Part 15

At the end of the eighteenth century there were in France four children on the average to a family; a movement of rapid increase in the population reached its climax in 1846; by 1860 the average number of children to a family had slowly fallen to but little over three. Broca, writing in 1867 ("Sur la Prétendue Dégénérescence de la Population Francaise"), mentioned that the slow fall in the birth-rate was only slightly due to prudent calculation and mainly to more general causes such as delay in marriage.

Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI., "Sex in Relation to Society," Ch. XI., The Art of Love.

The exact results are presented by F. Boas (abstract of Report on Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Washington, 1911, p. 57), who concludes that "the physical development of children, as measured by stature, is the better the smaller the family."

R.J. Ewart, "The Influence of Parental Age on Offspring," Eugenics Review, Oct., 1911.

In New Zealand the birth-rate is very low; but the death-rate of children in the first year is only 58 per thousand as against 130 in England.

E.M. Elderton, Report on the English Birth-rate, Part I., 1914. See also the collection of narratives of their experiences by working-class mothers, published under the title of Maternity (Women's Co-operative Guild, 1915).

Flinders Petrie, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, p. 220.