ARE WE OVER-POPULATED ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I should like to supplement the reply of Mr. Eldon Moore to Dr. R. A. Fisher's questioning of the Malthusian principle—that population always tends to press upon the food supply. Another way of enunciating this is to say that " a high birth-rate must cause food shortage " ; and it is now a better way, because Malthus wrote before birth control had begun appreciably to reduce fertility. The truth of his principle is strikingly revealed by the many millions of under-nourished persons in the high birth-rate countries of Asia. If the world's present food supply could be distributed equally to the world's present inhabitants, none would get enough for the maintenance of good health. Dr. Fisher seems to consider that the food of practically everyone in North-West Europe is adequate, yet the positive correlation between the birth-rates and death-rates suggests that a further decline in fertility would bring a further rise in the average duration of life.—I am, Sir, &c.,
171 Queen's Gate, S.W. 7. B. DUNLOP, M.B.
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