Scientific Intelligence.— Statistics. 381 



of conceptions is the autumnal equinox. Is this to be attributed 

 to the rest which, in each system of organ, seems to be the im- 

 mediate consequence of a great activity ? This we shall not de- 

 cide, and would only remark, that this period of diminution of 

 the generative faculty in the human species is precisely that in 

 which the ruminating animals exhibit most power in this re- 

 spect. This anomaly, presented by the period of the smallest 

 number of conceptions, has naturally led M. Villerme to maka 

 inquiries respecting the other exceptions, and it was the in- 

 fluence of meteorological phenomena that first attracted his at- 

 tention ; for he has found, by his dates of births, that the years 

 which have followed those in which the summers were cold and 

 rainy, do not present the period of the minimum of births as in 

 ordinary years, but that in them that period is retarded, and, 

 consequently, the conceptions. From these meteorological in- 

 fluences, M. Villerme passes to those of climates, which afford 

 him a full confirmation of the first. The minimum of births in 

 the northern parts of France, is always manifested later than 

 the mean term which we have mentioned above ; and, in the 

 southern parts, it shews itself earlier. Foreign countries also 

 confirm the general fact. In Holland and Denmark, the pe- 

 riod of the minimum of births is retarded, while in several cities 

 of Italy, and at Buenos Ayres, it is advanced. Sweden, bow- 

 ever, forms a very remarkable exception to this particular rule, 

 and goes to confirm the general rule ; and it is to be re marked, 

 that, if the temperature of the summers exercises a great in- 

 fluence upon the conceptions, that of the winters does not ap- 

 pear to exercise any ; at least M. Villerme has made this infe- 

 rence, from his observations respecting the winters of 1740-1741, 

 1775-1776, 1783-1784, and 1788-1789. It is in the delete- 

 rious influence of marsh air, that M. Villerme finds the princi- 

 pal cause of the period of the minimum of conceptions, and of 

 its protraction in proceeding from south to north. In conse- 

 quence of this, he directly searches for the effects of this in- 

 fluence in the tables of births, which have been furnished him 

 by the departments and towns which are most exposed to it ; 

 and he has found that in fact all the marshy countr-ies are re- 

 markable for the small number of conceptions, at the period 



JULY OCTOBER 1899. CC 



