1340 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



berton ; and its results, published from time 

 to time, as they were obtained, have been 

 lately collected in a form which admits of easy 

 comparison.* It appears, from the evidence 

 which he has brought together, that there is 

 no considerable difference either in the average 

 period of puberty, or in the earliest date of 

 menstruation, among the greater number of 

 tribes who are scattered over the whole of the 

 habitable globe, from the equatorial to the 

 polar regions , and that neither has a cold 

 climate that influence in retarding it, nor a 

 warm one in accelerating it, which is popu- 

 larly attributed to these agencies respectively. 

 The only well-marked exception to this general 

 rule, occurs in the case of the Hindoo females, 

 among whom the first menstruation occurs on 

 the average about two years earlier than in 

 this country. But this only arises from the 

 fact, that a larger proportion of first menstru- 

 ations among Hindoo females, takes place in 

 the earlier years of that period, over which 

 the commencement of puberty is distributed 

 in European females, the distribution in the 

 latter being more equable, as will be seen by 

 the following table, furnished by Mr. Rober- 

 ton: 



For whilst the average age of puberty in 

 the Hindoo female is thirteen years, and in 

 the British, fourteen years eleven months, the 

 per-centage of menstruations under eleven 

 3 r ears is nearly the same in the two countries, 

 so that the current idea of the very early pu- 

 berty of Hindoo females is quite incorrect ; 

 and the difference in the average solely arises 

 from the fact, that the greatest number of first 

 menstruations occur among Hindoo females 

 in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth years, 

 whilst among the females of this country the 

 larger proportion presents itself in the four- 

 teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth years. Now 

 this difference, as Mr. Roberton justly re- 

 marks, cannot be attributed to climate, for 

 Demerara and the West Indian Islands have 

 a higher mean annual temperature than Cal- 



* Essays and Notes on the Physiology and Dis- 

 eases of Women, and on Practical Midwifery. 8vo. 

 London, 1851. 



cutta and the Dekhan j and yet we know that 

 the Negresses in these colonies are not earlier 

 than the peasant women in England. A more 

 probable cause, however, lies in the peculiar 

 habits of the natives of that country, which 

 tend, in more ways than one, to force forward 

 the period of puberty. " It is the law of the 

 Shastras, that females shall be given in mar- 

 riage before the occurrence of menstruation, 

 and that, should consummation not take place 

 until after this event, the marriage is a sin. 

 Accordingly, it is the custom in Lower Ben- 

 gal to send the girl at the age of nine years to 

 the house of her husband, unless the latter be 

 so distant that it cannot be done ; and two 

 ancient Hindoo sagea are of opinion, that if 

 the marriage is not consummated before the 

 first appearance of the catamenia, the girl 

 becomes * degraded in rank.' At Bangalore it 

 would seem that this revolting custom does 

 not obtain, the husband refraining from taking 

 his wife to his own house till not less than 

 sixteen days have elapsed subsequently to 

 puberty."* Now, it can scarcely be ques- 

 tioned that such a premature sexual excite- 

 ment will have a tendency to accelerate the 

 epoch of puberty ; and that, when this is con- 

 stantly acting through a long succession of 

 generations, an early puberty may come to be 

 a character of race* But besides this modus 

 operandi of the custom in question, the fol- 

 lowing has been pointed out by Mr. Ro- 

 berton : "When it is recollected that the 

 consummation of marriage among the Hindoos 

 has taken place, at the latest, on the arrival 

 of puberty, during a lapse of more than three 

 thousand years, and that the practice is sanc- 

 tioned by ancient laws and consecrated by 

 custom, it is easy to conceive that those 

 females who were latest in reaching puberty, 

 would be the least sought after for wives, that 

 such women would not be unlikely, in many in- 

 stances, to remain unmarried, and that thus 

 (owing to the origination of a preference on 

 this ground in the selection of their wives, 

 operating through a long period of time) 

 Hindoo women would gradually come to con- 

 sist, in a proportion different from that in 

 Europe or elsewhere, of such as by constitu- 

 tion are early nubile. To me there seems no- 

 thing extravagant or far-fetched in this sup- 

 position. The production of a like state of 

 things in England, in any particular district, is 

 quite conceivable. Nothing is better esta- 

 blished, than that early (or late) puberty is 

 a family peculiarity. Let us, then, only sup- 

 pose families, possessing this kind of consti- 

 tution, to intermarry, and the peculiarity in 

 question would be propagated, extended, and 

 transmitted ; and so a race, distinguished by 

 it, would be produced." f It is a justification 

 of this view, that the mean age of puberty 

 should differ in Bengal and the Dekhan, to 

 the extent of nearly a year, being twelve years 

 six months in the former province, and thirteen 

 years five months in the latter, notwithstand- 

 ing its warmer latitude ; for, as just stated, 



* Op. cit. p. 131. 



f Op. cit. p. 129. 



