_Advantages and Disadvantages of Illegitimate Birth._--Three different views prevail regarding the relative advantages and disadvantages of illegitimate births. (1) Illegitimate children come into the world favourably equipped, for their parents are young, and their union depends not upon interest, but upon love. (2) Illegitimate children are hereditarily defective, as is clearly manifest in all relationships. Private statistical data show that in respect of body-weight and body-length the illegitimate new-born, boys as well as girls, compare unfavourably with the legitimate. Many illegitimate children exhibit a disposition to various mental disorders (degenerative neuroses and psychoses). Since in most cases the father is unknown, and his qualities therefore elude observation, there would appear to be some ground for the assumption that the hereditary tainting of illegitimate children is even greater than it is actually proved to be. (3) Illegitimate children come into the world with the same equipment as legitimate children. The first of these views is erroneous, if only for the reason that in men often nothing more than sensuality, and in women often nothing more than self-interest, leads to the formation of an irregular sexual intimacy. But neither the second view nor the third can be accepted without reserve. In interpreting the statistical data relating to illegitimacy, many circumstances have to be considered. Attention must always be paid to the question, which were the intimacies in which the conditions were similar to those of married life, and to the question as to the extent to which the peculiarities apparent in the illegitimate are dependent solely upon the legal disabilities of their status. The material conditions in which illegitimate children are placed must be compared with those of legitimate children belonging to similar social classes. It would be altogether fallacious to compare the condition of illegitimate children with the average condition of legitimate children, instead of with the average condition of children of the proletariat. If these considerations receive due attention, it will become apparent that illegitimacy _per se_ is not a decisive factor, but merely renders more apparent the disadvantages attendant on being brought up under the conditions inevitable for the children of the proletariat.