Woman under socialism Part 12

Cast in the mold of the conditions above described, many a feature of woman's character took shape, and they reached ever fuller development from generation to generation. On these features men love to dwell with predilection, but they forget that they are themselves the cause thereof, and have promoted with their conduct the defects they now make merry about, or censure. Among these widely censured female qualities, belong her dreaded readiness of tongue, and pa.s.sion for gossip; her inclination to endless talk over trifles and unimportant things; her mental bent for purely external matters, such as dress, and her desire to please, together with a resulting p.r.o.neness to all the follies of fashion; lastly, her easily arousable envy and jealousy of the other members of her s.e.x.

These qualities, though in different degrees, manifest themselves generally in the female s.e.x from early childhood. They are qualities that are born under the pressure of social conditions, and are further developed by heredity, example and education. A being irrationally brought up, can not bring up others rationally.

In order to be clear on the causes and development of good or bad qualities, whether with the s.e.xes or with whole peoples, the same methods must be pursued that modern natural science applies in order to ascertain the formation and development of life according to genus and species, and to determine their qualities. They are the laws that flow from the material conditions for life, laws that life demands, that adapt themselves to it, and finally became its nature.

Man forms no exception to that which holds good in Nature for all animate creation. Man does not stand outside of Nature: looked at physiologically, he is the most highly developed animal,--a fact, however, that some would deny. Thousands of years ago, although wholly ignorant of modern science, the ancients had on many matters affecting man, more rational views than the moderns; above all, they gave practical application to the views founded on experience. We praise with enthusiastic admiration the beauty and strength of the men and women of Greece; but the fact is overlooked that, not the happy climate, nor the bewitching nature of a territory that stretched along the bay-indented sea, but the physical culture and maxims of education, consistently enforced by the State, thus affected both the being and the development of the population. These measures were calculated to combine beauty, strength and suppleness of body with wit and elasticity of mind, both of which were transmitted to the descendants. True enough, even then, in comparison with man, woman was neglected in point of mental, but not of corporal culture.[86] In Sparta, that went furthest in the corporal culture of the two s.e.xes, boys and girls went naked until the age of p.u.b.erty, and partic.i.p.ated in common in the exercises of the body, in games and in wrestling. The naked exposure of the human body, together with the natural treatment of natural things, had the advantage that sensuous excitement--to-day artificially cultivated by the separation of the s.e.xes from early childhood--was then prevented. The corporal make-up of one s.e.x, together with its distinctive organs, was no secret to the other. There, no play of equivocal words could arise. Nature was Nature.

The one s.e.x rejoiced at the beauty of the other. Mankind will have to return to Nature and to the natural intercourse of the s.e.xes; it must cast off the now-ruling and unhealthy spiritual notions concerning man; it must do that by setting up methods of education that fit in with our own state of culture, and that may bring on the physical and mental regeneration of the race.

Among us, and especially on the subject of female education, seriously erroneous conceptions are still prevalent. That woman also should have strength, courage and resolution, is considered heretical, "unwomanly,"

although none would dare deny that, equipped with such qualities, woman could protect herself against many ills and inconveniences. Conversely, woman is cramped in her physical, exactly as in her intellectual development. The irrationalness of her dress plays an important _role_ herein. It not only, unconscionably hampers her in her physique, it directly ruins her;--and yet, but few physicians dare take a stand against the abuse, accurately informed though they are on the injuriousness of her dress. The fear of displeasing the patient often causes them to hold their tongues, if they do not even flatter her insane notions. Modern dress hinders woman in the free use of her limbs, it injures her physical growth, and awakens in her a sense of impotence and weakness. Moreover, modern dress is a positive danger to her own and the health of those who surround her: in the house and on the street, woman is a walking raiser of dust. And likewise is the development of woman hampered by the strict separation of the s.e.xes, both in social intercourse and at school--a method of education wholly in keeping with the spiritual ideas that Christianity has deeply implanted in us on all matters that regard the nature of man.

The woman who does not reach the development of her faculties, who is crippled in her powers, who is held imprisoned in the narrowest circle of thought, and who comes into contact with hardly any but her own female relatives,--such a woman can not possibly raise herself above the routine of daily life and habits. Her intellectual horizon revolves only around the happenings in her own immediate surroundings, family affairs and what thereby hangs. Extensive conversations on utter trifles, the bent for gossip, are promoted with all might; of course her latent intellectual qualities strain after activity and exercise;--whereupon the husband, often involved thereby in trouble, and driven to desperation, utters imprecations upon qualities that he, the "chief of creation," has mainly upon his own conscience.

With woman--whose face all our social and s.e.xual relations turn toward marriage with every fibre of her being--marriage and matrimonial matters const.i.tute, quite naturally, a leading portion of her conversation and aspirations. Moreover, to the physically weaker woman, subjected as she is to man by custom and laws, the tongue is her princ.i.p.al weapon against him, and, as a matter of course, she makes use thereof. Similarly with regard to her severely censured pa.s.sion for dress and desire to please, which reach their frightful acme in the insanities of fashion, and often throw fathers and husbands into great straits and embarra.s.sments. The explanation lies at hand. To man, woman is, first of all, an object of enjoyment. Economically and socially unfree, she is bound to see in marriage her means of support; accordingly, she depends upon man and becomes a piece of property to him. As a rule, her position is rendered still more unfavorable through the general excess of women over men,--a subject that will be treated more closely. The disparity intensifies the compet.i.tion of women among themselves; and it is sharpened still more because, for a great variety of reasons, a number of men do not marry at all. Woman is, accordingly, forced to enter into compet.i.tion for a husband with the members of her own s.e.x, by means of the most favorable external presentation of her person possible.

Let the long duration, through many generations, of these evils be taken into account. The wonder will cease that these manifestations, sprung from equally lasting causes, have reached their present extreme form.

Furthermore, perhaps in no age was the compet.i.tion of women for husbands as sharp as it is in this, due partly to reasons already given, and partly to others yet to be discussed. Finally, the difficulties of obtaining a competent livelihood, as well as the demands made by society, combine, more than ever before, to turn woman's face towards matrimony as an "inst.i.tute for support."

Men gladly accept such a state of things: they are its beneficiaries. It flatters their pride, their vanity, their interest to play the _role_ of the stronger and the master; and, like all other rulers, they are, in their _role_ of masters, difficult to reach by reason. It is, therefore, all the more in the interest of woman to warm towards the establishment of conditions that shall free her from so unworthy a position. Women should expect as little help from the men as workingmen do from the capitalist cla.s.s.

Observe the characteristics, developed in the struggle for the coveted place, on other fields, on the industrial field, for instance, so soon as the capitalists face each other. What despicable, even scampish, means of warfare are not resorted to! What hatred, envy and pa.s.sion for calumny are not awakened!--observe that, and the explanation stands out why similar features turn up in the compet.i.tion of women for a husband.

Hence it happens that women, on the average, do not get along among themselves as well as men; that even the best female friends lightly fall out, if the question is their standing in a man's eye, or pleasingness of appearance. Hence also the observation that wherever women meet, be they ever such utter strangers, they usually look at one another as enemies. With one look they make the mutual discovery of ill-matched colors, or wrongly-pinned bows, or any other similar cardinal sin. In the look that they greet each other with, the judgment can be readily read that each has pa.s.sed upon the other. It is as if each wished to inform the other: "I know better than you how to dress, and draw attention upon myself."

On the other hand, woman is by nature more impulsive than man; she reflects less than he; she has more abnegation, is naiver, and hence is governed by stronger pa.s.sions, as revealed by the truly heroic self-sacrifice with which she protects her child, or cares for relatives, and nurses them in sickness. In the fury, however, this pa.s.sionateness finds its ugly expression. But the good as well as the bad sides, with man as well as woman, are influenced, first of all, by their social position; favored, or checked, or transfigured. The same impulse, that, under unfavorable circ.u.mstances, appears as a blemish, is, under favorable circ.u.mstances, a source of happiness for oneself and others. Fourier has the credit of having brilliantly demonstrated how the identical impulses of man produce, under different conditions, wholly opposite results.

Running parallel with the effects of mistaken education, are the no less serious effects of mistaken or imperfect physical culture upon the purpose of Nature. All physicians are agreed that the preparation of woman for her calling as mother and rearer of children leaves almost everything to be wished. "Man exercises the soldier in the use of his weapons, and the artisan in the handling of his tools; every office requires special studies; even the monk has his novitiate. Woman alone is not trained for her serious duties of mother."[87] Nine-tenths of the maidens who marry enter matrimony with almost utter ignorance about motherhood and the duties of wedlock. The inexcusable shyness, even on the part of mothers, to speak with a grown-up daughter of such important s.e.xual duties, leaves the latter in the greatest darkness touching her duties towards herself and her future husband. With her entrance upon married life, woman enters a territory that is wholly strange to her.

She has drawn to herself a fancy-picture thereof--generally from novels that are not particularly to be commended--that does not accord with reality.[88] Her defective household knowledge, that, as things are to-day, is inevitable, even though many a function, formerly naturally belonging to the wife, has been removed from her, also furnishes many a cause for friction. Some know nothing whatever of household matters: They consider themselves too good to bother about them, and look upon them as matters that concern the servant girl; numerous others, from the ranks of the ma.s.ses, are prevented, by the struggle for existence, from cultivating themselves for their calling as householders: they must be in the factory and at work early and late. It is becoming evident that, due to the development of social conditions, the separate household system is losing ground every day; and that it can be kept up only at the sacrifice of money and time, neither of which the great majority is able to expend.

Yet another cause that destroys the object of marriage to not a few men is to be found in the physical debility of many women. Our food, housing, methods of work and support, in short, our whole form of life, affects us in more ways than one rather harmfully than otherwise. We can speak with perfect right of a "nervous age." Now, then, this nervousness goes hand in hand with physical degeneration. Anaemia and nervousness are spread to an enormous degree among the female s.e.x: They are a.s.suming the aspect of a social calamity, that, if it continue a few generations longer, as at present, and we fail to place our social organization on a normal footing, is urging the race towards its destruction.[89]

With an eye to its s.e.xual mission, the female organism requires particular care,--good food, and, at certain periods, the requisite rest. Both of these are lacking to the great majority of the female s.e.x, at least in the cities and industrial neighborhoods, nor are they to be had under modern industrial conditions. Moreover, woman has so habituated herself to privation that, for instance, numberless women hold it a conjugal duty to keep the tid-bits for the man, and satisfy themselves with insufficient nourishment. Likewise are boys frequently given the preference over girls in matters of food. The opinion is general that woman can accommodate herself, not with less food only, but also with food of poorer quality. Hence the sad picture that our female youth, in particular, presents to the eyes of the expert. A large portion of our young women are bodily weak, anaemic, hypernervous. The consequences are difficulties in menstruation, and disease of the organs connected with the s.e.xual purpose, the disease often a.s.suming the magnitude of incapacity to give birth and to nurse the child, even of danger to life itself. "Should this degeneration of our women continue to increase in the same measure as before, the time may not be far away when it will become doubtful whether man is to be counted among the mammals or not."[90] Instead of a healthy, joyful companion, of a capable mother, of a wife attentive to her household duties, the husband has on his hands a sick, nervous wife, whose house the physician never quits, who can stand no draught, and can not bear the least noise. We shall not expatiate further on this subject. Every reader--and as often as in this book we speak of "reader," we mean, of course, the female as well as the male--can himself further fill the picture: he has ill.u.s.trations enough among his own relatives and acquaintances.

Experienced physicians maintain that the larger part of married women, in the cities especially, are in a more or less abnormal condition.

According to the degree of the evil and the character of the couple, such unions can not choose but be unhappy, and, they give the husband the right, in public opinion, to allow himself freedoms outside of the marriage bed, the knowledge of which throws the wife into the most wretched of moods. Furthermore the, at times, very different s.e.xual demands of one party or the other give occasion to serious friction, without the so much wished-for separation being possible. A great variety of considerations render that, in most cases, out of all question.

Under this head the fact may not be suppressed that a _considerable number of husbands are themselves responsible for certain serious physical ailments of their wives, ailments that these are not infrequently smitten with in marriage_. As consequences of the excesses indulged in during bachelorship, a considerable number of men suffer of chronic s.e.xual diseases, which, seeing these cause them no serious inconvenience, are taken lightly. Nevertheless, through s.e.xual intercourse with the wife, these diseases bring upon her disagreeable, even fatal troubles of the womb, that set in, soon after marriage, and often develop to the point of rendering her unable to conceive or to give birth. The wretched woman usually has no idea of the cause of the sickness, that depresses her spirits, embitters her life, and uproots the purpose of marriage. She blames herself, and accepts blame for a condition, that the other party is alone responsible for. Thus many a blooming wife falls, barely married, a prey to chronic malady, unaccountable to either herself or her family.

"As recent investigations have proved, this circ.u.mstance--that, as a result of gonorrhea, the male sperm no longer contains any seed-cells, and the man is, consequently, incapacitated for life from begetting children--_is a comparatively frequent cause of matrimonial barrenness, in contradiction to the old and convenient tradition of the lords of creation, who are ever ready to shift to the shoulder of the wife the responsibility for the absence of the blessing of children_."[91]

Accordingly, a large number of causes are operative in preventing modern married life, in the large majority of instances, from being that which it should be:--a union of two beings of opposite s.e.xes, who, out of mutual love and esteem, wish to belong to each other, and, in the striking sentence of Kant, mean, jointly, to const.i.tute the complete human being. It is, therefore, a suggestion of doubtful value--made even by learned folks, who imagine thereby to dispose of woman's endeavors after emanc.i.p.ation--that she look to domestic duties, to marriage,--to marriage, that our economic conditions are ever turning into a viler caricature, and that answers its purpose ever less!

The advice to woman that she seek her salvation in marriage, this being her real calling,--an advice that is thoughtlessly applauded by the majority of men--sounds like the merest mockery, when both the advisers and their _claqueurs_ do the opposite. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, has of woman only the conception of the philistine. He says: "Woman is not meant for much work. Her characteristicon is not action but _suffering_. She pays the debt of life with the pains of travail, anxiety for the child, _subjection to man_. The strongest utterances of life and sentiment are denied her. Her life is meant to be quieter and less important than man's. Woman is destined for nurse and educator of infancy, _being herself infant-like, and an infant for life_, a sort of intermediate stage between the child and the man, _who is the real being_.... Girls should be trained for domesticity and _subjection....

Women are the most thorough-paced and incurable Philistines._"

In the same spirit as Schopenhauer, who, of course, is greatly quoted, is cast Lombroso and Ferrerro's work, "Woman as a Criminal and a Prost.i.tute." We know no scientific work of equal size--it contains 590 pages--with such a dearth of valid evidence on the theme therein treated. The statistical matter, from which the bold conclusions are drawn, is mostly meager. Often a dozen instances suffice the joint authors to draw the weightiest deductions. The matter that may be considered the most valuable in the work is, typically enough, furnished by a woman,--Dr. Tarnowskaja. The influence of social conditions, of cultural development, is left almost wholly on one side. Everything is judged exclusively from the physiologico-psychologic view-point, while a large quant.i.ty of ethnographic items of information on various peoples is woven into the argument, without submitting these items to closer scrutiny. According to the authors, just as with Schopenhauer, woman is a grown child, a liar _par excellence_, weak of judgment, fickle in love, incapable of any deed truly heroic. They claim the inferiority of woman to man is manifest from a large number of bodily differences.

"Love, with woman, is as a rule nothing but a secondary feature of maternity,--all the feelings of attachment that bind woman to man arise, not from s.e.xual impulses, but from the instincts of subjection and resignation, acquired through habits of conformancy." How these "instincts" were acquired and "conformed" themselves, the joint authors fail to inquire into. They would then have had to inquire into the social position of woman in the course of thousands of years, and would have been compelled to find that it is that that made her what she now is. It is true, the joint authors describe partly the enslaved and dependent position of woman among the several peoples and under the several periods of civilization; but as Darwinians, with blinkers to their eyes, they draw all that from physiologic and psychologic, not from social and economic reasons, which affected in strongest manner the physiologic and psychologic development of woman.

The joint authors also touch upon the vanity of woman, and set up the opinion that, among the peoples who stand on a lower stage of civilization, man is the vain s.e.x, as is noticeable to-day in the New Hebrides and Madagascar, among the peoples of the Orinoco, and on many islands of the Polynesian archipelago, as also among a number of African peoples of the South Sea. With peoples standing on a higher plane, however, woman is the vain s.e.x. But why and wherefor? To us the answer seems plain. Among the peoples of a lower civilization, mother-right conditions prevail generally, or have not yet been long overcome. The _role_ that woman there plays raises her above the necessity of seeking for the man, the man seeks her, and to this end, ornaments himself and grows vain. With the people of a higher grade, especially with all the nations of civilization, excepting here and there, not the man seeks the woman, but the woman him. It happens rarely that a woman openly takes the initiative, and offers herself to the man; so-called propriety forbids that. In point of fact, however, the offering is done by the manner of her appearance; by means of the beauty of dress and luxury, that she displays; by the manner in which she ornaments herself, and presents herself, and coquets in society. The excess of women, together with the social necessity of looking upon matrimony as an inst.i.tute for support, or as an inst.i.tution through which alone she can satisfy her s.e.xual impulse and gain a standing in society, forces such conduct upon her. Here also, we notice again, it is purely economic and social causes that call forth, one time with man, another with woman, a quality that, until now, it was customary to look upon as wholly independent of social and economic causes. Hence the conclusion is justified, that so soon as society shall arrive at social conditions, under which all dependence of one s.e.x upon another shall have ceased, and both are equally free, _ridiculous vanity and the folly of fashion will vanish, just as so many other vices that we consider to-day uneradicable, as supposedly inherent in man_. Schopenhauer, as a philosopher, judges woman as one-sidedly as most of our anthropologists and physicians, who see in her only the s.e.xual, never the social, being. Schopenhauer was never married. He, accordingly, has not, on his part, contributed towards having one more woman pay the "debt of life" that he debits woman with. And this brings us to the other side of the medal, which is far from being the handsomer.

Many women do not marry, simply because they cannot. Everybody knows that usage forbids woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be wooed, i. e., chosen. She herself may not woo. Is there no wooer to be had, then she enters the large army of those poor beings who have missed the purpose of life, and, in view of the lack of safe material foundation, generally fall a prey to want and misery, and but too often to ridicule also. But few know what the discrepancy in numbers between the two s.e.xes is due to; many are ready with the hasty answer: "There are too many girls born." Those who make the claim are wrongly informed, as will be shown. Others, again, who admit the unnaturalness of celibacy, conclude from the fact that women are more numerous than men in most countries of civilization, that polygamy should be allowed.

But not only does polygamy do violence to our customs, it, moreover, degrades woman, a circ.u.mstance that, of course, does not restrain Schopenhauer, with his underestimation of and contempt for women, from declaring: "For the female s.e.x, as a whole, polygamy is a benefit."

Many men do not marry because they think they cannot support a wife, and the children that may come, according to their station. To support _two_ wives is, however, possible to a small minority only, and among these are many who now have two or more wives,--one legitimate and several illegitimate. These few, privileged by wealth, are not held back by anything from doing what they please. Even in the Orient, where polygamy exists for thousands of years by law and custom, comparatively few men have more than one wife. People talk of the demoralizing influence of Turkish harem life; but the fact is overlooked that this harem life is possible only to an insignificant fraction of the men, and then only in the ruling cla.s.s, while the majority of the men live in monogamy. In the city of Algiers, there were, at the close of the sixties, out of 18,282 marriages, not less than 17,319 with one wife only; 888 were with two; and only 75 with more than two. Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire, would show no materially different result. Among the country population in the Orient, the proportion is still more p.r.o.nouncedly in favor of single marriages. In the Orient, exactly as with us, the most important factor in the calculation are the material conditions, and these compel most men to limit themselves to but one wife. If, on the other hand, material conditions were equally favorable to all men, polygamy would still not be practicable,--for want of women.

_The almost equal number of the two s.e.xes, prevalent under normal conditions, points everywhere to monogamy._

As proof of these statements, we cite the following tables, that Buecher published in an essay.[92]

In these tables the distinction must be kept in mind between the enumerated and the estimated populations. In so far as the population was enumerated, the fact is expressly stated in the summary for the separate main divisions of the earth. The s.e.xes divide themselves in the population of several divisions and countries as follows:

1. EUROPE.

Females for Every Census 1,000 Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men.

Great Britain and Ireland 1891 18,388,756 19,499,397 37,888,153 1,060 Denmark and Faror 1890 1,065,447 1,119,712 2,185,159 1,052 Norway 1891 951,496 1,037,501 1,988,997 1,090 Sweden 1890 2,317,105 2,467,570 4,784,675 1,065 Finland 1889 1,152,111 1,186,293 2,338,404 1,030 Russia 1886 42,499,324 42,895,885 85,395,209 1,009 Poland 1886 3,977,406 4,279,156 8,256,562 1,076 German Empire 1890 24,231,832 25,189,232 49,421,064 1,039 Austria 1880 10,819,737 11,324,507 22,144,244 1,047 Hungary 1880 7,799,276 7,939,192 15,738,468 1,019 Liechtenstein 1886 4,897 4,696 9,593 959 Luxemburg 1890 105,419 105,669 211,088 1,002 Holland 1889 2,228,487 2,282,925 4,511,415 1,024 Belgium 1890 3,062,656 3,084,385 6,147,041 1,007 Switzerland 1888 1,427,377 1,506,680 2,934,057 1,055 France 1886 18,900,312 19,030,447 37,930,759 1,007 Spain and the Canary Islands 1887 8,608,532 8,950,776 17,559,308 1,039 Gibraltar (Civil population) 1890 9,201 9,326 18,527 1,013 Portugal 1878 2,175,829 2,374,870 4,550,699 1,091 Italy 1881 14,265,383 14,194,245 28,459,628 995 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1885 705,025 631,066 1,336,091 895 Servia 1890 1,110,731 1,052,028 2,162,759 947 Bulgaria 1881 1,519,953 1,462,996 2,982,949 962 Roumania 1860 2,276,558 2,148,403 4,424,961 944 Greece 1889 1,133,625 1,053,583 2,187,208 929 Malta 1890 82,086 83,576 165,662 1,018 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----- Total 170,818,561 174,914,119 345,732,680 1,024

2. AMERICA.

Females for Every Census 1,000 Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men.

Danish Greenland 1888 4,838 5,383 10,221 1,112 British North America 1881 2,288,196 2,229,735 4,517,931 974 United States of North America 1880 25,518,820 24,636,963 50,155,783 965 Bermuda Islands 1890 7,767 8,117 15,884 1,046 Mexico 1882 5,072,054 5,375,920 10,447,974 1,060 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- North America and Islands 32,891,675 32,256,118 65,147,793 981

Nicaragua 1883 136,249 146,591 282,845 1,076 British Honduras 1881 14,108 13,344 27,452 946 Cuba 1877 850,520 671,164 1,521,684 789 Porto Rico 1877 369,054 362,594 731,648 983 British West Indies 1881 589,012 624,132 1,213,144 1,060 French West Indies 1885 176,364 180,266 356,630 1,022 Danish Possessions 1880 14,889 18,874 33,763 1,263 Dutch Colony Curacao 1889 20,234 25,565 45,799 1,263 ----------- ---------- ---------- ----- Central America and the West Indies 2,170,430 2,042,530 4,212,965 941

British Guiana 1891 151,759 126,569 278,328 834 French Guiana 1885 15,767 10,735 26,502 681 Dutch Guiana 1889 30,187 28,764 58,951 953 Brazil 1872 5,123,869 4,806,609 9,930,478 938 Chili 1885 1,258,616 1,268,353 2,526,969 1,008 Falkland Islands 1890 1,086 703 1,789 647 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- South America total 6,581,284 6,241,733 12,823,017 949 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- Population of America 41,643,389 40,540,386 82,183,775 973

3. ASIA.

Females for Every Census 1,000 Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men.

Russian Caucasia 1885 3,876,868 3,407,699 7,284,567 879 Siberia, minus Amur and Sachalin 1885 2,146,411 2,002,879 4,149,290 933 Province Uralsk 1885 263,915 263,686 527,601 999 General Province of the Prairies 1885 926,246 781,626 1,707,872 844 Province Fergana 1885 365,461 350,672 716,133 959 Province Samarkand 1885 335,530 305,616 641,146 911 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- Russian Possessions, total 7,914,431 7,112,178 15,026,609 899

British India (immediate possessions) 1891 112,150,120 108,313,980 220,464,100 966 Tributary States (so far known) 1891 31,725,910 29,675,150 61,401,060 935 Hong Kong 1889 138,033 56,449 194,482 409 Ceylon 1881 1,473,515 1,290,469 2,763,984 876 Of the French Possessions: Cambodscha ? 392,383 422,371 814,754 1,076 Cochinchina 1889 944,146 932,543 1,876,689 988 Philippines (partly) 1877 2,796,174 2,762,846 5,559,020 988 j.a.pan 1888 20,008,445 19,598,789 39,607,234 979 Cyprus 1891 104,887 104,404 209,291 995 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- Total population in Asia 177,648,044 170,269,179 347,917,223 958

4. AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA.

Females for Every Census 1,000 Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men.

Australia, New Zealand (1890) and Tasmania 1891 2,059,594 1,772,472 3,832,066 861 Fiji Islands 1890 67,902 57,780 125,682 851 French Possessions (Tahiti, Marquesas, etc.) 1889 11,589 10,293 21,882 888 Hawaii 1890 58,714 31,276 89,990 533 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- Total 2,197,799 1,871,821 4,069,620 852

5. AFRICA.

Females for Every Census 1,000 Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men.

Egypt 1882 3,401,498 3,415,767 6,817,265 1,004 Algeria (minus Sahara) 1886 2,014,013 1,791,671 3,805,684 889 Senegal 1889 70,504 76,014 146,518 1,078 Gambia 1881 7,215 6,935 14,150 961 Sierra Leone 1881 31,201 29,345 60,546 940 Lagos 1881 37,665 39,605 75,270 998 St. Helena 1890 2,020 2,202 4,222 1,090 Capeland 1890 766,598 759,141 1,525,739 990 Natal 1890 268,062 275,851 543,913 1,029 Orange Free State: White 1890 40,571 37,145 77,716 915 Black 1890 67,791 61,996 129,787 914 Republic: White 1890 66,498 52,630 119,128 791 Black 1890 115,589 144,045 259,634 1,246 Reunion 1889 94,430 71,485 165,915 757 Mayotte 1889 6,761 5,509 12,270 815 St. Marie de Madagascar 1888 3,648 4,019 7,667 1,102 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- Total 6,994,064 6,771,360 13,765,424[93]968