Chap. VIII. 
SEXUAL SELECTION. 
301 
the mean proportion of male to female births, during 
the whole period of the above ten years, was as 102*8 
to 100 ; whilst in N. Wales (where the average annual 
births are 12,873) it was as high as 106*2 to 100- 
Taking a still smaller district, viz., Rutlandshire (where 
the animal births average only 739), in 1864 the male 
births were as 114*6, and in 1862 as 97*0 to 100; but 
even in this small district the average of the 7385 
births during the whole ten years was as 104*5 to 100; 
that is in the same ratio as throughout England. 32 
The proportions are sometimes slightly disturbed by 
unknown causes ; thus Prof. Faye states “ that in 
“ some districts of Norway there has been during a 
“ decennial period a steady deficiency of boys, whilst 
“ in others the opposite condition has existed.” In 
France during forty-four years the male to the female 
births have been as 106*2 to 100 ; but during this 
period it has occurred five times in one department,, 
and six times in another, that the female births have 
exceeded the males. In Russia the average proportion 
is as high as 108*9 to 100. 33 It is a singular fact that 
with Jews the proportion of male births is decidedly 
larger than with Christians : thus in Prussia the propor- 
tion is as 113, in Breslau as 114 , and in Livonia as 120 
to 100 ; the Christian births in these countries being 
the same as usual, for instance, in Livonia as 104 to 
100. 34 It is a still more singular fact that in different 
nations, under different conditions and climates, in 
Naples, Prussia, Westphalia, France and England, the 
32 ‘Twenty-ninth Annual Eeport of the Registrar-General for 1866/ 
In this report (p. xii) a special decennial table is given. 
33 For Norway and Russia, see abstract of Prof. Faye’s researches, 
in ‘ British and Foreign Medico- Chirurg. Review/ April, 1867, p. 343,, 
345. For France, the ‘ Annuaire pour l’An 1867/ p. 213. 
34 In regard to the Jews, see M. Thury, ‘ La Loi de Production des 
Sexes/ 1863, p. 25. 
