THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 2S1 



When in Arabia Felix, where every fort of provifion is ex- 

 ceedingly cheap, where the fruits of the ground, the gener- 

 al food for man, are produced fpontaneoufly, the fupport- 

 ing of a number of wives colls no more than fo many 

 flaves or fervants ; their food is the fame, and a blue cotton 

 fhirt, a habit common to them all, is |not more chargeable 

 for the one than the other. The confequence is, that celi- 

 bacy in women is prevented, and the number of people is 

 increafed in a fourfold ratio by polygamy, to what it is in 

 thofe that are monogamous. 



I know there are authors fond of fyllem, enemies to 

 free inquiry, and blinded by prejudice, who contend that 

 polygamy, without diftinction of circumflances, is detri- 

 mental to the population of a country. The learned Dr 

 Arbuthnot, in a paper addrefTed to the Royal Society*, has 

 maintained this ftrange doctrine, in a llill llranger manner. 

 He lays it down, as his firft position, that in femine mafculino 

 of our firft parent Adam, there was imprelfed an original 

 neceility of procreating, ever after, an equal number of 

 males and females. The manner he proves this, has received 

 great incenfe from the vulgar, as containing un unanswer- 

 able argument. He fhews, by the calling of three dice, 

 that the chances are almoll infinite, that an equal number 

 of males and females mould not be born in any year ; and 

 he pretends to prove, that every year in twenty, as taken 

 from the bills of mortality, the fame number of males and 

 females have conllantly been produced, or at leall a greater 

 proportion of men than of women, to make up for the ha- 



Vol. I. N n vock 



* Philofopk Tranfaft. Vol. 27. p. 186. 



