Population Problems in Britain

Abstract

SIR W. LANGDON-BROWN, addressing the British Social Hygiene Council on the relation of social biology to the population problem (Brit. Med. J., 766, Dec. 9, 1944), said that he regarded with grave suspicion the efforts of planners to dethrone the family and hand children over to the State. Some family life is unsatisfactory, but the majority is good. The birth-rate in Britain has fallen steadily since 1870 and, in the same period, the infant death-rate had decreased and expectation of life had lengthened. There is evidence that the fertility-rate decreases with improved chances of survival. The British Social Hygiene Council has estimated that one-tenth of all marriages in Britain remained childless, but not deliberately so. A study of 2,000 cases suggested that in 60 per cent there was a defect on the man's part. In general, the average male fecundity is much lower than was generally assumed.