27'2 THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEES 



seen, when dealing with the second group, how, when either 

 family or village communities are limited to a certain area, we 

 can understand that the undesirability of such an increase as 

 would cause the average earnings to fall below the possible 

 maximum not only might, but actually does, result in a limitation 

 of increase. So again here among the cultivators, we can suppose 

 that the danger of an undue increase was brought to notice in 

 the same fashion. We shall also discuss in some little detail what 

 happens among the cultivators in the third sub-group, and thus 

 we can omit the consideration of what facts there are for this 

 sub-group and merely ask what methods there are whereby 

 increase could have been checked. 



Of fertility we have little evidence. It has to be remembered 

 that on general grounds fecundity was if anything greater than 

 among the races of the former groups. Lactation was apparently 

 often prolonged and pre-puberty marriage may not have been 

 uncommon. Disease and war were very important as factors of 

 elimination, and moreover they were both erratic in their action. 

 It is no longer possible to think of a certain average degree of 

 elimination from these causes which varied little from year to 

 year. On the other hand there is no difficulty in supposing that 

 abortion and infanticide were employed in varying degrees to 

 meet the situation. It may be observed that abortion in Rome 

 and infanticide in Greece were practised systematically, and not 

 merely when pressure had arisen but in order that it might not 

 arise. Thus Hesiod recommends the cultivator not to bring up 

 more than one son at home, for thus ' wealth will increase in the 

 house '.1 What practices were in use among the Egyptians, 

 Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, and other peoples we do not 

 know in any detail, though there is considerable evidence of the 

 prevalence of infanticide. There may have been a tendency to 

 practise these customs to some average degree, but there is no 

 difficulty in supposing that following upon war and pestilence 

 there would be such a relaxation as soon to bring numbers up to 

 the former level. The question as to how far we may assume 

 these methods to have been effective will be left for discussion 

 until later in the chapter. 



3. There is a great variety of races in the second sub-group ; 

 they fall under the headings of the more or less nomadic peoples, 



I Myrcs, Emj. liev., vol. vii, p. 30. 



