ON MARRIAGE AND INFANTICIDE IN CHINA. 183 



jaot learned how to procreate the sexes at will. They cannot have 

 three sons and only one daughter born ; but they can have only one 

 daughter reared. They have learned to destroy the girls at birth, 

 and have thus secured the country against an excessively redi/adant 

 population. 



How long female infanticide has been practised in China is not 

 known, and there are no means of ascertaining it. Chinese books say 

 nothing on the subject. 



The proportion of infants killed probably varies in different places 

 according to the poverty of the people. The rich never kill their 

 daughters — they rear them all ; and, in their households, there are as 

 many girls as boys. To the rich, daughters have a special value. 

 By giving them in marriage to men of rank and official position, they 

 may hope to secure their aid in defending their wealth from the rapa- 

 city of others. 



In the poorest villages the number killed seems to vary from a half 

 to two thirds. In reply to the question, " How many girls do you 

 rear?" the answer usually is "three tenths," "four tenths," "fi^e 

 tenths." In examining the mothers as to the sex of the children in 

 their arms, it usually appears that three fourths of the whole number 

 are boys. In such cases it is evident that two thirds of the girls have" 

 been killed. 



The first economical result of this destruction of female children 

 is that to which reference has already been made : the too rapid in- 

 crease of the population is most effectually hindered. 



Its next result is that it confines marriage to the more active, in- 

 dustrious, and vigorous men. Only thirty or forty men in a hundred 

 can marry ; and these, for the most part, at the age of thirty. In- 

 dustry, frugality, and perseverance are needed in order to marry. 

 The feeble, the indolent, the dissolute will fail to obtain wives. The 

 influence of this constant elimination of the inferior individuals from 

 the class of fathers must be powerful upon the race. Health, strength, 

 activity, and energy are the conditions of marriage ; the offspring 

 must be beneficially affected. 



The inability of most men to obtain a second wife tends to make 

 them not only industrious but careful of their wives. It is said that 

 the prohibition of second marriages to the clergy of the Greek Church 

 makes them model husbands ; so, in Chins, does the pecuniary bin- 



