Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-10-23
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Increase Of POpulaiion--lts rnusts

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Post, some speculaiions in regard to the
causes of comparative increase of pop'Iln-
ton In different localities. We commence
with the following facts, extracted from ni'
English work on the subject, by MIR. Double
day. g"
aFisi diet is mostly poor; and tribes Nv.
Ing on fish, not of the rich kifnls, ure very
prolific. A low vegetable diet produces The
same effects. In Ireland, in Chipn, in japan,
end IN HiiIdosinn, where potatoes and lice
form the staple diet, population is dcnse.--
In the richer countries, where the olive and
the vine abound, aud animal food is pltnt-
fiil and cheap, as in the Turkish md Danu-
bian provinces, in the tnlIow predicting dis
ricts Of Russin, mud in the richest parts Of
France u,,i Spain, population is iliiii. This
Is particularly the case in Roumclia, Wniia-
ehia, Moldavia, and Hungary, where des,i-
tuition is quite unknown.
"TraveIIers all speak ,lecisivcly as TO this
fact; whilst at MaIfa, which is barren rock,
and where the living is mengre, population
increases nIarmingIy. The traveller Sade,
speaking Of Muliu, says: 'Why populations
should often increase inrerssiy as u country
lowing to sterilty or its social contlitiof)
furnishes subsistence, leave to political
economists TO determine--but such is the
fact. So is it in Japan, where animal food
10 nearly unknown, aud where the populn-
tion Is probably, the tlensest in the world
The author refers TO the history Of the settle.
ment Of Pitcairn's Island, in the Pacific
ocean, as proof how rnpidly low feeding,
exercise, and work, increase the fertility of
mankind. The settlement was founded in
J79O by six European mutincers, with ten
Otaheitian females. A few yenrs ngo they
had gro Sn inio community Of one hundred
and eighty persons. These persons had lit
tie or no animal faod. Tbey lived on fish,
ysms, and wild birds eggs.
"The population of the Russian empire
is, on the whole, only 161 to the square mile.
The Polish population, which is that Of a
corn country, where animal food is much
less plentiful, is l,5l4 to the square mile
China, where the inhabitants live very mea-
grely, and where butchers meu, is little used,
except by the mnndurins aud very rich, ir,s
not less than 2,400 to the square league.-
III Bengal, where rice is the food the nu,n-
Lers are 2, ,lG6 to the British square leugue.
In Ireland, in 1921, there were 1891 10 the
squire league. III France, the population
varies with the riches and poverty of the
districts. In Brittany, which is poor de.
four hundred aud fourteen to the square
league. IN Languedoc, which is wealthy,
the population is only 9S6 to the same space.
In Italy, which is a less wealthy country
shan France the population is gcneraly den
SER Tuscany, however, has but 1,lGl,
Piedmont 1850, aud the fiue Island Of Snr-
dinia but 445 to the sq,inrc lengue. Spain,
which teens with natural wealth, where the
olive and grape are hnxurinnf, aud where
cattle abound, hns $50 persons only to the
squire League, whilst Portugal has 653. la
Belgium, which is rich and cultivated like n
garden, the people ure $500 to the slunre
league, though there nre 10 wastes. Dem
mark, where animal food is eaten to con- |
siderable extent, especially in winter, the
people nre 677 to the slunre league only
In Spanish America, population is stationary.
"a mass Of minor facts, tending TO the
same conclusion, are brought together by
she author. Thus il is shown, that in Eng
land, when living is cheup and food plen;-
full, marriages increase hat are followed Ivy
fswer births. On the contrary, when food
Il dear, marriages decrease, yet the births
following IRE increased. 1t is also proved,
hy meaiis of n curious table drawn up hy
Or. Granville aud Mr.. Fipiaysoi,, that the
postponement of marriage increases the
rupidity Of births. Females who marry bo-
fore twenty -four years of age, OH the average,
only bear a child once in two years; those
who marry nt thirty seven, have, OH the nv.
srage, Child every year"
MIR. Doul,leday's " true law of population"
as he deduces it from these and other facts,
ir, that " over feeding checks increase, while
limited or deficient nu,riment stimulates
it."> He illustrates this law from examples
81, n Ia, ,.,,.tI
aud plants in luX,irunt growth, with s,iccu-
lent twigs and abundance of folinge, are not
those which grntiiy the gardener with abun-
dance Of fruit. The cultivator checks the
amount Of the superintendent nu,rinent hy
some mechanical method, aud obtnins fewer
leaves and more fruit. IN one place Mr..
Doubleday states the law OF population thus:
Be the range of natural power TO in
crense IN any species whnt it may, the picth-
o-ic state invariably develoies H.; and this
happens in the exuct ratio of the intensity
and completeness of encli stale, until each
state he carried 80 far as to hiring about the
actual death of the animal or plant itself"
He argues that the piethoric state pre- sup
poses conditions 80 favorable to life, TINT
the ince Among which it exists can he in no
danger of extinction, and thus rnpitity of
multiplication is needless. AdepiefhOric state
implies conditions uniavoraLle to lite, and
an unusual mortality, md u consequent me-
eessity for rapdity of reproduction to pre-
vent the race from dying out.
It will he seen that this view of the mat
ter coitradicts the theory of Nautilus, con-
structed with 80 much appearance of rigid
logic,-a theory according to which The mt
urai multiplication of the human race, un-
less checked hy the most dreadful iuicrposi-
tiOn of Providence. in pcsiiencc, ten,pests,
and the fury of mutual destruction, is but II
progress toward inevitable aud general STAR
valion. According to the view taken by Mr..
Doubleday, there cannot exist under insiiiu-