92 CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE 



upon the blackboard the figures by which I arrive at the 

 result : 



Plants. Plants. 



1 x 50 in 1st year =. 50 



50 x 50 2nd = 2,500 



2,500 x 50 



125,000 x 50 



6,250,000 x 50 



312,500,000 x 50 



15,625,000,000 x 50 



781,250,000,000 X 50 



39,062,500,000,000 X 50 



3rd =. 125,000 



4th = 6,250,000 



5th = 312,500,000 



6th = 15,625,000,000 



7th = 781,250,000,000 



8th = 39,062,500,000,000 



9th = 1,953,125,000,000,000 



51,000,000 sq. miles the dry suiM 



face of the earth x 27,878,400 [ =sq. ft. 1,421,798,400,000,000 



the number of sq. ft. in 1 sq. mile j 



being 531,326,600,000,000 

 square feet less than would be required at the end of the ninth year. 



You will see from this that, at the end of the first year 

 the single plant will have produced fifty more of its kind ; 

 by the end of the second year these will have increased to 

 2,500 ; and so on, in succeeding years, you get beyond even 

 trillions ; and I am not at all sure that I could tell you 

 what the proper arithmetical denomination of the total 

 number really is ; but, at any rate, you will understand 

 the meaning of all those noughts. Then you see that, 

 at the bottom, I have taken the 51,000,000 of square miles, 

 constituting the surface of the dry land ; and as the number 

 of square feet are placed under and subtracted from the 

 number of seeds that would be produced in the ninth year, 

 you can see at once that there would be an immense number 

 more of plants than there would be square feet of ground 

 for their accommodation. This is certainly quite enough 

 to prove my point ; that between the eighth and ninth 

 year after being planted the single plant would have stocked 

 the whole available surface of the earth. 



This is a thing which is hardly conceivable it seems 

 hardly imaginable yet it is so. It is indeed simply the 

 law of MalUms exemplified. Mr. Malthus was a clergy- 

 man, who worked out this subject most minutely and 

 tru Hi fully some years ago ; he showed quite clearly, 

 and although he was much abused for his conclusions at 

 the time, they have never yet been disproved and never 

 will be he showed that in consequence of the increase in 

 the number of organic beings in a geometrical ratio, while 



