THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION, 673 



glanced at. And yet this third may contain the true solution of the 

 difficult problem, and through its active operation the geometrical 

 increase of Malthus may, perhaps, be succeeded by a stationary condi- 

 tion of human population. 



By the physical check we mean the effect of all the forces which 

 act from outside upon the individual — such agencies as war, famine, 

 pestilence, exposure, climatic changes, and all similar destructive influ- 

 ences. The mental check refers to influences proceeding from the 

 mind of the individual. It is what is usually called the prudential 

 check, through which individuals wisely decline to bring into the 

 world children who must be exposed to inevitable misery, or govern- 

 ments restrain injudicious marriages by enactments looking to the 

 same end. The physiological check is also internal in its origin, but 

 not voluntary. It consists of that limit to human fecundity which is 

 caused by employment of the organic forces in other directions. 



Of these three checks to population the second only is fully under 

 the control of the individual himself. The physical check largely 

 arises from the action of other individuals, such as the war-making 

 powers. It also largely flows from the hostile energies of Nature, 

 and may, in this direction, be partly set aside by individual effort, 

 through attention to the laws of health, and prudent avoidance of 

 injurious conditions. The physiological check is beyond the reach of 

 the will. It is a natural effect of human development, needs no forced 

 restraint from marriage for its operation, and is consistent with the 

 most natural and desirable of human relations. 



Of the three checks to population here named, we will, in this 

 paper, consider only the physiological. The others have been written 

 upon so abundantly that there is little new to be said concerning them. 

 It will suffice here to remark that the physical check — that which acts 

 through the agency of famine, violence, disease, and similar influences 

 — has ruled almost supreme in the past ages of the world, and is still 

 vigorously active upon the great mass of mankind. The prudential 

 check, which acts through forced desistance from marriage and child- 

 bearing, is now actively effective in several of the more advanced 

 European nations, probably most fully in France, and has gone far 

 toward negativing the action of the Malthusian law. The physiologi- 

 cal check, which we have here to consider, has also been somewhat 

 effective in the past, but its highest influences are only now com- 

 ing into play, and it promises to become an efficient and desirable 

 agent in hindering the undue increase of human population in the 

 future. 



The principle to which we here allude has been very greatly neg- 

 lected by writers on the subject of population. Those who have 

 dealt with it have done so only cursorily, and have failed to consider 

 it in all its bearings. It is therefore a problem that is open to further 

 investigation. And in entering upon this inquiry it is necessary to 



VOL. XXT. — i3 



