Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-02-22
New England Families.

cle upon medical SUBJECTS IN the Onlted
States, has the following paragraph:
Questions of sanitary science are
receiving 80 large q share of attention
at the present time that passing re-
sponse may be made to some peculiari-
ties of American social life which may
not be familiar to every English or
American physician. DIR. Nathan Allen,
of Lowell, Mass, member of the
American Medical Association, who has
displayed much careful observation in
this direction, and in the discussion in
which medicine blends with social
science, has published number of pa
pers ombodying some important senti-
ments. From his own statistics and
those of other observers, it seems to be
we'll established that in this country
there has been of late years remarka-
BILE diminution in the size of families
among the native inhabitants. From q
careful examination of the history of
many towns in Massachusetts, it has
been found that the average number of
children to each family has been grad
ually diminishing through several sue
cessive generations commencing in
some places with eight or nine to each
family, and now numbering only three
or four. 1t was stated some time since
in q prominent medical journal in New
York that medical men of that city
found an average of not more than
three children in family. Among the
higher classes very few families had
more than five children, very many had
but one child, and altogether too many
had none at oil. He has also shown
/ exclusively that the physical improve
81 MI of the American people has been
y retarded by undue development of the
Intellectual faculties. Excess of devel-
opment of any part of the system has
been shown to DO hostile to fertility.
As was remarked recently in the col
umns of the New York Medical Journal,
this would seem to be clearly shown by
the growing disinclination among
young married women to assume the
duties of maternity, and such disincli-
nation, if widespread, of course tends
to undermine the foundation of the
married and maternal relation. Pr.
Allen has also shown that the bi-tii-rate
of people depended very much upon
particular type of organization, and
hence there must be q certain physical
standard which determines the laws Of
population. Statistics are adduced
which prove that the decline in the
birth-rate of New Englanders-wh which
corresponds very nearly to that of
Francois so decided that the birth
rate of that stock of people is now only
about one half that of the Irish, English,
German, and French. Canadian"
uor, - ,,,o1 10 10 "a, No., Eno1o,l -,
respect of children is pleasantly told by
Prof. Moses Colt Tyler, in his recently
published History of American Liter
AZURE, as follows: But who and of
what sort were these people who in the
seventeenth century took possession of
England, and who, through their de-
scendants, hold possession of it still?
At the first glance We see that they
wSE prolific race, marrying early and,
i'm portunity presented, marrying
Il often; never declining to rejoice in hav-
/ ing their houses edited and beautified
with many children. In the
year 1Gi0 there were in New England
twelve Independent groups of colonists,
fifty towns, q population of about d.
600 souls. During the 125 years follow
ing that date more persons, it is sup
posed, went back from the New to the
Old England than came from the Old
England to the New. Yet so thrifty
and teeming have been these New Eng
landers, that from that primal commu'
nifty OF Il 900 persons have descended
the three and half millions who COM
pose the present population of New
England, while OF the entire population
now spread over the United States,
probably every third person can read
in the history of the first settlement of
New England the history of his own
= progenitors. It hardly needs to be
mentioned after this that the conditions
OF life there were not at all those for
which Malthus subsequently invented
his theory of inhospitality to infants.
Population was sparse work was plen-
tltul food was plentiful and the ar
rival in the household of q new child
was not the arrival of new appetite
among brood of children already half
ied-it was rather the arrival of new
helper whose help was scarcer than
food it was, in fact, fresh installment
from heaven of what they called, on
biblical authority, the very heritage of
the Lord. The typical household of
New England was one of patriarchal
righteousness. Cs all the sayings of
the Hebrew p,almist-except, perhaps,
the damIatory ones-it is likely that
they rejoiced most in those which ex-
pressed the Davidic appreciation of
muSudinous children: AS arrows
afeLthe hand of a mighty man, SO are
chlldren of the youth. Happy is the
nan that hath his culver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed, but they
Shall speak with the enemies in the
gate The New Englanders had for
many years quite number of enemies
IN the gate whom they wished to be
able to speak with in the unabashed
manner intimated by the devout war.
nor of Israeli"
In note to this passage the author
refers to some interesting instances Of
large families
p Pleasant examples of the early New
England family meet one at almost
every turn in the field of New England
Biography. The sturdy patriot, Roger
Clapp OF Dorchester was bannv in tho