Top

We now come to the consideration of a very wonderful subject,—that of inheritance. It is one of absorbing interest, both because of the curious facts it presents, and of the great practical bearing it has upon the welfare of every individual.

In order to the better understanding of this matter, it is necessary at the outset to make a distinction between four kinds or varieties of inheritance. The most generally recognised is direct inheritance,—that in which the children partake of the qualities of the father and mother. But a child may not resemble either parent, while it bears a striking likeness to an uncle or aunt. This constitutes indirect inheritance. Again, a child may be more like one of its grandparents than either its father or mother. Or, what is still more astonishing, it may display some of the characteristics possessed only by a remote ancestor. This form of inheritance is known by the scientific term atavism, derived from the Latin word atavus, meaning an ancestor. It is curious to note in this connection that sometimes a son resembles more closely his maternal than his paternal grandsire in some male attribute,—as a peculiarity of beard, or certain diseases confined to the male sex. Though the mother cannot possess or exhibit such male qualities, she has transmitted them through her blood, from her father to her son.

The fourth variety of inheritance is that in which the child resembles neither parent, but the first husband of its mother. A woman contracting a second marriage, transmits to the offspring of that marriage the peculiarities she has received through the first union. Breeders of stock know this tendency, and prevent their brood-mares, cows, or sheep from running with males of an inferior stock. Thus the diseases of a man may be transmitted to children which are not his own. Even though dead, he continues to exert an influence over the future offspring of his wife, by means of the ineffaceable impress he had made in the conjugal relation upon her whole system, as we have previously mentioned. The mother finds in the children of her second marriage

A child may therefore suffer through the operation of this mysterious and inexorable law, for sins committed not by its own father, but by the first husband of its mother. What a serious matter, then, is that relation between the sexes called marriage! How far-reaching are its responsibilities!

A distinction must here be drawn between hereditary transmission and the possession of qualities at birth, which have not been the result of any impression received from the system of father or mother, but due to mental influences or accidents operating through the mother. A child may be born idiotic or deformed, not because either parent or one of its ancestors was thus affected, but from the influence of some severe mental shock received by the mother during her pregnancy. This subject of maternal impressions will come up for separate consideration in the discussion of pregnancy. Again, a child may be epileptic, although there is no epilepsy in the family, simply because of the intoxication of the father or mother at the time of the intercourse resulting in conception. Such cases are not due to hereditary transmission, for that cannot be hereditary which has been possessed by neither the parents nor any other relatives.

In considering the effects of inheritance, we will first pass in review those connected with the physical constitution. These are exceedingly common and universally known. Fortunately, not merely are evil qualities inherited, but beauty, health, vigor, and longevity also.

BEAUTY.

Good looks are characteristic of certain families. Alcibiades, the handsomest among the Grecians of his time, descended from ancestors remarkable for their beauty. So well and long has the desirable influence of inheritance in this respect been recognised, that there existed in Crete an ancient law which ordained that each year the most beautiful among the young men and women should be chosen and forced to marry, in order to perpetuate the type of their beauty. Irregularities of feature are transmitted from parent to child through many generations. The aquiline nose has existed some centuries, and is yet hereditary in the Bourbon family. The hereditary under-lip of the House of Hapsburg is another example. When the poet Savage speaks of

he scarcely exaggerates what is often seen in families where some strongly-marked feature or expression is long predominant or reappears in successive generations.

NECK AND LIMBS.

The form and length of the neck and limbs are frequently hereditary, as is also the height of the body. The union of two tall persons engenders tall children. The father of Frederick the Great secured for himself a regiment of men of gigantic stature, by permitting the marriage of his guards only with women of similar height. A tendency to obesity often appears in generation after generation of a family. Yet such cases are within the reach of medical art.

COMPLEXION.

Even the complexion is not exempt from this influence. Blondes ordinarily procreate blondes, and dark parents have dark-skinned children. An union in marriage of fair and dark complexions results in an intermediate shade in the offspring. Not always, however; for it has been asserted that the complexion chiefly follows that of the father. The offspring of a black father and a white mother is much darker than the progeny of a white father and a dark mother. In explanation of this fact, it has been said that the mother is not impressed by her own color, because she does not look upon herself, while the father's complexion attracts her attention, and thus gives a darker tinge to the offspring. Black hens frequently lay dark eggs; but the reverse is more generally found to be the case.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES TRANSMITTED BY EACH PARENT.

In general, it may be said that there exists a tendency on the part of the father to transmit the external appearance, the configuration of the head and limbs, the peculiarities of the senses and of the skin and the muscular condition; while the size of the body, and the general temperament or constitution of the child, are derived from the mother. Among animals, the mule, which is the produce of the male ass and the mare, is essentially a modified ass having the general configuration of its sire, but the rounded trunk and larger size of its dam. On the other hand, the hinny, which is the offspring of the stallion and the she-ass, is essentially a modified horse, having the general configuration of the horse, but being a much smaller animal than its sire, and therefore approaching the dam in size as well as in the comparative narrowness of its trunk. The operation of this principle, though general, is not universal. Exceptions may easily be cited. In almost every large family it will be observed that the likeness to the father predominates in some children, while others most resemble the mother. It is rare to meet with instances in which some distinctive traits of both parents may not be traced in the offspring.

HAIR.

Peculiarities in the colour and structure of the hair are transmitted. Darwin mentions a family in which, for many generations, some of the members had a single lock differently coloured from the rest of the hair.

TEMPERAMENT.

The law of inheritance rules in regard to the production of the temperament. The crossing of one temperament with another in marriage, produces a modification in the offspring generally advantageous.

FERTILITY.

A peculiar aptitude for procreation is sometimes hereditary. The children of prolific parents are themselves prolific. It is related that a French peasant woman was confined ten times in fifteen years. Her pregnancies, always multiple, produced twenty-eight children. At her last confinement she had three daughters, who all lived, married, and gave birth to children,—the first to twenty-six, the second to thirty-one, and the third to twenty-seven. On the contrary, sometimes a tendency to sterility is found fixed upon certain families, from which they can only escape by the most assiduous care.

LONGEVITY.

In the vegetable kingdom, the oak inherits the power to live many years, while the peach-tree must die in a short time. In the animal kingdom, the robin becomes grey and old at ten years of age; the rook caws lustily until a hundred. The ass is much longer-lived than the horse. The mule illustrates in a striking manner the hereditary tendency of longevity. It has the size of the horse, the long life of the ass. The weaker the ass, the larger, the stronger, and the shorter-lived and more horse-like the mule. It is also a curious and instructive fact, that this animal is the toughest after it has passed the age of the horse: the inherited influence of the horse having been expended, the vitality and hardiness of the ass remain.

It is universally conceded, that longevity is the privileged possession of some lineages. That famous instance of old age, Thomas Parr, the best authenticated on record, may be mentioned in illustration. It is vouched for by Harvey, the distinguished discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Parr died in the reign of Charles the First, at the age of 152, after having lived under nine sovereigns of England. He left a daughter aged 127. His father had attained to a great age, and his great-grandson died at Cork at the age of 103.

DEFORMITIES.

Deformities are undoubtedly sometimes transmitted to the progeny. It is by no means rare to find that the immediate ancestors of those afflicted with superfluous fingers and toes, club-feet, or hare-lips, were also the subjects of these malformations. There are one or two families in Germany whose members pride themselves upon the possession of an extra thumb; and there is an Arab chieftain whose ancestors have from time immemorial been distinguished by a double thumb upon the right hand. Darwin gives many similar instances. A case of curious displacement of the knee-pans is recorded, in which the father, sister, son, and the son of the half-brother by the same father, had all the same malformation.

PERSONAL PECULIARITIES.

Gait, gestures, voice, general bearing, are all inherited. Peculiar manners, passing into tricks, are often transmitted, as in the case, often quoted, of the father who generally slept on his back with his right leg crossed over the left, and whose daughter, whilst an infant in the cradle, followed exactly the same habit, though an attempt was made to cure her. Left-handedness is not unfrequently hereditary. It would be very easy to go on multiplying instances, but we forbear.

HOW TO HAVE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN.

A practical question now naturally suggests itself. How can the vices of conformation be avoided, and beauty secured? The art of having handsome children, known under the name of callipÆdia, has received much attention, more, perhaps, in years gone by than of late. The noted Abbot Quillet wrote a book in Latin on the subject. Many other works, in which astrology plays a prominent part, were written on this art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

We have already stated that well-formed parents will transmit these qualities to their children, with scarcely an exception. Like begets like. Unfortunately, all parents are not beautiful. Yet all desire beautiful offspring. The body of the child can be influenced by the mind of the parent, particularly of the mother. A mind habitually filled with pleasant fancies and charming images is not without its effect upon the offspring.

The statues of Apollo, Castor and Pollux, Venus, Hebe, and the other gods and goddesses which were so numerous in the gardens and public places in Greece, reproduced themselves in the sons and daughters of the passers-by. We know also that marriages contracted at an age too early or too late, are apt to give imperfectly-developed children. The crossing of temperaments and of nationalities beautifies the offspring. The custom which has prevailed, in many countries, among the nobility, of purchasing the handsomest girls they could find for their wives, has laid the foundation of a higher type of features among the ruling classes. To obtain this desired end, conception should take place only when both parents are in the best physical condition, at the proper season of the year, and with mutual passion. (We have already hinted how this can be regulated.) During pregnancy the mother should often have some painting or engraving representing cheerful and beautiful figures before her eyes, or often contemplate some graceful statue. She should avoid looking at, or thinking of ugly people, or those marked with disfiguring diseases. She should take every precaution to escape injury, fright, and disease of any kind, especially chicken-pox, erysipelas, or such disorders as leave marks on the person. She should keep herself well nourished, as want of food nearly always injures the child. She should avoid ungraceful positions and awkward attitudes, as by some mysterious sympathy these are impressed on the child she carries. Let her cultivate grace and beauty in herself at such a time, and she will endow her child with them. As anger and irritability leave imprints on the features, she should maintain serenity and calmness.

INHERITANCE OF TALENT AND GENIUS.

The effects of inheritance are perhaps more marked upon the mind than upon the body. This need not surprise us. If the peculiar form of the brain can be transmitted, the mental attributes, the result of its organization, must necessarily also be transmitted.

It is a matter of daily observation, that parents gifted with bright minds, cultivated by education, generally engender intelligent children; while the offspring of those steeped in ignorance are stupid from birth. It may be objected, that men the most remarkable in ancient or modern times, as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Shakspeare, Milton, Buffon, Cuvier, etc., have not transmitted their vast intellectual powers to their progeny. In explanation, it has been stated that what is known as genius is not transmissible. The creation of a man of genius seems to require a special effort of Nature, after which, as if fatigued, she reposes a long time before again making a similar effort. But it may well be doubted whether even those complex mental attributes on which genius and talent depend are not inheritable, particularly when both parents are thus endowed. That distinguished men do not more frequently have distinguished sons, may readily be accounted for when it is recollected that the inherited character is due to the combined influence of both parents. The desirable qualities of the father may therefore be neutralized in the offspring by the opposite or defective qualities of the mother. That contrasts in the disposition of parents are rather the rule than the exception, we have already shown. Every one tends to unite himself in friendship or love with a different character from his own, seeking thereby to supplement the qualities in which he feels his own nature to be deficient. The mother, therefore, may weaken, and perhaps obliterate, the qualities transmitted by the father. Again, the influence of some remote ancestors may make itself felt upon the offspring through the operation of the law of atavism, before alluded to, and thus prevent the children from equaling their parents in their natural endowments. Notwithstanding the workings of these opposing forces, and others which might be mentioned, we find abundant illustration of the hereditary nature of talent and character.

Of six hundred and five names occurring in a biographical dictionary devoted to men distinguished as great founders and originators, between the years 1453 and 1853, there were, as has been pointed out by Mr. Galton, no less than one hundred and two relationships, or one in six. Walford's Men of the Time contains an account of the distinguished men in England, the Continent, and America, then living. Under the letter A there are eighty-five names, and no less than twenty-five of these, or one in three and a half, have relatives also in the list; twelve of them are brothers, and eleven fathers and sons. In Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, the letter A contains three hundred and ninety-one names of men, of whom sixty-five are near relatives, or one in six; thirty-three of them are fathers and sons, and thirty are brothers. In FÉtis's Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, the letter A contains five hundred and fifteen names, of which fifty are near relatives, or one in ten. Confining ourselves to literature alone, it has been found that it is one to six and a half that a very distinguished literary man has a very distinguished literary relative; and it is one to twenty-eight that the relation is father and son, or brother and brother, respectively. Among the thirty-nine Chancellors of England, sixteen had kinsmen of eminence; thirteen of them had kinsmen of great eminence. These thirteen out of thirty-nine, or one in three, are certainly remarkable instances of the influence of inheritance. A similar examination has been instituted in regard to the judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and other American States, with like results. The Greek poet Æschylus counted eight poets and four musicians among his ancestors. The greater part of the celebrated sculptors of ancient Greece descended from a family of sculptors. The same is true of the great painters. The sister of Mozart shared the musical talent of her brother. As there are reasons, to be detailed hereafter, for believing that the influence of the mother is even greater than that of the father, how vastly would the offspring be improved if distinguished men united themselves in marriage to distinguished women for generation after generation!

INFLUENCE OF FATHERS OVER DAUGHTERS; OF MOTHERS OVER SONS.

We have already called attention to the parts of the physical organization transmitted by the father and by the mother. It would seem, moreover, that each parent exercises a special influence over the child according to its sex. The father transmits to the daughters the form of the head, the framework of the chest and of the superior extremities, while the conformation of the lower portion of the body and the inferior extremities is transmitted by the mother. With the sons this is reversed. They derive from the mother the shape of the head and of the superior extremities, and resemble the father in the trunk and inferior extremities. From this it therefore results, that boys procreated by intelligent women will be intelligent, and that girls procreated by fathers of talent will inherit their mental capacity. The mothers of a nation, though unseen and unacknowledged in the halls of legislation, determine in this subtle manner the character of the laws.

History informs us that the greater part of the women who have been celebrated for their intelligence, reflected the genius of their fathers. Arete, the most celebrated woman of her time, on account of the extent of her knowledge, was the daughter of the distinguished philosopher Aristippus, disciple of Socrates. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, was a daughter of Scipio. The daughter of the Roman emperor Caligula was as cruel as her father. Marcus Aurelius inherited the virtues of his mother, and Commodus the vices of his. Charlemagne shut his eyes upon the faults of his daughters, because they recalled his own. Genghis-Khan, the renowned Asiatic conqueror, had for his mother a warlike woman. Tamerlane, the greatest warrior of the fourteenth century, was descended from Genghis-Khan by the female side. Catherine de Medicis was as crafty and deceitful as her father, and more superstitious and cruel. She had two sons worthy of herself,—Charles ix., who shot the Protestants, and Henry iii., who assassinated the Guises. Her daughter, Margaret of Valois, recalled her father by her gentle manners. The cruel deeds of Alexander VI., the dark records of which will for ever stain the pages of history, are only rivaled in atrocity by those of his children, the infamous Borgias. Arete, Hypatia, Madame de StaËl, and George Sand,—all four had philosophers for their fathers. The mother of Bernardo Tasso had the gift of poetry. Buffon often speaks of the rich imagination of his mother. The poet Burns, 'Rare Ben Jonson,' Goethe, Walter Scott, Byron, and Lamartine,—all were born of women remarkable for their vivacity and brilliancy of language. Byron, in his journal, attributes his hypochondria to a hereditary taint derived from his mother, who was its victim in its most furious form; and her father 'was strongly suspected of suicide.' He was said to have resembled more his maternal grandfather than any of his father's family. The daughter of MoliÈre was like her father in her wit and humor. Beethoven had for a maternal grandmother an excellent musician. The mother of Mozart gave the first lessons to her son. A crowd of composers have descended from John Sebastian Bach, who long stood unrivaled as a performer on the organ, and composer for that instrument. It may be remarked here, that it is almost invariably true that the ability or inability to acquire a knowledge of music is derived from the ancestry. Parents who cannot turn a tune or tell one note from another, bring forth children equally unmoved 'with concord of sweet sounds.' Examples could easily be adduced at still greater length, illustrating the direct influence of the father over the daughter, and of the mother over the son. Those given will suffice.

INFLUENCE Of EDUCATION OVER INHERITED QUALITIES.

In correcting the evil effects of inheritance on the mind, education plays a very important part. A child born with a tendency to some vice or intellectual trait, may have this tendency entirely overcome, or at least modified, by training. So, also, virtues implanted by nature may be lost during the plastic days of youth, in consequence of bad associations and bad habits.

Education can therefore do much to alter inherited mental and moral qualities. Can it be invoked to prevent the transmission of undesirable traits, and secure the good? Everything that we have at birth is a heritage from our ancestors. Can virtuous habits be transmitted? Can we secure virtues in our children by possessing them ourselves? Science sadly says, through her latest votaries, that we are scarcely more than passive transmitters of a nature we have received, and which we have no power to modify. It is only after exposure during several generations to changed conditions or habits, that any modification in the offspring ensues. The son of an old soldier learns his drill no more quickly than the son of an artisan. We must therefore come to the conclusion with Mr. Galton, that to a great extent our own embryos have sprung immediately from the embryos whence our parents were developed, and these from the embryos of their parents, and so on for ever. Hence we are still barbarians in our nature. We show it in a thousand ways. Children, who love to dig and play in the dirt, have inherited that instinct from untold generations of ancestors. Our remote forefathers were barbarians, who dug with their nails to get at the roots on which they lived. The delicately-reared child reverts to primeval habits. In like manner, the silk-haired, parlor-nurtured spaniel springs from the caressing arms of its mistress, to revel in the filth of the roadside. It is the breaking out of inherited instinct.

TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE.

Perhaps the most important part of the subject of inheritance, is that which remains for us to consider in relation to the transmission of disease, or of a predisposition to it.

Consumption,—that dread foe of modern life,—is the most frequently encountered of all affections as the result of inherited predisposition. Indeed some of the most eminent physicians have believed it is never produced in any other way. Heart disease, disease of the throat, excessive obesity, affections of the skin, asthma, disorders of the brain and nervous system, gout, rheumatism, and cancer, are all hereditary. A tendency to bleed frequently, profusely and uncontrollably, from trifling wounds, is often met with as a family affection.

The inheritance of diseased conditions is also influenced by the sex. A parent may transmit disease exclusively to children of the same sex, or exclusively to those of the opposite sex. Thus, a horn-like projection on the skin peculiar to the Lambert family was transmitted from the father to his sons and grandsons alone. So mothers have through several generations transmitted to their daughters alone supernumerary fingers, color-blindness, and other deformities and diseases. As a general rule, any disease acquired during the life of either parent, strongly tends to be inherited by the offspring of the same sex rather than the opposite. We have spoken of the apparently reverse tendency in regard to the transmission of genius and talent.

ARE MUTILATIONS INHERITABLE?

How, it may be inquired, is it in regard to the inheritance of parts mutilated and altered by injuries and disease during the life of either parent? In some cases mutilations have been practised for many generations, without any inherited result. Different races of men have knocked out their upper teeth, cut off the joints of their fingers, made immense holes through their ears and nostrils, and deep gashes in various parts of their bodies, and yet there is no reason for supposing that these mutilations have been inherited. The Comprachicos, a hideous and strange association of men and women, existed in the seventeenth century, whose business it was to buy children and make of them monsters. Victor Hugo, in a recent work, has graphically told how they took a face and made of it a snout, how they bent down growth, kneaded the physiognomy, distorted the eyes, and in other ways disfigured 'the human form divine,' in order to make fantastic playthings for the amusement of the noble-born. But history does not state that these deformities were inherited; certainly no race of monsters has resulted. The pits from small-pox are not inherited, though many successive generations must have been thus pitted by that disease before the beneficent discovery of the immortal Jenner. Children born with scars left by pustules have had small-pox in the womb, acquired through the system of the mother. On the other hand, the lower animals, cats, dogs, and horses, which have had their tails and legs artificially altered or injured, have produced offspring with the same condition of parts. A man who had his little finger on the right hand almost cut off, and which in consequence grew crooked, had sons with the same finger on the same hand similarly crooked. The eminent physiologist Dr. Brown-SÉquard mentions, that many young guinea-pigs inherited an epileptic tendency from parents which had been subjected to an operation at his hands resulting in the artificial production of fits; while a large number of guinea-pigs bred from animals which had not been operated on were not thus affected. At any rate, it cannot but be admitted that injuries and mutilations which cause disease, are occasionally inherited. But many cases of deformities existing at birth, as hare-lip, are not due to inheritance, although present in the father. They arise from a change effected in the child while in the womb, through an impression made upon the mind of the mother, as will be shown hereafter.

LATE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE EFFECTS OF INHERITANCE.

Not only are diseases inherited which make their appearance at birth, but those which defer their exhibition until a certain period of life corresponding with that at which they showed themselves in the parents. Thus in the Lambert family, before referred to, the porcupine excrescence on the skin began to grow in the father and sons at the same age, namely, about nine weeks after birth. In an extraordinary hairy family, which has been described, children were produced during three generations with hairy ears: in the father, the hair began to grow over his body at six years old; in his daughter somewhat earlier, namely, at one year; and in both generations the milk teeth appeared late in life, the permanent teeth being deficient. Greyness of hair at an unusually early age has been transmitted in some families. So, also, has the premature appearance of baldness.

HOW TO AVOID THE TENDENCY OF INHERITANCE.

These facts suggest the practical consideration, that in those diseases the predisposition to which alone is inherited, and which break out only after a lapse of time, it is often altogether possible to prevent the predisposition being developed into positive disease. Thus, for instance, the inherited tendency to consumption remains asleep in the system until about the age of puberty, or later. Therefore, by the use of a diet in which animal food forms a large portion, properly regulated, and systematic exercise in the open air, the practice of the long inhalations before recommended, warm, comfortable clothing, together with a residence, if practicable, during the changeable and inclement seasons of the year, in an equable climate, we can often entirely arrest the development of the disease. Prevention here is not only better than cure, but often all that is possible. Those in whom the disease has become active, must too often, like those who entered Dante's infernal regions, 'abandon hope.' Let our words of caution therefore be heeded.

When there is reason to believe that an individual possesses an inherent tendency to any disease, it is the duty of the medical adviser to study the constitution of the patient thoroughly, and after such study to recommend those measures of prevention best suited to avert the threatened disorder. Above all, let the physician look closely to the child at the period of life when any grave constitutional inheritable disease attacked the parent. This supervision should be carried into adult years, for there are instances on record of inherited diseases coming on at an advanced age, as in that of a grandfather, father, and son, who all became insane and committed suicide near their fiftieth year. Gout, apoplexy, insanity, chronic disease of the heart, epilepsy, consumption, asthma, and other diseases, are all more or less under the control of preventive measures. Some hereditary diseases, such as idiocy and cancer, we are impotent to prevent, in the present state of our knowledge.

A singular fact in connection with the transmission of disease is the readiness with which a whole generation is passed over, the affection appearing in the next. A father or mother with consumption may in some instances have healthy children, but the grandchildren will die of the disease. Nature kindly favors one generation, but only at the expense of the next.

Some diseases require, in addition to the general means of prevention to be found in a strict observance of the laws of health, some special measures in order to effectually ward off their appearance. But the extent of this work will not admit of their discussion. Already, indeed, have we unduly, perhaps, extended our remarks upon inheritance. The interest and importance of the facts must be our justification.

WHY ARE WOMEN REDUNDANT?

It cannot be without interest to look into the relative proportion of men and women now living. It will interest us still more to inquire into the reason why one sex preponderates over the other in numbers. This done, we will answer the question; Is the production of sex at all under the influence of the human will?

The female sex is the more numerous in all thickly populated parts of the world where we have trustworthy statistics. In Austria, England, and Wales, there are nearly one hundred and five women for every one hundred men. In Sweden they are as one hundred and nine to one hundred. In all cities the disproportion is greater than in the country. In London there are one hundred and thirteen women to every one hundred men; and in the large towns of Sweden they stand as one hundred and sixteen to one hundred.

This is not true, however, of newly-populated regions. The relative difference is reversed in recent and thinly-settled localities. In our Western States, for instance, the number of the men exceeds that of the women. In California they are as three to one; in Nevada as eight to one; in Colorado, twenty to one. In the State of Illinois there were, according to a recent United States census, ninety-three thousand more men than women. In Massachusetts, on the contrary, there are between fifty and sixty thousand more women than men.

The disproportion of men to women in new countries is due to the disinclination of women to emigrate. They are also unfitted for the hardships of pioneer life.

How is this general preponderance in the number of women produced? Is it because there are more girls born than boys? Not at all. The statistics of over fifty-eight millions of persons show that there are one hundred and six living boys born to every one hundred girls. In the state of Rhode Island, for instance, the proportion for three years, from 1853 to 1855, was one thousand and sixty-four boys born to one thousand girls. But now we meet with the wonderful arrangement of nature, that a larger proportional number of male infants die during the first year of their lives than of females. In the second year, the mortality, though less excessive, still remains far greater on the male side. It subsequently decreases, and at the age of four or five years is nearly equal for both sexes. In after life, from the age of fifteen to forty, the mortality is something greater among women, but not sufficiently so to make the number of the two sexes equal. The greater tendency of male offspring to die early is seen even before birth, for more male children are still-born than female,—namely, as three to two. For this reason, the term 'the stronger sex,' applied to men, has been regarded by some authors as a misnomer. They are physically weaker in early life, and succumb more readily to noxious influences.

Having thus pointed out that there are more women actually living in the world than men, although a larger number of boys are born than girls, we will consider for a moment some of the laws of nature which determine the number of the sexes. Without giving the figures,—which would make dry reading,—we will state in brief the conclusions derived from many observations, extending over many years and many nationalities. The relative age of the parents has an especial influence upon the sex of the children. Seniority on the father's side gives excess of male offspring. Equality in the parents' age gives a slight preponderance of female offspring. Seniority on the mother's side gives excess of female offspring. This tallies with the fact that in all civilized countries, as has been stated, the proportion of male births is greater than that of females; for, in accordance with the customs of society, the husband is generally older than the wife. A curious instance, in confirmation of this law, has recently come under our observation. A patient, married for the second time, is ten years older than her husband. She has two children by him, both girls. Singular to relate, her former husband was ten years older than herself, and by him she had four children, of whom three were boys, the fourth (a girl) having a twin brother.

Still, the relative age is not the sole cause which fixes the sex of the child. Its operation is sometimes overruled by conflicting agencies. In some districts of Norway, for example, there has been a constant deficiency in boys, while in others the reverse has been the case. The circumstance is well known, that after great wars, and sometimes epidemics, in which a disproportionate number of men have died, more boys are born than usual. Men who pass a sedentary life, and especially scholars who exhaust their nervous force to a great extent, beget more girls than boys. So, also, a very advanced age on the man's side diminishes the number of males among the offspring. The quantity and the quality of the food; the elevation of the abode; the conditions of temperature; the parents' mode of life, rank, religious belief, frequency of sexual intercourse,—have all been shown to be causes contributing to the disproportion of the sexes, besides the relative ages of the parents.

Some writers have stated that a southerly or warm and humid constitution of the year is most favorable to the birth of female infants, while in cold and dry years most males are produced. This statement has not been supported by trustworthy statistics in regard to the human race, but in respect of domestic animals the agriculturists of France have long observed that the season has much to do with the sex. When the weather is dry and cold, and the wind northerly, mares, ewes, and heifers produce more males than when the opposite meteorological condition prevails.

The saying among nurses, that 'This is the year for sons or daughters,' is based upon the erroneous supposition that mothers bring forth more male infants in one year than in another.

That, however, which concerns us the most in this connection, is the question:

CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?

This question was asked many centuries ago. It was a hard one, and remained without a satisfactory answer until quite recently. Science has at last replied to it with authority. M. Thury, Professor in the Academy of Geneva, has shown how males and females may be produced in accordance with our wishes.

Some families are most anxious for male offspring, others ardently desire daughters. And would it not often be a matter of national concern to control the percentage of sexes in the population? Is it not a 'consummation most devoutly to be wished,' to bring about that Utopian condition when there would be no sighing maids at home, nor want of warriors in the field? The discussion of this subject is therefore important and allowable.

It has been observed that queen-bees lay female eggs first, and male eggs afterwards. So with hens: the first-laid eggs give female, the last male products. Mares shown the stallion late in their periods, drop horse-colts rather than fillies.

Professor Thury, from the consideration of these and other like facts, formed this law for stock-raisers: 'If you wish to produce females, give the male at the first signs of heat; if you wish males, give him at the end of the heat.' But it is easy to form a theory. How was this law sustained in practice? We have now in our possession the certificate of a Swiss stock-grower, son of the President of the Swiss Agricultural Society, Canton de Vaud, under date of February 1867, which says:

'In the first place, on twenty-two successive occasions I desired to have heifers. My cows were of Schurtz breed, and my bull a pure Durham. I succeeded in these cases. Having bought a pure Durham cow, it was very important for me to have a new bull, to supersede the one I had bought at great expense, without leaving to chance the production of a male. So I followed accordingly the prescription of Professor Thury, and the success has proved once more the truth of the law. I have obtained from my Durham bull six more bulls (Schurtz-Durham cross) for fieldwork; and having chosen cows of the same color and height, I obtained perfect matches of oxen. My herd amounted to forty cows of every age.

'In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experiments after the new method, and in every one I succeeded in the production of what I was looking for—male and female. I had not one single failure. All the experiments have been made by myself, without any other person's intervention; consequently, I do declare that I consider as real and certainly perfect the method of Professor Thury.'

A perfectly trustworthy observer communicates by the Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia for May 2, 1868, the results of similar experiments on animals, with like conclusions.

The plan of M. Thury was also tried on the farms of the late Emperor of the French, with, it is asserted, the most unvarying success.

What is the result of the application of this law to the human race? Dr. F. J. W. Packman, of Wimborne, has stated in the Lancet, that, 'in the human female, conception in the first half of the time between menstrual periods produces female offspring, and male in the latter. When a female has gone beyond the time she calculated upon, it will generally turn out to be a boy.'

In the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter for February 8, 1868, a respectable physician writes that, in numerous instances that have come under his observation, Professor Thury's theory has proved correct, 'Whenever intercourse has taken place in from two to six days after the cessation of the menses, girls have been produced; and whenever intercourse has taken place in from nine to twelve days after the cessation of the menses, boys have been produced. In every case I have ascertained not only the date at which the mother placed conception, but also the time when the menses ceased, the date of the first and subsequent intercourse for a month or more after the cessation of the menses,' etc.

Again, a physician writes to the same journal for June 20, 1868, recording the result of his own experience.

A farmer in Louisiana states, in the Turf, Field, and Farm, in support of this law, that 'I have already been able in many cases to guess with certainty the sex of a future infant. More than thirty times, among my friends, I have predicted the sex of a child before its birth, and the event proved nearly every time that I was right.'

The wife, therefore, who would wish, as Macbeth desired of his, to

should avoid exposing herself to conception during the early part of the time between her menstrual periods.

The prediction of the sex of the child before birth can now be with some accuracy made by the intelligent and skilful physician. The method of doing so will be mentioned in treating of pregnancy.

TWIN-BEARING.

As a rule, a woman has one child at a time. Twins, when they occur, are looked upon with disfavor by most people. There is a popular notion that they are apt to be wanting in physical and mental vigor. This opinion is not without foundation. A careful scientific examination of the subject has shown, that of imbeciles and idiots a much larger proportion is actually found among the twins born than in the general community. In families where twinning is frequent, bodily deformities likewise occur with frequency. Among the relatives of imbeciles and idiots, twin-bearing is common. In fact, the whole history of twin-births is of an exceptional character, indicating imperfect development and feeble organization in the product, and leading us to regard twins in the human species as a departure from the physiological rule, and therefore injurious to all concerned. Monsters born without brains have rarely occurred except among twins.

The birth of twins occurs once in about eighty deliveries. A woman is more apt to have no children than to have more than one at a time. In view of the increased danger to both mother and child, this rarity of a plural birth is fortunate.

WHY ARE TWINS BORN?

What are the causes or favouring circumstances bringing about this abnormal child-bearing? For it is brought about by the operation of laws. It is not an accident. There are no accidents in nature. By some it is supposed to be due to the mother, by some to the father. There are facts in favour of both opinions. Certain women married successively to several men have always had twins, while their husbands with other wives have determined single births. Certain men have presented the same phenomenon. We can scarcely cite an example more astonishing than that of a countryman who was presented to the Empress of Russia in 1755. He had had two wives. The first had fifty-seven children in twenty-one confinements; the second, thirty-three in thirteen. All the confinements had been quadruple, triple, or double. A case has come under our own observation in which the bearing of twins has seemed to be due to a constitutional cause. The wife has nine children. The first was a single birth, a girl; the others were all twin-births, and boys.

It has been asserted that compound pregnancies are more frequent in certain years than in others. But that which seems to exert the greatest actual influence over the production of twins is the age of the mother. Very extensive statistics have demonstrated that, from the earliest child-bearing period until the age of forty is reached, the fertility of mothers in twins gradually increases. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, fewest wives have twins. The average age of the twin-bearer is older than the general run of bearers. It is well known that by far the greater number of twins are born of elderly women. While three-fifths of all births occur among women under thirty years of age, three-fifths of all the twins are born to those over thirty years of age. Newly-married women are more likely to have twins at the first labour the older they are. The chance that a young wife from fifteen to nineteen shall bear twins is only as one to one hundred and eighty-nine; from thirty-five to thirty-nine the chance is as one to forty-five,—that is, the wives married youngest have fewest twins; and there is an increase as age advances, until forty is reached.

Race seems to have some influence over plural births. They occur relatively oftener among the Irish than among the English.

INFLUENCE OF TWIN-BEARING ON SIZE OF FAMILIES.

Do women bearing twins have in the end larger families than those never having but one at a time? Popular belief would answer this question in the affirmative. Such a reply would also seem to receive support from the fact, well established, that twins are more frequently additions to an already considerable family than they are either the first of a family or additional to a small family. But statistics have not answered this question as yet positively. They seem, however, in favour of the supposition that twin-bearing women have larger families than their neighbors.

Women are more apt to have twins in their first pregnancy than any other, but after the second confinement the bearing of twins increases in frequency with the number of the pregnancy. It becomes, therefore, an indication of an excessive family, and is to be deplored.

MORE THAN TWO CHILDREN AT A BIRTH.

Cases of the birth of more than two children at a time are still less frequently met with than twins. They are scarcely ever encountered, excepting in women who have passed their thirtieth year. Such cases are all more or less unfortunate both for the mother and the children.

THREE AT A BIRTH.

The births of triplets are not exclusively confined to women above thirty years, but in those younger they are so rare as to be great curiosities. Neither are they apt to occur in the first pregnancy. In this respect they differ from twins, who, as has just been said, are peculiarly prone to make their appearance at the first childbirth. Only four cases of treble births occurred among the 36,000 accouchements which have taken place in the Hospice de MaternitÉ of Paris in a determined time. Out of 48,000 cases of labor in the Royal Maternity Charity in London, only three triplets occurred. History informs us that the three Roman brothers, the Horatii, were triplets. They fought and conquered the three Curiatii of Alba (667 B. C.) who were likewise triplets.

As an interesting fact in connection with this subject, we may mention that in the St. Petersburg Midwives' Institute, between 1845-59, there were three women admitted, who, in their fifteenth pregnancies, had triplets, and each had triplets three times in succession. Happily, the fifteenth pregnancy is not reached by most women.

FOUR AT A BIRTH.

Instances of quadruplets are fewer than triplets. But four vigorous infants have been born at one birth.

FIVE AT A BIRTH.

The birth of five living children at a time is very exceptional, and is usually fatal to the offspring. A remarkable case of this kind is reported in a late medical journal. A woman aged thirty, the wife of a laborer, and the mother of six children, was taken in labor about the seventh month of her pregnancy. Five children, and all alive, were given birth to,—three boys and two girls. Four of the children survived an hour, and died within a few moments of each other. The fifth, a female, and the last born, lived six hours, and was so vigorous that, notwithstanding its diminutive size, hopes were entertained of its surviving.

Another case is reported in a recent French medical journal. The woman was forty years old. She had had twins once, and single children five times. On her seventh pregnancy, when five months gone, she was as large as women usually are at the end of their full term. At the close of the month she was delivered of five children. They were all born alive, and lived from four to seven minutes. All five children were males, well built and as well developed as foetuses of five and one-half months usually are in a single birth. The woman made a good recovery. Other cases of five at a birth might be quoted. They are known to medical science as very singular and noteworthy occurrences.

INCREDIBLE NUMBERS.

Some books speak of seven, eight, nine, ten, and more, children at a birth. But these statements are so marvelous, so incredible, and unsupported by proper testimony, that they do not merit any degree of confidence. The climax of such extraordinary assertions is reached, and a good illustration of the credulity of the seventeenth century furnished, by a writer named Goftr. This traveller, in 1630, saw a tablet in a church at Leusdown (Lausdunum), about five miles from the Hague, with an inscription stating that a certain illustrious countess, whose name and family he records, brought forth at one birth, in the fortieth year of her age, in the year 1276, 365 infants. They were all baptized by Guido, the Suffragan. The males were called John, and the females Elizabeth. They all, with their mother, died on the same day, and were buried in the above-mentioned church. This monstrous birth was said to have been caused by the sin of the countess in insulting a poor woman with twins in her arms, who prayed that her insulter might have at one birth the same number of children as there were days in the year. Of course, notwithstanding the story being attested by a tablet in a church, it must be placed among the many other instances of superstition afforded by an ignorant and credulous era.

We may remark, in closing this subject, that fewer plural births come to maturity than pregnancies with single children. Miscarriages are comparatively more frequent in such pregnancies than in ordinary ones.

---