238 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



countries being the same as usual, for instance, in Livonia as 104 

 to 100.=° 



Prof. Paye remarlts that "a still greater preponderance of males 

 "would be met with, if death struck both sexes in equal pro- 

 "portion in the womb and during birth. But the fact is, that for 

 "every 100 still-born females, we have in several countries from 

 "134.6 to 144.9 still-born males. During the first four or five years 

 "of life, also, more male children die than females; for example 

 "in England, during the first year, 126 boys die for every 100 

 "girls — a proportion which in France is still more unfavorable."" 

 Dr. Stockton-Hough accounts for these facts in part by the more 

 frequent defective development of males than of females. We 

 have before seen that the male sex is more variable in structure 

 than the female; and variations in important organs would gen- 

 erally be injurious. But the size of the body, and especially of the 

 head, being greater in male than female infants is another cause; 

 for the males are thus more liable to be injured during parturition. 

 Consequently the still-born males are more numerous; and, as a 

 highly competent judge. Dr. Criohton Browne,"'^ believes, male in- 

 fants often suffer in health for some years after birth. Owing to 

 this excess in the death-rate of male children, both at birth and 

 for some time subsequently, and owing to the exposure of grown 

 men to various dangers, and to their tendency to emigrate, the 

 females in all old-settled countries, where statistical records have 

 been kept,"'' are found to preponderate considerably over the males. 



It seems at first sight a mysterious fact that in different na- 

 tions, under different conditions and climates, in Naples, Prussia, 

 Westphalia, Holland, France, England and the United States, the 



™ In regard to the Jews, see M. Thury, 'La, Loi de Production des 

 Sexes,' 1863, p. 25. 



=' 'British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg. Review,' April, 1867, p. 343. 

 Dr. Starli also remarks ('Tenth Annual Report of Births, Deaths, 

 &c., in Scotland,' 1867, p. xxviii.) that "These examples mar suffice 

 "to show that, at almost every stage of life, the males in (Scotland 

 "have a greater liability to death and a higher death-rate than the 

 "females. The fact, however, of this peculiarity being most strongly 

 "developed at that infantile period of life when the dress, food, and 

 "general treatment of both sexes are alike, seems to prove that the 

 "higher male death-rate is an impressed, natural, and constitutional 

 "peculiarity due to sex alone." 



52 'West Riding Lunatic Asylum Reports," vol. i, 1871, p. 8. Sir J. 

 Simpson has proved that the head of the male infant exceeds that 

 of the female by 3-8ths of an inch in circumference, and by 1-Sth in 

 transverse diameter. Quetelet has shown that woman is born sms-Iler 

 than man; see Dr. Duncan, 'Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility,' 1871, p. S82. 



"' With the savage Guaranys of Paraguay, according to the accu- 

 rate Azara ('Voyages dans I'Amerique merid.' torn. ii. 1809, p. 60, 179), 

 the women are to the men in the proportion of 14 to 13. 



