596 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



in the country had male-bearing tendencies, and, therefore, 

 what possibiHty there was of a male-bearing man having male- : 

 bearing offspring if there was no inheritance. 



For these reasons, the total numbers in the families had to 

 be used as the basis of comparison. With large numbers, it 

 was relatively easy to draw some line to separate normal from 

 male-bearing families ; and, also, it was easy to fix the normal 

 proportions of the sexes. Naturally, " at birth " figures had 

 to be used, and these were obtained from the reports of the 

 Registrar-General. In 1838 the proportion was 1,045 males to 

 1,000 females ; in 19 14 it was 1,035 to 1,000 females ; and the 

 'average for the whole period was 1,040 males to 1,000 females. 

 From this average figure the " normal " excess of male over 

 female births was calculated, and to simplify matters it was 

 taken as a working figure that the proportion of males in a 



normal family would be -— (actually j. As a dividing 



line had to be fixed somewhere, it was decided that all families 

 found showing a higher proportion of males to females than 

 1,100 : 1,000 through many generations should be considered 

 male-bearing and abnormal, and, therefore, suitable for the 

 purposes of this investigation. 



Many dozens of genealogies were examined, and out of these six 

 were abnormal in having more than i ,100 males to i ,000 females. 



The first of these contained 285 persons. Of these, 163 were 

 male and 122 female ; this was clearly male-bearing, as the 

 normal numbers would have been 145-35 rnale to 139-65 female. 

 But the really interesting point appeared when the female 

 lines were separated from the male. The former showed 68 

 males and 6y females — for all practical purposes a normal ratio 

 (actual normal being 68-85 rnales and 66-15 females). In the 

 male line, however, the numbers were 95 and 55 respectively, 

 as against the normal ratios of 76-50 and 73-50. This shows 

 definitely that in this family the whole male-bearing poten- 

 tialities of the strain were vested in the male line. Assuming, 

 as it is fair to assume, that on the whole all the members of 

 the family married normal people, it is indicated that the 

 characteristic of begetting abnormal proportions of the sexes 

 is an attribute of the male. 

 Full analysis of Family i : 



