256 HISTOEICAL EACES 



the crude birth-rate is corrected for the number of married females 

 of reproductive age, then the true birth-rate is found to be lower 

 than in Europe. ' The total number of births registered in 

 England and Wales during the year 1911 was 881,138, which 

 when calculated on the total population gives a crude birth-rate 

 of 24-4 per thousand. The total number of births registered in 

 India during the same year was 9,209,703, which when calculated 

 on the total population gives a crude birth-rate of 38-59 per 

 thousand. It would seem therefore that the fertility in India 

 is higher than in England. But this is not so. The total number 

 of females of reproductive age (15 to 45) in England and Wales 

 at the census of 1911 was 8,988,745 and if we calculate the births 

 per thousand of such females the figure stands at 98. The total 

 number of females of those ages in India in 1911 was 71,535,861 

 and the corresponding Indian figure is 128. If, however, we calcu- 

 late the births on the number of married females of reproductive 

 ages the Indian figure stands at 160 while the EngUsh figure is 

 196.' 1 



The fertility in other Asiatic countries is often said to be very 

 high ; it is asserted to approach 50 per 1,000 in China. Exact 

 figureb are, however, lacking. There is no doubt that the corrected 

 birth-rate would be much less. Among nomadic people the 

 evidence is to the effect that the number of children is small, and 

 this is probably connected with the practice of abortion, which is 

 common for instance among the Arabs. 



11. We have now to give some account of the factors which 

 have a bearing upon ehmination in the third group. Of these the 

 first is abortion. Classical literature is full of references to the 

 subject. Plato and Aristotle both permitted abortion. ' No law 

 in Greece or in the Roman republic or during the greater part of 

 the Empire condemned it.' ^ 'A long chain of writers both pagan 

 and Christian represent the practice as avowed and almost uni- 

 versal. They describe it as resulting, not simply from licentious- 

 ness or from poverty, but even from so shght a motive as vanity 

 which made mothers shrink from the disfigurement of child-birth. 

 They speak of a mother who had never destroyed her offspring as 

 deserving of signal praise and they assure us that the frequency of 

 the crime was such that it gave rise to a regular profession.' ^ 



* Wattal, loc. cit., p. 7. ^ Lecky, European Morals, vol. ii, p, 21. 



3 Ibid., p. 21. 



