526 General Deductions from the Bk. ii. 



death. In general the next year after sickly and 

 mortal ones is prolific in proportion to the breeders 



left.* 



This last effect we have seen most strikingly 

 exemplified in the table for Prussia and Lithuania.! 

 And from this and other tables of Sussmilch, it 

 also appears that, when the increasing produce of 

 a country and the increasing demand for labour, 

 so far meliorate the condition of the labourer as 

 greatly to encourage marriage, the custom of early 

 marriages is generally continued, till the popula- 

 tion has gone beyond the increased produce, and 

 sickly seasons appear to be the natural and ne- 

 cessary consequence. The continental registers 

 exhibit many instances of rapid increase, inter- 

 rupted in this manner by mortal diseases; and 

 the inference seems to be, that those countries 

 where subsistence is increasing sufficiently to 

 encourage population, but not to answer all its 

 demands, will be more subject to periodical epi- 

 demics, than those where the increase of popula- 

 tion is more nearly accommodated to the average 

 produce. 



The converse of this will of course be true. In 

 those countries which are subject to periodical 

 sicknesses, the increase of population, or the ex- 

 cess of births above the deaths, will be greater in 

 the intervals of these periods than is usual in 



* New Observ. p. 191. 

 t Id. p. 500. 



