DECLINE OF THE BIRTH RATE

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13660, 31 July 1908, Page 3

DECLINE OF THE BIRTH RATE

Dr Brownlee, . physician ■ superintendent of the Belvidere Hospital, 'read the oilier day before' the' Boyal Philosophical Society of Glasgow an interesting paper on "The Growth of Nations in .Relation to the Birth and Death Rates: ah Hospital Study." ■ He began by saying that; the decline of the birth-rate which had now been in progress for the last 40- years was at present a. source of anxiety to many people. He thought, however, that the arguments on this decline ; were largely vitiated by the statistics relied on relating to too brief periods of time. The lack of sufficient statistics stood in the way of making an exhaustive inquiry; still, in the case of England they saemed to show that since the Conquest there had been three periods of marked growi.ii in the English population. These three periods were also maked by the appearance of great writers, and were historically the leading periods of English energy. There seemed to be no uniform length in such periods in the history of nations generally. In some cases they had lasted' more than 200-years, and in others not much more than~ sixty. ; It was as if there were periods of race, tiredness as well as individual tiredness—periods when races seemed to express themselves at their best, followed by periods in which they simply marked time. He suggested that' there were, apart from environment and heredity, other factors of a probably cyclical character whose efforts must be taken into account. It. was common at the preserit day to blame artificial' means of prevention for the fall in . the birthrate, but this was quite without evidence. His calculations for each of the divisions of . Scotland for the suburban districts round Glasgow, where, if anywhere, such attempts should show themselves, brought out the fact that in one only of district's was there any evidence that the birthrate bad declined at a more rapid rate than that of Scotland as a whole. In the main districts of Scotland, the; chief fall had taken place in the counties which had the ..majority of, fair-haired, persons-—■

'namely, the East Coast counties, from Forfar downwards, and the region soulU of the Clyde and the *<>rth.; in the northern c'ountiwv inpludmg the Aberdeen and Inverness groups, w.ic-re ,dark. na:.r was in the majority, the iall had. been much less. . Dr Browniea also adduced such things as plagues of voKs, eve., as being - probably analogous phenomena. Other ■ writers, I . may add, agree with Dr Broivnlee as to the marked decrease of fair-haired, and sespicially of red-haived, persons m highly civilised ■lniul s, and alge . tuaj.' ■ q./c •' Ui. YI). : .carting' onus,a; 111 this decline is to bo found in t.ho excessive town / life of our day being inimical to the physical welfare of such persons. , Opportunely, the Kegistrar-general for. Scotland has just issued his report of the bir.hs, deaths, and: marriages registered in Scotland .during 1901. Its outstanding feature! is the lowering of the biith-rate. ; In all,. the. births- of 128,769 living children were registered. This is 3131 below 1 the total for 1906, and 3556 ' less ilian the average (annual number for each ol sue ■ previous' nve.. ye:.rw. Tjie. diminutions of the rate were in Shetland, Hutheriaiid, Argyll, uumlru« r iilgm, and Banff. The number of illegitimatei births fhowe that, the i-;i-.ady, tUuugtt not- rapui, ; improvement of latent years, continues. The total nunib.T •> of marriages was 33,260, being 137 more than in the p receding year.