276 THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEES 



living, the small area of land per head, and the tendency for the 

 amount of land per labourer to decrease points strongly to the 

 conclusion that over-population does occur in many parts of 

 India. 



It is also probable that many parts of China are over-populated. 

 The apparent overcrowding and the low standard of living lend 

 support to this view, and in this connexion it is interesting to note 

 that infanticide is practised not so much as a regular custom but 

 at times when, numbers being so great, no further increase could 

 be supported. Moule says that infanticide is ' local and spas- 

 modic ' rather than ' chronic and national ', and notices that it is 

 especially connected with ' want from flood, or famine or civil 

 war '.^ There is much other evidence to the same effect. ^ It will 

 be remembered that some evidence was given in the last chapter 

 pointing to the great prevalence of infanticide ; it is necessary 

 to remember that such conditions are consistent with a state of 

 over-population. The prevalence of such a custom in no way 

 shows that numbers are as a result being kept down to the desirable 

 level. These customs may bring about this result, or they may, 

 in a country in the position in which there is reason to believe 

 that many parts of China now are, merely eliminate those for whom 

 there is no place at all. Almost the same amount of infanticide, 

 which would limit numbers to a desirable level in a country where 

 such a level was being maintained, would, in a country where 

 numbers were already excessive, merely cut off those for whom 

 enough food to support existence could not be found. 



What, then, is the cause of the over-population which almost 

 certainly exists in parts of India and China ? The irregularity of 

 the factors of elimination is itself no bar to the adjustment of 

 population, but this irregularity may indirectly have an important 

 bearing upon the outlook of man and ultimately upon the behaviour 

 of the mass of the population. Great scourges must tend to 

 produce a hopelessness of outlook. When time and again war 

 and disease sweep through a country, there must arise a tendency 

 for the standard of living to be lost sight of. Gradually there 

 may come about a condition of things when there is no hope or 

 fear. European influence may have had an ill effect. The 

 lessening of elimination through disease and war does not of 



1 Moule, New China and Old, p. 179. See also Bland, Recent Events and Present 

 Policies in China. ' See p. 260. 



