ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the part respectively played in the movement of the population of India by the birth-rate, by famine, by epidemic disease and other causes of death, and by migration. In India, marriage is regulated by a few leading principles which nominally – prevail amongst at least three-fourths of the population. The number of people who die from actual want of food is probably small compared to the deaths which result from the greater hold which disease gets on those who are enfeebled by diminution of their usual supply of nutriment. As for normal disease, every year sees an increase in the number of dispensaries, which are, in fact, small hospitals under trained men, scattered about the rural tracts, whilst in larger towns the lower grade of medical practitioner, turned out by the Universities, is growing in popular favour against the rivalry of the herbalist and exorciser.
