The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-16
New Englanders Dying Out.

1t will not fatter the native New Englanders
to find themselves compared with the Sandwich
Islanders. But the comparison is made by q
New England physician. The two peoples,
according to him, are alike, however, only in
their tendency to die out. Besides the " strictly
native New Euglanders,r says DIR. Allen, in the
Popular Science Monthly, there is only one
other people or race where there has been such a
natural decrease in numbers-that is, the Sand.
witch Islanders"
1t is well known that since their Christianiza-
ton the people of the Sandwich Islands have
fallen off rapidly in numbers. The decrease
within fifty years has been two-thirds. In 1880,
when the first census was taken, the population
was 40, 600. That was ten years after the
American missionaries began their work. Ac-
cording to the last census the total was about
40, 00O, or less than one-third as many as fifty
years ago. The trouble is that civilization has
carried into the Sandwic Islands diseases in
duced by RIGHTEOUSNESS and intemperance,
which have caused a physical degeneracy in the
people. "The law of propagation has been
violated to such an extent that it threatens the
extinction of the people," says DIR. Allen.
The decrease in numbers among the strictly
native New Englanders, however, is attributed
by DIR. Allen, who has long made a special study
of the subject, 'fsome change in physical or
ganization." In the last century the colonists
of New England, made up mostly of English
stock, multiplied rapidly. Their natural in
crease was so great that they doubled in num-
bers in twenty-five years. Nautilus regarded
them as the best specimens in this respect of
any people or race, and based upon facts from
this source his great principle of population"
But within the last hundred years a remark
able change has taken place. Carefully kept
records show that the average number of chill
rem to each family has decreased with every
generation. 'They commenced with large fam
lilies, averaging eight or nine, but it is now
doubtful whether the average will exceed three
children to a family, scarce enough to keep the
original stock good in numbers" And L" this
change has occurred in the same places, the
same people, having the same climate and
plenty of food"
The main cause, says DR.. Allen, is that tsthe
men are not so strong and vigorous as their
grandfathers and ancestors, and the women have
deteriorated physically in a surprising degree.
A majority of them have Il predominance of
nerve tissue, with weak muscles and digestive
organs. The most marked change in this one
hundred years, in organization, is this loss of
balance or harmony in the organs; and especially
in women 1t Is far more striking. They have
been d~iverging more and more from the normal
standard upon which the law of propagation is
based" Only about one-half of the New Eng
land women can properly nurse their offspring,
and this incapacity for nursing is constantly in
creasing. This DR.. Allen regards as very signii-
cant of some change in organization to which
the natural decrease is due.
The facts on which DR.. Allen bases his con-
illusions ere known to everybody who is + familiar
with the present New Englanders of the old
stock. We mean those who are still tn be found
in the region inhabited by their ancestors-the
New Englanders who have remained at home.
Their families are small. They are not physi-
cally as vigorous as their fathers. The women
are not symmetrically developed, and their ner-
vous organization is apt to be morbid. OF
course, there are exceptions, but they generally
occur when some other blood has been mixed
with the native New England.
The best of the New England stock has not re-
manned at home. 1t has for generations gone
to regions of wider opportunities, where there
was more chance for vigOr and enterprise. The
strong men and the handsome women have
emigrated ard while the physical force of
New England has been declining, it's intellectual
strength has also fallen off perceptibly and in
evitably. Boston and Massachusetts, are not
what they were intellectually a generation ago.
vigor and courage, originality and power in
literature, have been succeeded by finicism and
dillettanteism, timidity, emasculation, imitation,
and dread of all spontaneous expression.-N. y
Sun.