New worlds for old: A plain account of modern socialismWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
General
New worlds for old: A plain account of modern socialism
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Socialism
Don't imagine that the high infantile death rate of our manufacturing
centres spares the fine big children. It does not. Here is the
effectual answer to that. It is taken from the Report of the Education
Committee of the London County Council for the year 1905, and it is
part of an account of an inquiry conducted by the headmaster of one
school in a poor neighbourhood.
"The object of the inquiry was to discover the causes of
variation in the physical condition of children within the
limits of this single school. Each of the 405 boys was
carefully weighed and measured without boots, a note was made
of the condition of the teeth, and a general estimate of the
personal cleanliness and sufficiency of clothing as a basis
for determining the home conditions of neglect or otherwise
from external evidence. The teacher of each class added an
estimate of mental capacity." (Here follow tabular
arrangements of results, and height and weight charts.)
"... It may be noted in the heights and weights for each age
that the curve is not a continuous line of growth, but that at
some ages it springs nearer to, and at others sinks further
from, the normal. The greatest effect upon the life capital of
the population is produced by the infantile mortality, which
in some years actually kills off during the first year one in
five of all children born; the question naturally arises what
is its effect upon the survivors--do the weakly ones get
killed off and only the strong muddle through, or does the
adverse environment which slaughters one in five have a
maiming effect upon those left?... When the infantile
mortality for the parish in which the school is situate was
charted above the physique curve, an absolute correspondence
is to be observed. The children born in a year when infantile
mortality is low show an increased physique, rising nearest to
the normal in the extraordinary good year 1892; and those born
in the years of high mortality show a decreased physique....
It appears certain, therefore, that in years of high infantile
mortality the conditions, to which one in five or six of the
children born are sacrificed, have a maiming effect upon the
other four or five."
_The fine big children are born in periods of low infantile
mortality_, that is the essential point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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