New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-23
caUsEs AFFECTING POPULATION.

The London Medical Mirror gives some inter
esting statements and tables with regard to the
Increase of population in different parts of the
world. 1t is shown that quality and quantity
of food have a marked influence, both as re-
CARDS marriage and its fruits as illustrated by
the fact that when one year the price of wheat
in England declined 30 cents on a bushel there
was an increase of 4,271 marriages. On the
contrary, however,iwhen food and all the means
of living are for a considerable period easily
procured there are fewer births, because the
tendency of such condition, is to diminish
population. Initiated and poor food leads to
the same result When the Maori population
of New-Zealand, and to q considerable eX-
tent the people of the PolyDesian Islands,
fell into the habit of soaking grain in water
until it had reached a stage of partial decom-
position, as q method of preparing it for
food, instead of grinding and baking it, which
they considered great delicacy, the birth
rate decreased SO per cent They sank beneath
slight attacks of Illness immense numbers died,
and il was evident the Maori constitution had
become rotten. The dying out of the North
American Indians is to be attributed to similar
causes. Being deprived to q great extent of
the game Oh which they lived and having
neither energy nor skill to produce or properly
to prepare other food, they eat whatever comes
easiest not rejecting domestic animals dying
with disease, nor the heads Of beeves even in
state of decomposition; and when to this is
added spirits and INSTRUMENTATION with the
whites, by which they inhale, so to speak, the
white vices, their destruction became inevitable.
nevery question havingreference to the progress
and civilization Of nations, that Of food has di-
rectly the most influence but, underlying, arc
the knowledge and the domestic habits
of the women who furnish the food, and
we would say, therefore, that the first steps in
the advancement Of any people are made with
the improvement of whatever pertains to the
household. If this is neglected, in vain will be
religious and all other instruction, and in vain
will the devoted missionary brave malaria and
fiercely blazing sun.
Among other causes which diminish pOpula-
ton are mentioned those habits which origin
ated among the French, and which in old En-
gland take the form of infanticide, and in New
England much more elementary violence; but
neither modification seems to have rs great an
influence as the original, for the birth rate of
France is less than in any other country
in Europe and yet the increase of popula-
ton in this country is at respectable
standard. This is owing, it is said, to the in
creased longevity which cleanliness and tenn
perance have produced We doubt, however,
whether longevity can be connected with the
general violation of such fundamental law as
the increase Of population, and it is by no
means improbable that tho longevity of the
French is due to scarcity of food, which en-
hot IN
they are, as people, consuming all their re-
sources, while they are accumulating nothing to
transmit to the coming generations. A people
which does not accumulate fund of vitality
is as much destined to disaster as one which
consumes what has been acquired in previous
ages. In considering the dates, statistics and
general conditions relating to the French, it is
singular that VIC should find their parallel in
the higher classes of New England.
As to the effect of marrying blood relations,
much of the testimony is conflicting, and it
would seem for the reason that Investigations
which in one section cover less, and in
another greater period, of time, are compared.
But it is conceded that where marriages are
between those who are akin but unlike, insan-
ity, idiocy, epilepsy, and other horrors do not
follow, as has been alleged, except when inter-
marriage has been continued q considerable
time. An example is that of Da Souza, a
Portuguese save-trader who settled at Will
dah in Dahomey, aud died there in 1915 He
had 400 wives, and he left behind 400 child
rem, and these having been kept from ming
ling with the natives by the inhospitality or
the good sense of the King, and having now
reached the third generation, they have as
sumed the negro color though retaining some
of the European features, but they are dwind-
ling away for want of prolific power. 1t is also
a fact that isolated people have limited in
crease, as is shown by the statistics of Wales
and the British Islands when compared with
England and it would seem to be u law, which