Malthusian law of population

Malthusian law of population is a special case of the law of returns first propounded and revised by Thomas R. Malthus in six editions (1798-1826) of his An Essay on the Principle of Population. This law holds that, other things being equal, population tends to increase by geometrical progression (1, 2, 4, 8, etc.), while the means of subsistence tend to increase by arithmetical progression (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) so that unless "moral restraint" or "preventive checks" are exerted, the excess increase in population will inevitably be removed by such "positive checks" as war, vice, poverty, disease, starvation and widespread plagues and famines.