in
frequency (only slightly broken in March) to a maximum in June
(oscillating between May and July, when the years are considered
separately), and then a gradual descent to a minimum in December.
Legludic gives, for the 159 cases he had investigated, a table
showing a small February-March climax, and a large June-August
maximum, the minimum being reached in November-January.
(Legludic, _Attentats aux Moeurs_, 1896, p. 16.) In Germany,
Aschaffenburg finds that sexual offences begin to increase in
March and April, reach a maximum in June or July, and fall to a
minimum in winter (_Monatsschrift fuer Psychiatrie_, 1903, Heft
2). In Italy, Penta shows that sexual offences reach a minor
climax in May (corresponding, in his experience, with the maximum
for crimes generally, as well as with the maximum for
conceptions), and a more marked climax in August-September
(Penta, _I Pervertimenti Sessuali_, 1893, p. 115; id. _Rivista
Mensile di Psichiatria_, 1899).

Corre, in his _Crime en Pays Creole_, presents charts of the
seasonal distribution of crime in Guadeloupe, with relation to
temperature, which show that while, in a mild temperature like
that of France and England, crime attains its maximum in the hot
season, it is not so in a more tropical climate; in July, when in
Guadeloupe the heat attains its maximum degree, crime of all
kinds falls suddenly to a very low minimum. Even in the United
States, where the summer heat is often excessive, it tends to
produce a diminution of crime.

Dexter, in an elaborate study of the relationship of conduct to
the weather, shows that in the United States assaults present the
maximum of frequency in April and October, with a decrease during
the summer and the winter. "The unusual and interesting fact
demonstrated here with a certainty that cannot be doubted is," he
concludes, "that the unseasonably hot days of spring and autumn
are the pugnacious ones, even though the actual heat be much less
than for summer. We might infer from this that conditions of
heat, up to a certain extent, are vitalizing, while, at the same
time, irritating, but above that limit, heat is so devitalizing
in its effects as to leave hardly energy enough to carry on a
fight." (E.G. Dexter, _Conduct and the Weather_, 1899, pp. 63 _et
seq._)

It is not impossible