20 MAY 1949, Page 36

THIS somewhat chaotic and lengthy survey contains a vast amount

of information on matters of which the public is too ignorant. Mrs. Neville-Rolfe has helped to found, among other societies, the Eugenics Society, the British Social Hygiene Council and the Union Internationale Contre le Peril Venerien ; and has served on various Government Commissions. She deals here with a mixture of- subjects—her own life-story, biological and social problems all over the world (including a good deal of history), current behaviour and the modern contr31 of families by contraceptives and artificial insemination. A. E. W. McLachlan writes chapters on venereal disease, and there is a handbook-appendix on social problems edited by Ethel Grant. Mrs. Neville-Rolfe explodes several current beliefs —such as that prostitution is a social necessity or that a system of State licensing safeguards health—and she does not, as she says, "suffer fools gladly." (The Civil Service comes in for several energetic attacks.) There is such a wealth of interesting observation and instruction here that it is a pity that the book is not in a more readable form.