Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Science
Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912
International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Eugenics -- Congresses
Groth and Hahn have exhibited two large tables C 67 and C 68 and a
similar one C 69, the results of their important investigations about
+breast-feeding and mortality in the administrative districts of
Bavaria+. Groth shows in Table C 70 "+mortality of sucklings in
Bavaria+," and in Table C 71 "+breast-feeding and cancer+."
In Tables C 72 and C 73 the Groth and Hahn statistics are treated by
Dr. A. Bluhm from the point of view of the +influence of the habit
of breast-feeding on the frequency of births+. In connection with
Figure C 73 she remarks: "This diagram shows the number of bottle-fed
babies in the various Bavarian districts counted at the time of
vaccination. To give as correct a picture as possible of the probable
influence which the habit of breast-feeding has on the birth-rate
(annual number of births per 1,000 of the whole population) there are
represented on this figure by green and yellow columns the average
birth-rate for the five years, 1875 to 1879, because in that period a
record birth-rate was established, so that it may be assumed that there
was then no intentional restriction of births. We see within the four
'old Bavarian' districts, where on the average 64.1% of the babies were
not breast-fed at all, the number of births is about 4 per 1,000 of
the population higher than in the Palatinate and the three 'Frankish'
districts, which together only show 18% of non-breast-fed children."
[Sidenote: C 72 & 73]
"These two figures deal with the +influence of the length of
suckling on the birth-rate+, the longer the duration of the
suckling period, _i.e._, the higher the number of children breast-fed
for six months or more, the lower the birth-rate. This only holds good
for the country (Curve B) not for towns (Curve A). This circumstance
is explained by the fact that the voluntary restriction of births is
much more frequent in towns than in the country, where consequently
the influence of the length of the period of suckling on the birth
frequency can find much stronger expression than in towns, where,
as Curve A shows, it is entirely extinguished by artificial birth
preventatives. From both tables it results that, to prevent the
senseless waste of human life, the interval between every two births
must be more than two years; further, that it is possible to increase
it by breast-feeding; the number of births in a district is based in
the main on the larger or smaller intervals at which the women of
reproductive age have children, and it may, therefore, at the same
time, be taken as an expression of these intervals. Keeping these
two facts in view, and considering the influence of the mode of
infant feeding on infant mortality, it appears to be in the interest
of the race that by means of the long duration of breast-feeding,
the birth intervals should be extended to at least two years. The
facts established in these two tables have a considerable bearing on
race-hygiene, especially in reference to the Neomalthusian contentions
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