PROGRESS OF MAN. 185 



It is said that in colonies where the male popu- 

 lation is generally in excess, the proportion of 

 female children is very large, until the numbers 

 of males and females is nearly equalised. In 

 Europe the number of male births is always 

 slightly in excess of female, but as the rate 

 of mortality is higher among male children, 

 and as men are to exposed to many casualties 

 from which women are exempt, the actual 

 number of living females is usually in excess 

 of males. It is said that in India the com- 

 parative numbers of the sexes differ even in 

 adjacent districts, and without recourse to infar^- 

 ticide, according to the prevalence of polygamy 

 or polyandry among the inhabitants.* It is, 

 however, stated that there is no excess of female 

 births over male in the hareems of Siam.f 

 This may perhaps be explained by the fact that 

 in many Eastern countries it is only the rich 

 who can afford to indulge in polygamy, and their 

 wives are frequently brought from distant 

 countries where polygamy is not general. When 

 such a custom is truly indigenous in a country, 



* " Illustrated Travels," vol. iii. p. 157. 



t " Darwin's Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 303, quoted from Dr. Camp- 

 bell, "Anthropological Review," April, 1870, p. cviii. 



