From the INTRODUCTION. BY far the most important question of our time, to those who take more than a superficial or transitory interest in social matters, is the question of limitation of families." Since the year 1876 when Mr. Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant were prosecuted for publishing The Fruits of Philosophy , in which practical information concerning the means of limitation was given, the birth-rate in practically all civilized countries has rapidly declined, although it was rising before that date. This ...
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From the INTRODUCTION. BY far the most important question of our time, to those who take more than a superficial or transitory interest in social matters, is the question of limitation of families." Since the year 1876 when Mr. Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant were prosecuted for publishing The Fruits of Philosophy , in which practical information concerning the means of limitation was given, the birth-rate in practically all civilized countries has rapidly declined, although it was rising before that date. This fact, combined with the inquiry made by the Fabian Society in 1905, and the testimony of many medical men, renders it beyond doubt that this fall of the birth-rate is not only due to the voluntary restriction of families within marriage, but also to the employment of means of preventing conception which do not otherwise interfere with the sexual life of the parents. That the fall of the birth-rate is due to restriction of families is practically proved by the record of the fertility of married women, which has fallen from 292.5 births per thousand married women in 1870-72 to 209.4 per thousand in 1909 in England and Wales, and similarly in other countries. Another strong piece of evidence against this being due to what is sometimes termed "moral restraint" from intercourse by married people is that it did not occur before 1876, although the necessity for restriction of families and the advice of "moral restraint" had been most strongly before the public ever since the commencement of last century. The inquiry made by the Fabian Society in 1906 showed that 242 out of 316 married couples admitted having deliberately limited their families." Moreover a well-known English gynecologist has put the matter in the following strong terms, in 1904: -- "Artificial prevention is an evil and a disgrace. The immorality of it, the degradation of succeeding generations by it, their domination or subjection by strangers who are stronger because they have not given way to it, the curses that must assuredly follow the parents of decadence who started it; all of this needs to be brought home to the minds of those who have thoughtlessly or ignorantly accepted it, for it is to this undoubtedly that we have to attribute not only the diminishing birth-rate, but the diminishing value of our population. "It would be strange indeed if so unnatural a practice, one so destructive of the best life of the nation, should bring no danger or disease in its wake, and I am convinced, after many years of observation, that both sudden danger and chronic disease may be produced by the methods of prevention very generally employed... The natural deduction is that the artificial production of modern times, the relatively sterile marriage, is an evil thing even to the individuals primarily concerned, injurious not only to the race, but to those who accept it...".
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Seller's Description:
8vo, pp. 119. [Shilling books. ] Ex library, with bookplate, stamps and date slip. Originally in paper, but cloth-bound for the library, with TEG. Original paper cover loose, perforated stamp on title-page; cover somewhat worn at edges, o/w VG. An argument in favor of birth control.
