ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 37 



liberty of refusal during gestation, as well as the power to decline 

 additional males when her physiological wants had recently been 

 satisfied. Female animals were endowed with ample means of pro- 

 tection from the approaches of unwelcome males. It can scarcely 

 be otherwise than that woman originally possessed the same privi- 

 lege. 



In connection with this part of the subject Dr. King referred to 

 the views of McLennan, Lubbock, Spencer, and others, in support 

 of the idea that the social evolution of the human race had been 

 accompanied by phases of development, in which women had been 

 made the slaves of men and had been bought and sold as wives, or 

 betrothed for a consideration when infants, and subjected to mar- 

 riage consummation regardless of any expressed desire or physio- 

 logical want. Our own marriage customs were an outgrowth of 

 these early phases of social evolution. 



In conclusion Dr. King stated his belief that the present system 

 of marriage among civilized peoples was, all things considered, the 

 best that could possibly be devised. Monogamy, in order to satisfy 

 the physiological wants of civilized males, may necessitate violation 

 of the law of " cestruational selection " and compel the continuance 

 of sexual union during pregnancy, and this, in its turn, might add 

 to the ills of woman and multiply the diseases peculiar to her sex ; 

 but it was nevertheless a necessity, inseparable from the usages and 

 maintenance of a high civilization. We might as well settle down 

 to the conviction, once and for all, that it was useless to attempt a 

 strict adherence to physiological laws and at the same time regard 

 the requirements of civilized life; and hence had arisen, with the 

 growth of every form of civilization, the enactment of State laws 

 and the development of religions, without which the control and 

 subjugation of natural instincts, in a way to secure the best results 

 to all individuals composing a community, would be impossible. 



Mr. Ward made some remarks on the portion of the paper which 

 referred to the great difference between the sexual habits of human 

 beings and of animals. He applied to the phenomenon as mani- 



