Eugenics Laboratory Lectures number 10: Pearson, Karl., 1914. On the Handicapping of the First-Born; Being a Lecture Delivered at the Galton Laboratory, University College, London, March 17, 1914. With Frontispiece and Four Diagrams(London: Dulau and Co.). 68 pp.
Summary
Delivered by Karl Pearson, F.R.S., in March 1914, this lecture provides comprehensive statistical evidence to support the controversial thesis that the first-born child is significantly handicapped. Pearson argues that the increasing trend towards small families in high civilization intensifies this problem, as only the handicapped early-born members survive.
The lecture addresses and refutes the criticisms made by Yule and Greenwood, who attempted to dismiss Pearson’s findings as a statistical artefact related to the selective weighting of large families. Pearson conclusively demonstrates that the methods proposed by his critics grossly exaggerated the percentage of early-borns when a genuine bias existed.
Pearson presents extensive data across various classes and countries to support the existence of a real biological handicap:
- Mortality and Delicacy: The first-born experiences approximately double the still-birth rate of later children in professional classes. Their infantile mortality rate is significantly higher, remaining unmatched until the seventh child or later.
- Physique at Birth: First-born babies consistently have less mean weight and length than any children subsequently born.
- Pathological Conditions: The bias against the elder-born is found in mass statistics for multiple conditions, including: Tuberculosis, Imbecility (excluding late-born Mongolian idiocy), Criminality, and Congenital Cataract.
Pearson concludes that this disadvantage is “amply substantiated” and that the small family trend is detrimental to racial progress.
Eugenics Laboratory Lectures number 10
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