A. O. POWYS 
261 
Thus if no other causes of death were in operation, we see that no less 
than 134 out of every 1000 women would perish from accidents of childbirth in 
accomplishing the fifteenth confinement, and each subsequent confinement would 
be accompanied by an ever-increasing risk. It thus appears that granting that 
economic reasons (such as in sparsely populated territories as Australia, where 
there is but little more than one individual to the square mile) demand that there 
Fig. 9. Probability of Death in Coufiaement. Experience of New South Wales, 1894—1902. 
3 
2 
1 
" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 
Number of Conjinciiiciits. 
Equation to Curve (Origin at 8 Children): 
j/ = 8-381571 + ■81W15.C + -040381X-2- ■00252.5.r'+ •000.568x*. 
should be but little if any restriction in families, it is distinctly prejudicial to the 
individual, both during and beyond the reproductive period, to bear a large family. 
It may of course be urged that it is prejudicial within the reproductive period 
even to bear but one, but it will be seen from the last table that to bear a family 
of six the risk cannot be said to be large — over 96 per cent, of the women will 
survive this — whilst the reproductive period passed almost a maximum expectation 
is attained. 
Turning now to married men marrying at various ages, I have computed from 
similar tables to those from which the information was obtained for mai'ried 
women, the mean duration of life beyond age 46 by married men surviving 
that age and marrying at the various ages. The age of 46 is not of course a 
critical age in man as it is in woman, but has been adopted so that comparison 
