While it is true that the number of individuals of a given species which live in a particular area is not exactly the same year in year out, being subject to small, and sometimes, as in the case of the aphides and cockchafers, to very great fluctuations, nevertheless we may assume that the _average number_ remains the same, that in the course of a century, or, let us say, of a thousand years, the number of mature individuals inhabiting the particular area remains the same. This, of course, only holds true on the supposition that there has been no great change in the external conditions of life during this period. But before Man began to interfere with nature, these external conditions would remain uniform for much longer periods than we have assumed. Let us call the average number of individuals occurring on such a uniform area, _the normal number_ of the species; this number will be determined in the first instance by the number of offspring that are annually brought forth, and secondly by the number that annually perish before reaching maturity. As the fertility of a species is a definite quantity, so also will its elimination be definite, or, as we may say, when the normal number under uniform conditions of life remains constant, the ratio of elimination will also remain constant. Each species is therefore subject to a perfectly definite ratio of elimination which remains on the average constant, and this is the reason why a species does not multiply beyond its normal number notwithstanding the great excess of the food-supply, and notwithstanding the fertility which, in all species, is sufficient to lead to boundless multiplication. It is not difficult to calculate the ratio of elimination for a particular species, if one knows its rate of multiplication; for if the normal number remains constant, it follows that only two of all the offspring which a pair brings forth in the course of its life can attain to reproductive maturity, and that all the rest must perish.