The sexual life of woman in its physiological, pathological and hygienic aspects

by E. Heinrich Kisch

In opposition to these opinions of Fiquet and Janke, to the effect that the temperament and the sexual vigour of the progenitors have a determining influence in the origination of the sex of the offspring, Düsing insists that the quality of the reproductive products are alone influential. Düsing lays down the following proposition: “The greater the scarcity of individuals of one sex is, the more extensive consequently the demands made upon the sexual capacities of the individuals of that sex, the more rapidly their reproductive products are employed; and the younger these products therefore are when employed the more individuals of their own sex will appear among the offspring.”

Richarz believes, on the contrary, that the prepotency of the male gives rise to the procreation of more girls; a mother of high reproductive capacity will have more boys, one of less reproductive capacity, on the other hand, more girls.

Starkweather (“The Law of Sex,” London, 1883) states his view in the proposition: “The superior parent produces the opposite sex;” and he holds the quaint view that this superiority is displayed in certain anatomical characters of the face of the progenitor. He endeavours from the shape of the head and from the facial expression to deduce the superiority of the male and the female progenitor respectively. A high, square forehead, with prominent supra-ciliary ridges, constitutes, according to Starkweather, one of the principal symptoms of this superiority; important also are a strongly developed middle third to the nose, narrow lips, etc. He declares that in families known to him the possession of this Roman nose in the father is signalized by the possession also of a large number of daughters, while a Roman-nosed mother has many sons. The more the parents’ noses resemble each other the more equal will be the distribution of the sexes among the offspring. He connects this fact (!) also with the fact that the possessor of the aquiline nose is the ruler of the family. Men of great strength of character procreate chiefly daughters; women, on the other hand, with a powerful character and a firm will bring into the world a notable excess of boys. In the Southern States of the American union Starkweather found confirmation of his theory, since he observed there that among the offspring of white fathers and coloured mothers there was an excess of girls amounting to 12 to 15 per cent. Among the half-castes of Java, the so-called Lipplapps, in the third generation girls only are born, and these are sterile. The excess of girls in these cases depends upon the superiority of the white father; this superiority is transmitted to the few sons of the second generation, and these therefore procreate girls only to constitute the third generation; the latter are not powerful enough to bear children at all.

Roth has revived the old view that one ovary provides the germs for the male offspring, the other those for the female offspring. He believes further that in the process of cohabitation the mechanical impressions and stimuli received by one-half of the external genital organs, reinforced by contact with and pulling on the pubic hair, are transmitted through the pudic nerve and the hypogastric plexus to the corresponding half of the vagina and the uterus, to the Fallopian tube of that side and to the corresponding ovary. If, now, we can consider it as established (?), that in the human female one ovary discharges male ova only and the other female ova only, it seems to him that it is the corresponding half of the external genital organs, when specifically stimulated in sexual intercourse, and the consequently increased vital activity in the pudic nerve and its connections with the hypogastric plexus, that must be regarded as the organ by means of which sex is determined. Roth has also been informed by laymen that when for some time they have procreated daughters only they subsequently procreated sons, “when, having been accustomed to sleep on one side of their wife, they adopted the practice of sleeping on the other.”

Ricardi reports that in Modena the peasants say that a man whose wife has hitherto had daughters only, must, if he wishes to have a son, assume some other posture than usual in the performance of coitus.

III. Experimental Investigations.

A considerable number of years ago, Thury attacked the problem of the determination of sex by the experimental method. In his series of experiments he ascertained, using 29 cows, that in the case of 22 of these, which were served early in their heat, the calves were without exception heifers, while in the case of the remaining 7, which were served late in their heat, the calves were equally without exception bull-calves (Thury, “The Law of the Determination of the Sexes,” Leipzig, 1863); in the record of these experiments no mention is made of the age of the cows. Thury concluded that the sex was determined according to the fertilization of the ovum soon or late after its liberation from the ovary; namely, that an ovum fertilized soon after its discharge produced a female, whilst an ovum which had become comparatively old before it was fertilized became a male.

Thury’s sensational experiments gave rise to a succession of similar experiments, made mostly by cattle-breeders, above all in agricultural colleges and in stud-farms.

Some of these experiments were made in the agricultural colleges at Proskau and Eldera. The cows, which according to Thury’s views should have been delivered of heifers, were served as soon as their heat was observed (the heat lasted as a rule from 24 to 30 hours); these were delivered of 5 heifers and 5 bull-calves (in Proskau) and of 3 heifers and 5 bull-calves (in Eldera); the sexual ratio in these cases was therefore normal. On the other hand, cows which were not served until their heat had lasted for 20 hours were delivered (in Proskau) of 1 heifer and 4 bull-calves.

Further experiments (in Waldau) gave the result that cows served early were delivered of 1 heifer and 1 bull-calf. In another series (in Eldera) 9 cows served as soon as heat was observed (or, speaking strictly, in from ½ to 1½ hours of this), gave birth to 7 heifers and 2 bull-calves.