SECT. II.] BIETHS. Ill 



girls, excepting under particular circumstances. Hofacker 1 

 ascribes it to the preponderating influence of the male, who in 

 Europe is, on the average, five to six years older than the 

 female. It is also said that the number of male births increases 

 with the advancing ages of both parents. A regular prepon- 

 derance of female births, which Quetelet 2 quotes of the white 

 population in the Cape of Good Hope, is rare. Nothing of the 

 kind exists among the same stock in Europe, a fact which 

 proves that such proportions are not fixed peculiarities, but 

 depend on particular local influences. 



Among the Indians in Central America male and female 

 births nearly balance each other, but among the Whites and 

 Mulattoes of these parts, among the Ladinos, the former are 

 exceeded by the latter in the proportion of 2:3, or at least 

 of 4 : 5. 3 In Yucatan the proportion of women to men is, 

 according to some authors, =2 : 1 ; 4 in Cochabamba, in South 

 America, the number of women to that of men is said to 

 reach the incredible proportion of 5 : 1 . 5 In Granada, the 

 capital of Nicaragua, even the casual observer is struck with 

 the numerical preponderance of the females over the males. 6 

 The same proportion, though in a lesser degree, is found in 

 Goyaz, a city in Brazil, 7 and is said to prevail throughout 

 Venezuela, and particularly in Cumena, where, it is asserted, 

 there are seven females to one male. 8 The preponderance of 

 the female population of Buenos Ayres, as asserted by some 

 authors, is, according to Caldcleugh, 9 unfounded. Elsewhere 

 it is asserted, that in Buenos Ayres the male births outnumber 

 the female births by twenty-three per cent., which seems 

 equally erroneous. Immigration only appears to cause in that 



1 " Ueber die Eigensch. welch, s. b. Menschen und Thieren vererben." 



2 " Ueber den Menschen," German by Eieke, 1838 ; " Journal Asiat.," Jul., 

 1826 ; and Sadler, " The law of population/' ii, 371. 



3 Galindo, " Journal E. Geogr. Soc.," vi., p. 126. 



* Stephens, " Begebenh. auf. e. E. en Yucatan," p. 171, 1853. 



5 " Bullet, soc. geogr.," i, 209, 1855. 



6 Eeichardt, " Nicarag.," p. 88, 1854. 



7 Castelnau, " Exped. dans 1' Am. du Sud," i, 328, 1850. 



8 Otto, " Eeiserrinnerungen in Cuba," p. 237, 1843. 



9 " Travels in S. Am./' London, i, p. 184, 1825. 



