Abstract
THE population of Bengal, 50.1 millions with a mean density of 646 per square mile, would seem already to have passed the stage when its needs can be met by the area it occupies. In seeking a remedy, one school supposes that if we “look after the death-rates, the birth-rates will look after themselves”, and another suggests that “if we keep down the births, the deaths will keep down themselves”. Cedric Dover, in a critical survey of the situation, concludes that control of the birth-rates is likely to furnish a more useful contribution than exclusive attention to death-rates (Population, 2, No. 1, November 1935, p. 90). A maximal population cannot be maintained above the bare subsistence level, even with radical progress in economic prosperity. The population of Bengal has already outgrown its resources, and the time seems to have come when eugenic control of population growth should be introduced.
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The Population Problem in Bengal. Nature 137, 310 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137310d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137310d0