Note 1117 — IX THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS AMONG PRIMITIVE RACES

According to Neuhauss for instance, both abortion and infanticide were formerly prevalent in parts of New Guinea where they are now rare owing to missionary teaching. No accurate account has been given of these tribes in their former state, and thus quite possibly a modern observer might well merely record the practices as being ‘rare’—a statement which would be misleading for our present purpose but which is of the kind likely to be relied on by those who do not admit the wide prevalence of these customs (Deutsch Neu-Guinea, vol. i, p. 31).