of those born in the country and engaged in agricultural or
forest work 58.2 were found fit; of those born in the country and
engaged in other industries, 55.1 per cent; of those born in towns, but
engaged in agricultural or forest work, 56.2 per cent; of those born in
towns and engaged in other industries 47.9 per cent. It is fairly clear
that this deterioration under urban and industrial conditions cannot
properly be termed a racial degeneration. It is, moreover, greatly
improved even by a few months' training, and there is an immense
difference between the undeveloped, feeble, half-starved recruit from
the slums and the robust, broad-shouldered veteran when he leaves the
army. The term "aggeneration"--not beyond criticism, though it is free
from the objection to "regeneration"--was proposed by Prof. Christian
von Ehrenfels ("Die Aufsteigende Entwicklung des Menschen,"
_Politisch-Anthropologische Revue_, April, 1903, p. 50).

[18] It is unnecessary to touch here on the question of infant mortality,
which has already been referred to, and will again come in for
consideration in a later chapter. It need only be said that a high
birth-rate is inextricably combined with a high death-rate. The European
countries with the highest birth-rates are, in descending order: Russia,
Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, and Hungary. The European countries with the
highest death-rates are, in descending order, almost the same: Russia,
Hungary, Spain, Bulgaria, and Servia, It is the same outside Europe.
Thus Chile, with a birth-rate which comes next after Roumania, has a
death-rate that is only second to Russia.

[19] Nystroem (_La Vie Sexuelle_, 1910, p. 248) believes that "the time is
coming when it will be considered the duty of municipal authorities, if
they have found by experience or have reason to suspect that children
will be thrown upon the parish, to instruct parents in methods of
preventive conception."

[20] The directly unfavourable influences on the child of too short an
interval between its birth and that of the previous child has been
shown, for instance, by Dr. R.J. Ewart ("The Influence of Parental Age
on Offspring," _Eugenics Review_, October, 1911). He has found at
Middlesbrough that children born at an interval of less than two years
after the birth of the previous child still show at the age of six a
notable deficiency in height, weight, and intelligence, when compared
with children born after a longer interval, or wit