212 



Mr. Lea described the crystalline forms of the diamond, and 

 exhibited a specimen of murio-phosphate of lead crystallized, 

 with curved edges. 



Dr. G. Emerson made a communication upon the excessive 

 mortality of male children, with the causes. 



"Of all the children born, many more are males than females. In 

 Philadelphia, the excess of males at birth is about 7^ per cent. Of 

 the children that die, much the largest amount are also males; so that 

 by the 10th year of age, the male numerical advantage at birth ofl^ 

 per cent, is nearly lost. By the 15th year, the number of living fe- 

 males comes to exceed the males about as much as the males did the 

 feinales at birth. 



Up to the 15th year, there has consequently been a loss of nearly 

 15 per cent, moi'e males than females. It has been customary to as- 

 cribe this loss to greater exposure to the weather and accidents on the 

 part of males. But this does not account for it, since the largest pro- 

 portion of the mortality occurs during the earlier stages of infancy, 

 whilst the sexes are subjected to similar circumstances. 



By examining into the particular causes which had proved fatal to 

 many thousands of both sexes, I found that those diseases by which 

 the males had been destroyed in the greatest numbers were — inflam- 

 mation of the brain, and its consequences, convulsions and hydroce- 

 phalus; inflammations of the lungs, stomach, bowels, &c. ; fevers of 

 all kinds, except scarlet and some others of the eruptive class. 



The diseases most destructive to male infants all belong to the 

 Sthenic class, characterized by excessive inflammatory and febrile 

 actions, such as attend upon constitutions in which the energies of life 

 are highly exalted. 



The list of diseases in which the deaths of females constitute the 

 largest proportion, is small, the most prominent being hooping cough 

 and scarlet fever. These, with all other diseases to which female in- 

 fants are particularly liable to succumb, appertain to the Asthenic 

 class, characterized by speedy exhaustion and prostration of the vital 

 forces. 



Upon comparing these results, obtained from data furnished by the 

 Philadelphia bills of mortality, with others derived from calculations 

 based upon the British bills, embracing an immense amount of deaths, 

 I find my conclusions, relative to the controlling agencies exerted 

 over infantile life by peculiar physiological conditions of the sexes, 

 fully sustained. The practical bearing of these results of statistical 



