View report page

1925
19
If we compare the total number of births in Acton during the
7 years before the war 1908-1914 with that in the seven years
following the termination of the war, 1919-1925, there were 2,126
fewer births in the latter period, though the population had
increased.
The same phenomenon is observed through out the Kingdom,
but the reduction in Acton has proceeded at a more enhanced rate
than that observed throughout England and Wales. If the same
factors continue to operate as far as this district is concerned,
we are approaching the period when the death-rate will balance
the birth-rate.
The discussions on problems of population and birth control
have excited considerable interest, but outside professional associations,
considerable timidity is shown and the problem of population
is shirked by many. In the view of most people interested in
public health it is the biological aspect of contraceptive methods
which is of importance in the realm of preventive medicine. It
is difficult to view the question solely from the biological standpoint,
and ignore the economic or even the ethical aspects. Because
the evidence both ways bearing upon the biological side of the question
is at present too scanty to enable a just conclusion to be
reached, many think that the question of the birth-rate had better
be left alone
But the question forces itself upon our notice. Although we may
be unable to make any suggestions, it would be fatuous if we entirely
ignored its existence. There are no birth-control clinics in the
district, but there are two close to the boundaries, and considerable
propaganda is carried on. In the case of one of them, pamphlets
are distributed in a wholesale manner and quite indiscriminately
in some parts of the district, advising women to attend the clinic,
where advice will be given as to the best contraceptive methods.
In some instances, accompanying the leaflet is a small booklet
which is sold for threepence.
A good deal of confusion has arisen over the use of certain
terms, and many people imagine that birth-control and the use
of contraceptives are synonymous terms. If we limit the term
birth-control to the simple regulation of numbers, then birth-control
has always been, is now, and will always be an absolute necessity.