112 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



region a preponderance of males. 1 According to Castelnau, 2 

 the males preponderate among the Whites, the reverse being 

 the case among the Indians, Mulattoes and Creole Negroes. 

 With regard to Mexico, Franz Mayer 3 states, from recent 

 official sources, that more girls than boys are born in Vera 

 Cruz, Oajaca, Puebla, Mechoacan, Guanajuato, Jalisco, the pre- 

 ponderance diminishing gradually in the order cited. On the 

 other hand, there are more boys than girls born in Upper Cali- 

 fornia, New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, Cohahuila, New Leon. 

 Hence he lays it down as a general proposition, that away from 

 the equator the preponderance of girls gradually declines, and 

 altogether ceases further North, when there is a turn in the 

 contrary direction. Tamaulipas specially exhibits a constant 

 preponderance of male births. In Africa, on the Gold Coast, 

 the females preponderate only on the coasts, not in the in- 

 terior. 4 There are also numerous instances to the contrary. 



The excess of males over females occurs more frequently than 

 the reverse. Among the Jews in Berlin the proportion of 

 female to male births is = 100 : 208 ; among the Jews in 

 Livorno =100 : 120; and in the Prussian dominions generally 

 =100 : 111. 5 A similar striking excess of male births, =4 : 3, 

 occurs in New Russia, in the governments, Jekaterinoslanw, 

 Cherson, Bessarabia, and Tabriz. 6 In Galega, north-east of 

 Madagascar, the French Government has authorized polyandry 

 among the Negroes, the number of male births being too 

 large. 7 In Tahiti there is equally a preponderance of males. 8 

 In Upper California a much less number of girls is born than 

 boys, or the mortality must be greater among the former than 

 amongst the latter. This preponderating number of males has 

 for its consequence the decrease of the population, with the 

 exception of the Mission San Luis-Eey. 9 The same cause has 



1 " Zeitsch. f. allg. erdk. n. folge," iv, p. 143. 



2 Loc. cit., i, 138. 



3 " Mexico," ii, p. 46, Hartford, 1853. 



4 Wilson, " Western Afr." p. 181, Lond., 1856. 



5 Burdach, " Physiol.," i, p. 532 ; Hoffman in Quetelet, p. 56. 



6 Fechner's " Centralbl.," p. 368, 1853. 



7 Laplace, " Voy. aut. du monde," ii, 119, 1833. 



8 " Journal K. Geogr. Soc.," iii, p. 174. 



9 Coulter, in "Journal E. Geogr. Soc.," v, p. 67. 



