17 FEBRUARY 1923, Page 3

It is with mixed feelings that we read in the

Medical Tables for 1921 of the Registrar-Generars annual statistical review, that the death-rate for that year was the lowest on record. We rejoice that disease is being so successfully combated, and, in many cases, prevented, and we are delighted with the enormous decrease in infant mortality which has been achieved in the decade 1911-1920, to the comparatively low average of 10 per cent. ; but at the same time the problem of over-popula- tion is made even more real. We feel strongly that, in view of the future advances in medical science which will tend still further to decrease the death-rate, some organized system of population-control must be seriously considered.