In the course of human racial history certain sentiments make their appearance (parental love, altruism, and humanism), in consequence of which, even among nations to which the fear of a declining population is no longer known, actions endangering the health or the life of children come to be regarded as immoral and punishable; these sentiments subsequently constitute the main foundations of Child-Protection. But a recognition of the expediency of Child-Protection, and a desire to increase the population, have also at all times exercised a very great influence upon the degree to which methods of Child-Protection have been adopted and enforced. In any community in which an increase in numbers would involve over-population, an individual has, _ceteris paribus_, less value than in a community in which no such risk has to be considered; for this reason, in the latter community, more stress will be laid upon Child-Protection than in the former community. The following examples will show that this reasoning is sound. As a result of the wide acceptance of the “mercantile theory” of political economy, inasmuch as this theory laid much stress upon the importance of an increase in population, the care of foundlings came to receive much more attention, even in Protestant countries. Moreover, though it is an indisputable fact that the fierce attack made by Malthus, in his widely celebrated work on _The Principles of Population_, upon the Foundling Hospitals of his day, was directed especially against the fact that these institutions received children quite unconditionally, yet it is also perfectly true that Malthus’s views regarding Foundling Hospitals harmonise perfectly with his ideas as to the possibilities and dangers of over-population. Although some authors maintain that the connection we have pointed out obtains only among comparatively uncivilised peoples, and that as civilisation progresses, sentiment alone is decisive in forming our views in the matter of Child-Protection, those who advance such a contention may be referred to the example of modern France.