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CHAPTER NINE

ago, and persisted among tribes still at the developmental stage of primitive savages.

That abortion was not only known but recognized and definitely practised by many primitive races is well authenticated. An interesting account of early Greece and her changes in population is to be found in Clinton's great work.[1] In this he examined and controverted Malthus' work, and, with many details, showed that the changes in the populations in ancient Greece supported the view that the actual population depends more upon the moral condition of the people than on wars, &c., and that wars may even tend to a total increase of numbers. Myers[2] had also an article on the subject and notes that Hesiod recommended that the cultivator of the soil should not bring up more than one son at home. The Greek midwives were expected to have a competent knowledge of abortion as part of their equipment.

The primitive and barbarous form of dealing with the population question was,

  1. ↑ H. F. Clinton (1827): "Fasti Hellenici, The Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece," edit. 2. Pp. lx, 467, see pp. 389433. Oxford, 1827.
  2. ↑ J. L. Myers (1915): "The Causes of Rise and Fall in the Population of the Ancient World." Eugenics Review, vol. vii, No. 1, April, pp. 15-45. London, 1915.

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