partly a statistical decline due to an increased proportion of people
too old or too young for child-bearing. Wherever the infant mortality
is falling there is an apparent misleading fall in the birth-rate due
to the "loading" of the population with children. Here are the sort of
figures that are generally given. They are the figures for England and
Wales for two typical periods.

Period 1846-1850 33 8 births per 1000
Period 1896-1900 28 0 births per 1000
----------------------------
5.8 fall in the birth-rate.

This as it stands is very striking. But if we take the death-rates of
these two periods we find that they have fallen also.

Period 1846-1850 23 3 deaths per 1000
Period 1896-1900 17 7 deaths per 1000
----------------------------
5.6 fall in the death-rate.

Let us subtract death-rate from birth-rate and that will give the
effective rate of increase of the population.

Period 1846-1850 10 5 effective rate of increase
Period 1896-1900 10 3 effective rate of increase
---------------------------------
.2 fall in the rate of increase.

But now comes a curious thing that those who praise the good old pre-
Board School days--the golden age of virtuous innocence--ignore. The