y go, support it, and Perry-Coste's
long-continued observations of pulse-frequency seem to show with fair
regularity a maximum in early spring and another maximum in late
autumn.[174] I may also note that Haig, who has devoted many years of
observations to the phenomena of uric-acid excretion, finds that uric acid
tends to be highest in the spring months, (March, April, May) and lowest
at the first onset of cold in October.[175]

Thus, while the sexual climaxes of spring and autumn are rooted in animal
procreative cycles which in man have found expression in primitive
festivals--these, again, perhaps, strengthening and developing the sexual
rhythm--they yet have a wider significance. They constitute one among many
manifestations of spring and autumn physiological disturbance
corresponding with fair precision to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
They resemble those periods of atmospheric tension, of storm and wind,
which accompany the spring and autumn phases in the earth's rhythm, and
they may fairly be regarded as ultimately a physiological reaction to
those cosmic influences.

FOOTNOTES:

[128] F. Smith, _Veterinary Physiology_; Dalziel, _The Collie_.

[129] Mondiere, Art "Cambodgiens," _Dictionnaire des Sciences
Anthropologiques_.

[130] This primitive aspect of the festival is well shown by the human
sacrifices which the ancient Mexicans offered at this time, in order to
enable the sun to recuperate his strength. The custom survives in a
symbolical form among the Mokis, who observe the festivals of the winter
solstice and the vernal equinox. ("Aspects of Sun-worship among the Moki
Indians," _Nature_, July 28, 1898.) The Walpi, a Tusayan people, hold a
similar great sun-festival at the winter solstice, and December is with
them a sacred month, in which there is no work and little play. This
festival, in which there is a dance dramatizing the fructification of the
earth and the imparting of virility to the seeds of corn, is fully
described by J. Walter Fewkes (_American Anthropologist_, March, 1898).
That these solemn annual dances and festivals of North America frequently
merge into "a lecherous _saturnalia_" when "all is joy and happiness," is
stated by H.H. Bancroft (_Native Races of Pacific States_, vol. i, p.
352).

[131] As regards the northern tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and
Gillen state that, during the performance of certain ceremonies which
bring together a large number of natives from dif