FAMILY PLANNING the Bobbing of the Head Made by Ducks Or Third International Conference on Geese Before They Finally Fly Off
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REVIEWS OF BOOKS i8i however, that very simple models of suitable mals, there is rather little discussion of shape.or colour can be used to evoke elaborate learned or adaptive behaviour, though the responses: the male three-spined stickleback need for more research on it is recognised. will try to mate with a small cigar-shaped There is no discussion of the relationship object with a red "belly", and the herring between "learning" and "instinct ", nor gull chick will attempt to take food from a of the neurological basis of social behaviour. flat cardboard model of a gull's head marked This is a pity, but to include them would with a red spot. The innate character of no doubt have required a longer book. such responses has been shown in a small The need for more neurological research, as number of closely studied animals--for well as discussion, is seen in the use of terms example the male stickleback which, raised such as " drive ", " urge " and " instinct ", all in isolation. courts and fights normally. of them without definition. It is suggested that much of the elaborate In view of current psychiatric interest in signalling behaviour of vertebrates has the work of ethologists, we may ask whether evolved from two sources. First are the the observations described have any impli- displacement responses: these are given no cations for human behaviour. The most clear definition by Dr. Tinbergen, but may obvious conclusion is the profound gulf be characterised as inappropriate responses between ourselves and most animals. As to a particular situation ; they are sometimes Dr. Tinbergen says: regarded as a product of excessive nervous Except perhaps in the highest mammals, all energy or excitation which cannot be signalling behaviour is immediate reaction to discharged in a normal way. Thus a bird internal and external stimuli. In this respect whose mate suddenly flies off during court- there is a great difference between animals and ship may resort to " displacement preening ". man. Later, it is held, in the course of evolution, NevTertheless, as a lucid presentation of some the preening itself has come in some species recent results of the objective study of animal to form a standard part of the courtship psychology, this book can be recommended ceremony. Similarly, the threat posture of a to all students of behaviour. stickleback is interpreted as " displacement S. A. BARNETT. sand digging ". The second source of signal movements is the " intention movement "-for instance FAMILY PLANNING the bobbing of the head made by ducks or Third International Conference on geese before they finally fly off. These Planned Parenthood: Report of the movements themselves, it is held, may act Proceedings, November 24th-29th, as signals, or they may evolve into formal 1952, Bombay, India. Bombay, I953. patterns with a different function. It will be seen that the more elaborate parts of the F.P.A. of India. Pp. xxxiv + 247. scheme involve a subjective element, and Price Ios. 6d. critical readers will certainly find some AT the invitation of the Family Planning passages very condensed and, as they stand, Association of India the third international not wholly convincing. For example: conference of the International Committee The upright threat posture of a Herring Gull on Planned Parenthood was held in Bombay certainly signifies a rather strong tendency to last November. This conference was attack. It does not easily develop into real sponsored by many distinguished persons,of attack because it is inhibited by a simultaneous different nationalities and the fact that the tendency to flee or withdraw. inaugural ceremony included an address Although the subtitle is " with special from Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President reference to vertebrates"", the examples are of India, is an indication of the importance nearly all from fishes, birds or insects. attached to it by the Government of India. Corresponding to the omission of the mam- The report of the proceedings of this i82 THE EUGENICS REVIEW conference is a considerable document. It is the intelligent approach to problems of includes some thirty-seven papers submitted housing, of marriage, of medical care, of high or read by individual experts on population taxes . and of the problem of war and problems, family planning in its general peace." and technical aspects, infertility, steriliza- In this section the case for birth control is tion, induced abortion, sex education and clearly, if dogmatically, stated by Dr. Oscar -marriage counselling. Four study groups Forel and there are interesting papers on the and representatives from various countries particular problems of family planning for submitted reports which were read during various communities by Dr. K. C. K. Raja the conference. Within the compass of a of the Ministry of Health of India, by Dr. S. review it is impossible to do more than Chandrasekhar of the University of Baroda', outline- the range and scope of these papers, by Dr. C. Chandrasekharan of New Delhi and which present a nice admixture of the by Major-General A. N. Sharma of the speculative and the factual, the historical Indian Army. Mention must also be made of and the predictive. Dr. Lewis C. Walmsley's enlightening With characteristic clarity and vigour contribution on the changing position of Dr. C. P. Blacker discusses the control of women in China. fertility in human cultures. He points out In I95I the Government of India invited that mankind has always been concerned to a specialist from the W.H.O. to advise on the, increase both his food -supply and his population problems of India and to suggest numbers but has from time to time adopted possible ways of lowering the birth rate. Dr. meiodemic practices without always Abraham Stone undertook this task and, as recognizing them as such: human sacrifice, a result of his recommendations, experi- mutilation, religious continence and chastity mental clinics have been set up in various and, lastly, contraception. parts of India for the purpose of trying out There follows a realistic paper on world the rhythm method of conception control. population problems entitled " How many To this report Dr. Stone contributes an -people? " by Professor Pascal K. Whelpton, interesting preview and review of contracep- who reminds us that the population which tive methods and the lines on which research any particular territory-and, indeed, the in contraception is being pursued. In 'this world-can support depends ultimately on section also the technical and scientific the number of births and deaths and the aspects of family planning are discussed with food that can be made available. He reminds admirable lucidity by Dr. Helena Wright; us further that, despite optimistic pronounce- his research into a biological contraceptive ments to the contrary; modern scientific by Dr. S. N. Sanyal; oral contraceptives by methods of agriculture cannot as yet keep Dr. Henry de Laszlo and the clinical pace with the food requirements of an effectiveness of contraception by Dr. increasing world population. This important Christopher Tietze. point is underlined by Dr. G. C. L. Bertram In a clear and succinct paper on fertility, in a paper stressing the inevitability of sterility and infertility, Dr.' Margaret Hadley limitation of population, and a similar Jackson pleads that the solution to the conclusion is reached independently in papers problem of over-population lies not in by Mr. William Vogt, Major-General S. S. refusing to help the subfertile (whose Sokhey, Dr. Frank H. Hankins and Dr. contribution to world population is at most Elmer Pendell. infinitesimal), but in successfully controlling Dr. Margaret Sanger, who has written a the hyperfertile. She points out that the foreword to this report, also contributes a majority of those coming for advice because forthright paper on the humanity of family of infertility are eminently childworthy. In planning in which she enunciates certain this section also Dr. W. T. Pommerenke basic principles of planned parenthood and discusses the so-called safe period, an propounds the view that " family limitation admittedly unreliable but by no means REVIEWS OF ROOKS I83 negligible method of birth control; and Dr. At the concluding plenary session certain Mortimer W. Rodgers the varying aspects of resolutions' were passed unanimously: artificial insemination. (i) That countries where National Planned In the section on sterilization there is a Parenthood Associations exist be invited paper by Dr. Clarence J. Gamble describing to become members of the existing a new technique for producing tubal occlusion International Committee on Planned through fibrosis achieved by means of the Parenthood; and that countries which intrauterine cautery which, he claims, is an have no such National Associations, be out-patient procedure requiring no anaes- invited to join as Associate members. thetic. Dr. V. N. Shirodkar, discussing the (2) That the name of The International value of different operative methods of Committee on Planned Parenthood be sterilizing the female, advocates one of his changed to The International Planned which has been successful in over 500 cases. Parenthood Federation. It consists in excising the tube from the (3) That regional offices and committees uterine cornu, closing the cornual opening of the International Planned Parenthood and reinforcing the closure by-stitching the Federation be established as follows: cut end of the fallopian tube over it. South and South-East Asia-India Sterilization of the male is discussed by Europe-London Dr. G. M. Phadke and sterilization from the North America-New York lay volunteer point of view by Mrs. Medora and that other regional offices be estab- S. Bass. lished at the appropriate moment (for Dr. Kan Majima's paper on* induced example, in the'Eastern Mediterranean, abortion in Japan prescribes a desperate Western Pacific and Latin American remedy for a desperate situation.