The objection (_a_) is based upon ignorance or upon misunderstanding of the facts. The expected number of births can be calculated with the same precision as the expected number of deaths. The objection (_b_) is also erroneous. Women need medical aid during pregnancy, childbirth, and the lying-in period. Moreover, the aim of sickness insurance is not merely the care and the cure of sick persons, but also the prevention of the diseases, which in many cases can be prevented by the proper treatment of women in pregnancy, childbirth, and the lying-in period. Since, in the case of pregnancy and parturition, malingering (for fear of which liberal payment during sickness is considered undesirable) may be almost entirely excluded, the insurance of motherhood can be effected on very liberal terms, and there is all the more reason for this, because pregnancy and childbirth entail upon the mother greatly increased expenditure. It is hardly conceivable that women would incur pregnancy and parturition solely on account of the proposed pecuniary advantages. Insurance of motherhood is to-day of considerable importance in Germany, France, and Italy. In Italy it was introduced some years ago on national lines. In France and Germany, mutual co-operative associations for this purpose have been founded by the women concerned. The principal contributors to the expenses are the insured themselves, all contributing alike, irrespective of the fact whether they are poor or well-to-do--that is to say, motherhood insurance is entirely free from the characteristics of poor relief. The co-operative organisations for motherhood insurance are run upon similar lines to the _Krankenkassen_, with which, indeed, they are sometimes closely associated (_Mutterschaftskassenverbände_). The local authorities have nothing more to do with the matter than to co-operate in the foundation, organisation, and management of these _Kassen_. The results of this development have been extremely satisfactory; for example, experience shows that a much larger percentage of insured mothers than of non-insured suckle their own children. _The Tendency of Evolution._--It is as yet impossible to predict the future course of development in this matter, and to foresee whether it will take the form of a further elaboration of motherhood insurance. This much only is certain, that all women will receive proper care in pregnancy, and during and after childbirth. From a certain stage in her pregnancy until a certain period after delivery, no woman will be allowed to work for wages. Women far advanced in pregnancy, during delivery, and throughout the lying-in period, will be cared for almost exclusively in institutions. Such institutions will be very numerous, if only for the reason that the domestic care of childbirth will become rarer and rarer, that the institutional care of such women is far better and cheaper than any other, and that the extension of institutional care is a tendency of evolution.