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practitioners in England at the present time must give attention to the subject. This necessity is all the more urgent because economic conditions are such that at present many people will not and dare not increase their families, and they use any means known to them to prevent the birth of a living child. The result too often is the use of harmful contraceptives. Further, alas, it is true that even in our most civilized cities there are many to whom abortion by some means or other is the only method known by which they can limit the size of their families. Official evidence of this is difficult to obtain, for unless something unexpectedly goes wrong no woman allows it to be known that she has practised abortion. Yet so recently as this year (1922) the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology says, "It has been estimated that in New York City alone there are 80,000 criminal abortions annually,"^[1] and large numbers of "therapeutic abortions in addition."

In later chapters some attention will be given to an historical survey of the deliberate control of populations by various nations, but meanwhile, as this book is addressed to