106 THE LAW OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



especially among the children. " One missionary can- 

 vassed his district and found that nine children out of 

 ten never grew up. Dr. McCartney of Changhang, after 

 twenty years of practice, estimates that from 75 to 

 85 per cent, of the children born there die before 

 the end of the second year. The returns from Hong- 

 Kong for 1909 show that the number of children dying 

 under one year of age is 87 per cent, of the births 

 within the year. The first census of Formosa seems 

 to show that nearly half the children born to the 

 Chinese there die within six months." 1 



Nor is this the whole story. The country is continually 

 devastated by wars, plagues, floods and famines which 

 sweep away the people like flies. The birthrate, therefore, 

 must be enormous, for the average numbers of the people 

 remain undiminished. Japan is also very poor and very 

 fertile. 



Speaking of the Cape Boers, Herbert Spencer quotes 

 the traveller Barrow as saying : " Unwilling to work and 

 unable to think . . . indulging to excess in the gratifica- 

 tion of every sensual appetite, the African peasant grows 

 to an unwieldy size ; " and of the women Barrow says : 

 " The women of the African peasantry lead a life of the 

 utmost inactivity." Then, after illustrating these state- 

 ments, he speaks of " the prolific tendency of the African 

 peasantry. Six or seven children in a family are considered 

 very few ; a dozen to twenty are not uncommon." 2 



Probably the remarks concerning the inactivity of the 

 Boer women are exaggerated. In very few parts of 

 the world do farmers' wives lead a life of idleness. No 

 doubt Kaffir servants are plentiful, but their labour is 

 not of a kind to be trusted far without supervision. In 



1 Century Magazine, July, 1911, E. A. Ross. 

 8 Principles of Biology, vol. ii, part vi, chap, v. 



