38 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAr.
namely, that a relative deficiency of health and energy, in respect to that of their own parents, is very common among them. Their absolute health and energy may be high, far exceeding those of people generally ; but I speak of a noticeable falling off from the yet more robust condition of the previous generation : it is this which appears to be dangerous to the continuance of the race. My figures give the remarkable result that there are no children at all in one out of every three of these cases. I think that ordinary observation corroborates this conclusion, and that those of my readers who happen to have mixed much in what is called intellectual society will be able to recall numerous instances of persons of both sexes, but especially of women, possessed of high gifts of every kind, including health and energy, but of less solid vigour than their parents, and who have no children. I do not overlook the fact that the scientific men are an urban population, being mindful of results I have published elsewhere
(Statistical Journal, 1873), which show a similar
diminution in the average fertility of townsmen
as compared with country folk ; but this would
