The Descent of Man

chiefly by restraining marriages. The greater
death-rate of infants in the poorest classes is
also very important; as well as the greater mortality,
from various diseases, of the inhabitants
of crowded and miserable houses, at all ages.
The effects of severe epidemics and wars are
soon counterbalanced, and more than counterbalanced,
in nations placed under favourable
conditions. Emigration also comes in aid as a
temporary check, but, with the extremely poor
classes, not to any great extent.
There is reason to suspect, as Malthus has remarked,
that the reproductive power is actually
less in barbarous, than in civilised races. We
know nothing positively on this head, for with
savages no census has been taken; but from the
concurrent testimony of missionaries, and of
others who have long resided with such people,
it appears that their families are usually
small, and large ones rare. This may be partly
accounted for, as it is believed, by the women