"Eugenics is less directly concerned with this side of the question that with the relative rate of increase of the different classes. This may be found for the six groups in the usual way by deducting the death-rate from the birth-rate. The following figures for the rate of natural increase are then obtained:
| Group | |
|---|---|
| I | 16.56 |
| II | 13.89 |
| III | 11.43 |
| IV | 13.81 |
| V | 10.29 |
| VI | 5.79 |
"The figures show in a manner which hardly admits of any doubt that in London at any rate the inhabitants of the poorest quarters—over a million in number—are reproducing themselves at a much greater rate than the more well-to-do."
A research on similar lines by S. R. Steinmetz18 in Holland shows that the average number of children in the lowest class families is 5.44. People in industry or small trade, skilled mechanics and professors of theology have five children to the family; in other classes the number is as follows:
| Artists | 4.30 |
|---|---|
| Well-to-do Commercial Classes | 4.27 |
| High Officials | 4.00 |
| University Professors (excluding theological) | 3.50 |
| 23 Scholars and Artists of the first rank | 2.60 |
It is not hard to see that the next generation in Holland is likely to have proportionately fewer gifted individuals than has the present one.