Progress of Population and Wealth 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PROPORTION BETWEEN THE SEXES. 



It seems to be a general law of the human species, that the num- 

 ber of males born exceeds that of females in a small proportion ; 

 and a disparity continues through the subsequent periods of life, 

 until we reach that stage when the greater casualties, to which 

 males are exposed, have counterbalanced the original excess. Is 

 this an ultimate fact which we must refer to a final cause, or is its 

 proximate cause the greater strength and vigour of the male sex, by 

 reason of which fewer of that sex are still-born, or perish by abor- 

 tion, or other casualties before birth ? 



The numbers of the two sexes, and the proportion between them, 

 as exhibited by each census, were as follows : 



Whites, 

 Males,.... 



Females, . 

 Free col 

 Males, — 

 Females, . 

 Slaves, 



Males 



Females, . 



1,615,625 

 1,556,! 



2.204,421 

 2,100,068 



No discrimination of the sexes in the col- 

 oured population at these enumerations 



It appears, by the preceding table, that, while both in the white 

 and the slave population, the males always exceed the females, 

 commonly between three and four per cent in the free coloured 

 portion, the females exceed the males from seven to eleven per 

 cent. This diversity is to be ascribed principally to the roving 

 habits of the men of this class, many of whom take to a seafaring 

 life, and some travel and even settle abroad. Perhaps, too, there 

 are in some of the States a greater proportion of females emanci- 

 pated. The census furnishes us with no data for verifying this 

 conjecture, as the excess of females is by far the greatest at that 



