The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-01
SHOULD PLAGUE BE CURED !?

The whole world is beginning to re-
fleet upon the fact that tuberculosis
is attaining the proportions of a true
plague, and is trying to devise means
to check it; but very few people stop
to reflect that if cure is found for
all the dreadful maladies that keep
down the tendency to over-population,
our descendants of a few generations
beyond will be plunged into the fiercest
kind Of a struggle for existence.
Not very long ago at the Academy OF
Sciences in Brussels, Lieutenant Cen
eral Brialmont of the Belgian army
delivered lecture upon the increase OF
the worlds population. Many statisti-
clans, he said, had studied this prob
lem. and according to the average of
their calcula lions he found that Rus
STA doubles her population In fifty
years, England in fifty-fve, Belgium in
seventy mine, Italy in eighty-tour, and
France in 1S3 The growth OF the
American population was not mention
ed "A time will come said General
Brialmont, when there will be too
many men on the globe, and the equi-
librium between population and pro-
'duction will be re-established by the
disappearance Of those for whom there.
will be no place at the banquet OF. life.
According to statistics most worthy OF
confidence, the population of the world
, in 1882 was 1882, 100000, and in 1890 il
was ,48o, Q00, 900. That Is 10 say, in
eight years it Increased BY $4,000, 900. or
more than six per cent If, calculating
upon this basis, We seek the date
when the population of the earth will
reach twenty-seven milIiards. of in
habitants,g or double the number of
hectares that the land OF our planet
measures, we come to the year 22S0.''
Consequently, according to the General.
who simply made himself the Interpre-
ter Of the economists, in 1856 years the
world will no longer be able 10 feed
its Inhabitants.
ITO deny the exactness of my cal
culatfon" said General Brialmont st
viii be necessary to prove that the
population will not continue to grow
rapidly as / have supposed.
The statistics show that the popula-
ton of Europe, during the century just
past; increased 144 per cent; AMI the
president of the Congress of Vienna
declares that the European population
has doubled in seventy years, not
withstandIng numerous wars and "a
constant stream of immigration At
this rate, considering the fact that
the earth does not pereeptibly in
crease in size, and that the area OF
arabic land is vastly smaller than the
total surface area of the earth, it will
not be long before the demand for sub
sistence must encroach upon the capt.
tai stock From the ten millards and
a half hectares that the land of the
earth measures, we must deduct the
polar regions, the steppes, the deserts,
the mountains that are covered with
snow, the lands which are rendered
unproductive by industries, and the
surfaces occupied by houses. After
that deduction we find, according to
the French tables. scarcely two mil
lizards of hectares of arabic land, from
which we must also deduct half a mil
lard hectares for the support of ami
mails. There, IRE, as the English geo
world will be short of rations In 176
years.
But these estimates of the growth of
population do not go far enough. The
doctors with their serums are giving
plaques no chance; famines are reliev-
ed by wold-wide charity; the new sur
gerry is reducing the mortality of wars.
and wars themselves are becoming OF
shorter duration and may be, through
the agency of peace commissions, sup
pressed altogether; preachers, doctors
and athletic instructors conspire
against mortality; now consumption is
threatened. If this kind of a thing
goes on it will not take anything like
176 years to turn man into a starv-
ing, fighting animal.
And yet we hail every measure for
the eradication of diseases which kind
ly nature provides SO that the human
race may continue to find footing on
the earth