reproductive power is actually less in barbarous, than in civilised
races. We know nothing positively on this head, for with savages no
census has been taken; but from the concurrent testimony of
missionaries, and of others who have long resided with such people, it
appears that their families are usually small, and large ones rare.
This may be partly accounted for, as it is believed, by the women
suckling their infants during a long time; but it is highly probable
that savages, who often suffer much hardship, and who do not obtain so
much nutritious food as civilised men, would be actually less prolific.
I have shewn in a former work (58. Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication, vol ii. pp. 111-113, 163.), that all our
domesticated quadrupeds and birds, and all our cultivated plants, are
more fertile than the corresponding species in a state of nature. It is
no valid objection to this conclusion that animals suddenly supplied
with an excess of food, or when grown very fat; and that most plants on
sudden removal from very poor to very rich soil, are rendered more or
less sterile. We might, therefore, expect that civilised men, who in
one sense are highly domesticated, would be more prolific than wild
men. It is also probable that the increased fertility of civilised
nations would become, as with our domestic animals, an inherited
character: it is at least known that with mankind a tendency to produce
twins runs in families. (59. Mr. Sedgwick, British and Foreign
Medico-Chirurgical Review, July 1863, p. 170.)
Notwithstanding that savages appear to be less prolific than civilised
people, they would no doubt rapidly increase if their numbers were not
by some means rigidly kept down. The Santali, or hill-tribes of India,
have recently afforded a good illustration of this fact; for, as shewn
by Mr. Hunter (60. The Annals of Rural Bengal, by W.W. Hunter, 1868,
p. 259.), they have increased at an extraordinary rate since
vaccination has been introduced, other pestilences mitigated, and war
sternly repressed. This increase, however, would not have been possible
had not these rude people spread into the adjoining districts, and
worked for hire. Savages almost always marry; yet there is some
prudential restraint, for they do not commonly marry at the earliest
possible age. The young men are often required to shew that they can
support a wife; and they generally have first to earn the price with
which to purchase her from her parents. With savages the difficulty of
obtaining subsistence occasionally limits their number in a much more
direct manner than with civilised people, for all tribes periodically
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