He finds that the all-important factor which determines fertility is
the amount of nervous energy of the organism, and that nervous energy
is produced or modified by three specially influential factors, viz.,
Food, both quantity and quality; Climate, hot or cold--moist or dry;
and, lastly, all those varied conditions which make for greater or
lesser mental and physical activity.
Fertility, broadly speaking, varies in inverse proportion to the
degree of nervous energy or what we may call vitality.
Conditions, therefore, which lower the general vitality below the
normal produce abnormal fertility. This excessive child-bearing under
present conditions still further lowers the standard of life and the
health of the mother, hence a vicious circle is set up, the only
escape from which will come by such consideration of the laws of
health relating to work, housing, food and recreation as shall ensure
the maximum of vitality to the workers. This is the true method of
conception control.
There comes a point in the development of nervous energy which is
productive of sterility. It is true that principles based on so many
varying factors will necessarily appear to fail in individual cases.
Environment with its influence on the nervous energy of the individual
will be modified by the inherited tendency of that individual towards
fertility or the reverse.
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