The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother Part 13

WHY ARE WOMEN REDUNDANT?

It cannot be without interest to look into the relative proportion of men and women now living. It will interest us still more to inquire into the reason why one s.e.x preponderates over the other in numbers. This done, we will answer the question; Is the production of s.e.x at all under the influence of the human will?

The female s.e.x is the more numerous in all thickly populated parts of the world where we have trustworthy statistics. In Austria, England, and Wales, there are nearly one hundred and five women for every one hundred men. In Sweden they are as one hundred and nine to one hundred. In all cities the disproportion is greater than in the country. In London there are one hundred and thirteen women to every one hundred men; and in the large towns of Sweden they stand as one hundred and sixteen to one hundred.

This is not true, however, of newly-populated regions. The relative difference is reversed in recent and thinly-settled localities. In our Western States, for instance, the number of the men exceeds that of the women. In California they are as three to one; in Nevada as eight to one; in Colorado, twenty to one. In the State of Illinois there were, according to a recent United States census, ninety-three thousand more men than women. In Ma.s.sachusetts, on the contrary, there are between fifty and sixty thousand more women than men.

The disproportion of men to women in new countries is due to the disinclination of women to emigrate. They are also unfitted for the hardships of pioneer life.

How is this general preponderance in the number of women produced? Is it because there are more girls born than boys? Not at all. The statistics of over fifty-eight millions of persons show that there are one hundred and six living boys born to every one hundred girls. In the state of Rhode Island, for instance, the proportion for three years, from 1853 to 1855, was one thousand and sixty-four boys born to one thousand girls.

But now we meet with the wonderful arrangement of nature, that a larger proportional number of male infants die during the first year of their lives than of females. In the second year, the mortality, though less excessive, still remains far greater on the male side. It subsequently decreases, and at the age of four or five years is nearly equal for both s.e.xes. In after life, from the age of fifteen to forty, the mortality is something greater among women, but not sufficiently so to make the number of the two s.e.xes equal. The greater tendency of male offspring to die early is seen even before birth, for more male children are still-born than female,--namely, as three to two. For this reason, the term 'the stronger s.e.x,' applied to men, has been regarded by some authors as a misnomer. They are physically weaker in early life, and succ.u.mb more readily to noxious influences.

Having thus pointed out that there are more women actually living in the world than men, although a larger number of boys are born than girls, we will consider for a moment some of the laws of nature which determine the number of the s.e.xes. Without giving the figures,--which would make dry reading,--we will state in brief the conclusions derived from many observations, extending over many years and many nationalities. The relative age of the parents has an especial influence upon the s.e.x of the children. Seniority on the father's side gives excess of male offspring. Equality in the parents' age gives a slight preponderance of female offspring. Seniority on the mother's side gives excess of female offspring. This tallies with the fact that in all civilized countries, as has been stated, the proportion of male births is greater than that of females; for, in accordance with the customs of society, the husband is generally older than the wife. A curious instance, in confirmation of this law, has recently come under our observation. A patient, married for the second time, is ten years older than her husband. She has two children by him, both girls. Singular to relate, her former husband was ten years older than herself, and by him she had four children, of whom three were boys, the fourth (a girl) having a twin brother.

Still, the relative age is not the sole cause which fixes the s.e.x of the child. Its operation is sometimes overruled by conflicting agencies. In some districts of Norway, for example, there has been a constant deficiency in boys, while in others the reverse has been the case. The circ.u.mstance is well known, that after great wars, and sometimes epidemics, in which a disproportionate number of men have died, more boys are born than usual. Men who pa.s.s a sedentary life, and especially scholars who exhaust their nervous force to a great extent, beget more girls than boys. So, also, a very advanced age on the man's side diminishes the number of males among the offspring. The quant.i.ty and the quality of the food; the elevation of the abode; the conditions of temperature; the parents' mode of life, rank, religious belief, frequency of s.e.xual intercourse,--have all been shown to be causes contributing to the disproportion of the s.e.xes, besides the relative ages of the parents.

Some writers have stated that a southerly or warm and humid const.i.tution of the year is most favorable to the birth of female infants, while in cold and dry years most males are produced. This statement has not been supported by trustworthy statistics in regard to the human race, but in respect of domestic animals the agriculturists of France have long observed that the season has much to do with the s.e.x. When the weather is dry and cold, and the wind northerly, mares, ewes, and heifers produce more males than when the opposite meteorological condition prevails.

The saying among nurses, that 'This is the year for sons or daughters,'

is based upon the erroneous supposition that mothers bring forth more male infants in one year than in another.

That, however, which concerns us the most in this connection, is the question:

CAN THE s.e.xES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?

This question was asked many centuries ago. It was a hard one, and remained without a satisfactory answer until quite recently. Science has at last replied to it with authority. M. Thury, Professor in the Academy of Geneva, has shown how males and females may be produced in accordance with our wishes.

Some families are most anxious for male offspring, others ardently desire daughters. And would it not often be a matter of national concern to control the percentage of s.e.xes in the population? Is it not a 'consummation most devoutly to be wished,' to bring about that Utopian condition when there would be no sighing maids at home, nor want of warriors in the field? The discussion of this subject is therefore important and allowable.

It has been observed that queen-bees lay female eggs first, and male eggs afterwards. So with hens: the first-laid eggs give female, the last male products. Mares shown the stallion late in their periods, drop horse-colts rather than fillies.

Professor Thury, from the consideration of these and other like facts, formed this law for stock-raisers: 'If you wish to produce females, give the male at the first signs of heat; if you wish males, give him at the end of the heat.' But it is easy to form a theory. How was this law sustained in practice? We have now in our possession the certificate of a Swiss stock-grower, son of the President of the Swiss Agricultural Society, Canton de Vaud, under date of February 1867, which says:

'In the first place, on twenty-two successive occasions I desired to have heifers. My cows were of Schurtz breed, and my bull a pure Durham.

I succeeded in these cases. Having bought a pure Durham cow, it was very important for me to have a new bull, to supersede the one I had bought at great expense, without leaving to chance the production of a male. So I followed accordingly the prescription of Professor Thury, and the success has proved once more the truth of the law. I have obtained from my Durham bull six more bulls (Schurtz-Durham cross) for fieldwork; and having chosen cows of the same color and height, I obtained perfect matches of oxen. My herd amounted to forty cows of every age.

'In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experiments after the new method, and in every one I succeeded in the production of what I was looking for--male and female. I had not one single failure. All the experiments have been made by myself, without any other person's intervention; consequently, I do declare that I consider as real and certainly perfect the method of Professor Thury.'

A perfectly trustworthy observer communicates by the _Medical and Surgical Reporter_ of Philadelphia for May 2, 1868, the results of similar experiments on animals, with like conclusions.

The plan of M. Thury was also tried on the farms of the late Emperor of the French, with, it is a.s.serted, the most unvarying success.

What is the result of the application of this law to the human race? Dr.

F. J. W. Packman, of Wimborne, has stated in the _Lancet_, that, 'in the human female, conception in the first half of the time between menstrual periods produces female offspring, and male in the latter. When a female has gone beyond the time she calculated upon, it will generally turn out to be a boy.'

In the Philadelphia _Medical and Surgical Reporter_ for February 8, 1868, a respectable physician writes that, in numerous instances that have come under his observation, Professor Thury's theory has proved correct, 'Whenever intercourse has taken place in from two to six days after the cessation of the menses, girls have been produced; and whenever intercourse has taken place in from nine to twelve days after the cessation of the menses, boys have been produced. In every case I have ascertained not only the date at which the mother placed conception, but also the time when the menses ceased, the date of the first and subsequent intercourse for a month or more after the cessation of the menses,' etc.

Again, a physician writes to the same journal for June 20, 1868, recording the result of his own experience.

A farmer in Louisiana states, in the _Turf, Field, and Farm_, in support of this law, that 'I have already been able in many cases to guess with certainty the s.e.x of a future infant. More than thirty times, among my friends, I have predicted the s.e.x of a child before its birth, and the event proved nearly every time that I was right.'

The wife, therefore, who would wish, as Macbeth desired of his, to

'Bring forth men-children only,'

should avoid exposing herself to conception during the early part of the time between her menstrual periods.

The prediction of the s.e.x of the child before birth can now be with some accuracy made by the intelligent and skilful physician. The method of doing so will be mentioned in treating of pregnancy.

TWIN-BEARING.

As a rule, a woman has one child at a time. Twins, when they occur, are looked upon with disfavor by most people. There is a popular notion that they are apt to be wanting in physical and mental vigor. This opinion is not without foundation. A careful scientific examination of the subject has shown, that of imbeciles and idiots a much larger proportion is actually found among the twins born than in the general community. In families where twinning is frequent, bodily deformities likewise occur with frequency. Among the relatives of imbeciles and idiots, twin-bearing is common. In fact, the whole history of twin-births is of an exceptional character, indicating imperfect development and feeble organization in the product, and leading us to regard twins in the human species as a departure from the physiological rule, and therefore injurious to all concerned. Monsters born without brains have rarely occurred except among twins.

The birth of twins occurs once in about eighty deliveries. A woman is more apt to have no children than to have more than one at a time. In view of the increased danger to both mother and child, this rarity of a plural birth is fortunate.

WHY ARE TWINS BORN?

What are the causes or favouring circ.u.mstances bringing about this abnormal child-bearing? For it is brought about by the operation of laws. It is not an accident. There are no accidents in nature. By some it is supposed to be due to the mother, by some to the father. There are facts in favour of both opinions. Certain women married successively to several men have always had twins, while their husbands with other wives have determined single births. Certain men have presented the same phenomenon. We can scarcely cite an example more astonishing than that of a countryman who was presented to the Empress of Russia in 1755. He had had two wives. The first had fifty-seven children in twenty-one confinements; the second, thirty-three in thirteen. All the confinements had been quadruple, triple, or double. A case has come under our own observation in which the bearing of twins has seemed to be due to a const.i.tutional cause. The wife has nine children. The first was a single birth, a girl; the others were all twin-births, and boys.

It has been a.s.serted that compound pregnancies are more frequent in certain years than in others. But that which seems to exert the greatest actual influence over the production of twins is the age of the mother.

Very extensive statistics have demonstrated that, from the earliest child-bearing period until the age of forty is reached, the fertility of mothers in twins gradually increases. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, fewest wives have twins. The average age of the twin-bearer is older than the general run of bearers. It is well known that by far the greater number of twins are born of elderly women. While three-fifths of all births occur among women under thirty years of age, three-fifths of all the twins are born to those over thirty years of age. Newly-married women are more likely to have twins at the first labour the older they are. The chance that a young wife from fifteen to nineteen shall bear twins is only as one to one hundred and eighty-nine; from thirty-five to thirty-nine the chance is as one to forty-five,--that is, the wives married youngest have fewest twins; and there is an increase as age advances, until forty is reached.

Race seems to have some influence over plural births. They occur relatively oftener among the Irish than among the English.

INFLUENCE OF TWIN-BEARING ON SIZE OF FAMILIES.

Do women bearing twins have in the end larger families than those never having but one at a time? Popular belief would answer this question in the affirmative. Such a reply would also seem to receive support from the fact, well established, that twins are more frequently additions to an already considerable family than they are either the first of a family or additional to a small family. But statistics have not answered this question as yet positively. They seem, however, in favour of the supposition that twin-bearing women have larger families than their neighbors.

Women are more apt to have twins in their first pregnancy than any other, but after the second confinement the bearing of twins increases in frequency with the number of the pregnancy. It becomes, therefore, an indication of an excessive family, and is to be deplored.

MORE THAN TWO CHILDREN AT A BIRTH.

Cases of the birth of more than two children at a time are still less frequently met with than twins. They are scarcely ever encountered, excepting in women who have pa.s.sed their thirtieth year. Such cases are all more or less unfortunate both for the mother and the children.

THREE AT A BIRTH.

The births of triplets are not exclusively confined to women above thirty years, but in those younger they are so rare as to be great curiosities. Neither are they apt to occur in the first pregnancy. In this respect they differ from twins, who, as has just been said, are peculiarly p.r.o.ne to make their appearance at the first childbirth. Only four cases of treble births occurred among the 36,000 accouchements which have taken place in the Hospice de Maternite of Paris in a determined time. Out of 48,000 cases of labor in the Royal Maternity Charity in London, only three triplets occurred. History informs us that the three Roman brothers, the Horatii, were triplets. They fought and conquered the three Curiatii of Alba (667 B. C.) who were likewise triplets.

As an interesting fact in connection with this subject, we may mention that in the St. Petersburg Midwives' Inst.i.tute, between 1845-59, there were three women admitted, who, in their fifteenth pregnancies, had triplets, and each had triplets three times in succession. Happily, the fifteenth pregnancy is not reached by most women.

FOUR AT A BIRTH.