El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-05-20

The problem is one with which
students of heredity have recently been
very busy. A summing up of the re-
suits of their Investigations NAV be ex-
pressed by the statement that the whole
idea Of the superiority of the first-born
is wrong. No such superiority exists.
on the contrary. the first-bOrn child, in
the average case, is inferior to others
that follow
"Intermediates7 the Best.
1T is only the later babies. in big
families. beginning with the seventh or
eighth, that are likely to be no better
than the first baby. Those informed
late" may be expected to be an i'm
provement on the first. and even on the
second.
It seems odd Very large families
may not be so desirable as used to be
supposed, nasmuch as the quality of
the output is liable to diminish after
the sixth child.
But the first-born is at a disadvantage
even before he comes into the world
statistics gathered by the heredity ex-
perts show that a woman's earliest off
spring is twice as likely to be born dead
as the babies that follow.
The figures are worth while.
For every 40 stillbOrn first-bOrn babies
there are only 20 second-bo babies
that come INTO the world dead. And
for the third-born the relative numbe-
is reduced to is IL.
Now what follows2 For every 1000
first-born babies born alive, 50 dies in
their first year. But only 20 of 1000
second-born babies pass away before
the age of IL months; and Of 1000 third
born babies all except 50 survive this
critical period. In other words there
are more weaklings-many more of
them-among the first-born.
u course, the first-born may be
E1TI. and IN such naggpI
Half the members Of the British
house of lords Cor, allowing for deaths,
more than that r-opOrtion), are not
first-born children. This is undeniably
fortunate. Were it otherwise the men
tai and physical average of the noble
men composing that august body would
according to the heredity experts) be
decidedly lower than it IS; and it is not
high.
The first-born baby may be a good
baby; but the chances are that the
second born, thirdbOrn. and fourth
born will be better babies. After the
sixth birth in a family, there is a
tendency to run down, and the seventh
eighth and subsequent babies may show
a progressively diminishing ''viability."
this term signifyrrg ability to survive.
Sometimes Too Many Babies.
Evidently there is such a thing as
too many babies. In fact, the records
show that when the children in a family
run really far into the numbers. ply
steal detectives are liable to be pro-
duced There is such a thing as moth
erhOod- exhaustion.
The first-bOrn. in the average case.
is more delicate of constitution than the
children that follow. He Cor she) is
less robust. This inferiority may he ex-
pected to wear off with advancing age,
(suppOsing that the child survives.
but. as shown by school statistics. il is
still recognizable as late as the twelfth
or thirteenth year.
The physical inferiority Of the first
born (in the average instance is mani
tested in a less resistance to disease.
There is, for example, a greater liza
bility TO tuberculosis But the infer
iority extends even TO the moral de-
veOlpment Of the human individual. In
the general run of criminals there are
20 first-bOrn persons for every so who
represent the average Of subsequent
births.
Nowadays a family with five TO eight
children is reckoned large. In the