14G Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



and few of them survive the age of fifty-five or » 

 sixty.* Buffon attributes this shortness of life to 

 the premature intercourse of the sexes, and very 

 early and excessive debauchery.^ On this sub- 

 ject perhaps he has been led into exaggerations; 

 but without attributing too much to this cause, it 

 seems agreeable to the analogy of nature to sup- 

 pose that, as the natives of hot climates arrive 

 much earlier at maturity than the inhabitants of 

 colder countries, they should also perish earlier. 



According to Buffon, the negro-women are ex- 

 tremely prolific ; but it appears from Park that they 

 are in the habit of suckling their children two 

 or three years, and as the husband during this 

 time devotes the whole of his attention to his other 

 wives, the family of each wife is seldom nume- 

 rous.;]: Polygamy is universally allowed among 

 the negro nations ;§ and consequently without a 



* Park's Africa, c. xxi. p. 284. 



f L'usage premature des femmes est peut-etre la cause de la 

 brievete de leur vie ; les enfans sont si debauches, et si peu con- 

 traints par les peres et meres que des leur plus tendre jeunesse ils 

 se livrent a. tout ce que la nature leur suggere ; rien n'est si rare 

 que de trouver dans ce peuple quelque fille qui puisse se souvenir 

 du tems auquel elle a cessee d'etre vierge. Histoire Naturelle de 

 l'Homme, vol. vi. p. 235. 5th edit. 12mo. 31 vols. 



J Park's Africa, c. xx. p. 265. As the accounts of Park, and 

 those on which Buffon has founded his observations, are probably 

 accounts of different nations, and certainly at different periods, we 

 cannot infer that either is incorrect because they differ from each 

 other j but as far as Park's observations extend, they are certainly 

 entitled to more credit than any of the travellers which preceded 

 him. 



§ Park's Africa, c. xx. p. 267. 



