[153] Beukemann, who studied the matter
in various parts of Germany, found that seasonal influence was specially
marked in the case of illegitimate births. The maximum of conceptions of
illegitimate children takes place in the spring and summer of Europe
generally; in Russia it takes place in the autumn and winter, when the
harvest-working months for the population are over, and the period of
rest, and also of minimum deathrate (September, October, and November),
comes round. In Russia the general conception-rate has been studied by
various investigators. Here the maximum number of conceptions is in
winter, the minimum varying among different elements of the population.
Looked at more closely, there are maxima of conceptions in Russia in
January and in April. (In Russian towns, however, the maximum number of
conceptions occurs in the autumn.) The special characteristics of the
Russian conception-rate are held to be due to the prevalence of marriages
in autumn and winter,[154] to the severely observed fasts of spring, and
to the exhausting harvest-work of summer.
It is instructive to compare the conception-rate of Europe with that of a
non-European country. Such a comparison has been made by S.A. Hill for the
Northwest Provinces of India. Here the Holi and other erotic festivals
take place in spring; but spring is not the period when conceptions
chiefly take place; indeed, the prevalence of erotic festivals in spring
appears to Hill an argument in favor of those festivals having originated
in a colder climate.
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