parent, and will generally be delicate. Perhaps the nervous temperament, from its extreme sensibility, is affected sooner and more profoundly by any disease or derangement than any of the others, and the sons of many a highly able and energetic father doubtless owe their existence to the temporary lowering of his standard by a sick headache, acute pain, a sudden shock, or the slow attack of disease. A family of healthy daughters and one delicate son generally tells a tale of such description.

and

Not physical or genital vigour, nor passional energy, nor greater age, nor higher nutrition, but all of these and much more, as so many manifestations of greater nervous or vital power, really determine superiority," and thus cast the sex of offspring; very much of this lies within our own control. In concluding these special hints, I confidently believe that a time will speedily come, when with a careful study of the matter, and, in special cases, with help from competent scientific and medical advice, a complete system may be laid down whereby either sex can be healthily and readily begotten by any couple in average health, who are not widely mismated; and this with a near approach to certainty.

CHAPTER XI.

OTHER SOCIAL PROBLEMS-ELEVATION OF THE RACE

CONCLUSION.

Importance of the theory-Its result upon the human race-Consequent increase of happiness-The race elevated in nobility and capacityMirabeau's regrets-The price of existence-The source of real glory -Woman's power to remedy existing evils-Thoughts concerning the past-Large excess of males in the middle ages-The future of our race-Importance of female culture-The kind of immortality universally desired---How it may be attained-The blessings that follow in its train—Influence of the new theory upon the solution of other Social Problems-Woman's work in connection with this theory— What women should demand of men-The superstructure of the theory as yet only tentative, owing to the present state of physiological science-Soundness of its basis-Fields for observation indicatedThe theory easily mastered-Research stimulated.

ALTHOUGH I have now considered the practical

bearing of my discovery on the main subject in hand, and may thus be said to have brought my task to an end, there is a yet wider application of my theory, from which most important results may be deduced, results capable of solving Social Problems quite as important as that of sex. In this brief chapter I can do no more than glance at some of these, with the double object of justifying the title of the present work, and of strengthening the foundations of the theory I have sought to explain, by showing its beneficent influence on other and remoter parts of the field of enquiry. A theory which, while largely conducive to the increase of domestic happiness, can be shown to be productive of increased happiness to nations, by removing social difficulties, and by en

couraging the procreation of a race continually rising in nobility and capacity, surely claims a candid examination at the hands of those qualified to form a decisive opinion.

The previous chapter shows how an observance of the rules required by my theory will raise parents to their best possible condition; and this will not only react upon their offspring, but will also promote a similar result in many other ways. For instance, I trust it may appeal to our manhood. A standing disgrace to nearly all civilized countries is that there is an excess of some 5 or 6 per cent. of male births, but, to mention something still more discreditable, in spite of this the excess is insufficient to fill the gaps caused by an excessive mortality which is chiefly owing to the bad constitutions transmitted by fathers whose life stream has been sapped by indulgence or excess of one kind or another. What Mirabeau said of himself is true of only too many among us: "My early years have already in a great measure disinherited the succeeding ones, and dissipated a great part of my vital powers. Thus again says the Italian Giusti: "I assure you I pay a heavy price for existence. It is true our lives are not at our own disposal. Nature pretends to give things gratis at the beginning, and then sends in her account."

How many with noble brows, flowing beards, and the other insignia of virility might make a similar confession!

"Real glory

Springs from the silent conquest of ourselves,
And without that the conqueror is nought

But the first slave."

With a morality among men as strict as it is among women, there would not only be no male excess of births, but the males born would not die in excess as they now do, and consequently the lamentable redundancy of women between twenty and fifty would be largely reduced, and with it the amount of unhappiness that is its inevitable concomitant. Wars, accidents, and pestilence would for a time leave some female excess, but it would be gradually diminished.

This also appeals to the ladies, the mothers of the land, for they have it in their power more than any class to remedy existing evils. Philanthropists in vain discuss the reason and remedy for the redundancy of women. Noble-minded Christian women can remove this social blight if they will; the present volume plainly indicates the cause and cure. It will require an earnest effort and one generation to eradicate it, but it can be accomplished. Looking to the most civilized lands, we meet problems which may well challenge the attention of the philanthropist and Christian statesman. In Great Britain and Ireland, the female population in 1881, even including the army and navy, exceeded the male by 738,668. In the six New England States, the excess in 1880 was 92,556. These results are partly due to emigration, war, shipwrecks, and the risks and calamities which pertain specially to the employments of men -causes which will not cease, but continue-but chiefly to preventible immorality among men.

If, as already stated, there is in our own day an excess of some 5 or 6 per cent. of male births, owing to the greater amount of immorality among men than among women, we should expect to find

a far greater excess of males in past times, even a century or two back; for there can be little doubt that there has been an improvement in this respect, as in many others. The drinking habits of the upper classes have been modified considerably, and the same, though to a less degree, may be said of other forms of excess. The same result should be more strikingly manifest if we looked back to times yet more remote, when the lawless nobility and their numerous retainers had no bounds set to their indulgences save the lack of power to gratify them, and it would be a curious and instructive subject of investigation to endeavour to establish this by reference to old registers, family records, taxation returns, etc., which should show a very large number of families with sons in the majority. But there is one indirect line of evidence which goes to prove that such an excess of male births must have taken place, as our theory would lead us to expect. If in our comparatively orderly and peaceful days the 5 per cent. excess of male births is more than obliterated by disease, accidents, and wars, we must reckon a very much larger percentage of deaths from these causes, especially war, in ages when national wars and insurrections were of almost constant occurrence, and when private war between neighbouring nobles, raiding, border-lifting, and other forms of petty warfare were universal and continuous. Doubtless in those times women were also less moral than they are now, but the difference in their case would be far less than in that of men, owing to the life they then led of confinement and isolation in the feudal castles. The greater excess of male births should therefore still be found. And it