The checks to increase?

Does "the checks to increase" mean "the inabilities to increase"?

Context:

Its bearing on natural selection -- The term used in a wide sense
-- Geometrical ratio of increase -- Rapid increase of naturalised
animals and plants -- Nature of the checks to increase --
Competition universal -- Effects of climate -- Protection from the
number of individuals -- Complex relations of all animals and
plants throughout nature -- Struggle for life most severe between
individuals and varieties of the same species: often severe
between species of the same genus -- The relation of organism
to organism the most important of all relations.