ARE MORE BOYS BORN IN WAR TIME? 
war will leave a great dearth of 
males in Europe, but it is some- 
times alleged that Nature provides 
a compensated sex-ratio in births during 
and after such periods. Readers of 
ik IS acknowledged that the present 
Westermarck’s ‘History of Human 
Marriage’’ will remember that, in 
Chapter XXI, he quotes many supposed 
authorities to show that more boys 
than usual are born as a result of a 
ereat war or other period of hardship. 
The facts, if substantiated, would be 
of importance to eugenics, but Wester- 
marck’s handling of statistics is highly 
uncritical, and few outside of the pro- 
fession are able safely to weigh ques- 
tions of vital statistics. It is therefore 
of interest to have the opinion on this 
point of Prof. Walter F. Willcox, of 
Cornell University, one of the foremost 
American statisticians. Writing to the 
Syracuse Post-Standard, he said: 
“It is common opinion among statis- 
ticians that the excess of males in the 
total births increases during or shortly 
after a destructive war. American birth 
statistics are meager and unsatisfactory 
and consequently we have little Ameri- 
can evidence for or against the opinion. 
The only bit I know of is derived from 
Massachusetts, where the excess of 
male births during the five-year period 
of the Civil War was slightly greater 
than in any earlier or later period since 
1850, as the following figures show: 
Male birtlis to 
Period 1,000 femal» 
1851-55... 1,068 
VO5O-O0 ne hint acaet 1,063 
EBGIHGS ik cel ateeer ee 1,077 
NSO6 710: ..:.6.019 2 gases 1,065 
1871-75.. 1,068 
1976-805). ob. wr tee 1,065 
1881-85 6 ies 1,062 
1886-90. 5... 2. fee. ® 1,058 
OO. cage Be wale 1,055 
TEYG-OD welsh os ce 1,057 
LOOT OS aia a ae wine 1,062 
L90G=1G). Fon AO ee 1,056 
IQIE-—-1S 5 es ea ce 1,061 
“Among European writers, von Oet- 
tingen wrote in 1882: ‘The more the 
female population in any country ex- 
ceeds the male as a result of any dis- 
turbing influence, the larger the pro- 
portion of males in the children born;’ 
and von Mayr, a better authority, wrote 
in 1897: ‘After wars apparently a 
larger proportion of male children are 
born.’ Finally, in Prinzing’s Medical 
Statistics, published in 1906, is the state- 
ment that ‘after wars the excess of male 
children is said to increase. Ditsing 
speaks of this as a well-known fact 
which has never been doubted and von 
Fircks shows it from the figures for 
Germany after the wars of 1866 and 
1871.’ But Prinzing adds that the 
increase did not appear in France after 
the war of 1871. 
“The statistical evidence is too slight 
to demonstrate the existence of such 
an increase in the proportion of male 
children born after a war, but does 
make it possible, if not probable.” 
Foundation to Teach Mothercraft 
Nearly a million dollars is left in the 
will of Mrs. Lizzie Merrill Palmer, 
widow of former U. S. Senator Thomas 
W. Palmer, to found a school where 
girls may be taught motherhood, ac- 
cording to the daily press. The will 
provides that girls unable or unwilling 
to pay the cost of their board at the 
school shall be educated free of charge. 
478 
‘“T hold profoundly,” says the will, “the 
conviction that the welfare of any com- 
munity is divinely and hence insepa- 
rably dependent upon the qualities of its 
motherhood and the spirit and character 
of its homes.” It is specified that the 
school be established in Detroit or the 
township of Greenfield, asuburb. Girls of 
ten years and upward will be admitted. 
