I'MI.K 



b..! l'i niisyUaniit. John- Hopkins, Cornell, and 

 Mi.-hii.Mii U ah iln- i,.i- inline (lit- |..iiii.iiion nl 

 orKaniution- t<> tiring together the teach. T- !' th- 

 Me. the Political Economy Club repreaentuicartlMlkxy 

 luorr or lew. n<l the American Economic \sxx-iiuinii 

 the new tendencies. Finally. :it Harvard. Columbia 

 Pennsylvania, and Johns-Hopkins there are series of 

 publications, in which economic and related questions 

 an- treated (R. E. T.) 



POLK. LKN. . i. bishop and general. 



was born at Kal.-iuli. N. ('.. in 1806. He graduated 

 at West Point in IS'JT and entered the artillery. hut 

 BOOB resigned. After a course of theological study lie 

 WM ordained to t he Epi->-opal mini-try in is.'il. ami 

 WM made missionary l.i-li..p of Arkan-a.- and the In 

 dian Territory in lv> !!< took charge also of the 

 adjoining diocese until 1K41. when ho was made bishop 

 of Louisiana. After twenty years' sen-ice in this ea- 

 parity he accepted the appointment of major-general 

 in the Confederate army. He took command at Co 

 lunibus, Tenn. , and unsuccessfully endeavored to ob- ! 

 struct the passage of the Mississippi to Union forces. ! 

 When (ten. (irant captured a Confederate camp at 

 Belmont Folk crossed from Columbus, but did not 

 prevent the accomplishment of Grant's object He 

 afterwards had command of a division and fought at 

 Stone River. Chattanooga, and Chickamauga. He was 

 killed while reconnoitring near Marietta. Ga. , June 

 14 1864. 



1*OLLOCK, FREDERICK, English lawyer and essay- 1 

 ist, was born in London, Dec. 10. 1845. He is a 

 grandson of Sir Frederick Pollock (1783-1870), who! 

 was chief baron of the exchequer. He was educated 

 at Kton and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which lie 

 became a fellow in isi'.s. lie was called to the bar at 

 Lincoln's Inn in 1871, and in 1882 was made prot. 

 of jurisprudence at University College, London, in 

 1883 corpus professor of jurisprudence at Oxford, am) 

 in 1 884 professor of common law. He is un editor 

 of the Lair Quarterly Recitir, and has contributed to 

 various periodicals. Among his legal works are 

 IKiictplet f Contract (1875); Diyrtt of tfif Isiir ,,f 

 I'.irtnenhip (1877); The Land /xiiru (1883). To i 

 other departments belong Spinoza, hit Life and 11<i- 

 lutnphy (1 880), and Enayi in Jurisprudence and Ethics 

 (1882). Hia brother, WALTER MERRIES POLI,OCK, | 

 was born in 1850, educated at Kton and at Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, graduating in 1871, and was called 

 to the bar at Inner Temple in 1874. He has delivered 

 many lectures on historical and literary subjects, and 

 in 1884 became editor of Sntnnlnii /fn-irir. with which ! 

 he had long been connected. His publications include 

 /xerwrrt on the French Pttett; ffrmgs and Rh>/, 

 Kngluh and French; Vent* of Two Tongut* ; anil Tii- 

 f\)et <ifi<l tin- .Mute. 



POLYGAMY (Gr. roll?, many, and )<$/*, mar- 1 

 riage) means multiple marriage, t. e., the condition of j 

 a man having two or more wives, or of a woman hav- 1 

 ing two or more husbands at the same time. Recent 

 writers on sociology have distinguished these two kinds 

 of polygamy by different names, calling the former ! 

 " polygyny" (many wives), and the latter " polyan- 1 

 dry" (many husbands) < >p|X)sed to polygamy is that 

 torni of the marriage, relation called " monogamy " 

 (ingle marriage), by which onr man is forbidden to 

 have more than one wife, or one woman to have more 

 than one husband at the same time. Although from 

 a scientific point of view tin- terminology is both con- 

 venient aim accurate, yet it is not in accordance with 

 popular usage. As commonly employed the word 

 "polygamy 1 ' designate* exclusively that form of the 

 rnamagc relation in which one man has several wives' 

 at the same time, and it is in this sense that we shall 

 use it in the present article. Polyandry, the condition 

 nfawoman having several husbands, though much 

 more extended than is commonly supposed, many in- 

 telligent persons being ignorant of its existence in any 

 part of the world, is comparatively limited and exoep- ' 



lional It exists among the aboriginal inhabitants of 

 the island of Ceylon and in Thibet In both these 

 countries, however, it is usually r.-tri.-ted to the case 

 where all the husbands of one wife arc brothers or 

 half-brothers Among other barharoif tribes where 

 ii is said to exist, a- the l-'uciMans. the Aleutians, mam 

 ..I the Pacilii islanders and some of the native tribes 

 .t Hindu-tan. |iolvi:aniy also exists and the two form 

 a system liardlv distinguishable from promiscuous in- 

 tercourse. Polygamy, in the sen-. . !' one man hav 

 ing several .r more frequent and widely ex- 



tended It exists in even latitude and every climate, 

 in A-ia. in nearly the whole of Africa, in Australia 

 and in. .-i of the islands of the Pacific, and on the 

 western continent ami the adjacent islands among the 

 aboriginal tribes from the Esquimaux ami Aleutian 

 islanders in the extreme north to the Patagonians and 

 Fuegians in the extreme south. It has existed from 

 the remotest periods of antiquity, and traces of it are 

 to be found in the history of almost every race. Nor 

 has polygamy been confined to barbarous nations. 

 The Egyptians. Hebrews, and Persians were among the 

 most civilized peoples of ancient times, and in the mid- 

 dle ages the Moors of Spain were at one time the fore- 

 most nation in Europe in literature, science, and art; 

 yet polygamy was practised among them all. Taking 

 into consideration all nations, past and present, bar- 

 barous and civilized, it cannot be doubted that the peo- 

 Eles amoiiL' whom polygamy has been and is allowed 

 ir exceed in numbers those among whom it has been 

 and is prohibited. 



The only widely extended religion by which polyg- 

 amy is at the present time expressly sanctioned is 

 the Mohammedan. Even by that the number of 

 wives a man may lawfully marry is limited to four 

 (see Koran, cap. 4). but in practice the number is only 

 limited by his wealth and nis inclination. The Mo 

 hainnicdan religion has, during the present century, 

 extended itself greatly among the barbarous tribes of 

 Africa. This, however, has not really extended polyg- 

 amy, as that custom prevailed among those tribes 

 previous to the introduction of Mohammedanism. 

 The fact that Mohammedanism sanctions polygamy 

 has greatly facilitated the spread of that religion among 

 the barbarous tribes where the custom already existed. 

 In all Christian nations (which is equivalent to saying 

 in all the most highly civilized nations) polygamy is 

 regarded as a sin, and is prohibited by law as a crime. 

 Old as polygamy is historically and widely extended 

 as it is geographically, a closer examination shows that 

 practically this extension is more apparent than real. 

 Inhabitants of highly civilized countries who have 

 never given the subject any special examination, when 

 they hear or read about a country in which polygamy 

 is allowed, are apt to imagine that in such a country 

 even- married man has three or four wives. This has 

 also been frequently asserted by travellers. Such state- 

 ments necessarily imply either that the adult female 

 population is three or four times greater than the 

 male, or that only a small fraction of the male popu- 

 lation have any wives at all unless polyandry exists 

 at the same time Excluding this latter case, which 

 is of limited extent, there is no evidence that either 

 of the alnive conditions has ever existed tor any great 

 length of time in any community of any considerable 

 size. It is fully established that among all races of 

 mankind the number of male infants born slightly 

 exceeds the iiuinlx-r of female, the ratio being about 

 twenty-one males to twenty females From physi 

 ologieal cause-, into the nature of which it is not mv 

 e-saryto enter here, the numberoC deaths among male 

 infants slightly exceeds that among female. After 

 arriving at adult age the occupations of men. even in 

 the most civilized and peaceable c..mmunitic-. cxp.'-c 

 them todeath by accident move frequently than women. 

 On the other hand the female sex is alone exposed to 

 the accidents and perils of child-bearing. Taking t In- 

 human race aa a whole the numbers of married uud 



