The law of human increase, or population based on physiology and psychology / by Nathan Allen.

  • Allen, Nathan, 1813-1889.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The law of human increase, or population based on physiology and psychology / by Nathan Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    lowing facts were developed. The average number of births to each married couple, and the relative number of children to adults, with the present gen- eration of Americans, did not begin to compare with what it was in New England one or two hun- dred years ago. A census of Massachusetts taken in 17G5 reports almost one half of the whole population as under sixteen years of age; whereas from the best estimates that can be made, not more than one fourth, or perhaps one fifth of the present American popula- tion are under this age. Many towns in this State have been settled over two hundred years, including in their history six or seven generations. From an examination of their records it was discovered that the average number of children to each family among the first settlers was from eight to ten, and that for the second, third and fourth generations, the average ranged from seven to eight; but when we come to the fifth and sixth generations the number of children diminished more rapidly, averaging only four or five to each married couple, and that of the present genera- tion the number will not much, if any, exceed three children. Now, if only three fifths of all children born ever live to reach adult life, which is about the proportion settled by mortuary statistics, by what process of arithmetic can it be shown that such a community or people can increase in population ? Besides, if the birth-rate should continue to diminish for the two coming generations as it has in the past two, what is to be the result or final history of such a people or