The Second Taiwan IUD Follow-up Survey, reported on here, is a representative sample of all IUD acceptors in Taiwan up to the middle of 1966. The data show that 30 months after insertion, 36% of acceptors are continuing users, on a first segment basis, and that if reinsertions are taken into account, the proportion increases to 45%. Compared with extensive clinic data from the city of Taichung, the island-wide termination rates are about 5% higher at 30 months, for first segments, but the all segment rates show little difference at this duration.

Termination rates by social and demographic characteristics show that these rates decline with increasing age and parity, as expected. Sizable differentials in these rates were also found when acceptors were classified as to their purpose in using an IUD—for limiting or spacing—and as to their desire for more children. These effects were partially independent of age and parity. These ‘motivational’ variables were used in cross-tabulations to show how they might clarify the effect of age and parity, as well as to derive a number of other implications for the evaluation and operation of a family planning programme. The effects of education, urban-rural residence, and prior use of contraception, on IUD termination are studied in some detail by cross-classifying these characteristics with age and with one another.

Lastly, this study presents reinsertion rates in relation to a number of social and demographic factors. The rate of reinsertion is seen to depend on the type of termination and, taking this into account, to be generally inverse to the patterns of termination by social and demographic characteristics.

101,220 births in urban areas and 147,331 in rural areas in India, recorded by interview from a 10% sample of households in 3888 villages and 2357 urban blocks, have been analysed. The overall sex ratio was similar to that found in Europe; the only obvious effect of birth order was an apparent high masculinity of first births in both urban and rural areas (probably artifactual); the distribution of the sexes in families in both areas differed somewhat from the binomial expectation; and there was no association between the sexes of pairs of children from adjacent births, but some in the case of pairs separated by one other birth in urban areas or by two other births in rural areas.

From 1959 to 1969 the annual number of petitions for divorce in England and Wales increased by 133%, and the rate of divorce per 1000 married population increased by an estimated 100%. Traditional explanations for the historical increase in divorce, relying on such factors as increased legal and financial opportunity, wartime disturbances and demographic changes, seem inappropriate to deal with recent experience, and it is proposed that normative changes are involved. Cohort analysis suggests that the marriages of the 1960s are more vulnerable to early divorce than those of the 1939/45 war, and that this vulnerability was increasing throughout the period. It seems likely that earlier divorce also implies higher proportions ultimately divorcing.

Total marriage breakdown is impossible to quantify because some separations are informal and leave no record. However, a formula is proposed for totalling divorce petitions and matrimonial proceedings in the lower courts to calculate annual numbers of breakdowns newly coming to public notice. Calculations based on this show an increase in annual numbers of 75% over the period, and of 65% in the rate, thus demonstrating that divorce figures alone give a false impression of trends in marriage breakdown. Although the rates and numbers of unrecorded breakdown are unknown, and may be diminishing, it is concluded that breakdown is probably increasing in volume among contemporary marriages. On the basis of speculative estimates it is also suggested that perhaps one sixth to one quarter of contemporary marriages may ultimately experience some form of breakdown.

The question is posed whether the increases shown represent a generational effect, due to pass, or a new pattern of high manifest breakdown rates. On the basis of trends in the indices of various forms of valueorientated personal behaviour (including divorce), it is suggested that from about 1955 onwards new patterns of behaviour began to emerge. The causation of such patterns is attributed to social structural changes developing since the was which have fostered a more permissive approach to personal behaviour. It is concluded that these trends have influenced the norms of marriage behaviour, and that relatively high rates of marriage breakdown will henceforth be an integral feature of social experience.

Editorial note. The material presented below was originally recorded in an article by Dr Hall in Cuadernos Medico-Sociales, 10, 1969. This Chilean medical journal is published in Spanish and is relatively inaccessible in Europe. In view of the interest and importance of the attitude of the male to family planning, especially perhaps of the South American male, it seemed desirable to bring Dr Hall's findings to the attention of a wider audience. The paper which follows is a revised version of the original English text from which the Spanish translation was prepared. I am much obliged to Dr Hall for her cooperation.

A survey of 584 men in Santiago and 217 men in an adjacent rural area showed that:

(1) Men were favourable to family planning, both in their own personal relationships and for other adults. In all socio-economic strata, more respondents favoured giving information to men than women. It is suggested that male support be enlisted in efforts to reduce induced abortions.

(2) Men favoured giving contraceptive information to youths of both sexes. The family planning programme, therefore, could provide information to adolescents at a time when attitudes toward sex are developing.

(3) There was wide agreement that family planning education be discussed in schools ‘in accordance with the age of the children.’ There is thus an opportunity for the schools to help children develop a system of values within the framework of widely available effective contraception.

Eleven unmarried women, pregnat for the first time and requesting a legal abortion through the referral service at the Marie Stopes Clinic in London, volunteered for the study. Each woman was given a focused open-ended interview by the investigator after her consultation session with the clinic doctor. The subjects were middle working-class, including one schoolgirl and four students. All but one were within the age range 18–23. Four women were Roman Catholic and the remainder were Church of England denomination. The minimum length of the period between first meeting the putative father and becoming pregnant was 4 months. Three women were living in situations that enabled the couple to spend the night together whenever they wished. One case of rape was included in the sample. Eight subjects had used some form of contraception at least twice. Only one woman used a female clinical method of contraception. Three of the four cases in which contraception was used on the occasion of conception involved the male using withdrawal. Two of the subjects continued the pregnancy and married.

Topics discussed in individual case histories and across all subjects were: attitudes to marriage, pregnancy and children before meeting the putative father; sources and extent of knowledge about conception and contraceptive; attitudes towards pregnancy and contraception; extent of contraceptive practice; reasons for not using contraception; relationship with the putative father in terms of the role of sexual intercourse, and discussion of marriage, the possibility of pregnancy and of preventing it; sexual behaviour of the couple; attitudes to sexual intercourse; role of responsibility for contraception; the woman's reactions to being pregnat and the reasons for whether or not she informed her parents about the pregnancy.

The observations from the study indicated that knowledge and motivation were individual factors that could not account exclusively for the circumstances contributing to the woman becoming pregnant. Factors in addition to those within the control of the couple were observed and these influences appeared to be the result of conventional socio-cultural conditions and conditioning. The absence of a sanctioning social atmosphere and the presence of stigmas discouraged effective contraceptive practice; these also appeared to be factors in the decision between abortion and continuing the pregnancy.

An epidemiological study has been made of rates of mental illness in a number of ethnic minorities who are immigrants to Britain, and have settled in a defined area of South London. Of the groups considered, those from Africa, the Old Commonwealth, India and Pakistan have the highest rates. The lowest rates were found in those from Cyprus and Malta, native Britons, and those from the Caribbean. After controlling for the effects of age, sex and social class it was found that the pattern of illness in a number of the immigrant groups differed from the pattern found in the native born. Those from Africa, the Caribbean and India and Pakistan manifested an excess of schizophrenia, while those from Eire manifested a dearth of such illness when compared with matched, native-born controls. The combination of the following factors was used to try to predict the rank order of illness rates among the ethnic groups considered: community integration; status isolation; status striving in a climate of limited opportunity; and selective migration.

In December last year I received a letter from Dr Egon Szabady, Director of the Demographic Research Institute in Budapest, Hungary, calling my attention to the publication by the Institute of the abstracts of papers given at the 9th Hungarian Congress of Biology held in May 1970. Dr Szabady also enclosed a copy of the script of his opening address at the Congress, Population Science and Human Biology, in which he referred to letters which passed between Francis Galton and Jozsef Kórösi between 1894 and 1897, and a reprint of his paper, published in Demographia 1970, which gives a full account, with some facsimiles, of this correspondence. On inquiry, I found that this contact between these two great men of science had attracted little attention—Pearson's massive biography of Galton contains only two references to Kórösi, one to isogens constructed by Galton from Kórösi's Budapest data and the other to Kórösi's death. I wrote, therefore, to Dr Szabady asking permission to use his material in a note in JBS. In reply, Dr Szabady not only gave me his permission and that of the library of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office which holds the originals, but also sent me photographs of two postcards and two short letters not included, either in print or facsimile, in his Demographia paper. Additionaly, he sent me photographs of the two letters from Kórösi to Galton, published in print in Demographia, explaining that the copies held by the library of the Central Statistical Office were Blurred Because of being made by Kórösi on very thin paper. However, they showed, what I had not previously realized, that Kórösi's letters were written in English. I am most grateful to Dr Szabady for this courtesy.

Editorial note. March 17th, 1971 was the fiftieth anniversary of the opening by Marie Stopes of her birth control clinic in Holloway, London, the first of its kind in the UK and possibly in the world. In recognition of this notable event, the Board of the Marie Stopes Memorial Foundation, in conjunction with the University of York, has established a Marie Stopes Memorial Lecture to be given annually for a term of years. The first of the series was delivered on 12th March in the Department of Sociology, University of York, by Mr Laurie Taylor of that department. In introducing the speaker, Dr G. C. L. Bertram, the Chairman, emphasized the great contribution made by Marie Stopes to human welfare and gave a brief history of the clinic, which was soon moved to Whitfield Street. On Marie Stopes' death in 1958 the Memorial Foundation was set up to manage the clinic, still in Whitfield Street, and as a working monument to a great women.

Mr Taylor's script is printed below as delivered and it will be seen that the lecture was a notable one. Not only that, but it was delivered with the verve of a Shakespearean actor and the members of the large and appreciative audience will not readily forget the occasion.