Chapter VII: Section IV: Medicine and Eugenics (2)

"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."

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.

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.]

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).

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.]

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.

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+.

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.

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.

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.

Families in Process of Extinction.

(From Riffel's Tables, after v. d. Velden in the Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie, 1909, No. 6.)

[A] [B]
======================================================= ===== =====
Decrease of frequency of Marriage. Men: 57 39
Of 100 adults there marry: Women: 61 49

Decrease of duration of life. Men: 38.5 24.0
Average duration of life in years: Women: 33.5 32.0

High mortality of offspring.
Of 100 births there died before the 20th year:
Fathers, the only members of their Sons 45.5
generation who married. Grandchildren 55.4
Mothers, with childless brothers. Sons 42.0
Grandchildren 46.1

Reversal of proportion of sexes born.
To every 100 girls there are born boys:
In normal families: 106
In dying-out families: 90

Disturbance to Proportion of Sexes among the
Children.
Normal: 106
Generation of sonless fathers: 160
" " " mothers: 93

Key to Table
------------
[A] Normal families.
[B] Families in process of extinction.

Figure C 44.]

[Sidenote: C 45]

In this connection another figure, C 45, by von den Velden ought to be mentioned. He shows, from investigations made by von Riffel, that the +physical condition of childless couples is on the average inferior to that of fertile parents+. This, however, by no means holds good in every case. Evidence to the contrary is given by the pedigree of an aristocratic family which has died out in the male line. It may be looked upon as typical. One generation (the second), with three times as many grown up men than women, produces only four boys (44% of the children), of whom two reach maturity. With the fourth generation the male issue dies out. Though a large majority of the members of all three generations (2-4th) have good health and attain to an exceptionally high age, most of the female lines also die out. Only in two branches, which spring from the marriage of an aristocratic daughter with a man from the people, there are children in the fifth generation of whom at least a part promise a healthy progeny. Fahlbeck, too, has drawn attention to the fact that the dying out Swedish aristocracy shows no signs of striking degeneracy in the individual.

This fact is of the greatest theoretical and practical importance because it proves that there exists, up to a certain degree, an independent degeneration of the germ plasm, even as the germ plasm may remain unaffected by damage to the soma. That such a one-sided degeneration of the germ plasm with respect to the power of reproduction may take place among animals has been known for a long time.

In particular, Chs. Darwin has collected facts of this kind in his "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication." For civilised peoples it is a matter for reflection that with animals even slight deviations from their customary "natural" mode of living may lead to such serious consequences.

RACE-HYGIENE.

[Sidenote: C 46 & 47]

As the +nature and aims of race-hygiene+ are still unknown in wide circles it will be useful to show in Tables C 46 and C 47, by A. Ploëtz, what its position is amongst other sciences and what the various branches of its activity consist in.

Many theoretical workers hold that the most important mission or race-hygiene is to fight against Therapeutics and Hygiene of the individual, for about these they have the most serious misgivings. They consider, that by maintaining inferior variations up to the age of reproduction, the average quality of the race must suffer and that to certain defects--which otherwise would rapidly disappear--an opportunity is given to spread through an entire people. This point of view, short sighted as it may be, must be examined into. It appears to be forgotten that on the one hand hygiene is powerless in cases of a high degree of degeneration and that on the other hand hygiene, by prevention of illness, does away with a number of causes of inferiority. Finally it appears to be entirely overlooked that with the best inherent qualities and unfavourable surroundings the individual development may be poor and stunted. Of what use are the highest potentialities if they remain latent? The main point is that so far convincing proofs of the preponderant harmfulness of hygiene are entirely absent. (S. Gruber, Heredity, Selection and Hygiene. Deutsche med. Wochenschr, 1909).

[Sidenote: C 48]

The Increasing Frequency of Obstetrical Operations and their Significance to the Race.

(Based on the official statistics of Baden by Dr. Agnes Bluhm.)

Figure C 48.]

Dr. Agnes Bluhm contributes to the question of the deterioration of the race by therapeutic measures in dealing in Figure C 48 with "+The increasing frequency of surgical operations in connection with childbirth and its significance for the race.+" She writes in explanation "The number of doctors having increased relatively much more than the number of the population, it follows that for a growing number of women medical assistance at childbirth is available. To this must be added that progress in surgical technique, above all the diminished danger of infection, allows of a much more frequent operative interference with good results for mother and child. Both these facts find expression in the reduction of the number of stillbirths. The purpose of these operations being to assist a diminished birth capacity in women, and this diminished capacity arising partly from constitutional and consequently hereditary factors, this question suggests itself: Is the average birth capacity of women progressively diminished by the fact that an increasing number of women, more or less unfit for childbirth, are artificially assisted in bringing forth living children who inherit this weakness from the mother?"

"Our table attempts to answer this question on the basis of official Midwifery Statistics compiled in the Grand Duchy of Baden reaching back to 1871, that is the beginning of the antiseptic era.

"To avoid the errors, which small figures might lead to, each calculation has been based on the average figures of a lengthy period. The material dealt with comprises over two million births."

[Sidenote: C 48-1]

"Figure 1 shows the +increasing frequency of all childbirth operations taken together+. The period 1871 to 1879 shows an average of 4.38 operations to every 100 births, the period 1900 to 1907 up to 8.12 operations to every 100 births."

[Sidenote: C 48-2]

"Figure 2 shows the +frequency of each class of operation in every 1,000 births+. Each class of operation shows an increase in number, but the increase has not been uniform throughout the various classes."

[Sidenote: C 48-3]

"Figure 3, A and B, shows the +share of each class of operation in the total number for the various periods+. A more leading part is taken by aftermath operations, by artificially induced premature birth, by perforation of the head and by Caesarean section on the living. Aftermath operations depend (like the use of the forceps) to such a degree on the teachings of the various schools for midwifery (and on the time at the doctor's disposal) that they can hardly serve as a standard of birth capacity. The Caesarean section, too, can hardly be taken as a guide, as a much wider view is taken now of the indications for this operation. But the equally increasing numbers of perforations of the head and artificially induced premature birth are well worthy of attention. For these two operations exclude one another. With the existing tendency to avoid perforation of the head by artificially inducing premature birth, a rise in the curve of premature births should correspond with a sinking of the perforation curve. 1871 to 1879 a maximum of the former actually coincides with a minimum of the latter; but from there on both curves rise, though not in the same degree. Premature births have become since then (see Fig. 2) more than eight times as frequent; perforations of the head have trebled; and dismemberments of the child have doubled. This fact must be considered as a sign of lessened birth capacity."

[Sidenote: C 48-4]

"Figure 4 shows the +decrease of the total number of stillbirths+."

[Sidenote: C 48-5]

"Figure 5 gives the +share which abnormal position of the child has in this total+, and a comparison of the two shows that whilst the total has decreased by 1.42% the decrease (1880 to 1889) has been 2.35% in the case of stillbirth through abnormal position. The conclusion is, that there is now more opportunity for hereditary transmission of the tendency to faulty position of the child than three to four decades ago."

[Sidenote: C 48-6]

"But Figure 6 proves that up to now an +increased inheritance of this tendency has not taken place+. The curves of these positions not only show irregularities but (with the exception of cross births) a tendency to sink."

"Recapitulation. The growing frequency of surgically assisted births cannot be taken as evidence of a diminished birth capacity, but is closely connected with the growing number of doctors. Against the indications of a diminished birth capacity stand at the moment those which previously could be taken as pointing in the opposite direction. It would, therefore, appear that medical interference at birth has brought to the race advantages as to quantity and no drawbacks as to quality. But it is probable that the picture will change during the coming decades, because only then will the daughters of mothers who could not have brought forth living children without surgical assistance become themselves mothers. The renunciation of motherhood on the part of the women least suited for this function and the war against rickets might act as preventatives."

The great anxiety about the elimination of the severest struggle for existence is based on the undoubtedly erroneous fundamental conception that the organism is a sorry product of necessity which can barely manage to maintain a laborious existence by the constant straining of all its faculties, and that it requires the continuous use of the whip of necessity to prevent an organism from giving way to its inherent tendency to degeneration. In fact, however, no organism is conceivable which has not the "Tendency" to maintain itself and to react accordingly. There are many facts which prove that a wealth of capacities and tendencies is dormant in organisms which for innumerable generations have not been active, or, perhaps, have, never functioned in every possible way, and that, therefore, if the occasion arises replacements or accommodations of an unprecedented character may occur. In an unprejudiced system of race-hygiene these facts must not be overlooked. The exhibition in this section gives two specially striking instances; the one from animal the other from plant life.

[Sidenote: C 49]

To begin with Figure C 49 gives a diagrammatic representation of the +development of the eye of a vertebrate+--after K. Kraepelin (taken from "Experimentelle Biologie II., T. v. Curt Thesing, Leipzig, Teubner, 1911")--which shows that the lens is formed out of an invagination of the cornea and the retina by an extension of the brain. In the lower part of the plate the various phases of the +reconstruction of the lens out of the iris+ are shown, after it had been removed by a cataract operation from the eye of a Triton larva. (This experiment was carried out by Gustav Wolff.)[A] Thus an organ which normally is not concerned with the formation of the lens takes charge of its regeneration.

[Footnote A: Studies in the Physiology of Development II. Archiv. für Entwicklungs mechanic der Organismen, XII. Vol., 3 Part, 1901.]

A large number of tables deal with the influence of the numerical position in the progeny, with the number of births and the interval between births, on the health of the children, partly acting alone, partly in combination with the influence of the manner of nourishment during infancy.

[Sidenote: C 50]

+Numerical position in family and infantile mortality+, after Geissler. According to these statistics, the fifth child of a mother has materially less vitality than the first four, the second and third children have the most; but this does not agree with other statistics.

[Sidenote: C 51]

According to Riffel's investigations--+influence of the numerical position of the child and the age of the parents at the time of marriage on infant mortality+, after v.d. Velden, a material difference between the mortality of the three earliest born children and the three next born is only shown if both parents at the time of marriage have attained a certain age (man over 28, woman over 25); only the seventh to ninth show under all circumstances a materially greater mortality than the earlier children. The children of more aged parents show a materially greater mortality than those of younger parents. The number of children in a family up to the eleventh has no material influence on infant mortality, only in families with twelve children or more a materially greater number of children perish before the fifth year.

Relation of Number of Births to Infant Mortality.

Percentage of Deaths to 100 Births.

Died during the first year of life.

Geissler.

26,429 births to 5,236 marriages of members of Saxon coalminers' funds. (Some still-born infants, and children of marriages to which there were only one or two births, are not included).

Died before reaching the age of 0.09 of a year, _i.e._, a little more than a month.

[Note: under the first graph in figure] The mortality of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th child is below the average. Greatest vitality shown by 2nd and 3rd child.

[Note: under the second graph in figure] The mortality of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th child is below the average. Greatest vitality shown by 2nd, 3rd, and 4th child.

Figure C 50.]

Influence of the Number of Births and the Age of the Parents at the Time of Marriage on Infant Mortality.

(From Riffel's Tables, after v. d. Velden).

Key to Table ------------

Percentage of Children Born. 1-3 4-6 7-9 Children =================================== ==== ==== ==== { Children of all 28.8 30.5 38.5 { parents. { { Husband over 28 or Died before { wife over 25 years 38.5 41.6 53.4 reaching { old. 6th year. { { Husband over 28 and { wife over 25 years 41.5 51.7 64.7 { old.

Influence of the Number of Children Born to a Family on Infant Mortality.

3-5 6-8 9-11 12-15 Children ==== ==== ==== ===== Percentage of children born Died before reaching 5th year 25.5 27.7 22.7 44.3

Figure C 51.]

[Sidenote: C 52]

+Number of conceptions and conception losses+, by Dr. Agnes Bluhm; the exhibitor gives the following explanation--

Hamburger's material deals with 1,042 marriages of the labouring
classes in Berlin, with a total of 7,261 conceptions (an average of
6.97 conceptions for each woman); the material of Bluhm comprises
856 marriages of the wealthier and educated German middle and higher
classes with a total of 3,856 conceptions (averaging 4.50 conceptions
to each woman). Hamburger has counted as conception losses only
miscarriages, premature births, stillbirths, or deaths from illness
before the completion of the sixteenth year. Bluhm has included all
those up to the twentieth year. Both have only included marriages
which have been contracted at least twenty years back. As the births
in these marriages apparently date back to twenty years, all living
children are reckoned as survivors or conception results, even if they
have not attained the sixteenth or twentieth year respectively. This
has influenced the result optimistically, but as it has done so with
both authors alike, the comparison of their results is admissible.

[Sidenote: C 52-1]

Figure 1 shows the +conception losses in marriages of varying
conception numbers+ (Curve A, Hamburger's working-men's families;
Curve B, Bluhm's well-to-do families); both curves confirm Hamburger's
words that "the percentage of the survivors gets smaller in proportion
as the conception number increases." The mounting of Curve B in the
families with ten births is probably a delusion brought about by a
very small number. In the marriages with eleven or more births there
are lost with the well-to-do one quarter and with the working-classes
nearly two-thirds of the conceptions up to the twentieth or sixteenth
year respectively.

[Sidenote: C 52-2]

Figure 2 represents the +share which miscarriages and premature
births have in the conception losses in marriages of different degrees
of productiveness+ (Curve A, Hamburger; Curve B, Bluhm). Amongst
the Berlin labouring classes on the average 17.89 per cent. of all
conceptions are lost through miscarriage and premature birth; for the
wealthier German families the figure is 7.59 per cent.

[Sidenote: C 52-3]

Figure 3 shows the +share which deaths and stillbirths have in
conception losses+. With the labouring classes it amounts on the
average to 32.75 per cent. (Curve A), and in the wealthier families to
10.55 per cent. (Curve B).

[Sidenote: C 52-4]

Figure 4. To investigate whether the continuous decrease in the
percentage of the survivors, going hand in hand with the increase of
maternal conceptions, is caused by the constitutional inferiority
of the offspring as the numerical position increases, Bluhm has
established, in dealing with her material, the loss for each numerical
position (first, second, third, etc., conceptions respectively). If
this were the case, Curve A, which gives the loss according to the
frequency of conception in each marriage, would have to be identical
with Curve B, which gives the loss of first, second, and third, etc.,
conceptions, but this is by no means the case, for only at a very high
numerical position of the conception the curves begin to be parallel.
This proves that Hamburger's "the percentage of the survivors gets
smaller in proportion as the conception number increases" is not
a biological law but only expresses a social phenomenon. With the
increasing number of children there is a decrease in the value of
each individual childlife. The mother is less careful about avoiding
miscarriages; she devotes, and must necessarily devote, less care to
each child; and the risk of infectious diseases which are a frequent
cause of death during infancy increases.

[Sidenote: C 53]

How little the increasing mortality of the later born children up to the tenth child is based on a biological law is shown in Figure C 53. +Numerical position of birth and infant mortality up to the age of five in princely families+, by Ploëtz; 463 seventh to ninth children show the same mortality as the 614 first born.

Pearson endeavored to prove a high degree of inferiority in the first born, physically and intellectually as well as morally. But his results are very open to attack, as Weinberg has recently shown; one is reminded of Pearson's results in Crzellitzer's Figure C 54--first and later born. Crzellitzer writes thus about this--"A +high degree of myopia+ is +more frequent amongst first born+ than among later children. The disadvantage of the first born in respect of myopia is based on a greater hereditary taint and on no other factor. Where there is no hereditary taint about one quarter to one-third are affected, no matter whether first, second, third, etc., born. Also in well-to-do families, where the age of fathers at the time of procreation is materially higher, the first born are more frequently myopic than their brothers or sisters."

First and Later-Born.

Percentage of Frequency of Extreme Short-sightedness.

(After Dr. Crzellitzer.)

Child
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
============================== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
1,246 children from 216
working-class families. 46.4 33.7 31.4 26.6 26.5 26.0 15.5 18.7

1,246 children from 216
working-class families,
classified according to
presence or absence of
inherited tendency to
short-sightedness.

With inherited tendency 61.6 34.9 27.7 25.5 31.5 32.0 10.5 6.7
Without inherited tendency 35.9 33.7 34.3 24.6 25.0 22.2 19.0 23.3

206 children from 45 well-to-do
families. 63.1 36.1 36.0 36.0 20.0

Figure C 54.]

A large amount of material has been treated by W. Weinberg, in which tuberculous and non-tuberculous families are compared.

[Sidenote: C 55 & 56]

Figure C 55--+influence of numerical position of birth on infant mortality+ and Figure C 56--+mortality of the first and later born+. Weinberg writes concerning these: "The parallelograms in the first row indicate for each position in order of birth how many children out of every hundred die before the age of 20. On this, however, the difference in the mortality in families with different numbers of children has an influence. To counteract this, it has been calculated how many children in each position would die if within each family the number of children had no influence, and the actual number of deaths expressed as a percentage of the expectation calculated in this way gives parallelograms to the second row. After eliminating the influence exercised by the size of the family, the increase of the mortality with the higher birth number appears considerably smaller. Figure C 56, which compares the mortality of the first and last born children, is to a certain extent a test of this. This shows clearly a considerably higher death rate in the last born. Both figures indicate that children of the same numerical position of birth show a higher mortality, if from tuberculous families."

Mortality of Children According to Sequence of Birth.

3,129 Tuberculous and 1,830 Non-Tuberculous Families of Stuttgart, 1873-1889 (after Weinberg).

Key to Tables
-------------
[N] - non-tuberculous
[T] - tuberculous

Paternal family.

No. of child Percentage of children Death rates expressed in
according to born alive who died before relative figures corrected for
sequence of reaching their 20th year. differences in the death rates
birth. in families differing in size.
============ ========================== ==============================
[N] [T] [N] [T]
===== ===== ===== =====
1 33.9 40.6 90.5 91.3
2 37.4 44.4 101.0 99.5
3 49.4 45.4 109.0 103.5
4 40.1 47.9 105.0 103.0
5 39.5 49.7 101.0 104.0
6 43.5 52.5 103.0 107.0
7 39.0 51.2 92.0 105.0
8 43.2 54.1 96.0 111.5
9 50.8 59.1 101.0 115.0
10 40.2 60.2 101.0 113.5
11-12 50.0 51.7 101.0 97.0
13-18 64.4 52.8 111.0 107.0

Maternal family.

No. of child Percentage of children Death rates expressed in
according to born alive who died before relative figures corrected for
sequence of reaching their 20th year. differences in the death rates
birth. in families differing in size.
============ ========================== ==============================
[N] [T] [N] [T]
===== ===== ===== =====
1 34.6 40.0 92.0 87.0
2 36.5 46.6 96.0 97.0
3 40.6 49.0 107.0 104.0
4 41.7 57.1 107.0 111.0
5 37.6 50.3 91.0 104.0
6 41.8 53.8 97.5 108.0
7 51.3 52.5 116.0 107.0
8 45.9 54.0 102.0 111.0
9 51.1 52.5 100.0 103.0
10 47.6 53.8 100.0 103.0
11-12 47.1 60.0 103.0 130.0
13-18 68.8 62.5 121.0 104.0

Figure C 55.]

Relative Mortality of the First and Last-born.

3,129 Tuberculous and 1,830 Non-Tuberculous Families of Stuttgart, 1873-1889 (after Weinberg)

Of each 100 living-born there died before reaching their 20th year:

Non-tuberculous Tuberculous
======================= =======================
FIRST-BORN LAST-BORN FIRST-BORN LAST-BORN
========== ========= ========== =========
Paternal Family 33.9 37.2 40.6 49.9
Maternal Family 34.6 37.5 40.0 53.4

Comparison of the mortality of the First and Last-born,
The mortality of the First-born = 100.

Non-tuberculous Tuberculous
======================= =======================
FIRST-BORN LAST-BORN FIRST-BORN LAST-BORN
========== ========= ========== =========
Paternal Family 100 108 100 128
Maternal Family 100 108 100 134

Figure C 56.]

[Sidenote: C 57]

Of a materially greater influence than the numerical position of birth or the number of children in each family is the length of interval between births. We point at first to Figure C 57--+interval between births and child mortality+, after Ansell and Westergaard, by Dr. A. Bluhm. She writes in reference to it: "Ansell has demonstrated, from the material of the National Life Assurance Society of London, that a child has an increasingly better chance to survive his first year, the greater the interval between his own birth and that of the child born before him. If this interval is less than a year, the infant mortality is double what it is when there is an interval of two years (15.75% against 7.33%). This influence makes itself felt beyond the age of infancy up to five years but not in so striking a manner. The proportion becomes modified to 20% against 12%. As the influence of the birth interval on child mortality is still very perceptible after the tenth or later children, it may be assumed that it is not caused exclusively by the exhaustion of the maternal organism produced by the rapid sequence of births. The varying length of breast-feeding of the children has probably also its influence. Though these statistics give no data about the mode of infant feeding, it is nevertheless probable that in those families in which there are longer intervals between consecutive births each child is suckled for a longer period.

[Sidenote: C 58]

+Birth interval and health of the offspring+, after Riffel--v. d. Velden.

[Sidenote: C 59]

+Influence of the length of the birth interval and the duration of breast-feeding on infant mortality+, exhibited by Weinberg. The author writes regarding the latter table "in proportion to the length of the interval between two births, the mortality of the children following decreases materially, but this relation only becomes clearly apparent in families in which several of the children have been suckled for more than six months."

[Sidenote: C 60, 61 62]

The intimate connection which exists between birth interval and suckling and the great importance which suckling has under the favourable influence of a long birth interval is shown in Dr. Agnes Bluhm's Figures C 60, C 61, and C 62--+infant nutrition (breast feeding), number of children and infant mortality+, after Dr. Marie Baum. "The material is taken from the towns of Gladbach, Rheydt, Odenkirchen and, Rheindalen, and comprises 1,495, mostly poor families, with 9,393 cases in which the mother survived childbirth and 9,487 children born alive. In this table only 7,983 children were counted, because the remainder had not reached the age of one year on the day of counting. Of these 7,983, there died before the completion of the first year 1,276, or 15.98%."