women. In California they are as three to one; in Nevada as eight to
one; in Colorado, twenty to one. In the State of Illinois there were,
according to a recent United States census, ninety-three thousand more
men than women. In Massachusetts, on the contrary, there are between
fifty and sixty thousand more women than men.

The disproportion of men to women in new countries is due to the
disinclination of women to emigrate. They are also unfitted for the
hardships of pioneer life.

How is this general preponderance in the number of women produced? Is it
because there are more girls born than boys? Not at all. The statistics
of over fifty-eight millions of persons show that there are one hundred
and six living boys born to every one hundred girls. In the state of
Rhode Island, for instance, the proportion for three years, from 1853 to
1855, was one thousand and sixty-four boys born to one thousand girls.
But now we meet with the wonderful arrangement of nature, that a larger
proportional number of male infants die during the first year of their
lives than of females. In the second year, the mortality, though less
excessive, still remains far greater on the male side. It subsequently
decreases, and at the age of four or five years is nearly equal for both
sexes. In after life, from the age of fifteen to forty, the mortality is
something greater among women, but not sufficiently so to make the
number of the two sexes equal. The greater tendency of male offspring to
die early is seen even before birth, for more male children are
still-born than female,--namely, as three to two. For this reason, the
term 'the stronger sex,' applied to men, has been regarded by some
authors as a misnomer. They are physically weaker in early life, and
succumb more readily to noxious influences.

Having thus pointed out that there are more women actually living in the
world than men, although a larger number of boys are born than girls, we
will consider for a moment some of the laws of nature which determine
the number of the sexes. Without giving the figures,--which would make
dry reading,--we will state in brief the conclusions derived from many
observations, extending over many years and many nationalities. The
relative age of the parents has an especial influence upon the sex of
the children. Seniority on the father's side gives excess of male
offspring. Equality in the parents' age gives a slight preponderance of
female offspring. Seni