IX 



THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS AMONG 

 PRIMITIVE RACES 



1 . WE have now to ask what light these facts throw upon the 

 quantitative aspect of the problem. Eemembering that among 

 all the races concerning which facts have been given there exists 

 that form of primitive social organization the nature of which 

 has been referred to, we may first examine briefly the theory of 

 population as it applies to society in which there is co-operation ; 

 for the existence of this primitive form of social organization 

 implies co-operation. We may then go on to apply what we 

 learn from this review of the theory of population to the facts, 

 so far as they concern the races of the first and second groups. 

 We may next ask how far we can apply what we learn from 

 primitive races to prehistoric races up to the opening of the third 

 period, and finally we may inquire how it is to be supposed that 

 the transition took place from the conditions under which the 

 pre-human ancestorjived to those under which the earliest societies, 

 of which we can indirectly gain any knowledge, must be supposed 

 to have lived. 



Malthus was the first writer to set out a theory in detail and to 

 support it with evidence. 1 Of the origin of his book some account 

 has been given in the first chapter. In this book Malthus, accord- 

 ing to his own account, attempted to show three things that 

 population was limited by the means of subsistence, that it almost 

 always increases when the means of subsistence increase, and 

 that there are three checks upon increase vice, misery, and 

 moral restraint. By ' vice ' and ' misery ' he meant disease, 

 war, poverty, and so on. By ' moral restraint ' he meant restraint 

 from sexual intercourse. This last check was not mentioned in 

 the first edition of the Essay ; it was introduced for the first time 

 in the second edition. 



It is important to observe the nature of the argument put forth 



1 On this subject see Cannan, Theories of Production and Distribution, ch. v. 

 Professor Cannan's work has been used in this and in the two following sections. 



