Sex determination : a treatise on the control of sex in generation / by Dr. Ed. v. Seligson ; authorised translation from the second (enlarged) German edition.
- Seligson, E. von.
- Date:
- 1901
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sex determination : a treatise on the control of sex in generation / by Dr. Ed. v. Seligson ; authorised translation from the second (enlarged) German edition. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![may 1-2J^920 ,♦» > The question aSsJo the ]K)ss^it>/bf procreating boys or girls, according toShm^^-4s-?5Kirge and important and one of so great signifiance, tliat it is not ie be wondered, at that it has occupied the closest attention of scholars and scientists from the earliest times. When we reflect, that in those families, in which only girls or only boys are born, the desire for the birth of a child of the other sex is quite intelligible and excusable, since in not a few cases the whole ha])piness of a family depends on the fulfilment of this wish; and when we further consider, that it can- not be a matter of indifference to a sovereign, whether the first-born child is a male or a female, so much more important is the solution of this problem from sociological and political relations. Obviously the lives of men are ex- posed to greater dangers through war, vocation, etc. than those of women, and accordingly nature in her wisdom seems to some to strive under all circumstances to pre- serve the relative numerical ratio of the two sexes, in that she produces more males than females in the proportion of 106 : 100. This view of a teleological process in nature is a mista- ken one, or it has a limited foundation, which applies only u|) to a certain age. When we investigate the proportion of men to women, e. g. between the ages of 20—25 years, we see that almost always and every where the number ]*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21167904_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
