This study examines the relationship between family size, birth order and IQ components. No significant associations were found in either non-manual or manual social groups between IQ scores and family size. The correlation coefficient between verbal IQ and family size in the non-manual group was positive and differed significantly from the negative manual group value. Birth order effects were noted; the association differed significantly between non-manual IQ components and between social groups.

This paper examines the continuation from 1971 to 1975 of the fertility decline in Sri Lanka that commenced in 1960. New trends in contractive practice, especially of female sterilizations in 1974–76, are discussed, and change in the pattern of childbearing is identified. The fertlity decline is compared with that in Taiwan.

The paper examines the attitudes towards legalization of abortion among a cross-section of 1130 currently married, fecund women of metropolitan Dacca. Abortion is a taboo subject and it is punishable under law in Bangladesh. The respondents in this study do not seem to be very hostile toward legalization of abortion but, on the contrary, favour this at least under certain situations. Only 11% of respondents are strongly opposed to legalization of abortion, but as many as 50% of the respondents endorse abortion in at least three different situations: (i) if the life of the mother is endangered: (ii) if the baby is expected to be born defective: (iii) if a woman is raped. This finding indicates that at least among a group of educated urban women there prevails a more favourable attitude towards abortion than that permitted by law. Socioeconomic factors, particularly female education, are found to be the strongest correlates of attitude towards abortion.

This paper examines the current fertility (1971–72) of migrant women in Australia, in order to compare the fertility levels and patterns prevalent among migrants from nine selected countries with those of the Australian born women. Birth registration data have been mainly used in the analysis.

Three main points emerge. Among the married women there were few differences in fertility regardless of the country of birth. A major exception was the somewhat higher fertility levels among the southern European migrants. Extramarital fertility seemed to vary substantially between different migrant groups: New Zealanders had the highest and the Italians and Greeks had the lowest levels. There were major differences in the proportion of women married among the various migrant groups; again the southern Europeans had highest proportions married. Comparison of the reproductive behaviour of migrants with their counterparts in the countries of origin showed that the southern European migrants in Australia had higher fertility rates than those prevalent in their countries of origin.

Induced abortion has a long history in India. It occurs in village society, although the rate is relatively low. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of women having legal abortions are presented for a national, a West Bengal state, and a West Bengal local sample. A series of illegal abortions (1969) prior to the legalization of abortion in West Bengal is compared with more recent experience (1977–78) of legal abortion.

Clinical facilities for meeting the demand for abortion are still inadequate. Reasons are given for predicting that the demand for legal abortion will continue to rise. Currently only 6% of legal abortions are by vacuum aspiration and nearly one-quarter by hysterotomy and hysterectomy. Greater provision needs to be made for the safer early abortions.

Infand mortality for the period 1950—70 has been analysied in a North-Swedish isolate, a population characterized by a high incidence of schizopherenic psychoses and other neuorpsychiatric disorders. Infand mortality is higher than in Sweden generally. As many as 45·9% of the deceased infands in the population sccumbed during the first week of their life, compard to 28·1% in the general Swedish population.

The study examines the sex imbalance at the marriageable ages according to ethnic group and religion, utilizing data obtained from the complete tabulations of the 1971 Census of Population in Sri Lanka. The active enforcement of Indian repatriation, commencing in 1971, played a major role in increasing net migration rates to significant levels in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975 and thereby reducing the island's growth rate to 1·45% and 1·71% in 1974 and 1975. These out-movements were further increased by the exodus of Sri Lanka citizens which began in 1972 and continued in the years 1973–75, presumably dominated by males aged 20–44 years. This emigration of Sri Lanka citizens is expected to continue and will aggravate further the difficulties of contracting a marriage within each ethnic and religious group. Possible demographic consequences are suggested.

Out of 197 Wessex women undergoing a legal abortion at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic at Brighton, 31 (15·7%) had already been refused a termination of pregnancy by at least one National Health Service doctor in Wessex. Almost all of these pregnancies were terminated for reasons covered by the social clause of the 1967 Abortion Act.

The principal reasons given for refusal of termination were that the women had insufficient grounds for termination under the Abortion Act, or that they were too late. Some were given misleading information. Refusal of an operation may have led to one woman having a second trimester rather a first trimester procedure when she went to BPAS. Some of these patients reported medical consultations which they had found to be upsetting or hurtful. It is suggested that the interests both of women seeking abortion and of doctors opposed to abortion would be best served if the Health Authorities were to provide alternative referral pathways to special abortion facilities.

Patterns of sleep are described among the adult inhabitants of a group of Oxfordshire villages as ascertained through a sleep questionnaire. Sleep duration during the main sleep period on working days, and perceived sleep quality, are then analysed in terms of associations with aspects of life style. In both men and women some 20 out of 50 responses to life style questions show significant associations with sleep duration but most of these associations differ by sex. Some show corresponding associations with sleep quality, but others, mainly related to what people actually do, rather than what they say about how they feel, do not. A principal components analysis of those life style variables which show significant associations with sleep duration, and the adjustment of individual values by these factors for entry into a multiple regression, identifies five factors in each sex which are significantly related to sleep duration. Together they account for 9·9% of the observed male variance and 12·4% of the female variance.

Perinatal mortality among hospital deliveries in Lucknow city in 1976–77 is compared with the results of earlier studies. The effect of biological and socioeconomic factors is considered. High risk cases, for which special care should be provided, are noted.

A group of 239 mothers breast-feeding on leaving hospital were followed up 6 months later by a postal questionnaire; 216 (90%) responded and, of these, 41% had discontinued breast-feeding before the end of the 12th week, the greatest decline occurring within the first 6 weeks. Duration of breast-feeding was significantly influenced by social class and, for parous mothers, previous breast-feeding success. Seventy-two per cent of the mothers who stopped breast-feeding within the first 12 weeks gave inadequacy of the milk supply or an unsettled baby as contributory reasons. Maternal fatigue and painful nipples were the other two most frequent contributory problems. Only 6% of all the mothers admitted to not having enjoyed breast-feeding. The person most commonly consulted about breast-feeding problems was the health visitor. Regardless of how long they had breast-fed, 43% of the mothers would have liked more help.

The incidence of child abuse and neglect resulting in validated case reports to the American Humane Association in 1976 was determined in relation to household composition, family income and age of the victim. Abuse and neglect were both maximal in father-only homes and minimal in two-natural-parent homes. Mother-only households exceed those with one natural and one step-parent in neglect incidence, but the reverse is true for abuse incidence. Poverty is more strongly associated with neglect risk than with abuse risk, and probably cannot account for the high risks of abuse and neglect in father-only and step-parent families. Evidence that the presence of an unrelated adult filling a parental role exacerbates the risk of physical abuse is presented and discussed.

Three hundred and eight Wessex women obtaining induced abortions in the National Health Service, or in a charitable clinic, were interviewed at the time of their operation. Information was obtained as to their sources of sexual knowledge, their use and experience of contraception and their intentions with regard to sterilization in the future.

Whilst there has apparently been an increase in the amount of sex education provided in schools over the last decade, its effectiveness must be in some doubt. There is still a failure to provide contraceptive services which reach younger patients, and it is suggested that family doctors may sometimes miss opportunities to offer their patients full advice as to the methods available.

The allele frequency data of artificial populations were examined by several methods which test whether various configurations of allele frequencies are the result of drift or selection. Although no genotypic selective differences were included in these populations the methods indicated that selection was operating in some instances; hence the models are not reliable. Distinguishing between the actions of drift and selection would be facilitated if data for many loci were included, so that a notion of the variance of the genetic variation measure could be obtained.

Data are presented on age at menarche and adult stature in 905 women from the islands of Lewis and Harris, born between 1920 and 1949. Menarcheal age showed no tendency to fall in women born between 1920 and 1935, but thereafter successive year-of-birth groups showed an almost continous decline. There were no significant changes in stature in successive groups.

The changes have been correlated with trenda in affluence, as indicated by unemployment levels. In women born between 1932 and 1941 there was good agreement between average unemployment during various periods of childhood and menarcheal age, but among later-born individuals the relationship broke down. It is suggested that during the earlier period unemployment was associated with some degree of biological deprivation, but that during the later period the introduction of rationing and later, of the Welfare State, buffered the growing child against economic hardship.

Mean household size (used as an estimate of mean sibship size) fell over the period of study, but its pattern of change was different from that of menarcheal age. It is suggested that this factor played at most aminor role in fluencing the results of the investigation.

The isonymic method has been applied in a study of temporal trends of inbreeding amongst the Ahmadiyyas of Kashmir valley. The results show a steady rise in total inbreeding and its random and non-random components over time. The validity of applying the method in a caste-structured population is examined, and it appears that while the complexity of the structure inhibits its application to many populations, there are others in whom the assumptions implicit in the method are met.

The pattern of human disease is not immutable. Some diseases change their expression; new diseases arise, and some die out. Man's diseases have influenced his history and evolution and, conversely, his biological and cultural evolution have affected his pathology, most powerfully through his alteration of the environment and his changing demographic patterns. This paper briefly reviews the history of those diseases which are, or have been, the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality and draws attention to a curious contrast between the Old and New Worlds.

By regression analysis, the mortality from prostate cancer in England and Wales in the period 1951–70 is analysed as a function of age, date of birth and date of death. The peak mortality occurred for the cohort of men born around 1886. Age and date of birth are the most important factors and date of death does not appear to be significant.

In an earlier paper (Abelson, 1978) it was suggested that relationships between population density, migration, and the frequency of consanguineous marriage depended on variation in the social class composition of populations. For two valleys in the western Pyrenees, it was found that migration distances are shorter in areas with lower population density and that this could in part be attributed to the effects of social class independently of the occupations of the population (Abelson, 1979). The present paper investigates further the relationships between migration, the frequency of consanguineous marriage and inbreeding in the Roncal valley in Navarre, Spain, for the period 1877–1915. The Roncal valley contains seven villages, each a separate administrative unit. Almost all the total population of 3900 live in these nucleated villages and there are few isolated households. The area of the valley is 420 km2, and the population density 9·28 inhabitants/km2.