Quite apart from remoter consequences, especially in relation to the wheat supply, this persistent multiplication--which one has actually heard denied on the ground that the birth-rate is falling--is of urgent moment to all of us. In 1907 the Census Bureau of Washington published some figures on the mortality statistics of nations, a summary of which may be quoted: “In all parts of the civilised world both the birth-rates and the death-rates tend to decrease, and, as a rule, those countries having the lowest death-rates have also the lowest birth-rates. In Europe the lowest birth-rate is that of France, the highest those of Servia and Roumania. The lowest death-rates are in Sweden and Norway; the highest in Russia and Spain. The downward tendency of the birth- and death-rates is best shown by diagrams prepared by the French Government, and it is probable that the downward tendency is actually steeper than the diagrams show, because both births and deaths are more accurately registered than formerly.” But these statements are by no means necessarily incompatible with steady increase of population, which, of course, increases so long as the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate. I quote a few figures from the _Science Year Book_ of 1908: In 1890 the total population of the world was estimated at 1,487,900,000. Aryan (Europe, Persia, India, etc.) 545,000,000 Mongolian (N. and E. Asia) 630,000,000 Semitic (N. Africa) 65,000,000 Negro (C. Africa) 150,000,000 Malay and Polynesian 35,000,000 American Indian 15,000,000 The total figure now must be something like sixteen hundred millions at least.