The ordinary man may well be somewhat abashed by the
variety of the themes which the British Association for the Advancement of Science handles at its annual meetings, and even more perhaps by the erudition with which they are treated. Yet they are often of the most concrete and immediate interest ; thus, for instance, at this year's meeting which opened on Wednesday at Nottingham, the President's address in the Zoological section was devoted to the Sex Ratio—the numerical proportions of the sexes in the popu- lation. And with data " torn " as he said, from the Registrar- General's Report for 1935 Professor Crew began by showing how remarkably that proportion changes in the course of a generation. In 1935 100 girls were born for every 105.6 boys ; of babies who died in the seventh-ninth month before birth there were rto boys for every too girls. Yet, among 15-19 year-olds the sexes are equal ; amongst the 20-24 year-olds females outnumber the males ; among the 85 year- olds they are two to one. The figures point to the curious conclusion that, as Professor Crew said, " to be born is a more dangerous adventure for the male than the female, and there is a sexually selective mortality which not only operates at all ages after birth to the disadvantage of the male but which acts, and possibly equally strongly, pre-natally as well. . . . The true recipe for longevity is to be born a girl."
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