LAWS OF THE FERTILITY OF WOMEN. 299 



The first conclusions deducible from the data are : — 



1. That the mass of early or first children, up to the third or fourth, come into 

 the world in more quick succession than those that immediately follow. 



2. That a mass of children, numbering from the fourth or fifth on to the 

 tenth, succeed one another more slowly than those of the first category, and of 

 the third. 



3. That a mass of children, following the tenth, come into the world hurrying 

 after one another with a gradually increasing rapidity, which excels that of all 

 their predecessors (a circumstance which may, in part at least, account for the 

 great mortality of women bearing children after the ninth.)* 



While all these propositions are true of a large number of children, it must 

 not be supposed that they directly indicate laws regulating the fertility of women. 

 But the Table bears important information relative to this last topic. And 

 it appears to me that the first of the three conclusions given above can be 

 explained only by supposing what may therefore be held as equally well demon- 

 strated : — 



1. That wives bearing their early children up to the third or fourth, breed 

 more rapidly than they subsequently do. 



For the average fertility of all wives is at least 4 children ; and the great mass 

 of fertile wives is therefore included in the calculation. All the wives destined to 

 bear large families, and furnish data for the second and third conclusions, are in- 

 cluded in the data for first 4 children. The mass of children born in families num- 

 bering 10 and more, is not large enough to have great influence on the data, should 

 it be the case that they are proportionately very quick breeders from the first. 



If we now regard the mothers whose children have afforded the data for the 

 second conclusion as to the rapidity of the succession of a mass of children, we 

 shall have, I think, no difficulty in accepting the proposition, — 



2. That wives produce their children, numbering from the third or fourth on 

 to the tenth, at greater intervals than their earlier progeny. 



For, in the calculations, the earlier and more rapidly succeeding progeny are 

 included, and have their full influence, and diminish the periods given in the Table 

 opposite children numbering from 4 to 10, reducing them below what they would 

 be were pregnancies from 4 to 10 alone counted, exclusive of those from 1 to 4. 



Regarding, now, the mothers of families numbering 11 or more, it is evident 

 that their paucity, though not such as to destroy all their value, is such as to 

 prevent their having a paramount influence upon the figures of the two preceding 

 categories. It might therefore appear necessary to leave undecided whether 

 their specially rapid bearing were a consequence of their great fertility, and there- 

 fore an acquired or secondary rapidity, or were an original condition true of even 



* Edinburgh Medical Journal, September 1865, p. 209. 

 VOL. XXIV. PART II. 4 M 



