Population : its law of increase / by Nathan Allen.

  • Nathan Allen
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Population : its law of increase / by Nathan Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is true, there may be a great variety of conditions, or powerful factors that enter largely into its operations and modify essentially its results, but, here in the perfect organization of the human system, has this great law of population its germ, its seat and foundation. The common sense of mankind, which is applied to the practical duties of life, as well as to the numerous facts in science, would certainly incline us to believe that the body itself, in its various states and ever-changing forms, must constitute the most prominent, if not the principal agency, in the functions of increase. To establish a general law which is to have the greatest possible agency in develop- ing the nature of a body and controlling its very existence, the presumption is that such a law must be evolved, in some way, from the designs had in the creation of that body. Such has been found by experience and observation to be the fact in reference to the great laws that pervade the whole vegetable and animal kingdoms. And though there may be objects and agencies extraneous to the body itself, that may have a powerful influence over its development, yet the most important law of all—the law that shapes its life, character and destiny—must have its seat and foundation somewhere in the system itself. Such we should naturally suppose would be the fact in the case of man, the highest and the noblest work of the Creator, and where human agency and accountability have more to do than anywhere else in the world. Whereas an examination into the. views and theories of most writers upon population shows, that the laws which they lay down for its increase have been controlled almost wholly by agents or objects entirely external to the body, and some of them holding only remote or indirect relations to it. The standard of physiology upon which the laws of population are here based, is the same perfect organization of man as when he came from the hands of his Maker and was pronounced not only “very good, ” but was commanded to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it.” But by man’s course of disobe- dience and rebellion, he lost not only the moral image and likeness of his Creator, but that harmony and perfection in his physical organi- zation which he has never yet regained. This same balance or union of the temperaments constitutes the standard for the greatest amount of health, of longevity and strength that can ever be found in the human system. This is proved by the laws of physiology, as well as by facts gathered from experience, observation and history. This same organization presents the only perfect standard of beauty for the human form; for there is such a
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