LARGE FAMILIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 238, 13 November 1909, Page 3

LARGE FAMILIES.

THEIR SOCIAL VALUE. In the North American Review Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman speaks very plainly concerning the decline in the birthrate. He says: "That the low birthI'rate among American women is deliberate, and not the result of a decline in reproductive power, every experienced physician will readily admit; and of the 'truth of tilt; statement every intelligent person is well aware. While it is true that a decline in the birth-rate is more or less .general throughout the world, at least among the educated and prosperous elements of the population, the fact ' of a vice being general is no excuse for i its 1) ing condoned. That the decline is ' the result of a gradual spread of immoral doctrines, resting upon the theo:} of sell-indulgence of the leisured class, can easily be confirmed. The duty of maternity .may impose heavy burdens and responsibilities, but it is one which no normally married woman can shirk, save at the risk of bodily and moral i ruin." ,

I THE EFFECT OX GENIUS. I The interesting generalisation of Dr. I Louis linbinovitch is quoted, according Id which comparatively few men of genius have been the first-born of their parents, in fact, the qiiutntiou runs, . "not only were these men of genius not the first-bom j in a very large number ! of eases they were the youngest or next I lie youngest of the family. Thus, Coleridge was the last of thirteen children, James Fenimore Cooper was the eleventh of twelve children, Washington living was the last of eleven, Balzac Ue last of three, George Eliot the last if four, Napoleon was the eighth (and probably the last), Daniel Webster the last of seven, Benjamin Franklin was the last of seventeen, and the last-born iof the last-born for several generation;!; Rembrandt was the last of six children, Rubens the last of seven, Sir Edw,n Landseer the fifth of seven children; Joshua Reynolds was the seventh child of his parents, Carl Maria Weber the ninth, Richard Wagner the last of seven, Mozart the last of seven, Schumann the I last of live, Schubert the thirteenth of fourteen."

NOT POVERTY, BUT SELFISHNESS THE CAUSE.

It is selfish luxury and not economic necessity that is given as the cause: "It is among the prosperous and the rich that we find the 'no-child' or 'one-child' theory defended, even by young wives of supposed innocence, with every prospect of material well-being and abundant resources for the more than necessary maintenance of a normal family, Only children, or only boys and girls, seldom represent a superior and successful type."

A HEALTH-DESTROYING PRACTICE.

The reaction on the possible mother is also disastrous: "Married women live longer than the unmarried, and married women with children live longer and healthier lives than those wbu are without issue."

The New South Wales Commission on the subject quotes this sentence: "Can ■ anyone accustomed to treating the dis- ] eases of women say in truth the statement is exaggerated that we can see on any one day more sorrow and misery resulting from tlie abuse of the married state than would he found in a month from uncomplicated child-bearing?" 'The sin against the race is even more terrible. ''There can be no question rf doubt that children born of cultured ancestry have a decided advantage over those born of less developed types. If it takes six or eight generations to fix character in a thoroughbred horse >r dog. it is nothing short of a social crime to extinguish human traits and characteristics which have been acquired by ages of struggle and endeavor."