SECTION CCXXXIX.. Limits to the Increase of Population.

LIMITS TO THE INCREASE OF POPULATION.

There is certainly one limit which the increase of no organic being can exceed: the limit of the necessary means of subsistence. But, so far as the human race is concerned, this notion is somewhat more extensive, inasmuch as it embraces besides food, also clothing, shelter, fuel, and a great many other goods which are not, indeed, necessary to life, but which are so considered.[239-1] We may illustrate the matter by a simple example in the rule of division. If we take the aggregate of the means of subsistence as a dividend, the number of mankind as divisor; then the average share of each is the quotient. Where two of these quantities are given, the third may be found. Only when the dividend has largely increased can the divisor and quotient increase at the same time (prosperous increase of population). If, however, the quotient remains unchanged, the increase of the divisor can take place only at the expense of the quotient (proletarian increase of population).[239-2] Hence it is to be expected that the quantity of the means of subsistence being given and also the requirement of each individual, the number of births and the number of deaths should condition each other. Where, for instance, the number of church livings has not been increased, only as many candidates can marry as clergymen who held such livings have died. The greater the average age of the latter is, the later do the former marry, in the average, and vice versa. And so, in the case of whole nations, when their economic consumption and production remain unaltered.[239-3] A basin entirely filled with water can be made to contain more only in case it is either increased itself, or a means is found to compress its contents. Otherwise as much must flow out on the one side as is poured in on the other.

And so, everything else remaining stationary, the fruitfulness of marriages must, at least in the long run, be in the inverse ratio of their frequency. (See § 247.)[239-4] [239-5]

In France according to Quételet, Sur l'Homme, 1835, I, 83 ff., there was:

===============+===================+============+================ | One marriage | Children | One death In | a year | to a | yearly | for every | marriage | for every ---------------+-------------------+------------+---------------- 4 Departments |110-120 inhabitants| 3.79 |35.4 inhabitants 15 " |120-130 " | 3.79 |39.2 " 23 " |130-140 " | 4.17 |39.0 " 18 " |140-150 " | 4.36 |40.6 " 10 " |150-160 " | 4.43 |40.3 " 9 " |160-170 " | 4.48 |42.7 " 6 " |170 and more " | 4.48 |46.4 " =================================================================

The two departments of Orne and Finisterre present a very glaring contrast: in the former, one birth per annum on every 44.8 (1851 = 51.6), a marriage on every 147.5, a death on every 52.4 (1851 = 54.1) living persons; in the latter, on the contrary, on every 26 (1851 = 29.8), 113.9 and 30.4 (1851 = 34.2). In Namur, the proportions were 30.1, 141, 51.8; in Zeeland, 21.9, 113.2, 28.5. (Quételet, I, 142.) The Mexican province, Guanaxuato, presents the most frightful extreme: one birth per annum on every 16.08 of the population living, and one death in every 19.7. (Quételet, I, 110.)]

=======================================+=============+=========== |Marriages |Children | per annum |on every | on every | 100 | 10,000 |Marriages |inhabitants| ---------------------------------------+-------------+-----------

In the purely Flemish provinces | | of Belgium | 128 | 481 In the purely Wallonic provinces | | of Belgium | 139 | 448 In the mixed provinces of Belgium | 152 | 425 In Holland | 148 | 476 In Lombardy | 166 | 489 In Bohemia | 173 | 413 In the kingdom of Saxony | 170 | 410 =======================================+=============+===========]