The Fall of the Birth-rate. By G. Udny Yule. (Cambridge
University Press. 4s. net.)—This statistical inquiry into a difficult problem leads the author to conclude that married women in this country are not capable of bearing so many children as their mothers or grandmothers had. He definitely rejects the current theory that unwillingness to face the responsi- bilities of parentage is the main cause of the decline in the birth- rate. " Fertility cannot be regarded as a fixed quantity for a given nation, but is subject to natural fluctuations." The author believes that there is a definite relation between the course of prices and the trend of the birth-rate. Through the last century prices and the birth-rate rose and fell in similar curves, with an apparent exception between 1881 and 1901. The author points out that since the armistice the birth-rate has risen rapidly, quarter by quarter, much as prices have risen. Time alone can show whether this theory is sound, for the statistics of a century are not sufficient to prove it.
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