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
The casual observation at the registration of the personal history
of feeble-minded individuals that 50 per cent. of the birth dates
fall within only fourteen weeks of the year (New Year, carnival,
and wine harvest) has aroused the desire to deal with the seasonal
incidence of the begetting of the feeble-minded on the basis of as
much material as possible. For this purpose the author's census of
feeble-minded school children, which took place in the year 1897, and
referred to the years 1886-90 inclusive, seemed specially suited.
Originally (in 1901) a curve was plotted in which all the 8,186
feeble-minded and idiotic children were included whose exact birthdays
were known, and this curve was compared with the total curve for that
period. (Schweiz. Statistik 112 Liefg.) The latter was constructed
in the following manner from the whole number of births (934,619)
which occurred in these eleven years:--The general daily average was
taken as 100, and the daily average for each month was expressed
proportionately. Thus numbers above 100 show a daily birth frequency
above the average, while for numbers below 100 the reverse is the
case. The curve for the 8,136 feeble-minded persons was constructed
in a similar way, and thus a comparison with the general population
producing them was made possible. Subsequently (1910-11), in order to
secure homogeneous material, the first and last years were left out,
since by including them, owing to the non-agreement of the school
year and the astronomical year, the earlier months (January-April)
were much weighted. By this restriction of the material dealt with
the number of feeble-minded is reduced to 7,759, but the material for
each separate year is more homogeneous. Distributed between 2,922 days
(eight years), the daily production of the feeble-minded is 2.648,
the corresponding total number of births of the years 1882-89 ls
677,083, or 231.7 per day. 1.14 per cent. of all births are included
in the figure for the feeble-minded. If one treats the total number of
births for each month as well as the number of births of feeble-minded
according to the method described above, and used by the Federal
Statistical Bureau, two curves are produced which diverge considerably
from each other in particular months. On the whole the curve for the
feeble-minded (thick line) is flatter than the curve for the total.
Especially striking are the drop in May and June (corresponding to
the procreation period from the 25th July to the 23rd September) and
two peaks rising above the "total" curve. One of these is slight,
yet distinct. It refers to the months of birth, July and August,
corresponding with the procreation period from the 24th September to
the 24th November. More conspicuous is the second peak of the curve
for the feeble-minded from October to December, otherwise a time poor
in births.
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