THE LAW OF SEX.* Tins is a very odd book.
The author begins by telling us that no question of social science has hitherto been involved in such complete darkness as that of the law of sex,—or, in other words, what it is which determines whether children will be boys or girls. " On no subject has charlatanism had more to say," " nor is there any upon which its declara- tions have met with so favourable a reception," nor has any " scientific question attracted the thoughts of greater men." Yet after all, " the theories advanced are as diverse as they are numerous, and as contradictory as they are improbable. They have but one feature in common, that is, their utter inability to account for the facts." A list has been compiled " of more than 1,000 writers who have studied this question during the past twenty-five centuries, all of whom have passed away without sug- gesting or discovering anything to disperse, or even to diminish, the darkness in which the whole subject was enveloped." But after Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Buffon, Priestley, Cnvier, Darwin, and Spencer," it is humiliating to confess that, on the whole, the question occupies a position infinitely worse than when Aristotle first considered it ; it has fallen into the hands of the mounte- bank," and a good authority has declared that " whoever can determine sex at will is either a fool or a knave." But Bacon led men to study nature. "In seeking to discover the law of sex, we find material to work upon everywhere ; in every social gathering, in every household, and in every library may be found data to construct a hypothesis." " Slowly but surely the Time- spirit will whisper the secret into our ears, if we will but listen." And behold, where Aristotle and Darwin have failed, the Time- spirit clothes itself in human flesh, and Mr. George B. Stark- weather, F.R.G.S., comes to the rescue, and reveals to us a theory which he asserts not only will render " the preponderance of one sex over the other preventable in society at large," but one by which "it is perfectly possible to insure the sex of our off- spring with something approaching to absolute certainty." Truly may the author call his assertion a bold one. But he does not shrink fFom upholding it. After some eighty pages spent in demolishing all previous theories, at length, on page 91, the great secret is whispered, or rather shouted, in our ear, for it is printed in italics :—" Sex is determined by the superior parent, and the superior parent produces the opposite sex." When we ask what is superiority, there is no lack of answers. In the first place, the " invidious meanings of the word used in ordinary social phraseology must be altogether eliminated." " Superi- ority means everything that tends to increase functional energy in any part of the system, and it does not follow that it" implies " superior mental or moral qualities." It consists, accordingly, in superiority in feeling, in activity, in cerebral development, in elasticity, in temperament, in complexion, in will, in the reproductive system, in the muscular and osseous system, and the nutritive system. It is " superior " to have "great vivacity of feeling, an active imagination, and a rapid
succession of ideas." It is equally superior "to devote one- self to the accomplishment of a single object, to have great con- stancy of purpose, and to be apt to ride hobbies." It is superior to have a "very sensitive" skin, and also to have one which is "dry, warm, and hairy." Dark complexions are superior to light; a bilious temperament is superior to a lymphatic due; and so on. Then, when we ask for the marks of superiority, we are to look for a big hand, " other things being equal,—brit other conditions are seldom or never equal "—a hairy brow, prominent veins, piercing and not large, prominent, eyes, but after all, " a medium- sized eye is the best." But the nose is the feature for superiority. Plenty of nose is the thing, " a Roman or aquiline fullness of the dorsum," though, as this is often found "in persons having small heads, who are almost destitute of moral and intellectual • Tho Law of Sex. By George B. Btarkweather, F.R.G.S. London : J. and A- Churchill. 1883. taste," the nose is not, after all, a very safe guide. So, too, with the month and lips ; " firm lips " are the thing, but " they may belong to a small-sound individual. whose sole distinguishing trait is obstinacy." In truth, "the medium size is probably, on the whole, the most desirable ;" and in chins " it is safer to say that a moderately full chin is the most desirable of all." It is clear that it is not very easy to say what superiority is, nor what are its marks, except for the infallible test that when the majority of children are boys, the wife must be superior, and vice versa. This, however, is not much assistance to the young man or young woman about to marry, who has to select his or her superior or inferior. Nor is it very apparent why the rule of con- traries should prevail. It is, however, we are assured, founded on the laws of life, because there are two poles in electricity, because the human body is electric, and because, in some in- stances, a blow on one side of the head has been followed by paralysis on the other.
But the true argument for this precious theory is that it is founded on such wide-spread inductions. The author "first became personally interested in the question of sex" in his own household, from which we may pardonably conclude that he has a large family of daughters. "After a time, he had almost unconsciously fallen into a habit of meditating upon the law of sex," and used to be always studying his friends and acquaint- ances. After having adopted his hypothesis, he established, as a sort of "medium axioma," that sex followed the Romanness of the nose. But he was often thrown off the scent by apparent exceptions, but he generally found that in such cases the Roman nose was tempered by drink, or laziness, or a bad digestion, or some other equally indubitable mark of inferiority. Meanwhile, it is satisfactory to learn that if there has been a run on boys or girls, it can be stopped, and the superiority can be transferred to the other side, by an assiduous course of training. The man with too active a brain is to take to yachting and idleness, the John Bull must take to walking ; and so forth. If there have been half-a-dozen sons, and a daughter is wanted, let the husband take a course of Turkish baths and the lady resort to sitz baths, and the thing is done.
The book is really very amusing, after chapter vi., where the author relates how his theory was revealed to him, and his ex- periences in search of facts or noses to support it. The pictures at the end, too, in which for the purposes of illustration poor Mr. J. S. Mill, under the name of " A 3," is mated with a dyspeptic-looking female, who must have been the sister of Mr. Weller's Shepherd, and Immanuel Kant with a sort of Mrs. Brownrigg, is exceedingly comic in itself, and also as illustrating the author's notions of " superiority." He has suggested an additional interest in making new acquaintances, to measure the number of their sons by the length of their noses, and to guess which are the ruling spirits of the household by the predominance of girls. It is, terrible, however, to think how many men with their quivers full of public schoolboys will have to hide their diminished heads, now their henpeckedness is made potent to the world, and how many women will have their horns exalted. But, meanwhile, we do not feel disposed greatly to think that the author's opinion will cause society to cease from "virtually tabooing " the subject, " so absurd are most of the explanations hitherto offered."
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