(_China Review_, xvi., 189.) The prevailing impression as to the frequency of infanticide in China is derived from the statements of missionaries, who, no doubt unintentionally, exaggerate the prevalence of the crime in order to bring home to us Westerns the deplorable condition of the heathen among whom they are labouring.

But, even among the missionaries, the statements are as divergent as they are on almost every other subject relating to China.

Thus the Rev.Griffith John argues "from his own experience that infanticide is common all over the Empire," the Rev.Dr.
Edkins on the other hand says that "infanticide is a thing almost unknown in Peking." And the well known medical missionary, Dr.Dudgeon of Peking (who has left the London Mission), agrees with another medical missionary, Dr.Lockhart, "that infanticide is almost as rare in China as in England." The Rev.A.H.Smith ("Chinese Characteristics," p.

207) speaks "of the enormous infanticide which is known to exist in China." The Rev.Justus Doolittle ("Social Life of the Chinese," ii.p.

203) asserts that "there are most indubitable reasons for believing that infanticide is tolerated by the Government, and that the subject is treated with indifference and with shocking levity by the mass." ...