Abstract
THE above letter contains no addition of any ascertained fact to those cited by Miss Elderton. Miss Elderton, in her lecture, brought forward a very large amount of evidence to show that the net family of the socially less valuable members of the working-classes was larger than that of the socially more valuable members of the same classes. That within a given species the individuals of inferior physique and mentality have relatively greater fertility must mean the degeneration of that species; and no scientific argument can be opposed to this based upon the illogically extended syllogism: “higher” species have lower birth-rates; there is a lower birth-rate in the more valuable members of the artisan classes; hence this tends to convert those classes and their nation into “higher” types of life.
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PEARSON, K. The Falling Birth-rate. Nature 91, 85 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091085a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091085a0
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