202 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



But in the course of the eighteenth century the pre- 

 estabhshed harmony was dissolved in discoid. The 

 population began to go up by leaps and bounds. Be- 

 tween 1750 and 1800 the population of England and 

 Wales rose from 6,500,000 to 9 miUions. This was 

 associated with the sombre onset of the industrial age 

 with its factories and machinery. The expansion 

 reached its climax about the middle of the Victorian 

 period. It is one of the most stupendous facts in human 

 biology that the population of Europe, about 187 mil- 

 lions in 1800, was 266 milHons in 1850, and 400 mil- 

 lions in 1900. In the nineteenth century the popu- 

 lation of England and Wales was more than trebled 

 (in 1801, 8,893,000; in 1901, 32,528,000. For Scotland 

 the corresponding figures are 1,608,000 and 4,472,000). 

 From one case we may learn all. What conditioned this 

 extraordinarily rapid increase in the population ? Some 

 are inclined to emphasise a single factor — the economic 

 factor — ^that big famihes ' payed ' — ' payed ' workers 

 and employers ahke. But we are bound to recognise 

 at least three other factors. (1) In the early indus- 

 triaUsm there were great waves of material prosperity, 

 — plenty of work, big wages, falling prices. Now a 

 sudden glut of material prosperity tends to slacken men's 

 grip and restraint. This tends to raise the birth-rate. 

 The most widespread prosperity was in the middle of 

 the great Victorian period, when the birth-rate reached 

 its maximum of 36-3 per thousand. 



(2) But, as Havelock Ellis says, " The magnificence 

 of this epoch was built over circles of Hell to which the 



