Your correspondent ÆGROTUS sees a difficulty in the rapid increase of the Israelites in Egypt, and proposes to lessen it by doubling the time of their stay there, and including women in their census. His criticisms, however, seem to be as inadmissible as his difficulty is unreal. For, first, in the place he quotes (Ex. xii. 37.), the number is said to be "nearly 600,000 _that were_ men," where the Italics are intended to throw emphasis on _men_; because the Heb. םיִרבָגְּ means men _as opposed_ to women, _strong_ men, even soldiers. Also, from Numb. i. 2. 46. we see that the number 603,550 included only "every male ... from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war," thus excluding the tribe of Levi (v. 47.). Josephus, indeed, says (_Antiq._ III. viii. 2. and xii. 4.) that it included only the men between 20 and 50 years of age. Then, as to the time that they were in Egypt: it is evident from Gal. iii. 17. that, going back 430 years from the Exode, we must come into the time of Abraham: so that the 430 years in Ex. xii. 40. must begin when Abraham first went into Egypt. And this is confirmed by the reading of the LXX there: κατῴκησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ἔτη τετρακόσια τριάκοντα. That they remained only 215 years in Egypt, is not merely the opinion of Professor Lee, as ÆGROTUS seems to think: it is given by Josephus (_Antiq._ II. xv. 2.), was received by the Jews and early Christians generally, and is now (at least almost) universally adopted. Now, to come to the supposed difficulty itself: none such really exists, even if we take the higher number and the shorter time, as I think indeed we ought. The men being taken at about 600,000, we must reckon the whole people, at least, at 2,000,000. A calculation of no difficulty shows that if 70 persons increase in 215 years to 2,000,000, the number of the people must double itself every 14-½ years: or, if they increase to 3,000,000, the number must double every 14 years. Now, compare this with what we know about some other nations. Humboldt, in his _Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne_ (tom. i. p. 339.) says: "The information which I have collected proves that, if the order of nature were not interrupted from time to time by some extraordinary and disturbing cause" [_e.g._ famine, pestilence], "the population of New Spain ought to double itself every _nineteen_ years. [...] In the United States, since 1774, we have seen the population double itself in 22 years. The curious tables which M. Samuel Blodget has published in his _Statistical Manual of the United States of America_ (1806, p. 73.), show that, for certain States, this cycle is only _thirteen_ or _fourteen_ years." Again, Malthus, in his _Essay on the Principles of Population_, p. 6., says: