Mortality of Male Children . 359 
through which infants pafs is of a certain determined capa- 
city, that, were their heads equally incompreffible with thofe 
of adults, the difference of half an inch in their lize would 
often prove fatal to them. By the compreffihility of their 
heads, however, in well formed women, this difficulty is by 
time furmounted. The effects which fuch a compreffion on 
the brain may produce, have not hitherto been well attended 
to. 
In reckoning children, weighing from 5I to 6|, 6 pounds 
weight, and from 6| to 7I, 7, and fo forth, in order to avoid 
fractions, I find the numbers of males and females, arranged 
according to their weight, to ftand as follow. 
Males. Females, 
lbs. 456 7 8 9 10 1 lbs. 45 6 7 8 9 10 
N° o 3 6 32 16 2 1 I N° 2 9 14 25 8 2 o 
Hence it appears, that the majority of males runs thus t 
feven, eight, fix, five; whilft that of the females is feven, fix., 
five, eight. Hence alfo appears the merciful difpenfations of 
Providence towards the female fex ; for when deviations from 
the medium ftandard occur, it is remarkable, that they are 
much more frequently below than above this ftandard. In 
120 inftances there are only five children exceeding eight 
pounds and a half in weight. The fame may be obferved 
with regard to the fize of their heads. Only fix meafured 
above 14I inches in circumference, and thefe all of the male 
fex; five meafured 14I, and one 15. In tranfverfe dimen- 
fions only four exceeded the largeft of which was Si % 
whereas deviations under the ftandard in thefe particulars were 
very numerous, never however under 12 around and 6j acrofs. 
In 
