2 5 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



'genius,' we have on the physical side certain equally rare individuals 

 who at birth enormously excel their fellows in physical size, while 

 yet remaining normal and well proportioned. Now, we may ask, do 

 these individuals possessing congenital physical 'genius' resemble per- 

 sons of psychic genius in being more often male than female? Ordi- 

 nary statistics are not here available, for these cases are so rare that 

 they very seldom fall into an ordinary series. Smellic found one 

 child weighing over 13 pounds in 8,000 cases; in France, a child of 

 12 pounds was only found in 20,000 cases.* As even a child of 9 

 pounds is generally considered large, it is clear that when we get 

 beyond 13 pounds we reach a point at which the average difference 

 between males and females is trifling, so that there is almost as 

 great a chance of females as of males reaching the extremely large 

 weights. The only practicable way of obtaining information concern- 

 ing these cases lay in collecting the scattered records. I have collected 

 all that I can find in medical journals of standing, chiefly English, 

 during the past half century, being aided by the references in Neale's 

 'Medical Digest.' I have only noted the cases that appear to have 

 been healthy and well developed and weighed over 13 pounds at 

 birth. One unexpected difficulty I encountered : in many cases, even 

 when numerous measurements were given, no reference was made to 

 sex. While such cases were necessarily rejected, I may say that I 

 think it probable that most, and perhaps all, of these rejected cases 

 were males; this was so in the only case in which, by writing to the 

 medical reporter immediately on publication, I was able to repair the 

 omission; the medical mind seems to share in some degree the instinc- 

 tive conviction that the typical human being is a male, and that in 

 the case of males it is unnecessary to make any reference to sex. 

 My cases were thus reduced to 21. Of these there were only 3 females 

 to 18 males. The females all died at birth, as well as about half the 

 males. However rough this method of estimation may be, it is highly 

 improbable that any more methodical inquiry on children of this size 

 would entirely reverse so large a preponderance of males. 



Such a result, it will be seen, can not be considered as absolutely 

 conclusive proof that there exists a selection of birth which in its 

 operation tends to the destruction of the larger male children either at 

 the moment of birth or during the succeeding days and weeks, though 

 it renders such selection probable. This element of doubt, however, 

 by no means makes Professor Pearson's position any stronger. It 



* It must also be said that (as in the case of psychic genius) it is among 

 the well-to-do classes that these very large infants are most usually found, not 

 only because the parents tend to be larger among these classes, but because, 

 as has lately been shown, other things being equal, women who rest during 

 pregnancy tend to have larger children. 



