Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/575

Rh tion. The age of marriage of men of the upper classes in Copenhagen, with mean families of 4.5 was over 32, whereas it appears that the professional classes in the United States marry at an earlier age than this.

It is surely a serious problem when the more civilized races tend not to reproduce themselves. It is difficult of explanation by the laws of heredity and natural selection. We may assume that in the lower animals the number of offspring is most favorable for the survival of the race. In man there may be a selective death rate tending to reduce large families, but it does not appear to be an important factor. One quarter of the married population produces one half of the next generation, and if fertility is inheritable or correlated with inheritable traits the size of families should increase rapidly. If there were a complete correlation between fertility in mother and daughter, the size of families would be doubled in the fifth generation. It appears that physiological fertility is held in check by prudential restraint, but it is not clear why the psychological factors are not subject to natural selection and social tradition. Those who would have large families should supplant those who would not.

We reproduce from Professor Pearson's 'Chances of Death' two diagrams. The first is based largely on 2,279 marriages of a Connecticut quaker family, to which a skew frequency curve is fitted. The modal family, or most frequent family, falls between two and three; the median family, or the family of such size that there are as many larger as smaller, is 3.29; the mean or average family is 4.22, and the range or maximum family is 22.5. The second curve, for 1842 families of the professional and upper classes in Denmark, shows a somewhat higher fertility. Both curves indicate an artificial limitation in the deficiency, as compared with the theoretical curve, of families of five and six; and this would probably be much more marked in French or in recent Anglo-Saxon families. There is indeed urgent need of further investigation into the facts of the birth rate. Applied science may have at the end of the present century problems more pressing than the increase of the means of subsistence; there must be people to subsist.

scholars to be appointed under the terms of the will of the late Cecil Rhodes will go into residence at Oxford next year, and the best methods for selecting them are now being considered. The Prussian ministry of education has addressed a letter to the Oxford colleges asking information as to the reception of the fifteen scholars to be nominated by the German emperor. It is assumed that students will go to Oxford direct from the gymnasium, and it is asked whether the Abiturienten-Zeugnis which admits to the German universities will be accepted. Among other things information is wanted as to whether students may pursue studies preparatory to the professions and whether scholars may be appointed for a shorter period than three years.

Dr. Parkin, of the Toronto Grammar School, who was himself a colonial student at Oxford, has been commissioned to secure information for the use of the executors in framing a workable plan for American and colonial students. He has visited Oxford to learn the sentiments of the educational authorities and finds that most of the colleges will be glad to welcome the scholars. He is now in America holding conferences with educators and others, and will proceed to the different British colonies. The chief practical questions seem to concern the methods by which the scholars shall be appointed and the stage in their education at which they shall go to Oxford. The appointing authority is complicated in this country owing to