settings
The Sex Lives of Cannibals vocabulary
1 famous people mentioned
help & settings
[x]
-
Thomas Malthus
-
tags: [personage]
► definition
Definition:[1766-1834]British scholar who wrote the famous 1798 "An Essay on the Principle of Population" where he claimed that, unless kept in check by war, disease or moral restraint, the global population growth will outpace the food supply.
► uses
Uses:
Our immediate conclusion is that man is exceedingly fecund and very tough. Never before have there been so many people in the world. In the past centuries the world’s population has been smaller; in the future centuries it is destined to be larger. And this brings us to that old bugbear that has been so frequently laughed away and that still persists in raising its grisly head—namely, the doctrine of Malthus.
Jack London. A Collection of Stories
---
[...] Tarawa's lone road unravels from idyllic to raw to a Malthusian hell. There are, simply, too many people on South Tarawa, particularly on the islet of Betio, which has the world's highest population density, greater even than Hong Kong.
J. Maarten Troost. The Sex Lives of Cannibals, p.64 (2004)
---
MALTHUSIAN, adj. Pertaining to Malthus and his doctrines. Malthus believed in artificially limiting population, but found that it could not be done by talking. One of the most practical exponents of the Malthusian idea was Herod of Judea, though all the famous soldiers have been of the same way of thinking.
Ambrose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary
---
Adam Smith and Malthus, two younger Gradgrinds, were out at lecture in custody; and little Jane, after manufacturing a good deal of moist pipe-clay on her face with slate-pencil and tears, had fallen asleep over vulgar fractions.
Charles Dickens. Hard Times
help with search