D. C. Gini.Sociology and Eugenics.301
TABLE IV.
Numbers of Births according to months
Daily mean of births in each month having made the average
Month ofdaily mean for the whole year= 1000Month of
birth inbirth in
District of ColumbiaIsland of MauritiusJapan
Northern1908-9091903-9051899-903Southern
HemisphereWhiteColouredEuropeanIndianThe wholeIsleHemisphere
PopulationPopulationPopulationPopulationStateof Yeso
12345678
January ...10341020 ~\12841179July
February...104.61260Y 997965 -i12181141August
Marchmo1066 )1 12131171September
April884794r i°3ilogiOctober
May900831r 104gIIOO -865959November
Tune1016102gI 748911December
JulyIOOI1039( 822845January
August ...IO 121023¡- 975101S -{ 843856February
September10231037L 975987March
October ...990903 'Ir 961951April
November9831002\ 977919 -1033IOIOMay
December9961005 J 1L 1018912June
*Data worked out by the author from original figures of official statistics.
in Europe. We can therefore say that the idea of a natural maximum of
conceptions during spring, as opposed to a natural depression during other
seasons, cannot be upheld in view of the more extensive mateiials which the
study of statistics can give us to-day.
7. We may say that difference of race has no decisive influence in some
countries at any rate. The whites and blacks of the districts of Columbia;
the descendants of the French and the Indian emigrants in the Isle of
Mauritius; the Japanese and the inhabitants of the island of Yeso, who are
more or less pure descendants of the primitive Ainus—none of them
exhibit any essential difference in the monthly periodicity of births. (See
Table IV.). The Indians of Mauritius, so far as can be judged from quarterly
data, more especially resemble, if we consider this characteristic, the European
descendants of the same island than the populations of their Mother Country.
(See Table III. data for Madras, Bombay and Bengal).
That climate should have some sort of influence seems very probable. In
fact, in the most northern countries of Europe the maximum of births, instead
of stopping in April or May, often goes on till June and July (Ireland, England,
Wales, Norway and Finland) and a similar phenomenon appears in mountainous
Switzerland (see Table II). In the hotter countries, as Madras, Bombay,
Bengal, and in Mexico, the maximum of conceptions coincides substantially
with the coldest season. If in the cold countries we consider the most northerly
regions, we find sometimes, for instance in the districts of Tromsoe and
