A. O. POWYS 
33 
number of ante-nuptial conceptions in the case of the younger brides which have 
been excluded, or from the difficulty we have referi-ed to about finding the true 
value of the moments in such large groupings. 
But the problem deserves further consideration. We are accustomed to con- 
sider that sexual ripeness is accelerated in warmer climates. Does this mean that 
the age of initial fertility is lowered or that the age of maximum fertility is 
lowered ? The one is not unlikely to be confused with the other, if an appeal be 
made to 'general' observation, and not as in this case to actual statistics. 
Table III. gives the like results for first births of the wives in the case of 
husbands based on the Victorian experience for 1897. 
Biometrika i 
3 
