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, and in Philadelphia in the
United States as 110.5 to 100. (49. For Norway and Russia, see abstract
of Prof. Faye s researches, in British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg.
Review, April 1867, pp. 343, 345. For France, the Annuaire pour l An
1867, p. 213. For Philadelphia, Dr. Stockton Hough, Social Science
Assoc. 1874. For the Cape of Good Hope, Quetelet as quoted by Dr. H.H.
Zouteveen, in the Dutch Translation of this work (vol. i. p. 417),
where much information is given on the proportion of the sexes.) The
average for Europe, deduced by Bickes from about seventy million
births, is 106 males to 100 females. On the other hand, with white
children born at the Cape of Good Hope, the proportion of males is so
low as to fluctuate during successive years between 90 and 99 males for
every 100 females. It is a singular fact that with Jews the proportion
of male births is decidedly larger than with Christians: thus in
Prussia the proportion 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. (50. In regard to the
Jews, see M. Thury, La Loi de Production des Sexes, 1863, p. 25.)
Prof. Faye remarks that a still greater preponderance of males would
be met with, if death struck both sexes in equal proportion in the womb
and during birth. But the fact is, that for every 100 still-born
females, we have in several countries from 134.6 to 144.9 still-born
males. During the first four or five years of life, also, more male
children die than females, for example in England, during the first
year, 126 boys die for every 100 girls a proportion which in France is
still more unfavourable. (51. British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg.
Review, April 1867, p. 343. Dr. Stark also remarks ( Tenth Annual
Report of Births, Deaths, etc., in Scotland, 1867, p. xxviii.) that
These examples may suffice to show that, at almost every stage of
life, the males in Scotland have a greater liability to death and a
higher death-rate than the females. The fact, however, of this
peculiarity being most strongly developed at that infantile period of
life when the dress, food, and general treatment of both sexes are
269