Excerpt from Kingston Medical Quarterly, Vol. 3: October, 1898 HE Anglican Synod at itsvrecent meeting discussed the ques tion of the birth rate in the Province of Ontario. In Ou tario the number of births per 1000 inhabitants was stated to vary from 18 to 20 per year, while in the Sister Province of Quebec it averages'36 to 40 per 1000. The question was very pertinently asked Why this difference? Several reasons were ad vanced. Among which may be mentioned the economic reason that young men are now crowded out of employments formerly open to them and now followed by women-and so, being unable to be sure of regular remunerative labor, they were loath to assume the responsibility of supporting a wife and a probable family. Another reason assigned was imperfect registration of the births which actually occur. We feel that both of these reasons play a part in producing the low' birth rate, but we are confident that those combined do not fully answer the question, nor are they in our Opinion the chief factors in producing the result to which the attention of the Synod was directed. There is another and a more important. Cause operating to produce this low death rate, viz. - The means' adopted by even married women to avoid pregnancy and, with shame be 'it confessed, to prevent the pregnancy, when it occurs, going to full term. In these loath some and much to be condemned practices the women are not alone to blame. In many instances these practices are known to and shared in by their husbands. As this is a matter which comes more within the knowledge of medical men than of any other class in the community, we deem it to be our duty to express our opinion. It is not our intention to recite the various means adopted in the hope of preventing pregnancy as we do not deem such a course either necessary or in the public interest. Suffice it to say that there are few medical men in this country who have not been requested by patients to tell them what they can do to avoid having any more children. Such requests, be it known, are not made by the poor alone, or even mainly. Men and women in apparently fair circumstances are more apt to make such a request. The reasons given by these applicants for advice are either that the wife is m delicate health and is unable or unfit to bear children or that they cannot afford to provide for any more children. If either of these reasons be the true reason, in _low;birth rate IN ontario. Erra ta. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.