All the causes of crime--imperfect education, poverty, hereditary taint--are present to a greater extent in the illegitimate than in the legitimate. How can we expect that an illegitimate child will be properly brought up when the father commonly accepts no responsibility for the matter, and the mother is usually forced to commit her child to the care of a baby-farmer or to send it to a foundling hospital? By the contemptuous attitude of the general public towards him, and by his inferior legal, social, and economic position, the person of illegitimate birth is, as it were, forced to seek revenge from society for the wrongs which, in his opinion, society has inflicted upon him. Medical statistics establish beyond dispute the fact that among illegitimate children the proportion of feeble-minded is larger than among the legitimate. _Illegitimacy and Prostitution._--I have not been able to obtain trustworthy statistical data as to what percentage of prostitutes are persons of illegitimate birth, but it is generally supposed that the proportion is as high as 30 per cent. A very brief examination of the matter shows that among prostitutes there is a higher percentage of illegitimates than among the general population. The reason for this state of affairs is doubtless the inferior legal position of illegitimate children under the conditions of our time. Illegitimate girls are not properly brought up; they are despised by the world even if their conduct is irreproachable, and thus one of the most potent reasons for remaining respectable--the fear of the loss of good repute--is lacking in their case. A woman who receives no help, or inadequate help, from the father of her illegitimate child, is very apt to become a prostitute. _Occupation in Relationship to Illegitimacy._--The illegitimate originate in the ranks of the proletariat, and remain in those ranks. The statistics of the subject show that about 90 per cent. of adult persons of illegitimate birth are manual workers, and that not more than a fourth of these are skilled artisans. Statistics prove also that about 10 per cent. more of legitimate males are able to qualify by examination for a reduction of the term of military service to one year, than in the case of illegitimate males. _The Different Classes of the Illegitimate._--Those who wish to understand the position of illegitimate children must consider the different classes of the illegitimate. (_a_) There are many differences in these respects in various countries. For example, in certain countries the children born to a betrothed pair have a better legal position than other illegitimate children. In some countries, again, the legal position of children born of an adulterous or of an incestuous union is worse than that of other illegitimate children.