Part 5

Much can and should be done by encouraging those who are fit and healthy to have larger families. The Malthusian theory has proved itself a dangerous menace to civilisation. It is threatening the safety of depopulated France, and in Great Britain it should be discouraged in every possible way as an insidious and treacherous enemy to the laws of God and man.

III

THE SELECTION OF THE FIT

“I do not fear to follow out the truth Albeit along the precipice’s edge; Let us speak plain.”—LOVELL.

In every kind of animal life, with but few exceptions, the males exceed the females in number, so that for the female the field of choice remains a wide one. Among birds it is the cock who acquires the outward adornments of feathers and the sweet singing voice wherewith to woo the hen. She, in her turn, selects the mate she prefers to help her build the nest which is to receive the offspring of their union. Similarly, various kinds of animals, when the mating season approaches, acquire new fur or horns to help them with their courtship.

With us it is otherwise. In the civilised countries of to-day it is the female element which exceeds the male, so that the choice of a mate lies necessarily with the latter part of the community. The woman is compelled to show some special advantage, whether beauty, wealth or some other feature, which will make her peculiarly desirable to the man she wishes to attract. For this reason we often see women lose their self-respect or indulge in the most absurd extravagances in the hope of distinguishing themselves from the mass of their own sex. In the poorer classes, this condition prevails only to a minor degree, and for purely economic reasons nature has her own way to a greater extent. But even here, as everywhere, women are far too prone to take what they can get, rather than remain unmarried. We still find the loafer, the diseased and the drunkard, if like Barkis, they be willing, turned into benedicts, almost before they realise it themselves. Hence the heavy percentage of imbeciles, cripples and degenerates which burden the country and fill the lunatic asylums, hospitals and prisons. This unfortunate condition is due to the fact that in the British Isles there are, according to the statistics of the Registrar-General for 1923, at least 107 women to every 100 men.

More men must be provided to ensure offspring as perfect as the human race can create. Once the heart and imagination of the woman are satisfied, she will spontaneously fulfil her great rôle of mother. Thus equipped, she will carry on her work conscientiously, fully alive to the importance of her child’s welfare. It is the mother’s morale that counts in reproduction: she takes the giant share of the responsibility.

She represents the Sex, self-contained and all-containing; Le sexe, c’est la femme. And yet, in preparing for the ordeal of motherhood—the pivot on which the whole world revolves—her chance of selecting a partner, worthy to become the father of her children, is comparatively small.

The wonder is that more unhealthy children are not born as the result of such a limitation of choice. By the subsequent exercise of great care, many are reared to become useful citizens, but a vast army of permanent inefficients is born into our midst every year. In a population of 40,000,000 there are 300,000 mentally defective persons, most of whom are in asylums, but many still free to marry and procreate. Thus one person in every 118 of England’s population is either mad, idiotic or feeble-minded. Among criminals alone, the fruit of degeneracy, there are in England 30,000 in the jails, besides some 5,000 classed as convicts. There are also every year in England and Wales some 3,800 people who died by their own hands. All these degenerates contribute but little benefit to the State, which is in fact often called upon to support them and their offspring entirely.

In these years of progressive enlightenment it should, above all, be recognised that the general welfare of the nation is immediately dependent on the common sense and morale of its women. It is of primary importance that they should make use of all their intelligence and all their forethought before embarking on the hazardous venture of matrimony.

THE MOTHERS’ RESPONSIBILITY

“The only science of mankind is man.”—WARBURTON.

We have spoken of the advantages to be obtained from a eugenic point of view for women and their children by providing a larger selection of suitable males. But we must not forget how innumerable are the influences which can affect the unborn infant. It has been asserted that the phlegmatic and lazy woman is more prone to female offspring, whereas her sanguine, hardworking sister is usually blessed with male children.

There is a reason for this. The natural state of every healthy woman is to produce more males than females. In Russia, where the peasant-women do heavy manual work on their homesteads, the percentage of male births far exceeds that of female. Among the French peasantry the same condition prevails. During the war it was commonly acknowledged that the male birth-rate increased greatly. When one bears in mind the enormous amount of hard physical work that was accomplished by women, who otherwise would have led a sedentary, or at least a far more passive existence, one can hardly be surprised at it. For this unusual outlay of muscular energy resulted in the strengthening of the whole right side of these women, and incidentally of that organ from which male issue springs.

Most decidedly it takes a stronger and more normal organism to bear male progeny than female. Regular work and exercise, combined with favourable moral and physical conditions, are necessary to the conceiving of boys. There should be no exaggerated zeal in the pursuit of sports and games, but a wife should take a moderate part in all her husband’s pleasures and occupations, and reserve enough leisure to ensure a tranquil and contented brain. To keep cheerful and happy is half the battle for the unborn infant.

A lady I knew, who had thirteen sons and two daughters, was so strong and muscular that up to the age of 85 she could take a very active part in any furniture-moving that had to be done. A friend of my mother’s, who had twelve sons, remarked one day, “I think I ought to have been a man, I am so much more muscular and powerful than my husband.”

A certain amount of intellectual activity is desirable, such as reading, music, or any form of accomplishment hitherto cultivated. Any talent to which active expression is given during pregnancy greatly affects the unborn child, in whom the seeds of so-called facility, talent, or genius are thus sown. Once pregnant a woman should never forget for one minute that her burden must be considered at every step she takes, just as later on she will hope to watch over her infant’s welfare at every hour of its existence.

Much can be done to ensure the safety of pregnancy, especially during the first four months, by early hours, easy-going occupations, and above all no giving way to worry, morbidity or temper. A morbid mother produces a fretful baby, who may quite possibly develop a “kink” in his brain or character. Here also should be underlined the necessity of guarding against the fatal catastrophe of miscarriage, only too often brought about by sheer carelessness.

The following are a few typical cases. A lady of my acquaintance, when pregnant, was in the habit of riding in the Row every morning, up to the sixth month. Three times in succession the child was a girl, and no apparent trouble ensued. When, however, she became pregnant a fourth time, I warned her against the risk that to my mind she was incurring. But she continued to take the same exercise, and shortly after she miscarried of a boy, which proved to be her only attempt at male issue.

A young woman who had a boy of two years, and was pregnant of a second child, insisted, in spite of all the friendly advice offered to her, in going to Switzerland for the winter sports. She skied all day and danced all night. Shortly after she became ill, was seized with pains, and miscarried of a four-month boy.

A lady, who already had a daughter, much needed a son to carry on her husband’s title. She became pregnant, and went comfortably on till the fourth month, when, at the time when quickening was due, she was invited to join a party to go on a long excursion in a coach-and-four. Though warned beforehand by all her friends, she persisted in accepting the invitation. She came home worn out, and miscarried next day of a healthy male fœtus.

A lady, who was inclined to feel ill for two or three days each month, was warned by her doctor to lie up at these times. She insisted however, on one such occasion, in taking a long train journey, with the result that pains came on, and she was delivered of a four-month male child.

Another correspondent recently wrote:—“I started a baby immediately after marriage, but stupidly did far too much and had a miscarriage in July and another in December last.”

On the other hand, many of these mishaps may be due to unavoidable accidents, shocks, and mental worry. But this only emphasises the desirability of avoiding all imprudence at the first suspicion of pregnancy, and of using the greatest foresight and self-control when there is any smallest symptom of “bearing-down” or “malaise.” The old saying, “A sick pregnancy is a safe one” is doubtless true. But sickness would appear to be more prevalent in girl-pregnancies, and this goes far to support the fact of partial immunity in pregnancy from female abortions.

A lady pregnant of a boy wrote to me as follows: “I am not a bit sick this time ... but with my first and second babies (both girls) I was terribly sick and could keep nothing down for weeks on end.” A lady in Paris assured me that with her four girls she suffered very greatly from nausea, but that with her two boys she was free from all such discomfort. A woman who had eight daughters and four sons told me that she invariably knew of which sex her baby would be, as sickness was always present during the first three months of girl-pregnancies. Of such cases I could quote many instances.

Here let me say that miscarriage is one of the direct causes of a lack of males in the world. Statistics show that of the miscarriages within my own experience no less than 80 per cent. are male. To this I must refer later on.

There are other causes responsible for the dearth of boy-babies, all more or less capable of adjustment. For instance, the fact that it is more difficult to rear boys depends on two special causes. The first is the boy’s digestion, which, in my opinion, is more delicate than that of a girl. This I have noted in hundreds of cases, extending over many years, and certainly boys are more inclined to sickness than girls. An elderly monthly nurse of great experience used to say, “my sick babies are the fattest and the biggest, and are generally boys,” and she always maintained that “small babies” were easier to rear than big ones. A mother of ten children recently remarked to me, “My girls were no trouble, but the boys were so difficult to suit with their foods.” This is a matter of experience which I have confirmed in countless cases.

Therefore it is all-important that boys should be breast-fed, if only for the first month of their existence. For the after-health of the mother, wishful of further male issue, this is also very desirable. The infant’s best chance of life and health is that it should be born of a robust mother capable of nursing her child during the first months of its existence. Walsh, in his work on Psychotherapy says, “It is well recognised that the reason why nurslings are protected from most of the so-called children’s diseases is that their mothers have had these diseases, have acquired an immunity to them, and this immunity is transferred to the child so long as the nursing process is continued.”