1874.] Notices of Books. 243 
and superstition ; so that we obtain a complete picture of the 
entire course of their simple lives, and a considerable insight 
into their mental and moral nature. Perhaps with somewhat of 
a student’s partiality for his favourite subject, he arrives at the 
conclusion that they are a very ancient people, and that their 
existing customs and mode of life have come down, almost un- 
changed, from a period more remote than those of any other race 
known to us. He has also gone with extreme minuteness into 
their social statistics, taking an accurate census of a number of 
villages, and obtaining the ages, sex, and relationships of every 
individual. The results are exhibited in a series of tables, from 
which some very curious conclusions are drawn. The primitive 
custom of the Todas was to kill all female children except one 
ortwo. ‘This, of course, resulted in a superabundance of males, 
and hence arose the practice of polyandry, or of some women 
having two or more husbands, which practice continues to this 
day. Although infanticide of females has long entirely ceased, 
yet the number of males is still largely in excess. The census 
tables seem to show that considerably more male than female 
children are born; and it is very ingeniously argued that this is 
the necessary consequence of long-continued female infanticide. 
It is proved thus. The average Toda family is six children born 
to each woman. Now, if wetake three women, the first of whom 
has six daughters, the second six sons, and the third three sons 
and three daughters, we shall be able to trace the effects of 
infanticide on the proportionate numbers of the two sexes. The 
first mother has to destroy four daughters, keeping only two. 
The second keeps her six sons. ‘The third destroys two 
daughters, keeping three sons and one daughter. There will 
remain nine sons and three daughters, and these will be the 
parents of the next generation. But the majority of these will 
be derived from families which produced more males than 
females, and as such tendencies are hereditary, the constant 
preservation of a similar majority generation after generation 
will inevitably result in a male-producing race; and this pecu- 
liarity having been established by a long course of artificial 
selection, will continue to manifest itself for an unknown period 
after the depraved practice which gave rise to it has been 
abolished. 
The view that close interbreeding is not per se injurious is 
strongly supported by the case of the Todas. From time 
immemorial they have married together in the same or adjoining 
villages, till they are all closely related in various degrees of 
cousinship; yet the people seem to be as a whole healthy and 
vigorous, and remarkably free from all those diseases supposed 
to be produced by close interbreeding. Out of a population of 
196, only 2 were malformed. 
Colonel Marshall is an ardent phrenologist, yet that despised 
science nowhere appears prominently in his book beyond the two 
