of Families dealt with, N. Germany, C. 23-5
Lead-poisoning as affecting Germ-cells and Foetus, C. 98
Legitimate and Illegitimate Children, Berlin, 1885, Survival of, C. 105
Letters (autograph) of Charles Darwin (Two) on "Worms and their
Habits," B. 9
LIDBETTER, E. J., E. 1-6 (_d_) Life, Male, Duration of, Urban and Rural,
in Prussia, C. 22
LIVERPOOL, CITY OF, PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF, F. 1-3 (_f_)
London (_see also_ All London), Birth- and Death-rates, relation
between, H. 3
Low-type Stock, perpetuation of, Pauperism due to, E. 1-6 (_d_)
with but little Physical Defect, E. 3
Lunatic Asylums, Prussian, Frequency in, of Delirium tremens, Epilepsy
and General Paralysis, C. 88
M
Maize, Cross fertilized, Hybridized, Self-fertilized, C. 111
Male and Female Mortality, Urban and Rural, compared, C. 83-5
Life, Duration of, Urban and Rural, Prussia, C. 22
Malthusian theory of Population, H. 1-30
Mankind, Eye-colour in, Mendelian descent of, Pedigree shewing, I. 3
Mannheim families, Gradual extinction of, 19th century, C. 37
Marriage rate, England & Wales, H. 9
Marriage(s) in relation to Fertility, Occupation and Wealth, Copenhagen
and Holland, C. 122
First, Prolificness of, 19th Century, C. 40
Importance of, to Health of Married persons, C. 102
and Mortality in Prussia (1894-7), C. 102
between Peasant and Tramp, Pedigree shewing results, C. 21
Mendelian descent of Eye-colour in Mankind, Pedigree shewing, I. 3
Experiments with Fowls, shewing Recombination of Colours, M. 3
Heredity in Blue Andalusian Fowls,
Gametic Purity in, Illustration of Theory of, O. 1 (_f_)
Without Dominance, O. 1 (_e_)
in Mice, illustration of Theory of Gametic Purity in, O. 1 (_d_)
With Dominance, Theoretical examples of, O. 1 (_f_)
in Peas, Theoretical examples of, O. 1 (_a_ & _b_)
in Rabbits, M. 1, 2
Mendelism, O. 1
Mental Defect, _see also_ Defect, Defective, &c.
Transmission of, through the apparently Normal, E. 6 (_a-d_)
Disease and Destructive Eye-disease in same Stock, E. 1
Endowment, High, in relation to Fertility in
France, C. 124
Holland, C. 123
Taint, distribution of, among nearest Relatives, C. 17
Mice, Mendelian Heredity in, Gametic Purity in, O. 1 (_d_)
(Theoretical), with Dominance, O. 1 (_c_)
Midwife Toad, Hereditary changes in Habits of, C. 3-4
Migrainous Parents, Offspring of, D. 14
Military Fitness and Unfitness, Germany, in relation to School
life, C. 31, 32, 33
Recruits, Frequency among, of Venereal Diseases, C. 87
Miscarriages in relation to Conception losses, C. 52 (2)
Moral Imbeciles, Heredity among, C. 20
Mortality, _see also_ Infant, Male and Female, Phthisis, Syphilitic
of Children, in relation to Age at Death of Parents, C. 7-10
of Illegitimate Children, C. 104, 105
in relation to Marriage, C. 102
MUDGE, G. P., K. 1-5
Munich, Fertility in, in relation to Wealth, C. 120
Munich Regiments, percentage in, of Fitness, C. 34
Muscular Atrophy, Progressive, C. 13
Myopia, with Hereditary Night-blindness, L. 2
High degree of, and frequency of, among First-born, C. 54
N
Neomalthusianism, C. 118-29
Netherlands, _see also_ Holland
Birth- and Death-rates and Infant Mortality for, H. 10
New Jersey State Village for Epileptics, at Skillman, Charts of, D. 1-15
New Zealand, Birth- and Death-rate and Infant Mortality, H. 26
Night-blindness, Hereditary with Myopia L. 2
Inherited Stationary, Pedigree of sufferers from, of Nongaret
family, C. 14
Nongaret family, sufferers from Inherited Stationary Night-blindness,
Pedigree of, C. 14
Normal Classes, Comparison with, of Booth's Classification of "All
London," O. 3
Woman, with two Tuberculous husbands, E. 5 (_d_)
Nose, Racial form of, and its Segregative Inheritance, K. 1-2 (_a_ & _b_)
Number of Children and
Capacity for Breast-feeding, C. 61
Child Mortality, C. 60
Numerical position in family, _see also_ First-born
and Duration of Breast-feeding in relation to Infant Mortality, C. 20
in relation to Infantile Mortality, C. 50, 55
in Princely families, C. 53
Nystagmus, Hereditary congenital, L. 3 (_a_ & _b_)
O
Occupation in relation to Fertility, Denmark and Holland, C. 122
Offspring, Human, effects on of Alcohol, Blood relationship of Parents,
Epileptic and Feeble-minded Parentage, &c., _see_ those heads
P
Parental Age at Death, and Child Mortality, C. 7-10
Occupation in relation to Military Fitness, Germany, C. 26-30
Parents, Blood-relationship of, and Health of Offspring, C. 108
Epileptic, Offspring of, D. 1
Paris, Birth- and Death-rates of, relation between, H. 4
Number of Children in, in relation to Wealth, C. 119
Paternal Alcoholism, as affecting Suckling powers of Daughters, C. 93
with Inter-connection of Tuberculosis, Neuroses and Psychoses of
Offspring, C. 94
Lead-poisoning, effect of, on Reproduction of Healthy Offspring, C. 98
Pathological Interbreeding, harm of C. 109
Pauper and Defective families, Tendency to Inter-marriage between, E. 2
Pauperism due to Transmission of Defect, and perpetuation of Low-type
Stocks, E. 1-6 (_d_)
Tuberculosis, and Infant Mortality, relation between, E. 5 (_a-e_)
Peas, _see also_ Sweet Peas
Mendelian Inheritance in, Theoretical examples of, O. 1 (_a_ & _b_)
PEARL, DR. RAYMOND, G.
Peasant and Tramp Intermarriages, Pedigree shewing results, C. 21
Pedigree Records, System of Making, G. 1
Pedigrees of
Archduchess Maria ... of Tuscany, shewing Inbreeding, C. 112
"Belvidere," C. 100
Collected by Field-workers in America, P.
Descent of Administrative Ability, I. 1, _see also_ Darwin, Galton, and
Wedgwood families
of Scientific Ability (Wollaston Pedigree), I. 2
Mendelian descent of Eye-colour in Mankind, I. 3
Family with peculiarly Curled Hair, C. 5
Hæmophylic family, C. 12
Illustrating Royal tendency to Inter-marry, C. 112-14
Reigning Houses, shewing Ancestral Loss, C. 116
Zero von Jorger family, C. 21
Physical condition of Childless and Fertile Couples contrasted, C. 45
Photographs of Charles Darwin, B. 3, 5,
of Small Study in which "Origin of Species" was written, B. 6
Physical Development in relation to Duration of Breast-feeding, C. 7
Qualities, Heredity of, Tables shewing, C. 7
Phthisis Mortality, Decline in, for
England & Wales, F. 2 (_a_)
England & Ireland, F. 2 (_b_)
Liverpool, F. 2 (_d_)
Scotland, F. 2 (_c_)
Polygamous Utah Family, Inheritance in, of Physical and Mental Qualities
and Defects, and of Literary Ability, N. 1
Population
Births, _per_ Couple, essential to prevent Decay of
Nation, C. 123 _et proevi_
Descent of Qualities in (after Galton), O. 4
Malthusian theory of, H. 1-30
Neomalthusian theory of, C. 118-29
Portraits of
Darwin, Charles
(Engraving by L. Flameng, after Hon. John Collier's painting), B. 4
by Maull & Polyblank (Photograph), B. 3
on his horse Tommy (Photograph), B. 5
Painting by W. W. Ouless, B. 1
Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, and his son, Erasmus (Silhouette), A. 2
Darwin, Mrs. (Silhouette), A. 3
Galton, Samuel Tertius, his son Erasmus, and three daughters
(Silhouette), A. 4
Galton, Sir Francis, by Charles Furze, A. 1
Poultry, _see_ Blue Andalusian Fowls
Pregnancy, effect on, of Female Labour, C. 99-101
Premature Births and Abortion in various Callings, C. 101
in relation to Conception losses, C. 52(2)
Princely families, Infantile Mortality in, in relation to Numerical
position, C. 53
Principles of Heredity Charts of, P.
Progeny of the Highly Gifted in France, C. 124
Progressive Muscular Atrophy, Inheritance of, C. 13
Prolificness of First Marriages, 19th century, C. 40
Protestant Countries, Birth- and Death-rates and Infant
Mortality in, H. 11-13
Prussia, Fertility (restricted) in, C. 126
Prussia
Lunatic Asylums of, Frequency in, of Delirium tremens, Epilepsy, and
General Paralysis, C. 88
Male Life-duration in, Urban and Rural, C. 22
Ptolemäus X., pedigree of, shewing Inbreeding, C. 113
PUNNETT, PROF. R. C., M. 1-7 (_b_)
Q
Qualities, Descent of, in a Population (after Galton), O. 4
R
Rabbits, Mendelian Inheritance in, M. 1, 2
Rachitic disturbances of Development, Frequency of, in relation to
Duration of Breast-feeding, C. 78
Race--Hygiene, C. 46-7
Racial Crossing, C. 106-7
Fertility and Health in relation to, C. 117
Eye-colour Segregation of, K.
Form of Nose and its Segregative Inheritance, K. 1-2 (_a_ & _b_)
Inbreeding, C. 106-7
Recombination of Colours in Fowls, Mendelian experiments shewing, M. 3
Recruits, qualified for one year's service, and Recruits in general,
Germany, causes of Unfitness in, compared, C. 33, 34
Reigning families, Inbreeding among, C. 112
Houses, Pedigrees of, shewing Ancestral Loss, C. 116
Relations, Nearest, Distribution among, of Particular Taints, C. 16-19
Reproduction, effect on, of Female Labour, C. 99-101
of Paternal Lead Poisoning, C. 98
Reproduction-methods of _Alytes obstetricans_, Hereditary changes
in, C. 3-4
Reproductive Functions, Injury to, from Alcohol, C. 89-90
Restriction of Birth, C. 125-8
Reversion in Sweet Peas
on Crossing, followed by appearance in next generation of Numerous
Types, M. 4
in Structural characters, M. 5
Roman Catholic Countries, Birth- and Death-rate and Infant Mortality
in, H. 14-16
Rural and Urban Duration of Male Life, Prussia, C. 22
S
Self-fertilization in Maize, C. 111
School Reports, average, in relation to Duration of Breast-feeding, C. 77
Schools, German, in relation to Military Fitness, C. 31
Scientific Ability, Descent of, Pedigree shewing I. 2, _and see_ Darwin,
Galton, Wedgwood families.
Sexes, Normal proportion of, Disturbance in, as symptom of Abnormal
germ production, C. 44
Segregation Inheritance of Racial form of Nose, K., 1-2 (a & b)
Segregation of Racial Eye-colour, K. (3-5)
Silhouettes of
Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, and his son Erasmus, A. 2
Darwin, Mrs., A. 3
Galton, Samuel Tertius, his son Erasmus, and three daughters, A. 4.
Skin-Colour, changes in, in Fire Salamander according to whether kept on
Yellow or Black Earth, C. 1-2
Soter II., Pedigree of, shewing Inbreeding, C. 113
Spaniard _v._ Gipsy Inheritance, Segregation of Eye-colour, K. 3
Stillbirths, in relation to Conception losses, C. 52-3
Decrease of Total of, C. 48(4)
Structural Characters, Reversion in, in Sweet Peas, M. 5
Students, German, causes of Military Unfitness in, C. 32, 33
Suicides in Civilised Countries, Increasing numbers of, C. 35-6
Suckling, _see_ Breast-feeding
Sucklings, _see_ Infant Mortality
Surgery in Childbirth, increase in, Racial significance of, C. 48 (1-6)
Standard Scheme of Descent (after Galton), O. 2
Sweet Peas
Association in, of Characters in Heredity, M. 6 & 7 (_a_ & _b_)
Reversion in, on Crossing, followed by appearance of Numerous Types in
next generation, M. 4
in Structural Characters, M. 5
Syphilitic and Sexually-immoral Couple, Offspring of, D. 15
Syphilis
Heart and Vessels as harmed by, C. 85
Mortality from, at 36 to 50 years, C. 85
Frequency of, relative, Urban and Rural, C. 86-8
T
Taints, particular, distribution of among nearest Relations, C. 16-9
Teeth, Carious, average of, Breast-feeding in relation to, C. 74, 75
Toronto, City of, Birth- and Death-rates of, H. 27
Towns, _see also_ Urban
French and German, Restriction of Births in, C. 125-9
Life in, Special effect of, on Male Mortality, C. 83-5
Tramp and Peasant Inter-marriage, Pedigree showing results, C. 21
Tuberculosis
Frequency of, within Families, C. 15
Infant Mortality, and Pauperism, relation between, E. 5 (_a_ & _e_)
Mortality from, of Married and Unmarried persons, C. 102
Tuberculous family with apparently Normal Parents from Tuberculous
Stocks, E. 5 (_a_)
Stock, Survival of, by accession of strength from
Normal, E. 5 (_c_ & _d_)
Twins, Hereditary tendency to beget, C. 11
Two-children System in Berlin, C. 127-9
U
United Kingdom and Germany, Total Population, and Birth- and Death-rates,
Variations in, H. 5-6
Urban Tendency to Extinction of Higher-grade families, C. 37
and Rural Duration of Male life, Prussia, C. 22
relative Frequency of Syphilis and other Venereal diseases, C. 86-8
V
Vitality of Child, influence on, of Birth-intervals, C. 65
Venereal Disease, Frequency of
among Military Recruits, C. 87
Urban and Rural, relative, C. 86-8
W
Wealth, in relation to
Birth-rate, C. 118-22
Fertility
Denmark, C. 121, 122
France, C. 118, 119
Wedgwood, Galton, and Darwin Families, Inheritance of Ability as
exemplified by, O. 5
WEEKS, DAVID FAIRFIELD, Director of the N. Jersey State Village for
Epileptics at Skillman, U.S.A. D. 1-15
WHEELER, E. G., A. (1-4)
WHETHAM, MR. & MRS. W. C. D., I. 1-3
Widows and Divorced persons, High Death-rate of, C. 103
WIDTSOE, JOHN A., A.M., Ph.D., Chart shewing Inheritance of Physical and
Mental Qualities and Defects, and of Literary Ability, from
Polygamous family in Utah, N. 1
Wife, Importance of in raising or lowering Family Status, C. 21
William II., German Emperor, Pedigree of, showing "Ancestral
loss," C. 116
Wollaston Pedigree, shewing descent of Scientific Ability, I. 2
Woman with two husbands, Defective family by the first, E. 4
Z
Zero von Jorger family, Pedigree of, C. 21
First International Eugenics Congress,
London, July, 1912.
LIST OF EXHIBITS.
[Sidenote: A.]
Exhibited by E. G. Wheler, Esq.
[Sidenote: A 1]
Portrait of Sir Francis Galton, by Charles Furze, 1903.
[Sidenote: A 2]
Silhouettes of Dr. Erasmus Darwin and his son Erasmus.
[Sidenote: A 3]
Silhouette of Mrs. Darwin.
[Sidenote: A 4]
Silhouettes of Samuel Tertius Galton, his son Erasmus and three
daughters.
[Sidenote: B.]
Exhibited by William> E. and Leonard Darwin.
[Sidenote: B 1]
Portrait of Charles Darwin, by W. W. Ouless, R A., painted in 1875.
[Sidenote: B 2]
Portrait of Erasmus Darwin (after Wright, of Derby), the common
grandfather of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton.
[Sidenote: B 3]
Photograph of Charles Darwin, by Maull & Polyblank, taken about the
year 1854.
[Sidenote: B 4]
Leopold Flameng's Engraving, after the portrait of Charles Darwin, by
the Hon. John Collier, painted in the year 1881--now in the National
Portrait Gallery.
[Sidenote: B 5]
Photograph of Charles Darwin on his horse Tommy.
[Sidenote: B 6]
Photograph of the small study at Down in which the "Origin of Species"
was written.
[Sidenote: B 7]
Etching by Axel Haig of the large study at Down, which Charles Darwin
occupied from about 1887 onwards.
[Sidenote: B 8]
Water-colour Drawing of Down House, by Albert Goodwin, painted in 1882.
[Sidenote: B 9]
Two letters of Charles Darwin, on "Worms and their Habits,"
[Sidenote: C.]
Exhibited by Professor von Gruber.
[Sidenote: C 1 & 2]
Experiments by P. Kammerer on +changes produced in the colours in
the skin of the Fire Salamander--Salamandra maculosa--by keeping them
on yellow or black earth respectively+.
According as to whether the animals are kept on yellow or black earth
the yellow or black colouring of the skin spreads, and this change
of colour appears in the same way in the offspring, though a direct
influence of the colour of the earth on the germ plasm is absolutely
unthinkable. The two pictures in the lower part of Figure C 1 show
the colouring of that generation to which the animal portrayed above
belongs, according as to whether they have been kept permanently on
yellow soil (right) or returned again to black soil (left). Here,
it is true, it is not a question of a new quality or tendency. The
capacity in the parents to deposit black pigment in their skin has
been increased or decreased according to their surroundings. But the
distinctive point remains, that their offspring is subsequently endowed
with the inherited tendency to produce proportionately more or less
pigment. This may, however, be a direct result of the abnormal life
conditions of the parents, in so far as the depositing of more or less
pigment in the skin of the parents is certainly not a purely local
process, but rather is bound up with other metabolic changes which may
extend to or influence the developing gametes.
[Sidenote: C 3 & 4]
Very remarkable are the +hereditary changes+ which Kammerer
established in +Alytes obstetricans+--the midwife toad.
With them copulation normally takes place on dry land. The male
extricates from the female the string of eggs, winds it round his hind
legs and carries it about until the eggs are ready. Then, and not till
then, he enters the water where the larvæ escape. If, however, one
keeps these toads in a high temperature (25-30 C.) they enter the water
to cool themselves and abandon their normal way of manipulating their
brood because the string of spawn swells in water and does not remain
sufficiently sticky to allow the male to fasten it to his thighs. The
animals become gradually accustomed to live in water, and continue to
carry on the business of reproduction there, even when the temperature
is normal. As soon as the new instinct has become sufficiently
established with the parents they beget offspring, which at a normal
temperature go of their own accord into water to deposit their eggs,
and also produce eggs more numerous than, and somewhat different
from, those of the normal toad. Further, the males of this succeeding
generation develop thumbs and forearms of a character which enables
them to perform the difficult task of holding the females during
copulation in the water.
[Sidenote: C 5 & 6]
The likeness of offspring to their parents is extremely great and goes
into many details; this we frequently overlook because a divergence
strikes us more than a similarity. A similarity becomes striking when
it is a question of familiar peculiarities. These often relate to
exterior unimportant peculiarities. Our collection contains +a
pedigree+ (taken by Dr. Walter Bell from Bateson's "Mendel's
Principles of Heredity"), Figure C 5, +of a family with peculiarly
curled hair+; also in Figure C 6, a +case of heredity of a lock
of white hair+, likewise taken from Bateson's work by Rizzoli.
[Sidenote: C 7]
The heredity of physical qualities is strikingly illustrated in
Weinberg's Table C 7, showing the age +at death of the parents
and the marital gross and nett fertility+. It is founded on the
Stuttgart family registers, and comprises about 1,900 non-tubercular
and about 3,000 tubercular families ("Archiv für Rassen and
Gesellschafts Biologie" and Württemberger Jahrbücher für Statistik und
Landeskunde, 1911). W. Weinberg adds:
[Illustration:
Relation of Age at Death of Parents to Gross and Nett Fertility. (After
Weinberg.)
Age of parents. Men: Women:
Years under 30 A 0.58 C 1.00 A 0.93 C 1.79
B 0.62 D 1.34 B 0.82 D 1.72
30-40 A 1.38 C 2.81 A 1.65 C 3.40
B 1.41 D 2.70 B 1.81 D 3.53
40-50 A 2.31 C 3.94 A 1.88 C 3.34
B 1.90 D 3.69 B 2.25 D 4.52
50-60 A 2.39 C 4.05 A 2.31 C 3.69
B 2.21 D 4.04 B 1.92 D 3.42
60-70 A 3.05 C 4.76 A 2.62 C 4.37
B 2.88 D 4.65 B 2.79 D 4.28
70-100 A 3.38 C 5.50 A 2.76 C 4.34
B 3.22 D 5.53 B 2.80 D 4.33
A - Non-tuberculous families, number of children surviving 20th year.
B - Tuberculous " " " " "
C - Non-tuberculous families, number of children dying before attaining
20th year.
D - Tuberculous " " " " "
Number of non-tuberculous families about 1,900 (1876-79-86), of
tuberculous about 3,000 (1873-89); from Stuttgart family registers.
Figure C 7.]
"The gross as well as the nett fertility of those which have died
increases with the age attained, the latter, however, in a greater
degree, because the mortality of children decreases with the greater
age attained at death. With the wife the curve is less steep and less
regular, because in her case mortality is unfavourably influenced by
the birth functions; this is particularly plainly seen in the case of
tuberculous women, when the curve has two peaks."
[Sidenote: C 8]
The same fact of heredity of "constitution" is demonstrated in
Weinberg's Table C 8 showing the +age at death of the parents and
the mortality of the children up to the age of 20.+ It is based on
the same material as Table 7 and proves: "With the increasing age of
the parents child mortality decreases, especially so in the case of the
children of the tuberculous, and the number of children reaching the
age of sexual maturity increases correspondingly."
[Illustration:
Age at Death of Parents and Mortality of the Children up to the Age of
20 (including Still-born).
Deaths per 100 living-born children:
Non-tuberculous. Tuberculous.
Age at death of father of mother of father of mother
Under 30 42.1 45.1 52.9 54.8
30- 40 51.2 51.6 48.6 40.6
40- 50 38.3 43.8 48.3 50.2
50- 60 41.5 35.6 45.5 43.7
60- 70 38.1 40.1 38.1 36.4
70-100 38.5 36.2 42.4 39.8
Figure C 8.]
[Sidenote: C 9 & 10]
The same is proved by the two Tables C 9 and 10 by Ploëtz referring
to +age at death of fathers and mothers and child mortality up to
the age of five years+. Very striking in both these tables is
the extremely low mortality of the offspring of the parents with the
greatest longevity.
[Sidenote: C 11]
Table C 11 by Weinberg: +Hereditary of the disposition to beget
twins+ (Archiv für Rassen & Gesellschafts Biologie VI. 1909) is
remarkable. "The difference in favour of sisters speaks for Mendel's
law of dominance and recessivity. The more twins a woman has borne,
the more frequently the same phenomena is found in her nearest
female relations." That the mortality among twins is very great is a
well-known fact.
[Illustration:
Inheritance of Tendency to Bear Twins.
About 2,000 families from Würtemberg family registers (after Weinberg).
In every 100,000 Births Twin Births occur in the following numbers:
Total population 1087
Among daughters 1394
of mothers
" maidens 1523
of twins
" sisters 2135
Figure C 11.]
[Illustration:
In every 1,000 Births there are the following numbers of Twin Births
among the immediate relatives:
Of all mothers 11
Of women who have had 1 multiple birth 17
" " 2 " " 20
" " 3 or more " 56
Mortality of Twins.
Percentage of deaths before the age of 20:
Single-born Children 39
Twins 61
Figure C 11 (_continued_).]
[Sidenote: C 12]
Figure C 12 the celebrated pedigree of the Hæmophilic +family+
(bleeders) +Mampel+ (by Rüdin after Lossen).
[Sidenote: C 13]
Figure C 13 showing the inheritance of progressive muscular
+atrophy+ (after Eichhorst).
[Sidenote: C 14]
Figure C 14 a partial reproduction of a +pedigree+ comprising
over 2,000 people of the family Nongaret suffering from inherited
stationary night +blindness+ (compiled by Cunier, Truc and
Nettleship). With regard to these figures it is to be noted that only a
fraction of the offspring is affected with the illness, the remainder
being perfectly normal. It is remarkable with the bleeders (Hæmophilic
persons) that the females do not suffer from the disease though they
transfer it to their male offspring; a similar latent disposition is
observable in other hereditary conditions, especially colour-blindness.
[Sidenote: C 15]
W. Weinberg shows in Table C 15 the +frequency of tuberculosis
within families+. He adds: "This is a comparison of the experiences
of married tubercular individuals, regarding the frequency of
tuberculosis among their parents, brothers and sisters, with the
corresponding experiences of their husbands or wives who come on an
average from similar surroundings. The experiences of the latter
represent the normal expectation. It is especially striking that the
family influence tells most with the children of the well-to-do." The
well-known fact that the tuberculous frequently come from tuberculous
stock is clearly demonstrated in the figures of this table.
[Sidenote: C 16]
[Sidenote: C 17]
In Table C 16 Dr. Otto Diem shows the +distribution of particular
taints+ in every hundred of the tainted members +among the
nearest relations+ (parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers
and sisters) of the entire material he deals with. It is shown for
instance that with the mentally sound, 15% of the tainted relatives
were mentally diseased against 45.9% with the mentally diseased. Figure
C 17 shows the share of this percentage among the parents only. It is
demonstrated that with the mentally diseased a much larger percentage
of the total hereditary taint is traceable to parental madness,
alcoholism, abnormality of character, than with the mentally sound.
[Sidenote: C 18]
Figure C 18 corresponds, with figure C 17, except that not only the
parents are reckoned but the nearest defective relative in any degree.
[Sidenote: C 19]
Figure C 19 teaches that the reckoning of all the taints in the
ancestry taken together with the collaterals fails to give as clear and
convincing a picture of the dissimilarity in the heredity of mentally
sound and diseased, as the reckoning of the taints among the parents
alone. The establishment of the hereditary taint in the direct ancestry
appears therefore by far the more important.
[Sidenote: C 20]
In Figure 144 (Journal f. Psychologie und Neurologie. XIII. Bd.) Drf.
Hans W. Mayer gives a number of examples of +heredity among moral
imbeciles+, and he draws the following conclusions: "Consequently
moral defect in frequent combination with alcoholism is hereditary
in the highest degree. Remedy: Incarceration of these dangerous
individuals, not according to the accidental form of the crime
committed, but as diseased and forming a public danger. If there is a
risk of escape or if liberty is conceded--undoubtedly sterilization
to prevent perpetuation of the defect." This latter course is already
followed in North America, and a start has been made with it in
Switzerland, at least in cases where the consent of the patients is
obtained.
[Sidenote: C 21]
The pedigree of the +family of Zero von Jorger+, figure C 21
(Archiv für Rassen & Gesellschafts biologie I.), shows in a convincing
manner how very important for the protection of society is the
prevention of the reproduction of the degenerate. In the course of time
this family has burdened the sound and fit with taxation amounting to
hundreds of thousands of pounds. The author remarks: "The family Zero
springs from good peasant stock intermarrying with homeless female
tramps. Its history shows how alcohol (especially spirits) and bad
environment (in this case always combined) may create a scourge to
society which continues from generation to generation. The family
has produced many criminals, lunatics and feeble-minded persons. The
offspring of these are destined to die out. Their great fertility at
times is counteracted by great infant mortality."
"In places regeneration is evident which invariably is inaugurated by
marriage with a good woman and the consequent abandonment of the abuse
of alcohol. As with the degeneration so with the regeneration the wife
takes the leading part."
The question whether modern civilized races are degenerate in body and
mind is much disputed. In some respects for instance in the increase
of myopia and caries of the teeth it is generally admitted, but in
others it is doubtful, though it may be considered an established fact
that the general average of health among all civilized nations is
unsatisfactory. We do not know for certain whether the general level of
all or certain qualities is being lowered or not, and still less can we
say what part is played by heredity.
The demand for the systematic collection of data on these points is the
first which Race Hygiene has to make from Governments.
The examinations as to fitness for military service in Germany might
offer an excellent index of the physique of the people, but for this
purpose the physical condition of the conscripts would have to be
recorded in a much more thorough manner than at present (S. Gruber
Concordia, 1916). There appears, however, to be no doubt that in
general the country and agricultural pursuits produce young men of
better average health than do towns and other occupations. This agrees
with the fact that the life of the inhabitants in rural districts and
of those engaged in agriculture is longer than that of town dwellers.
[Sidenote: C 22]
Table C 22 +compares+ the+ duration of life+ of men
living +in towns with+ those living in +rural districts
in Prussia+. Beyond all doubt the peasant population is still
constitutionally the most valuable part of the people, and the
colonisation at home, such as the Prussian Government is pursuing to
an increasing degree, may become of the very highest value for the
improvement of the race.
[Sidenote: C 23, 24 & 25]
Dr. Walter Abelsdorff gives the following explanations to Table C
23, and figures C 24 and C 25. "They endeavour to show the number of
+families brought 'back to the land' in North Germany+ in the
years 1900-1910."
"The Royal Commission for settlement in West Prussia and Posen has
achieved notable results since the beginning of its activity in 1886.
This body has brought about from 1886 to 1910 the settlement in the
country of 18,507 families, 18,127 in leaseholds and 305 in labourers'
dwellings. For 1900 to 1910 the total number of families settled amount
to 14,511."
"The Royal General Commission began its activity later, but since
1906 has been energetically pursuing the settlement of agricultural
labourers. At Münster, in the years 1908 to 1910, 247 leasehold small
holdings for artisans have been created."
"The results of the Royal District Administrations are as yet less
considerable, those of private societies with State subvention, though
irregular, are worthy of note."
"The total work of settlement is almost exclusively effected by the
Commission for settlements and the General Commission."
"Counting five members to each family, 130,000 people have been brought
into economically improved conditions. In how far this may benefit
the second generation--the children of the settlers--cannot as yet be
determined."
"These efforts, however, may be looked upon as a regenerative component
among the measures for the improvement of the people."
[Sidenote: C 26 & 27]
Figure C 26 deals with the +fitness for military service in Germany
in relation to the locality of birth+ and the +occupation+
of the individual or the parents. Table C 27 with +fitness for
military service in town and country+ (both after Wellmann).
[Illustration:
Fitness for Military Service according to Place of Birth and Calling.
German Empire, 1902-08.
Percentage of Recruits examined and found fit:
Country born. City born.
Employed in Employed in
Agriculture. Otherwise. Agriculture. Otherwise.
% 60.5 50.5 58.7 59.7 58.3 57.2 59.3 57.9 56.5 53.8 51.3 49.7
Years 1902 1904 1907 1902 1904 1907 1902 1904 1907 1902 1904 1907
-03 -06 -08 -03 -06 -08 -03 -06 -08 -03 -06 -08
Figure C 26.]
[Illustration:
Fitness for Military Service in Town and Country. (After Wellmann.)
Locality of Birth.
Trade. Percentage Of those examined. Of both parents.
of fit.
Large city. Village. Large city. Village.
% % % %
Brewer ... 63.4 3.0 55.3 3.0 55.3
Cab Driver 63.3 3.2 69.0 1.6 69.8
Smith 61.2 1.9 71.0 1.2 75.7
Skilled Mechanic 29.7 44.4 10.9 30.9 30.0
Implement maker or
Tool maker ... 28.5 36.3 15.9 24.8 28.3
Figure C 27.]
[Sidenote: C 28]
+Enlistments into the Army+ in Germany in 1907 and 1908, +according
to size+ (number of inhabitants) +of native place+, are shown by Dr.
Walter Abelsdorff in Figure C 28.
[Sidenote: C 29]
Figure C 29 shows +the percentage of those found fit in the final
examination in Bavaria+ and +occupation of the parents+.
[Sidenote: C 30]
Table C 30 shows the total of all the +non-commissioned officers and
privates in the German Army+ on December 1st, 1906, +classed
according as they came from town or country+ and +according to
the occupation or the parents+.
Attention is invited to the fact that according to Figure C 26 the
percentage of those found fit for military service in Germany has
diminished in recent years, but it is doubtful whether this is caused
by a general lowering of physique. It may be due to the application
of a higher standard in consequence of increased supply. The distinct
increase in height, in Germany as well as in many other European
countries, of those obliged to offer themselves for military service
speaks against deterioration in the average of physique. Against the
suggestion that with the increase in height may be coupled a greater
disposition to tuberculosis must be set the fact that amongst the tall
is found a percentage of fit higher than the average.
Abelsdorff remarks of Table C 27: "The results of recruiting for the
years 1907 and 1908 have been grouped according to the size of the
place of birth of the recruits.
The average for the whole empire in 1907 is 54.9, in 1908 54.5, fit in
every 100 finally examined. The percentage of fitness has diminished
0.4% from 1907 to 1908. The numbers for 1904, 1905 and 1906 are
respectively 56.4, 56.3, and 55.9%.
Towns with over 1,000,000 inhabitants show the smallest number of fit:
1907, 31.4%; 1908, 28.2%. The decline is 3.2%. Compared with the figure
for the whole empire it shows 23.5% less fitness in 1907 and 26.3% in
1908.
For towns of 500,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants the figures are slightly
better; they reach 39.9% in 1907 and 44.0% in 1908; an improvement of
4.9% on the figures of the largest towns. The other three classes,
viz., towns with 200,000 to 500,000; 100,000 to 200,000 and 50,000
to 100,000 inhabitants, show comparatively little variation in their
figures for fitness for military service. They are 50.1% and 48.9%;
47.9 and 48.2%; 51.8 and 51.5%. The differences between the two years
are not material. With the towns of from 200,000 to 500,000 and from
50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants there has been a decrease against an
increase in those of from 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. But the
figures for all three classes remain behind the average figure for the
empire and so do those of all towns, they show 50.4 and 50.1%.
The most favourable results are yielded by the country districts. Here
there were fit in 1907 58%, in 1908 57.7%. A trifling decrease is shown
even here. The figures, however, are higher by 3.1% in 1907 and 3.2%
in 1908 than the average for the empire. The conclusion is that the
fitness is highest in the smallest, and lowest in the largest places.
Taking the average for the Empire as 100, those found fit from country
districts number 106, from towns 92, from towns of over 50,000
inhabitants 83, and from towns of over 100,000 only 80."
The tables showing the recruiting results amongst those qualified for
the one year voluntary service are particularly interesting.
[Sidenote: C 31]
In Table C 31 Schwiening (Veröffentlichungen aus dem Militär
Sanitatswesen. 40. Berlin, Hirschwald, 1909) gives the figures
of those finally passed as +fit for military service in the
Mittelschulen+ (secondary schools), +which are classified
according to their nature+. The figures are too optimistic because
no account has been taken of those who were found temporarily unfit.
The Classical Schools (Gymnasium) give the least satisfactory results.
[Illustration:
Fitness for Military Service and Secondary Schools.
Of every 100 of the pupils of the following Schools
Class of School: there were found fit for Military Service:
Classical High Schools (Gymnasium) 62,2
Old Scientific & Classical High Schools (Realgymnasium) 64,0
Lower Grade of Classical High Schools (Progymnasium) 64,5
Polytechnics 64,8
Lower Grade of Scientific Schools 66,0
" " " " and Classical High Schools 66,9
Modern Scientific High Schools 66,9
Commercial Schools 69,4
Training Colleges 73,1
Private Schools 74,9
Agricultural Schools 83,4
Average 64,7
Figure C 31.]
[Sidenote: C 32]
Table C 32 gives the +principal reasons for which students have been
rejected as unfit for military service+.
[Illustration:
Causes of Unfitness for Military Service in the German Empire, 1904-6.
Of every 100 permanently unfit.
There were rejected on account of: [A] [B]
================================== ====== ======
General debility--weak chest. 36.4 35.4
Diseases of the heart and large
blood-vessels. 14.7 5.8
Defects of eyes (error of
refraction). 10.9 4.4
Pulmonary defects. 4.5 1.9
Diseases of the nervous system
(excl. epilepsy). 1.00 0.33
Obesity. 2.2 0.29
Diseases of the limbs and joints. 5.6 6.1
Rupture. 3.1 4.1
Flat feet. 2.6 4.9
Varicose veins. 1.9 3.9
Deformities. 1.4 3.1
Insanity and Epilepsy. 0.65 2.1
Key to Table
------------
[A] Entitled to one year's service. (Einjhrign Freiwilligen.)
[B] Ordinary soldiers subject to full Military Service
Figure C 32.]
[Sidenote: C 33]
Table C 33 is a +comparison of the frequency of the various
causes of unfitness as between those qualified for the one year's
voluntary service and the recruits in general+. This table is very
remarkable, because it shows the preponderance of general weakness,
diseases of the heart and large vessels, and pulmonary defects among
the former.
[Illustration:
Military Fitness and Secondary Schools.
Percentage of unfit to every 100 recruits examined.
Cause of rejection: [A] [B] [C] [D] [E]
============================= ============================
General debility--weak chest. 12.2 14.1 13.6 15.1 9.6
Diseases of the heart and
large blood-vessels. 5.6 5.0 4.7 4.9 5.1
Defects of eyes (errors of
refraction). 4.5 3.8 2.7 2.6 2.8
Disease of the joints or limbs. 2.3 1.9 2.0 1.7 1.1
Pulmonary defects. 1.8 1.5 1.1 1.3 1.4
Key to Table
------------
[A] Classical High School.
[B] Old Science and Classical High School.
[C] Modern Science High School.
[D] Lower Grade High School.
[E] Training College.
Figure C 33.]
[Sidenote: C 34]
It goes without saying that the schools are only responsible to a
lesser degree for this; we have to deal here with a serious symptom
of a bad constitution amongst the higher social grades which betrays
itself also in the dying out of the socially prominent families. How
badly their progeny comes off, in spite of the great care bestowed
on it, is illustrated in Table C 34. In two Munich Regiments the
percentage of fit among all those entitled to offer themselves for the
one year's service from the most varied parts of Germany was only,
according to Dieudonné, 21.6, 20.1, and 16.4.
[Sidenote: C 35 & 36]
Great anxiety is justly caused by the increasing number of those
taken care of in public Lunatic Asylums. It remains doubtful to what
degree this may be due to the greater use made of asylums and the
decrease of the care of the mentally infirm in the family home; the
deterioration of the nervous system nevertheless remains according to
the general impression an incontestable fact. As a symptom of this
may be interpreted the increasing +number of suicides in civilised
countries+, demonstrated in Rüdin's Tables, C 35 and C 36, showing
the number of suicides in every one million of inhabitants.
More serious still than the frequency of mental and nervous diseases
is another phenomenon which demonstrates how unsatisfactory is the
constitutional condition of large circle of our population of to-day.
This phenomenon which as yet has received much too little attention is
+the large scale on which families die out+, at first in the
male line. Apparently (sufficient observations for control are not
available) those families which hold an eminent economical or social
position (aristocracy, old county families, etc., etc.) are mainly
concerned. Because exceptional endowment in one or more respects
(intelligence, talent, will power, etc.) is generally required to
secure or to maintain a leading position, and because such endowment
is given to only a small fraction of the population, but is inherited
largely by the progeny, this dying out of the leading families means a
serious loss to the race.
The deficient fertility of the stock thus endowed results in a lower
average of mental capacity in the population generally, and cannot in
the long run be made up by the constant re-appearance of distinguished
men appearing as variations, the smallest number of whom are
"mutations."
The tendency among town families to die out appears to be wide-spread.
Professor S. Schott in Tables C 37-C 40 adds materially to our
knowledge on this point, Professor Schott makes the following comment
on his Tables:--
"S. Schott. Old Mannheim families, 4 tables."
"Source: 'Old Mannheim families. A contribution to the family
statistics of the 19th Century by Professor Dr. Sigmund Schott,
Mannheim and Leipzig, 1910. J. Rensheimer.' Statistical demonstration
of the development, decline, and extinction of about 4,000 families
which were in existence at Mannheim at the beginning of the 19th
Century, based on permanently maintained family registers. This
research, pursued on a basis of population statistics, lends itself
only to a limited degree to application for biological purposes."
[Sidenote: C 37]
+Gradual extinction of the Mannheim families in the 19th
Century.+ Only extinction by death in Mannheim and in the male
line are taken into account. Families which have disappeared through
emigration have been excluded. Branches of families which have become
extinct at Mannheim may be flourishing elsewhere. Of 3,081 families,
2,538 have become extinct by death at Mannheim itself, 543 survive. The
spiral curve shows the number of survivors in any year as so many per
thousand of the original number.
[Illustration:
Old Mannheim Families.
Gradual extinction of Old Mannheim Families during the 19th century.
Figure C 37.]
[Sidenote: C 38]
+Average number of children in each generation; the families being
grouped according to the number of generations they attained.+
The families of 1807 (original families) and their descendants were
classed into five groups, according to the number of generations they
attained in Mannheim. For each group is calculated the average number
of children within one generation--for each separate family as well as
for the entire family (_i.e._, the total of all the separate families
which have sprung from the same "original family"). For instance:
"Original families" which have lasted into the third generation, 464;
the separate families show in the first generation, 464 families,
2,377 children; in the second generation, 718 families, with 3,645
children; in the third generation, 754 families, with 2,454 children.
Accordingly, the total families show average numbers 5.1, 7.9, 5.3;
the separate families, 5.1, 5.1, 3.3. All these averages are minimum
figures, because it was impossible to eliminate the moderate number
of couples who emigrated before the number of their offspring was
completed.
In the generations up to the third inclusive, reproduction may be
considered as terminated, but in the fourth, and especially the fifth
and sixth, it still is in progress.
[Sidenote: C 39]
+Age intervals separating the various generations.+
Taking into account all the families investigated, the average length
of time between the birth of the originator of the family and his first
born son was 33-1/4 years, his first born grandchild 63-2/3 years,
and his first born great grandchild 95-1/3 years. The curves become
gradually flatter, because the possible difference between minimum
and maximum age distance from one generation to another increases in
arithmetical progression.
[Sidenote: C 40]
+Prolificness of first marriages in the 19th century.+ Taking
the entire period from 1811 to 1890 together the percentage of large
families (six children or more) and of small families (one-two
children) produced by all first marriages, excluding childless ones,
is indicated by the horizontal centreline. The positive or negative
deviations from the average during each decade are entered respectively
above and below this line. The note in Figure C 38 referring to the
families which may have emigrated while still productive applies here
also. The temporary increase in prolific marriages after 1870 may be in
connection with the material decrease in the age of those contracting
marriage for the first time, as compared with the preceding decade.
(Men 28.65 in the earlier period as against 27.41 in the later, and
women 25.92 against 24.68 years.)
The extinction of the families is undoubtedly due partly to other
causes than the voluntary limitation of families--to a process of
degeneration. A very remarkable proof of the degenerative character of
the dying out of families is given by Pontus Fahlbeck in his book, "The
Aristocracy of Sweden" (Fischer, Jena, 1903).
[Sidenote: C 41-43]
The six Figures C 38-43 give what is biologically of greatest interest
in it. Note how the terribly +quick extinction+ of the +families+ of
the nobility is +inaugurated by catastrophic changes+: rapid fall in
the frequency of marriages, in the number of fertile marriages, and
in the number of their progeny. The curves of the surviving families
(red in the original tables) are for comparison. That we have to deal
here with a natural and not a voluntary process is shown by the rapid
increase in the mortality of male youth in the last generations; also
by the extraordinary change in the proportion of the sexes of the
children--which, of course, is beyond any control, marked preponderance
of girls amongst the survivors (possibly also by the frequency of
still-born male children).
+A disturbance in the normal proportion of the sexes as a symptom
of abnormal germ production+ may also assert itself in the opposite
direction. O. Lorenz has pointed out the frequent occurrence of
an extraordinary increase of male children immediately before the
extinction of a family in the male line. One of the most celebrated of
these cases is the one of the family of the Emperor Max II. He had six
sons and two daughters, who all reached the age of maturity, but not a
single male grandchild in the legitimate male line.
[Sidenote: C 44]
Fresh evidence is exhibited by von den Velden in Figure C 44. With the
families described by von Riffel, who have died out in the male line,
there is still a great preponderance of boys in the last generation in
which boys have reached the age of sexual maturity, whereas there is a
preponderance of females amongst the brothers and sisters of the wives
of the last male issue of the family.
[Illustration:
Families in Process of Extinction.
(From Riffel's Tables, after v. d. Velden in the Archiv für Rassen- und
Gesellschafts-Biologie, 1909, No. 6.)