[156] G. Mayr, Die Gesetzmaessigkeit im Gesellschaftsleben, 1877, p. 240.

[157] Edward Smith (Health and Disease), who attributes this to the lessened vitality of offspring at that season.  Beukemann also states that children born in September have most vitality.

[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 mediaeval Church found an outlet for this “spring fever” in pilgrimages to remote shrines.  As Chaucer wrote, in the Canterbury Tales:—­

    “Whane that Aprille with his showers sote
    The droughts of March hath pierced to the root,
    Thaen longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
    And palmers for to seeken strange 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, Aretaeus (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 Quiros 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.