[413] Thus LORD KAMES, _Sketches of the History of Man_, I, 277 ff., declares "polygyny to be an infringement of the law of nature, basing his opinion on the false assumption that, 'in all countries and at all times,' males and females are equal in number, and supporting it by the consideration that the 'God of nature has enforced conjugal society, not only by making it agreeable, but by the principle of chastity inherent in our nature.'"--WAKE, _op. cit._, 198 ff., who shows this assumption to be unfounded. [414] The facts are collected by WESTERMARCK, with elaborate reference to authorities: _op. cit._, 460-66. But such causes are by no means entirely adequate to account for the numerical inequality of the sexes. For, in the second place, statistics show a considerable disparity between them at birth. "Among some peoples more boys are born, among others more girls; and the surplus is often considerable." With the Todas, for instance, are found about 100 boys to 80 girls under fourteen years of age;[415] while in Mesopotamia, Armenia, Syria, the Arabias, the Holy Land, and in various other portions of Asia, two, three, or even four women to one man are born.[416] "In Europe, the average male births outnumber the female by about five per cent.... But the rate varies in different countries. Thus, in Russian Poland, only 101 boys are born to 100 girls; whilst, in Roumania and Greece, the proportion is 111 to 100."[417] [415] MARSHALL, _A Phrenologist amongst the Todas_, 100; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 467. [416] BRUCE, _Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile_, I, 284 ff.; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 467, 468. [417] OETTINGEN, _Moralstatistik in ihrer Bedeutung für eine Socialethik_, 55; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 469. DARWIN, _Descent of Man_, chap, viii, discusses the numerical proportion of the sexes, showing their inequality. _Cf._ PLOSS, _Das Weib_, I, 244-46, giving a table of the number of male and female births for European countries and for several of the commonwealths of the United States, the male predominating.