3T4Section III.D. C. Gini.
rendering those organisms which have survived weaker or stronger as the case
may be, so that even in after life those born in unfavourable seasons will shew
a greater mortality ?
I his, as everyone will understand, is a problem that touches not only
Eugenics, but also upon actuarial calculations. We must remember, however,
that just as in different countries the direct influence exercised by the season
of birth on mortality in the first months of life may differ, so its influence
exercised upon mortality in after life may differ.
I have caused special investigations to be made relating to the age of death
according to the month of birth, in the municipal office of statistics at Rome
and Cagliari.TABLE XVII.
Mortality according to the month of birth (Rome 1908-1910).
In every 10,000 dead the number, according to month of birth, who die at an age
exceeding x.
Month of Birth1 year5 yearsAge (x)
20 years40 years60 years
X23456
January...753453H44673543194° February76285633495838292102
March ...78235954516842032548
April...........................78545790495240382235 May782958475I5°40282216
June ..........................72805523484738562280
July .......................74365528472337252101
August...75645628492337502167 September7857S766495738952177 October76215748493538692201 November75305601479536992081
December743355ii479037082022 1
In Rome the data were worked out from the list of deaths in the City
during the three years, 1908 to 1910. The work of selection was done by the
kind permission of Comm. E. Pellissier, direttore dell' Ufficio, under the
careful direction of ’Avv. A. Mancini, superintendent of the Lavori Statistice
deV censimento. Very often the month of birth is not in the lists, either
because they refer to people who were only temporarily resident at Rome and
of whom there was no trace either in the registers of Stato Civile or in the
census records, or through lacunae in the records themselves, or through actual
deficiencies in the completed lists. It is therefore impossible to map out a
really accurate table of survival according to month of birth; but we can
determine how many of the dead whose month of birth is known were of an
age exceeding X. The results of this calculation are shown in Table XVII. We
must remember that there is no reason to suppose that the lacunae found in
the mortality lists have any relation to the month of birth, and therefore we
should expect that, if a sufficiently large number of observations had been
