Miscellaneous. An Interesting Theory.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1860, 7 June 1884, Page 6

Miscellaneous. An Interesting Theory.

THE IAW OF SEX DISCOVERED A^D CAHEi'OLLY ANALYZED. The author claims to make known " & new discovery of a great law of nature, nothing less than the law which governs the sexes, and whereby the sex of offspringcan be controlled." He has worked for twenty years at the subject, carefully counting tho number of boys and girls in the families of his acquaintance, summing up tha characteristics nnd taking the portraits of the parents, and readiog Darwin and other authors who have handled the question The great discovery is the law thfit " sex is determined by what i shall designate as the superior parent ; also that the superior parent produces the opposit3 sex ; " that is to say, that if tho husband ig superior to the wife the family will consist mostly of girw, and tice vera. Hence, as the author explains, results the preservation of the balance ot the sexes, for in the nest generation tha girls, inheriting their father's superiority, wiU in mosL cases, produce families with a larger proportion of boyo. In future tbeie will be no need to try in order to determine who i'ale3 the roost in one's noighbor's family — it will only be necessary to count hid boys and girls in order to determine the point ; hence it is to b9 expected that the desire for male offspring will scarcely remain so strongly developed in fathers as hitherto. Dark complexion is superior to light, dark plants and txees are the most hardy and dark horses the best. A square forehead and prominent veins are "superior;" a laige prominent eye (which " indicates conversational powers") is the reverse. But tho best indication of superiority is a large and prominent nose, Eoman or aquiline, full a third the length of the face. As an illustration of the method of summing up tha charaateiiaties of parents from the rules laid down, the several portraits of opposite ses given in the plates are hypothetically married, pair by pair, and their superiority or inferiority is estimated numerically, 100 being taken as ft standard number ; hence tho number of children of either sex which such pairs ought to produce, according to the new theory, is arrived at. One of the most ill-favored of the ugly women is rn^ted, for example with the man, with the head which is biggest at the top, and tha roBult is that if the pair have twenty children they will all be girls. Then come a series of cases from personal experience of the author, M. 8., a man of genius, with largo head and slender body, with a corpulent wife, of moderate intelligence, had five daughter?. Mine. A., a &tvong woman with masculine voice and slightly bearded chin, had seven children, all sons. " I became acquainted with a man of good address, with a well shaped head and Roman nose. His wife was of consumptive tendency, of literary tastes, but with an infantile nos-e and an expression of general inefficiency. Imagine my surprise when I found they had three boys." But the law remains unshaken ; " all was satisfactorily explained," the husband wa*3 extremely illiterate and addicted to drink. " Nothing more surely degrades the nature." Philosophers, lawyers, poets, literary men, and brain workers generally have p large excess of daughters. Wine merchants, tavern keepers, small retail dealers, oi atoms, physicians, and musicians have a preponderouce of boys. Clergymen appeal 1 ja^b to sitruggle through the ordeal without incurring the stigma of inferiority, being equally intelligent, sober, and moral with their wives, and producing an equal number of boys and girls. Of course, for tho stability of the new law, it becomes necessary to show that miuiciana, medical men, and orators are inferior. Accordingly the first are lymphatic, the second are made rather than born to their profession (and the mo3t distinguished, as an exception, have large families of daughters), and mere public speakers do not possess " the highest order of facilities or intellects," while in most 11 the base of the brain will bo found to predominate over the superior portion." Were the theory established no married member of the learned professions would be able to get any employment at all unless they had largo families of girl?. They could not afford to run risks, and it would become a matter of common prudence with them 10 secure idiots for wives for fear of mishaps. — The London Athenaeum.