DARWIN'S NATURAL SELECTION 45 



on Population" Malthus points out various 

 '"checks" to the increase of population. His 

 main theory was that the population tends to 

 increase more rapidly than the food supply. 

 The Reverend Doctor, having begotten twelve 

 children of his own, felt ''called" to point out 

 to British parents the desirability and even 

 necessity of limiting their families in the 

 interest of society. Malthus applied his 

 theory to human society where it is palpably 

 false. Darwin transferred it to the natural 

 world where it proved to be a great truth. 

 The obvious explanation of this paradox is: 

 that man, by agriculture and industry, can 

 increase his food supply to a greater proportion 

 than any probable or even possible increase of 

 population. Animals cannot; their food supply 

 is beyond their control ; they have no power to 

 artificially increase the supply. This difference 

 totally destroyed the value of Malthus' book 

 as a treatise on political economy. His im- 

 mortality is assured solely because he ac- 

 cidentally contributed a link to Darwin's 

 chain. 



And now Darwin has travelled on his great 

 journey thus far: Animals propagate enor- 

 mously but their population generally does not 

 increase. The main reason for this, though 

 there are others, is, that their number is 



