[Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/176 (page 6)
    G all of which were carried out independently, shewed beyond any question that the very poor exhibited a high degree of fertility and the rich a low degree. The difference Ixjtween the two classes would almost certainly be found to be rnoie pronounced now than it was when these inquiries were pursued for no one can question the fact that the practice of birth- control is spreading amongst the lower middle classes and the upper part of the working classes, though it does not appear to have yet reached the lower working classes. The only part of this argument which from its very nature is difficult to carry to a definite conclusion is that dealing with the relative physical and mental worth of the different classes of the population from which the Nation’s po]»ulation is being recruited. There are no statistics to shew this relative worth and one can only assert a probability based on general obser- vation. This probability is, however, a fairly certain one and is to the effect that our population is being chiefly regenerated from the mentally inferior classes. If we accept this then I think we are bound to consider as reasonable the propaganda of the Neo-Malthusians. Indeed anyone who attempted to stem the tide of public opinion in this matter at present would be entering on a truly desperate task. The case appears to me to have been carried beyond the stage of arguing for or against birth-control and to have reached the point at which legitimate birth-control is accepted as being for the National good and all that remains to be settled is the best means of control and the general education of the public on contraceptive methods. That is the position whether we accept it and like it or not. And our task as Medical Officers of Health is to accept what after all we have- no power to alter and to concentrate more strongly still on. reducing the mortality amongst these who are permitted by nature assisted by the ‘‘selective agencies” of civilisation to come into the world. Deaths. The total number of deaths occurring in the Administra- tive County during 1921 was 7,197, equal to a death-rate of 11.4 per 1,000 of the estimated population. In 1920 the- death-rate was 11.5. Comparative statistics are :— 96 Great Towns 148 Smaller Towns London England and Wales 12.1 12.3 11.3 12.4