_THE LAW OF POPULATION. Its Consequences and its Bearing upon Human Conduct and Morals. Annie Besant. Asa K. Butts, Publisher. 1879._ The more marriage is delayed the more prostitution spreads. Prostitution is an evil we should strive to eradicate, not to perpetuate, and late marriage, generally adopted would most certainly perpetuate. Marriage is deferred owing to the ever increasing difficulty of maintaining a large family in anything like comfort. Celibacy is not natural to man or to woman, all bodily needs require their legitimate satisfaction, and celibacy is a disregard of natural law. Until nature evolves a neuter sex, celibacy will ever be a mark of imperfection. P. 27–8. But the knowledge of these scientific checks would, it is argued, make vice bolder, and would increase unchastity among women by making it safe. And if so, are all to suffer, so that one or two already corrupt at heart may be preserved from becoming corrupt in act? Are mothers to die solely that impure women may be held back, and wives to be sacrificed that the unchaste may be curbed. As well say that no knives must be used because throats may be cut, no matches sold because incendiarism may result from them, no pistols allowed, because murders may be committed by them. P. 38. _SLAVERY OF PROSTITUTION. A Plea for Emancipation. Maude E. Miner, Secretary of the New York Probation and Protective Association. McMillan Co., 1916._ The study of young women in prostitution shows that mental deficiency is an important factor in delinquency. 34%, or approximately ⅓ of 577 delinquent young women at Waverly House were so retarded in mental development as to be considered feeble-minded, and others were mentally retarded enough to need protection and over-sight. Close knowledge of the individual girls convince us that their deficiency facilitates their entrance into prostitution. P. 43. Explanation of the mental deficiency of these wayward girls which has predisposed them to prostitution is usually found in bad inheritance. P. 44. A feeble-minded girl was found to be one of 13 illegitimate children to whom her mentally deficient mother had given birth. P. 46. Over-crowding in rooms, tenements, and neighborhoods is an obvious menace. In congested sections of the lower part of New York, large families, to which these girls belong, were herded into two or three narrow rooms, 12 in three small rooms, seven in two rooms, or a family of five eating and sleeping and living in a single room. P. 55.