LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 275 



SUMMARY. 



I. The rate of reproduction is chiefly determined by the constitution of the 

 organism ; the rate of increase, by its relations to the animate and inanimate 

 environment. 



II. The naturalist has to thank the sociologist for directing emphatic atten- 

 tion to the laws of multiplication. 



III. Summary of Spencer's analysis. Individuation and genesis vary 

 inversely. 



IV. In regard to man, Spencer urges the importance of pressure of popula- 

 tion as an incentive to progress, and concludes that man's future evolution must 

 continue mainly in the direction of psychical development, and predicts with the 

 increase of individuation a diminution of fertility. 



V. Predecessors and opponents of Malthus denied that increase of popula- 

 tion tended to outrun subsistence ; Malthus successfully demonstrated his thesis, 

 and noted the checks which curbed the increase ; Darwin emphasized the 

 advantage of the pressure and checks ; Spencer shows the inverse ratio of 

 degree of development and rate of reproduction ; neo-Malthusians advocate the 

 use of artificial preventive checks to fertilization. Discussion of these various 

 generalizations and proposals. 



VI. Completed individuation, were that possible, would be theoretically 

 associated with sterility. 



LITERATURE. 



Malthus. — Theory of Population. 1S06. 



Spencer. — Principles of Biology. Lond. 1S66. 



Geddes. — "Reproduction," Ency. Brit.; and Lecture on Claims of Labor. 



Edin. 1886. 

 Drysdale. — The Population Question. Lond. 1878. 

 Besant. — The Law of Population. Lond. n.d. 

 Clapperton. — Scientific Meliorism. Lond. 18S5. 



