Malthusianadj.n.

1805 R. Southey Let. (1965) I. 389 I would not have spoken of him in the Malthusian article as I did speak, had I supposed he would have ever known me to be the author.

1821 P. B. Shelley Let. 15 Feb. (1964) II. 261 In the comparison of Platonic and Malthusian doctrines.

1839 T. Carlyle Chartism x. 109 How often have we read in Malthusian benefactors of the species: ‘The working people have their condition in their own hands.’

1872 W. R. Greg Enigmas 56 Terms on which alone, according to the Malthusian theory, plenty can be secured for all.

1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles I. v. 65 She felt Malthusian vexation with her mother for thoughtlessly giving her so many little sisters and brothers.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 516/1 It is, in fact, the confluence of the Malthusian ideas with the theories of Ricardo..that has led to the introduction of population as an element in the discussion of so many economic questions in modern times.

1965 H. J. Habbakuk in D. V. Glass & D. E. C. Eversley Population in Hist. vii. 157 These epidemics..cannot have been a Malthusian punishment inflicted on an overexpanded population.

1992 Economist 26 Dec. 81/3 Central Asia is a rare case of a region facing Malthusian disaster.

1812 R. Southey in Q. Rev. 8 324 The Malthusians observe..that the new discovery is matter of science.

1845 J. S. Mill Diss. & Disc. (1875) II. 187 We need not wonder that the epithets of ‘Malthusians’ and ‘Political Economists’ are so often considered equivalent to hard-hearted, unfeeling, and enemies of the poor.

1885 J. Bonar Malthus i. i. 4 A Malthusian is supposed to forbid all marriage.

1991 Time 19 Aug. 48/2 The Malthusians..have consistently underestimated how much the technological wonders of the green revolution..can spur food production.

1930 R. A. Fisher Genetical Theory Nat. Selection ii. 26 The number m..measures the relative rate of increase or decrease of a population when in the steady state appropriate to any such system. In view of the emphasis laid by Malthus upon the ‘law of geometric increase’ m may appropriately be termed the Malthusian parameter of population increase.

1983 E. C. Minkoff Evolutionary Biol. ix. 151/2 The quantity r is called either the Malthusian parameter or the ‘intrinsic rate of natural increase’.

1995 Ecology 76 2056/1 If fitness is approximated by the Malthusian parameter, those genotypes or species realizing a net shorter generation time will tend to increase in the population.