Exploring 19th and early 20th century concerns with population 'degeneration' was a fascinating aspect of unit 18 in A225. Whilst I don't have any great expertise, I've a little familiarity with the eugenics movement - but the 'Neo-Malthusians' and their 'Malthusian League' were a new group for me. So I was really interested to see that the Borthwick Archives held copies of their monthly journal...
The Malthusian - organ of the Malthusian League 😃
The fundamental concern of the Malthusian League was 'family planning'. It was initially founded during the "Knowlton trial" of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh in July 1877, when they were prosecuted by the state for publishing Charles Knowlton's 'The Fruits of Philosophy, or the Private Companion of Young Married People'. This pamphlet, written by an American physician in the 1830s, explained various contemporary methods of birth control - and (radically) was aimed at a general readership.
The principles of the League are set out after the first editorial (by Charles Bradlaugh), they present over-population as the primary source of poverty and most social woes, and promote the 'prudential' or 'birth-restricting' Malthusian checks as the only sensible route out of contemporary problems.
I only skimmed the first volume, but the recurrent themes in the contents were: discussions of Malthus and his written works; essays counselling against 'celibacy' as this actually led to 'vice' but to marry early but keep 'control' of family size; social and possibly legislative incentives for small families. There was minimal discussion of any of the practicalities of contraception, but I did come across the following account of a visit by representatives of the League to the International Medical Congress of 1879 held in Amsterdam.
The excerpt above is the closest I came to a discussion of methods of family planning - the physiological 'facts' linked to French physician Adam Raciborski was a variant on the 'rhythm method' trying to identify a 'safe period' for intercourse, other approaches discussed were 'withdrawal', presumably mechanical methods were sheaths.
I was also interested in the following account of a very different, socialist, perspective on poverty. It looks like it got very short shrift at the conference!
The final A225-related excerpt I picked out was on 'The Female Franchise' an important 'Current Topic'. The League were broadly supportive, specifically as they believed this would be an indirect route to 'limited procreation'.
