PKEFACE 



Many different questions connected with population are fre- 

 quently discussed at the present day. This book is designed not 

 so much as a contribution to the study of any one of these 

 questions in particular as an attempt to trace back to their origin 

 the main problems which now attract attention and to indicate 

 their relation one to the other — to view the whole problem in 

 fact from an historical and evolutionary standpoint. The book is 

 an accident of the war. When war broke out I was engaged in 

 collecting material which is incorporated in this book with the 

 object of discussing certain aspects of the population problem. 

 It had occurred to me that I might write an introduction showing 

 how these aspects are related to the problem as a whole. Further 

 than that I had not gone when there followed five years of active 

 service during which the project of writing an introductory sketch 

 became converted into the far more ambitious project of treating 

 at some length the population problem as a whole. Had it thus 

 not been for these years during which it was possible only to 

 elaborate schemes for future work, I should never have embarked 

 on so ambitious a task. The task is not an easy one, involving 

 as it does both difficulties of proportion and difficulties arising 

 from the necessity of touching upon biological, anthropological 

 and economic problems, with regard to all of which no one man 

 can pretend to have extensive knowledge. Nevertheless, quite 

 apart from the question as to whether this book does in any 

 measure achieve its purpose, those best acquainted with modern 

 population literature will probably agree that there is room for 

 an attempt to view the whole population problem in historical 

 perspective. If therefore this book does no more than draw the 

 attention of those interested in particular aspects of the matter, 

 to the necessity of so doing, it will not altogether have failed of 

 its purpose. 



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