e response to improved environment. Thus in
Man the decline of the birth-rate, as Professor Benjamin Moore remarks
(_British Medical Journal_, August 20, 1910, p. 454), is "the simple
biological reply to good economic conditions. It is a well-known
biological law that even a micro-organism, when placed in unfavourable
conditions as to food and environment, passes into a reproductive phase,
and by sporulation or some special type produces new individuals very
rapidly. The same condition of affairs in the human race was shown even
by the fact that one-half of the births come from the least favourably
situated one-quarter of the population. Hence, over-rapid birth-rate
indicates unfavourable conditions of life, so that (so long as the
population was on the increase) a lower birth-rate was a valuable
indication of a better social condition of affairs, and a matter on
which we should congratulate the country rather than proceed to
condolences."

[142] "The accumulations of racial experience tend to show," remarks Woods
Hutchinson ("Animal Marriage," _Contemporary Review_, October, 1904),
"that by the production of a smaller and smaller number of offspring,
and the expenditure upon those of a greater amount of parental care,
better results can be obtained in efficiency and capacity for survival."

[143] Toulouse, _Causes de la Folie_, p. 91; Magri, _Archivio di
Psichiatria_, 1896, fasc. vi-vii; Havelock Ellis, _A Study of British
Genius_, pp. 106 et seq.

[144] Emile Macquart, "Mortalite, Natalite, Depopulation," _Bulletin de la
Societe d'Anthropologie_, 1902.

[145] It is interesting to observe how Lafcadio Hearn, during the last
years of his life, was compelled, however unwillingly, to recognize this
change. See e.g. his _Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation_, 1904, ch.
XXI, on "Industrial Dangers." The Japanese themselves have recognized
it, and it is the feeling of the decay of their ancient ideals which has
given so great an impetus to new ethical movements, such as that,
described as a kind of elevated materialism, established by Yukichi
Fukuzawa (see _Open Court_, June, 1907).

[146] _Athenaeum_, October 7, 1911.

VI

EUGENICS AND LOVE

Eugenics and the Decline of the Birth-rate--Quantity and Quality in
the Production of Children--Eugenic Sexual Selection--The Value of
Pedigrees--Their Scientific Significance--The Systematic Record of
Personal Data--The Proposal for Eugenic Certificat