110 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



America than elsewhere, namely from ten to thirteen years. 1 

 In ancient Mexico, however, the girls used to marry when sixteen 

 to eighteen years old, and the men from twenty to twenty-two, 2 

 the law of the old Inca empire prescribing for the former the age 

 of eighteen to twenty, and for the latter from the twenty-fourth 

 year. 3 If, despite the cold climate, the puberty of the girls 

 commences among the Mongols, Kalmucks, Samoieds, Lapps, 

 Kamtschatkals, Jakutes, Ostiaks, etc., about the twelfth or 

 thirteenth year, (it may be of interest to ascertain how this is 

 among the Magyars,) the animal diet of these peoples and 

 the heat of their huts may perhaps contribute to it, as in 

 those of the Esquimaux it is said to rise to 28 degrees, 

 whilst in the open air it sinks to 28 degrees. 4 Puberty 

 occurs rather late in the Fiji Islands, namely, in girls about the 

 fourteenth, and in boys about the seventeenth or eighteenth 

 year. 5 Uncommonly early, on the other hand, in the tempe- 

 rate region of New Zealand, where the girls frequently marry 

 when eleven years old. 6 Among the aboriginal Americans the 

 period of puberty seems, as among other races, essentially to 

 depend on climate and mode of life. This circumstance has 

 however, among others, been used to support the assertion 

 that they are a weakly race, deficient in vital power, and that 

 they would have become extinct even if the white immigrants 

 had not contributed to their destruction. 7 This renders neces- 

 sary a closer investigation of an assertion assuming such an 

 essential difference of organization between the American and 

 other races ; but in order not to interrupt our investigation too 

 much by details, we shall treat of it in an appendix to this 

 section. 



It has been statistically proved that in Europe the propor- 

 tion of male to female births is =106 : 100, and there seems in 

 all climates to prevail a similar preponderance of boys over 



1 D'Orbigny, Strangewa/s " Sketch of the Mosquito Shore/', Edin., 1822. 



2 Clavigero, " Hist, of Mex. translated by Cullen," vi, p. 38, 1787. 



3 Gurcilasso, " Hist, des Yncas," iv, c. 8, Amst., 1737. 



4 Parry " Second voy.," p. 502. 

 s Wilkes, iii, p. 93. 



6 W. Brown, " New Zealand and its aborigines," p. 38, 1845. 

 ' De Pauw, " Rech. sur les Americains," Martins and others. 



