Two other cases follow in which male children were desired, several females having so far been the offspring of the marriage. The corresponding arrangements for the regulation of the diet, which led to the complete disappearance of sugar from the urine, showed themselves effective in the ripening of the ovum, and, after conception had taken place, in both cases a male individual was formed and developed.
In addition to this, four other cases were under observation, in which no influence was exercised on sugar occurring in the urine in quantities, such as correspond to a normal healthy state. Without any kind of influence of diet, three females were born.
In a fourth case I had a negative result. In three cases the result was positive. In the last three cases I was able to examine the urine as often as I wished, whilst in one case I was allowed to do so only at long intervals as a favor.
Let us now in conclusion endeavor to make some short reflections on the results which we are able to attain.
First of all one would say that in certain regions and among certain peoples, where meat forms the principal diet, only male, or principally male, offspring would be anticipated.
The nutrition of the mother certainly plays a leading part in the development of the ovum within her body. The different experiments which breeders have made, and the observations which have repeatedly shown in the case of the invertebrata (v. Berlepsch, ‘Die Biene und ihre Zucht,’ second edition; Landois, ‘Physiologie’), a connection between food and the development of sex leave no doubt that, in the case of the human subject also, a certain diet of the mother would not be without influence on the ovum developing within her. Here, however, in the case of the ripening of the ovum, according to my opinion, the result does not depend on the diet alone, but rather on the process of metabolism in the mother.
How the physiological combustion goes on in the organism, and what changes take place in it, in consequence of the altered diet, until the sugar entirely disappears, is in the case of human beings of the highest importance, and furnishes an index of the consequences.
In individual cases the diet is directed in accordance with the results that show how the food has been assimilated and does not depend upon these alone. In other words, whether the mother eats much meat is a secondary consideration. Whether and how the food taken is completely made use of in the process of combustion—that is a matter of importance for the purpose we have in view.