A survey of sexual habits was conducted among Africans living in and around the Salisbury area of Rhodesia. With the exception of a high rate of venereal disease (overall occurrence 22%) the general health of the interviewees was good. Of men interviewed, 63% had heard of family planning but only 25% completely favoured its practice. Reasons against family planning included cost, religious or political beliefs and unwillingness to interfere with nature. The most commonly used contraceptive method was the pill.

Among married men, average frequency of intercourse was 2·1 times daily. Bachelors reported this parameter in terms of frequency per ‘date’ (2·8). The interval between dates varied from 2 to 9 days. Of married men, 90% had intercourse at night whereas the majority of bachelors had intercourse at an opportune time. Among married men, 22% had regular extra-marital intercourse.

Mean age of men at first intercourse was 18·0 years and that of their partner 16·8 years. Seventy-six per cent of men reported that intercourse normally lasted less than 5 min, and 57% always experienced orgasm during intercourse. The most favoured method for intercourse (66%) was the male superior-female supine position. Twice as many married men either used or had used aphrodisiacs as had bachelors (23%). Despite the widespread availability of beetles which contain twice as much cantharides as do Spanish fly, the most commonly used aphrodisiacs were of plant origin.

Using a small sample of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins, estimates of the heritability of certain parameters of sexual development were obtained. In the majority of instances significant values of h2 were found, suggesting that genetic factors play an important role in psychosexual development. The significance of these results is discussed in the light of current pro-environmental attitudes.

For most people in the world the private sector has long been the principal source of contraceptive supplies. However, few attempts have been made to examine and quantify commercial contraceptive sales. This paper outlines the findings of a contraceptive market survey of Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. The sales statistics and marketing practices for various contraceptive products were obtained by interview from the principal distributors in each country. The sales figures were subsequently cross-checked with manufacturers' agents, and in some cases the overseas manufacturers. The clinic attendance records of local family planning organizations were also reviewed. The findings show that the commercial distribution of contraceptives exceeds public sector activities in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, but not in Kenya.

Public health programmes in less developed countries lack the resources to care for more than a very small fraction of their populations. Medical care is allocated almost by accident, with those living near a clinic usually obtaining the best care. Preferably, such care should be rationed among people according to a more explicit and justifiable criterion, and such a criterion could have an economic basis. Economically, it is more important to prevent the premature death of some persons than others, depending upon education, sex and age. Considering the age element only, preventing the death of a man of age 30 is ordinarily more worthwhile to his national economy than preventing the death of a young child of 5 years. In fact every living person, depending on age, typically has a present capitalized value to the economy. This is based on his expected marginal additions to national output and his expected average subtractions as a consumer from it. These expected production and consumption streams should be discounted at a rate comparable to the marginal productivity of capital in the economy. Sample calculations of such present values indicate that infants typically have negative values at time of birth. Hence a marginal reduction in births through limited birth control expenditures is economically desirable.

A pilot survey has been made of Nigerian families at risk of producing SS haemoglobin homozygotes. Genotypes of parents and off-spring were investigated in twenty-five families. There is a suggestion that more SS children are produced where the first born suffers from haemoglobin SS disease. Mortality among offspring was higher in the study population than in the general population.

Questionnaire data were obtained from the homes of 467 boys and girls in special education classes for educable mentally retarded children and minimally brain injured children which allowed six social class factors to be assessed. For four variables the scores for the two disability groups were significantly different, indicating for the minimally brain injured children a more favourable parental occupation, parental education, and social position, and indicating for the educable mentally retarded children a larger number of children in the family. No differences were apparent between the groups when considering the birth order or the month of birth of the children in the project. The influence of sex as an independent variable was not significant in this research.

A study of first attendances at FPA clinics in the defined population of a London Borough showed that the population served was not dissimilar by social class from an appropriate sample of the population of the Borough. Almost two-thirds of the women were prescribed the contraceptive pill at first visit, and the other third were almost equally divided between the diaphragm and the intra-uterine device as a contraceptive method. Use of the pill was inversely proportional to age, whereas the use of the cap and IUD increased with age at first attendance. Women prescribed the pill or IUD tended to continue with the method, whereas 11% of women who initially used the diaphragm changed over to the pill in approximately a 1-year follow-up period. A large proportion of women, 21%, attended the clinics only once, but this was shown to be due, for the most part, to factors which were outside the control of the clinic.

This is the report of a 5-year follow-up survey of 350 couples married in Hull in 1965–66 and first interviewed shortly after marriage. It is based on the results of a second set of interviews conducted in 1970–71. The couples' initial intentions on family-building and birth-spacing are compared with their fertility experience during the first 5 years of marriage. Changes in patterns of contraceptive usage during the period are explored and both family-building and contraceptive practice are examined in relation to those variables which were found to influence the original intentions as expressed in the first interview.

In England and Wales in 1938–68 the sex ratio of children liveborn or stillborn to women aged 45+ years was lower than the sex ratio among children born to women at any other age. This strengthens the suggestion that the high sex ratio reported by Takahashi among children born to elderly women in Japan is a spurious consequence of false registration.

In the second and third quarters of 1970, 155 women applied for abortion to two of the three consultant gynaecologists at the Royal Northern Hospital, London. Of the applicants, 100 were single, forty-two married and thirteen widowed, divorced or separated (WDS). The single women came disproportionately from larger than average families, and fifty-eight were from broken or unhappy homes. Of the total sample, 39% were Church of England and 30% Roman Catholic. By occupation, the largest group was of semi-skilled or unskilled workers (thirty-seven) and the smallest one of professional women (seven). Less than half were Britishborn and one-third were from the Commonwealth. More than half had never attempted to use any method of contraception. The 155 patients between them had had fourteen previous abortions and twenty-five illegitimate children.

Of the 155 women, seventy-one single, twenty-three married and eight WDS obtained an abortion, this proportion of single women being considerably higher than the national average. So also was the proportion of women in the age range 20–34 years. Slightly more women who were Britishborn and C of E by religion obtained abortion than were represented in the sample as a whole. A number of clinic and hospital details were recorded, such as stage of pregnancy at first hospital interview and at abortion, delay in securing hospital appointment and bed. A follow-up, about 18 months later, showed that nearly all the women were glad they had had an abortion; very few had experienced serious depression, feelings of guilt or religious problems afterwards. Most of the women who needed it were now using birth control, mostly the pill. Three patients became pregnant again within a year of their termination. One had a miscarriage and one (a schoolgirl) had a second termination. The third applied for a second abortion, but was refused.

Fifty-three women, approximately one-third, did not have a hospital abortion, but only fifteen of these were categorically refused; the others had spontaneous or private abortions, changed their minds after interview or failed to appear for the operation. Of the fifteen, seven were refused because the pregnancy was too far advanced. Two girls were refused because they had had previous unwanted pregnancies, but had not used contraception on this occasion; one of these was 19 years old and already had had two abortions and an illegitimate baby. The remaining six were refused for various reasons.

Some general conclusions are drawn from the survey and some recommendations made.