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CHAPTER EIGHT

this point into prominence, and he concludes that however great in olden times was the birth-rate, the death-rate kept the peoples from multiplying, but that in recent times the races multiply enormously by reducing the death-rate, and between 1800 and 1900 the population of our quarter of the globe has increased from about 187 millions to about 400 millions.

The birth-rate and the death-rate of infants and young persons must be considered together, for it is evident that even with a low birth-rate if there is a very low death-rate of infants and the immature, the survival rate of adult persons may be so satisfactorily high that the numbers will increase rapidly. As a matter of fact evidence from a number of different countries seems to show that where the birth-rate is very high, early mortality is also generally high, and, therefore, the survival rate is low. Arguments on these lines have been specially developed by the Malthusian League, and details of their position will be found in Drysdale's book[1] and the old journal, the "Malthusian." Although one cannot accept without ques-

  1. ↑ C. V. Drysdale, D.Sc. (1913): "The Small Family System, is it injurious or immoral?" Pp. 119. London, 1913.

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