Dr. Crum's figures show the following percentage of
childless wives, in the New England genealogies with which he worked:
1750-1799 1.88
1800-1849 4.07
1850-1869 5.91
1870-1879 8.10
J. A. Hill[124] found, from the 1910 census figures, that one in eight
of the native-born wives is childless, as compared with one in five
among the Negroes, one in nineteen among the foreign born. Childlessness
of American wives is therefore a considerable, although not a
preponderant factor, in this decline of the birth rate.
Dr. Hill further found that from 10 marriages, in various stocks, the
following numbers of children could be expected:
Native-born women 27
Negro-born women 31
English-born women 34
Russian-born women 54
French Canada-born women 56
Polish-born women 62
The women of the old American stock are on the whole more sterile or, if
not sterile, less fecund, than other women in the United States. Why?
In answer, various physiological causes are often alleged. It is said
that the dissemination of venereal diseases has caused an increase of
sterility; that luxurious living lowers fecundity, and so on. It is
impossible to take the time to analyze the many explanations of this
sort which have been offered, and which are familiar to the reader; we
must content ourselves with saying that evidence of a great many kinds,
largely statistical and, in our opinion, reliable, indicates that
physiological causes play a minor part in the decrease of the
birth-rate.
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