POPR/D 



6256 



POPULATION 



Asia, Africa, and Australia. The 

 five British species have become 

 partially naturalised in the U.S.A. 

 They have erect stems with 

 variously lobed or cut alternate 

 leaves, and large, showy flowers 

 on long stalks. The two concave 

 sepals are thrown off usually by 

 the expansion of the four petals. 

 The stamens are very numerous, 

 surrounding the conspicuous ovary 

 whose four to 20 stigmas are united 

 into a disk, which later forms a 

 roof with eaves to the large seed- 

 capsule. The numerous small oily 

 seeds can escape from openings 

 under the eaves of the ripe capsule 

 only when the latter is jerked. 

 The Field P. (Papaver rhoeas) is 

 the well-known cornfield weed. 



The larger Opium P. (P. somni- 

 ferum) of Europe, Asia, W. Africa, 

 with white or purple flowers, has 

 become naturalised in parts of 

 Kent and Surrey. This and the 



Oriental P. (P. orientah) are fre- 

 quently grown in gardens, where, 

 however, the Shirley P. is the 

 more general favourite. All poppies 

 are easily grown from spring- 

 sown seed in any garden soil, but 

 they succeed best in sandy loam. 

 All the species have a milky sap 

 with narcotic properties, and the 

 seeds under pressure yield a valu- 

 able oil which is not narcotic. On 

 Nov. 11, 1921. the third anniver- 

 sary of the signing of the armistice, 

 over 6,000,000 artificial blooms, 

 known as Flanders poppies, were 

 sold in Britain for the benefit of 

 ex-servicemen. See Fruit: Opium. 

 Poprad. Town in the Slo- 

 vakia division of the Czecho- 

 slovak republic, formerly in the 

 kingdom of Hungary. It is situated 

 on the Poprad river at the E. end 

 of the High Tatra on the great 

 E.-W. rly. and road route through 

 the Tatra mts. Pop. 2 ; 300. 



POPULATION AND THE CENSUS 



Sir Leo Chiozza Money, Author of Riches & Poverty 

 In this article, illustrated with diagrams, the results of the censuses 

 0/1921 are examined. See Birth-Rate ; Census ; Death-Rate ; Infant 

 Mortality ; also Statistics 



The population of the United 

 Kingdom grew from a small to a 

 very large number in quite recent 

 times. From the remote prehis- 

 toric appearance of man in Europe 

 in the Tertiary period, down to the 

 middle of the 18th century, the 

 people of the British Isles increased 

 to no more than 10,500,000. 

 Between 1750 and 1921, the 

 10,500,000 grew to over 47,000,000. 



The rapid growth after 1750 was 

 due to the inventions which 

 brought coal into industrial use as 

 fuel for power machines. The 

 steam engine and the railway un- 

 locked the coal mines and made 

 use of the fuel. The new power 

 made machines possible, and in- 

 ventions quickly grew. Wealth 

 rapidly accumulated as oversea 

 trade won increasing supplies to 

 supplement domestic foods and 

 materials. The advance in the 

 means of subsistence preserved 

 alive children who otherwise would 

 have perished. It was not that in 

 the 19th century people had more 

 children than in previous times ; on 

 the contrary, the stagnant popula- 

 tion which marked the first half of 

 the 18th century was despite a uni- 

 versal rule of very large families. 

 Increasing wealth went hand in 

 hand with public health measures 

 to preserve life. 



Prof. E. C. K. Conner has made 

 a careful examination of the popu- 

 lation of England and Wales in 

 the 18th century, and arrives at 

 the following estimates : 1700 : 

 5,800,000 (5,550,000 to 6,000,000) ; 



1750: 6,300,000 (6,300,000 to 

 6,500,000) ; 1801 : 8,900,000. 



In the first 50 years of the period, 

 the population grew by about 

 500,000 ; in the second 50 years, 

 through the rise of that coal-based 

 work which we call the Industrial 

 Revolution, the addition was about 

 2,600,000. Thereafter, the rise in 

 population in England and Wales, 

 and also in Scotland, but not in 

 Ireland, was very rapid. The nu- 

 merical transition of the nation in 

 the short period of 150 years, or 

 say five generations (1750-1901), is 

 shown in figures representing mil- 

 lions, as follows : 



Ireland is seen to have lost popu- 

 lation, even while England and 

 Wales and Scotland made great 

 gains. The main explanation is 

 that Ireland, lacking coal, could 

 not develop a coal-based popula- 

 tion. Similarly in England, areas 

 remained stagnant in population 

 when removed far from the coal 

 mines. The new populations, apart 

 from the metropolis, arose in the 

 English, Welsh, and Scottish coal 

 areas, where it was most profitable 

 to set up industrial plants. This 

 point is of much importance in the 

 population question. The weight 

 and bulk of coal makes it costly to 

 transport. Therefore, it is most 



economically employed at its place 

 of production. Hence the British 

 coal areas and the foreign coal areas 

 acquired big populations. 



Coal-based industry modified for 

 Britain the Malthusian doctrine of 

 population. It was in 1798 that 

 Malthus, in his famous essay, pro- 

 pounded the doctrine that popula- 

 tion tended to increase more 

 quickly than the means of subsist- 

 ence could be multiplied. This was 

 a profound and true conception, 

 leading to the development of the 

 modern theory of evolution and 

 the origin of species. But the 

 British Isles, for a time at least, 

 defied the application in practice of 

 the Malthusian doctrine. By for- 

 eign trade they won an increasing 

 subsistence for a population grown 

 to dimensions of which Malthus 

 never dreamed. Malthus, in 1798, 

 could hardly be expected to fore- 

 see that science would enable his 

 countrymen to bring all the 

 world's wealth to market in 

 England. But, let it be observed, 

 if at any time British industry 

 failed to Avin the foreign supplies by 

 which its great population lives, 

 the doctrine of Malthus would 

 reassert itself, and millions wculd 

 be driven into emigration. The 

 population of England can only bo 

 sustained by great imports, won by 

 a great export trade and shipping. 



No common census of the 

 United Kingdom has yet been 

 taken, but the separate investiga- 

 tions made in England and Wales, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, give the 

 following summary figures in mil- 

 lions (the 1921 Irish figures are 

 estimated) : 



In 1821 the English were 

 11,300,000 out of 20,900,000, or 54 

 p.c. of the people of the United 

 Kingdom. A century later they 

 were 35,700,000 out of 47,300,000, 

 or over 75 p.c. of the whole. The 

 emigration from Ireland has been 

 so great that there are three times 

 as many Irish living in the U.S.A. 

 as in the U.K. 



While the population of the 

 United Kingdom grew by about 

 2,100,000 in the intercensal period 

 1911-21, the increase was only 

 about one-half that recorded in 

 1901-11 ; it is less, indeed, than 

 any corresponding figure since 

 1811, and proportionately far lower 

 than any previously recorded. 

 This is due to three factors : (1) 

 increased emigration in the years 



