ARTICLES 599 



The percentage excess of per cent, deviation of males found 

 from males normal in male line over per cent, deviation ot 

 males found to males normal in whole family = 58-46. On the 

 other hand, the percentage deficiency in per cent, deviation of 

 males found from males normal in female line under per cent, 

 deviation of males found from males normal in whole line = 90*99. 

 These figures for the females, on the other hand, would be 

 respectively an excess of 58*38 per cent., and a deficiency of 

 90*95 per cent. 



These figures supply direct evidence in support of the 

 supposition that in man the male is heterozygous for sex, while 

 the female is homozygous ; and they prove the corollary that 

 the female has no determining influence on the sex of the 

 offspring. Also, they show that females, come they of ever so 

 strong a male-bearing strain, will, assuming the probability that 

 on the whole they marry normal people, have a normal equality 

 of the sexes among their offspring. In addition, the families 

 analysed above favour the proposition that preponderance of 

 males is due to abnormal excess of Y over X sperms produced 

 by the male, and not to any selective power on the part of the 

 ova. 



This supposition is also supported by other evidence, indirect, 

 but still interesting to note. As mentioned above, during the 

 war the one-time normal excess of male over female births rose 

 throughout England in a manner which could only be attributed 

 to the war. Now the war influenced the female population but 

 little compared with the fundamental alienation experienced by 

 the vast majority of the men ; and it is hard not to connect 

 the very appreciable alteration in the proportions of the sexes 

 at birth with the uprooting of the normal life of the men rather 

 than with the relatively small difference with which the women 

 had to contend. 



Finally, a last word may be said with regard to the accuracy 

 of the genealogies used. While every possible care was taken 

 to ensure that those presented above were as complete as could 

 be reasonably expected, it is a fair argument to say that females 

 tend to get omitted from such compilations more than the males. 

 True ; but, if this had happened to any large extent in the 

 tables under review, it would have made the families, as they 

 stand male-bearing, more or less normal. Now, there is no 

 reason to suppose that, if females had been left out, they would 

 have been left out more in one part of the family than in another. 

 If, therefore, a number of females had been omitted, the present 

 equality in the female lines would be disturbed, greatly in favour 

 of the females, though the family on the whole was normal, and 

 the females on the average married normal people. Clearly, it 

 is hardly legitimate to suppose that this could be uniformly so. 



