[158] Westermarck has even suggested that the December maximum of conceptions may be due to better chance of survival for September offspring (_Human Marriage_, Chapter II). It may be noted that though the maximum of conceptions is in May, relatively the smallest proportion of boys is conceived at that time. (Rauber, _Der Ueberschuss an Knabengeburten_, p. 39.) [159] Krieger found that the great majority of German women investigated by him menstruated for the first time in September, October, or November. In America, Bowditch states that the first menstruation of country girls more often occurs in spring than at any other season. [160] _Women's Medical Journal_, 1894. [161] It is, perhaps, worth while noting that the wisdom of the mediæval Church found an outlet for this "spring fever" in pilgrimages to remote shrines. As Chaucer wrote, in the _Canterbury Tales_:-- "Whané that Aprille with his showers sote The droughts of March hath piercèd to the root, Thaen longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeken strangé stronds." [162] L.W. Kline, "The Migratory Impulse," _American Journal of Psychology_, 1898, vol. x, especially pp. 21-24. [163] Mania comes to a crisis in spring, said the old physician, Aretæus (Bk. 1, Ch. V). [164] This is, at all events, the case in France, Prussia, and Italy. See, for instance, Durkheim's discussion of the cosmic factors of suicide, _Le Suicide_, 1897, Chapter III. In Spain, as Bernaldo de Quirós shows (_Criminologia_, p. 69), there is a slight irregular rise in December, but otherwise the curve is perfectly regular, with maximum in June, and minimum in January. [165] This holds good of a south European country, taken separately. A chart of the annual incidence of suicide by hanging, in Roumania, presented by Minovici (_Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, 1905, p. 587), shows climaxes of equal height in May and September. [166] Morselli, _Suicide_, pp. 55-72. [167] Ogle himself was inclined to think that these breaks were accidental, being unaware of the allied phenomena with which they may be brought into line. It is true that (as Gaedeken objects to me) the autumnal break is very slight, but it is probably real when we are dealing with so large a mass of data. [168] _Pedagogical Seminary_, June, 1891, p. 298. For a very full summary and bibliography of investigations regarding growth, see F. Burk, "Growth of Children in Height and Weight," _American Journal of Psychology_, April, 1898. [169] _L'Année Psychologique_, 1898. [170] _Lancet_, June 6, 1891. Edward Smith had pointed out many years earlier that scarlet fever is most fatal in periods of increasing vitality. [171] Havelock Ellis, "The Bladder as a Dynamometer," _American Journal of Dermatology_, May, 1902. [172] See, e.g., summary in _Internationales Centrablatt für Anthropologie_, 1902, Heft 4, p. 207. [173] Summarized in _Zeitschrift für Psychologie der Sinnesorgane_, 1903, p. 135.