Medicine: Big Families

To have big families was fashionable in England, as in the U. S., before the War. Thereafter women learned a new freedom and men tolerated contraceptives. England’s birth rate declined. Recently the English birth rate has been increasing. Dr. George F. Buchan, medical officer of London, sought explanation. It lies with the women, he last week decided: “Every woman, every real woman, and there are more of the latter than the average person thinks, is desirous of having babies. . . . Present indications are that we are starting on another big family cycle.”