THE EEGULATION OF NUMBERS 237 



evidence shows that the practice of one or more of the other 

 class of factors is widespread, if not universal. Further, it has 

 been shown that a more or less automatic adjustment is attained 

 by means of variations in the intensity of the operation of these 

 latter factors, whereas it is difficult to see how it could come 

 about by variations in the former factors only, and, however 

 unprogressive social organization and general conditions may be, 

 some adjustment must be necessary from time to time. 



It has been observed that there is no apparent connexion 

 between the practice of any of these customs and the different 

 economic stages, and it may be stated that an investigation 

 undertaken to see if any connexion could be detected was without 

 result. This conclusion is not surprising. The problem of how 

 to control numbers is one which is presented to all races at all 

 times. We have grouped races according to their economic 

 status ; but there is no reason to expect that under any one 

 economic system a particular method of controlling population 

 would be adopted more than any other method no reason, for 

 instance, why infanticide rather than abortion should be practised 

 under one system rather than under another. As has been said, 

 the problem is always present, and the method adopted must 

 originally have depended upon some factor quite independent of 

 the economic stage ; abortion, for instance, might have been 

 practised in one country because of the presence of some herb 

 which experience showed to be effective, while in another country 

 a taboo upon sexual intercourse for magical reasons might have 

 been developed into a taboo during lactation. 



This survey of primitive races is limited to the elucidation as 

 to what is normally the position as regards the regulation of 

 numbers. The evidence is not sufficiently detailed to allow us to 

 judge whether in any one particular instance there was or was not 

 a close approximation to the desirable number before contact 

 with Europeans had changed their conditions. It is merely 

 suggested that there was in general a tendency for such an 

 approximation to occur and it may further be deduced that, 

 since the desirable number remained the same over a great 

 length of time, rendering the approximation, so to speak, easy 

 of attainment, the adjustment to the optimum number normally 

 came about. And in this connexion the limitation to clearly 

 defined areas may be borne in mind. The very fact of the universal 



