PIP: This essay surveys the development of fertility measurement techniques since the mid 17th century, posing the question of why their development lagged so far behind those for mortality and the partial answer that through its brief history fertility analysis has repeatedly been put to the service of noxious causes and aberrant theories. The work begins with a brief review of the development of mortality statistics, beginning with Graunt's work in London, and goes on to examine early theories of population and reproduction such as those based on Biblical teachings and biological theories. Fertility analysis was not undertaken in part because of reluctance to consider the topic of contraception, but by the end of the 19th century, the influence of Darwin's theory and the spreading decline in fertility, which had long been confined to France, changed the intellectual environment. Theories of racial degeneration were proposed to account for the fertility decline, and in less than half a century a coherent biological and racial vision came to predominate. 3 aspects of this movement are examined in detail, the "paleoracism" dating back to Gobineau, biometrics and genetics, and social Darwinism and its variants. Other intellectual currents related to the general theme of fertility decline are noted. The role of Corrado Gini and Ronald Fisher in formulating a racist theory of fertility is elucidated, and the development of new fertility measures suggested by their theories is recounted. Opposition to Gini's theories, particularly the arguments of Raymond Pearl, are scrutinized, and the role of birth control in the controversy is explained. Finally, some echoes of the earlier racist theories are noted in the attitude of population scientists and others to population growth in the Third World after World War II.