182 



On the Statistics of Duhliun, 



to exist wherever accurate statements can be obtained. From the infor- 

 mation he collected in a very careful survey of one province, the pre- 

 ponderance seemed to be on the side of male children to an extraordina- 

 ry degree ; the male children being about 42,000, and the female 35,500, 

 i. e. 100 males to 84'52 females. He says also there were formerly great 

 drains on the male population, and which, in advanced stages oflife^ 

 might turn the balance on the other side ; indeed, in some of his returns 

 this is shown to be the case. 



In Dukhun, wherever the means have been afforded to me of ascer- 

 taining, I have found the preponderance of male over female children to 

 be marked, not only in births, bat as long as they continue to be classed 

 as children ; although a great mortality, at a subsequent period, makes 

 the grown up females outnumber the grown up males. 



Males and females — In the Poona Collectorate in 1826 the births of 

 males in 32 tuvruffs were 100 to 94-27 females, or very nearly 20 males 

 to 19 females. The result of eighteen years'. very careful observations 

 for all France, from 1817 to 1834 inclusive, gives 17 males for 16 fe- 

 males ; and as this is derived from more than seventeen and a half mil- 

 lions of births, it is worthy of every contidpnce. Taking each year of 

 the above period, the extreme variation was from 15 males to 14 females 

 as far as 19 males to 18 females. My deduction varies so little, that we 

 may fairly say the same law equally obtains, whether in a tropical or an 

 extra-tropical climate. Amongst illegitimate births in France it would 

 appear that the number of females approximates more nearly to males 

 than in the legitimate births ; the numbers, according to the French 

 tables, being 24 males to 23 females : reducing all these to a common 

 denomination, we have in the 



Poona Collectorate 94*27 per cent, of female births. 



In France, the average 



do. 



do. 



In France, legitimate 



^ 93-33 do. 



imate > ^ 



\ 94-73 do. 



^"^'^^'^ 95-83 do 



do. 



do. 



•average of 18 years, S 



do. 



It would thus appear that amongst illegitimate children there are 

 nearly two more females born to every hundred males than amongst 

 legitimate births. 



