Animals which are unable to procure abortion very often destroy their young, as I described in the second chapter of this volume. In the human race, infanticide is too common. The Greeks and Romans did not regard the newly born infants as possessing any right to live. The old Germans held themselves free to expose their infants. The Arabs, before the faith of Islam had spread to them, were in the habit of burying many female children alive. In India a similar custom is common, and in China it is notorious. According to figures collected by Eitel,[123] the Chinese of the province of Canton very often kill female children immediately after birth. “It may be said,” he wrote, “that the murder of female infants is the general rule among the Hak-lo, and especially among the Hak-ka of the agricultural classes. The Hak-ka themselves estimate the number of female children exposed as about two-thirds of those born.” In a little village in which the author lived for several years, an investigation, made with the help of some Christians, showed that without exception women who had given birth to two children had killed at least one of them. In Tahiti two-thirds of new-born children are killed, those of the female sex making up the greater part of the numbers. The first three infants and all twins are killed, and as a rule not more than two or at most three are actually reared.[124] Among the Melanesians the custom of infanticide is very common. “It must also be assumed,” said Ratzel,[125] “that in Ugi (Solomon Islands) all the infants are killed, to be replaced by the Bauros.” It is not surprising that such a widespread occurrence of artificial abortion and of infanticide among primitive races is bringing about a rapid diminution in the numbers of these, and may lead even to their extinction. This is taking place in the case of the natives of New South Wales, of New Guinea, and of the islands of Aaru. Nothing could show more plainly the feebleness of the human family instinct. In more highly civilised nations, the rude proceedings of savages have been replaced by clever devices to prevent conception, and infanticide has become rare. Artificial abortion is excited by modern methods suggested by the progress of science. The embryonic membranes are pierced not by the ribs of seals or hair-pins, but by sterilised sounds, and the operation is performed with strict asepsis. In averting the natural results of passion the woman is subjected to the smallest possible risk. It is indubitable that more than one race has perished because of its lack of the instinct of family. However, it need not be feared that the human race itself will disappear because of the failure of procreation. But it is plain that the readiness with which devices to prevent the production of children have been adopted shows the weakness of the family instinct in man, and opens up a problem to which the attention of moralists and legislators may well be directed.