ABSTRACT
The occasional publications of the Heidelberg Academy, which enjoy a relatively small circulation, are of considerable interest to 'Third World' geographers and have, like the Monograph series, the advantage of being published in English. Medical geographers would find the record of the proceedings of the World Fertility Survey Conference held in London in 1980 an invaluable stimulus and guide to defining their own tasks. The case of the World Fertility Survey provides some important pointers. Primary health care (PHC) strategies are increasingly seen as an integral part of overall development in the 'Third World', and the acceptance of these challenges could place medical geography firmly within development studies and developing planning. Invented by a French writer in the 1950s, the term 'Third World' is a seriously misleading label to apply to the collective problems and miseries of a diverse and heterogeneous group of over 100 states, and geographers would probably do well to avoid its implicit generalisations and simplifications.
