-^77. 



-Q^ 



I 

 HISTORICAL 



1. Problems of population fall into two main groups — those 

 connected with the quantity and those connected with the quality 

 of the population. Considerations of the population problem are 

 commonly devoted to one of these chief aspects to the exclusion of 

 the other with the result that the relation between them is seldom 

 appreciated. It is one of the objects of this book to show that all . 

 problems of population have the same origin. The development 

 of biological knowledge in the last century, and in particular the 

 discussion of evolution, have made it clear that the whole popula- 

 tion question and all the problems arising therefrom have their 

 origin in the fact that mankind has a definite position in the ' 

 animal kingdom. In the next two chapters an attempt is made 

 to set out the basis of the whole question in the light of modern ' 

 research, and in the fourth chapter are discussed the nature of the 

 various problems and their relation to one another ; first those 

 which are connected with the quantity and then those that are 

 connected with the quality of the population. 



This was not, however, the manner in which the question was 

 first approached. There was not, to begin with, an understanding 

 of the zoological position of man leading to a growing compre- 

 hension of the problems to which it gave rise. From early days 

 attention was particularly directed to the question of numbers. 

 Between the fifth century B.C. and the eighteenth century a. d. 

 — between, that is to say, the time of Plato and that of Malthus — 

 opinions were often expressed regarding the desirability or other- 

 wise of a dense population. The work of Malthus focussed opinion 

 upon this point. In a restricted sense this problem can be solved 

 without an understanding of the biological origin of the whole 

 question, and the discussion which followed the publication of the 

 'Eissay on Population has resulted in the general acceptance of 

 a solution by students of political economy. In a wider sense the 

 solution of this problem depends upon a comprehension of its 

 biological origin, and it was not therefore until after the middle 



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