BALANCE OF SEXES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 261, 25 March 1911, Page 10

BALANCE OF SEXES.

SOME STRIKING THEORIES. The old query as to what mechanism makes the numbers of men and women remain so nearly alike through ages of .time and in different lands has alwaj-i been something of a puzzle, and Mr. R. J. Ewart, writing in Nature, notes that the old reply, that if such were not the case the species would not survive, does not reveal the method. The facts of history show that while during wars and other social upheavals, males have largely suffered, yet within an apparently short period of time, as measured by such events, a balance has been re-established. Sex equilibrium, Mr. Ewart says, may be compared to a gyroscope, where the greater the disturbance the greater the force tending to re-establish its position. Nature, lie tells us, never does anything exactly, but approaches an object by lateral control, which guides her, should any deviation occur. Thus she does not proceed along a straight line, but is continually oscillating like an inebriate in search of his dwelling. All that can be said is that he has a tendency homeward. We read:

"The facts regulating sex must be something of the same type, and are such that the greater the oscillation in any one direction the greater must be the restraining force invoked to curb or neutralise the movement. All such movements have an inertia, and consequently, like a pendulum, pass the middle line and establish a negative I pha.se. The history of any race in its j sex composition would show us that such oscillations have occurred throughout time, modified, no doubt, in their regular sequence by such factors as wars and famine. These oscillations of sex balance have brought with them certain changes and movements in the people themselves ; an excess of males would naturally tend to produce war, either civil or foreign, while a superfluity of females is easily associated with upheavals in the domestic policy of the community. There is no doubt that, could we tra«e the history of the world, or any section of it, we should see that man simply reacts to certain variations which are inevitable sequences in the establishment of the balance. Are there at present any indications of the methods upon which, or factors by which, this state is maintained? As is usually found, 'truth is simple,' and so the workings of Nature, when onc« discovered, are easily understood. The sex constitution of our population, upon which such mighty issues depend, appears to obtain its regulating force from a very simple factor, and apparently is correlated with age only. "At the present time the sex balance is as follows: At birth the ratio of males to females is about 1030 to 1000; at the fifth year, owing to deaths among the males, the balance is equal; from the fifth to the fifteenth year the mortality among the females is slightly higher than among the males, but from that time onward, the females relatively increase. If we take a male as a few years older than the female for the purpose of mating, then the balance is disturbed further still. The result of this is to produce in a community a section of women who cannot possibly perform the function for which they were fashioned. Their energies are naturally directed into other spheres, as evidence of which we see the revival of the movement for political recognition. The agitation is no new one, and apparently is dependent for its strength and virility on the position of the sex pendulum. If the present female oscillation has not reached its zenith the agitation will continue; if the reverse is happening, as there is reason to believe to be the case, then the present movement, after certain bursts of rejuvenescence, should slowly subside, to be again resurrected at some future epoch in the history of the world." As a matter of fact, Mr. Ewart says, the tendency is to produce females over males is present in young mothers; at more mature ages there is an excess of males, and the self-regulating- balance depends on this. When females are scarce they naturally, owing to demand, mate early in life, and tend to reproduce an excess of their own kind (females), thus neutralising the state which recently existed. On the other hand, with males in the minority, the females will mate at more mature ages, in which circumstance an excess of males is .produced: "We see, therefore, that the natural tendency at the present time is to neutralise the female excess. We may possiblv look upon ourselves at the present, time as being at the zenith of. female oscillation, and as time progresses, helped probnbly by a saving of infantile life, a more numerical quality of the sexes will be established.

"The relationship of the age of the father to the sex of the child is much the same as the mother, and where disparity in age occurs the influence may neutralise each other, so that with a mother of about twenty years and a father of about thirty years the chance of a boy or a girl should be about as equal as. Nature can make such a problem. Education is attemptins to teach the inhibition of self, and thus relaying the age of marriage, so that the preponderance of male births should go on increasing. If the present rate of progress is maintained, and allowing for the greater mortality of the male infant over the female, an average marriage rate of between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years should produce a population in which the males are at all periods in excess of the females."