malthe

[MALTHA.] Ichthy.: A genus of Acanthopterygians, family Pediculati. Anterior portion of the body very broad and depre ed; the anterior part of the snout produced into a more or le prominent proc e , beneath which there is a tentacle, retractile into a cavity. Jaws and palate with villiform teeth. Skin with numerous conical protuberances. Soft dorsal fin, and very short gill. The carpal bones are produced, and support the pectorals, which somewhat resemble short legs. Habitat, American shores of the Atlantic. Malthe vespertilio is a tropical and M. cubifrons a northern species. ( Günther .) Măl-thuş'-I-an, a. & s . [For etym. see def.] A. As adj . Pertaining to, or in any way connected with the teachings of the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834). His E ay on the Prin ciple of Population was first published in 1798, and has gone through many editions. "Mr. Sadler's two principal works in which the Mal thus i an doctrines were impugned."-Cates: Dict. Gen. Biog . (1875), p. 984. B. As subst.: A follower of Malthus; one who holds that some check is nece ary to prevent overpopulation. "Defer marriage till late in life, as advocated by the old Malthusians of the ascetic school."- Dr . H. A. All butt: Mal thus i an Tracts , No. 4. sin, aş; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. Mal thus i an ism Măl-this-I-an-ism, subst. [Eng. Mal thus i an (q. v.); -ism.] It is a noteworthy fact that a corresponding word does not exist in French.] Social Science : The teaching of Malthus, or of any other writer holding similar views, on the population question. The first principle of Malthus may be thus enunciated: That while the increase of the means of subsistence is in an arithmetical, the increase of population is in a geometrical ratio, This leads him to consider checks to population-a subject which has occupied the minds of thinkers from the days of Plato ( Laws , v., Repub ., v.) and Aristotle ( Polit ., vii. 16) to our own time. These may be cla ed under three heads: (1) Moral restraint, (2) vice, and (3) misery. Malthus unhesitatingly rejects the second, and endeavors to eliminate the third check by inculcating the nece ity of moral self-restraint. He emphatically teaches that parentage involves weighty responsibility, and that it is not only imprudent but immoral to bring human beings into the world without a fair prospect of being able to provide for them. The statement of Malthus, that population, unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio, is inexact; but the fact remains that population tends to increase beyond the means of subsistence. "A writer in the Revue des Deux Mondes had recently attacked him severely for Mal thus i an ism."-The Public Health , Aug., 1868, p. 209.