THE (ESTROUS CYCLE IN THE MAMMALIA 65 



sexual season. The evidence is based largely upon the works of 

 Ploss l and "Westermarck, 2 the latter of whom goes somewhat fully 

 into the subject in a chapter on "A Human Pairing Season in 

 Primitive Times," to which the reader is referred for further 

 references on this subject. 3 



It has been shown that there is a more or less restricted season 

 for breeding among certain of the North American Indians, among 

 certain tribes in Hindustan, among many of the native Australians, 

 among the Esquimaux, among the natives of the Andaman Islands, 

 as well as among certain other of the more primitive races of 

 mankind. The season seems generally to occur in the -spring, but 

 this is not invariably so. Annandale and Robinson 4 state that 

 among the Semang or aboriginal tribes of the Siamese State of Jalor, 

 children are generally born only in March, or immediately after the 

 wet season, a fact which appears to imply that there is a regular 

 sexual season in June. 



Further evidence of the existence of a primitive sexual season in 

 man is furnished by the records of the annual feasts which the 

 ancients indulged in usually in the spring and which Frazer 5 

 has shown to be represented in modern European countries by the 

 May-queen festivals, and other similar customs that have survived 

 into our own time. It is well known that the ancient festivals 

 among the civilised peoples of the past were times of great sexual 

 licence, and so in all probability were similar in origin to the 

 licentious feasts and dances of various savage races at the present 

 day. Their anthropological significance and the intimate association 

 between them and the idea of reproduction are discussed at great 

 length by Frazer in his book entitled " The Golden Bough." 



There is, moreover, evidence of a human pairing season in the 

 higher birth-rate which occurs at certain seasons in various countries 

 at the present day. Ploss has collected statistics illustrating this 

 fact in Russia, France, Italy, and Germany, and Haycraft 6 has shown 

 that there are indications of a similar condition existing in Scotland. 

 On this subject Mayo-Srnith 7 writes as follows : "The largest number 

 [of births] almost always falls in the month of February . . . corre- 



1 Ploss, Das Weib, Leipzig, 1895. 



2 Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, London, 1891 ; 5th Edition, 

 1921. 



3 See also Havelock Ellis, loc. cit. 



4 Annandale and Robinson, Fasciculi Alalayenses: Anthropology, Part I., 

 1903. 



5 Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2nd Edition, London, 1900 ; 3rd Edition, in 

 thirteen volumes, published at intervals subsequently. 



c Haycraft, "On some Physiological Results of Temperature Variations," 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxix., 1880. 



7 Mayo-Smith, Statistics and Sociology, vol. i., New York, 1895. Cf. also 

 van Herwerden, loc. cit. 



