250 Objections to Mr. Malthus’s Theory of Population. [April f, 
most part unconnected with chemical 
research; a circumstance, which, though 
#t may invalidate my deductions, cannot 
render the facts less certain, or the object 
of my inquiry less interesting. These 
remarks, which I must leave to the che- 
mist to corrovorate, are as follows : 
» 4. The commen flint is never found, as 
far as T can learn, but in the vicinity of 
‘ehalk, m which it lies bedded. 
2. Lhave always observed it running 
in dark horizontal veins along a deep bed 
‘of chalk, as if introduced by water: and 
‘above and belaw it, is a tinge.of a rusty 
‘red, frequently seen, as though produced 
by an oxidation of iron, 
8. I have now in my possession a 
number of hollow spherical flints, more 
er tess filed with chalk in the inside, and 
‘with a calcareous incrustation more or 
‘Tess hard, on the outside, but always in- 
“ereasing in hardness, as it approaches 
‘the coat of flint. Same of them are solid 
‘fiint, but with the same incrustation,. 
4, Flints are never found with angular 
surfaces, but have their prominences all 
eireular, or approaching to it. There 
appeays an irregular crystallization in 
“them, as if effected by a portion of water, 
confined in a bed of chaik,. and pro- 
-Gucing, like water thrown in small quan- 
tities amongst flour, a variety of forms 
more or less round, 
5.1 have a number of white opaque 
fiinis, in which the colour of chalk is re- 
-tained, and in which there are cavities 
-eontaining chalk, but the formation of 
fiint is i other respects.completed. 
-§. In some specimens may be traced 
the several gradations from a state of 
pulverulent calcareous earth, te the dark 
tyansparent substance of which gun- 
~fiints are made, proceeding in distinct 
coatings, progressively harder, as they 
advance to the state of black flint. 
7. Lhave a fossil echinus, found in a 
chalk-pit, which upon breaking, proved 
to be a complete fmt, with a very slight 
- edge of white. incrustation, 
From the above observations, I am led 
“to believe, that flints of this class are 
formed, merely by the accession of water . 
Whether the union | 
to a bed of chalk. 
- of the carbonic acid gas with the con- 
stituent gases of the water, or whether - 
ény adventitious matter may have. been ' 
prroduced by the water in the state of 
solution, .or attenuation, 7 have not time 
- oF means to inguire. I must leave it 
-jikewise to others te ascertain the ac- 
curate results, after a volatilization ‘of 
-vernment or morals? 
the water, and compare them with the 
usual state of the ealcareous strata in 
which flint is found, 
Your’s, &c. a 'B. R. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Correspondent in your last number 
x manifests a considerable degree of 
curiosity with respect to the comparative 
merits of Mr. Malthus’s, and Dr. Jarrola’s 
theories on population. - T cannot pre- 
tend to decide this question, not having 
seen Dr. Jarrold’s work: but having 
lately read a reply to the Essay on Po- 
pulation, in a series of letters, and think- 
ing it a matter of some interest ‘to the 
public to have the subject of Mr. Mal- 
thus’s reputation fully canvassed, I have 
brought together nz: one view the chief 
objections insisted on by this anonymous 
writer, and leave it to some frend or ad- 
murer of Mr. Malthus to answer them.— 
The whole controversy reduces itself to 
the following: considerations. 
1. Whether the Extract from Wal- 
lace’s “ Prospects of Mankind,” &c. 
quoted by the author in second letter, is 
a fabrication of his own, or whether it is 
not to be found in the work from which 
it professes to be taken ? 
2. Whether that extract does not com- 
pletely overturn every pretension m Mr. 
Malthus to the discovery of a new prin- 
ciple in human nature, incompatible with 
any great degree of improvement i go- 
Or whether Wal- 
lace has not both stated the pringiple of 
the disproportion, between the power of 
increase in populacion, and the power of 
increase in the means of subsistence, 
which is the basis of Mr. M,’s system, 
and whether he has not drawn the very 
same inference from it that Mr. Malthus 
has done, viz. that vice and misery are 
necessary to keep population down to the 
level of the means of subsistence? 
8. Whether the idea of a geometrical 
and arithmetical series, by which Mr, M. 
is supposed te have furnished the precise 
rule, or caiculus,. of the disproportion 
between food and population, is not 
strictly inapplicable to the subject; inas- 
much asin all new and unpeopled coun- 
tries cultivation may go on increasing 1 
a geometrical ratio, while there Js an 
opportunity of occupying fresh tracts of 
sou, ‘according to the increased demands 
of population; avd, on the other hand, 
in all old and fully peopled countries sn 
e 
