SEX. 93 



and experiments. On the one hand, as, at liberty, or 

 in the savage state, it is a general rule that the pre- 

 dominance in acts of generation belongs to the strong- 

 est males to the exclusion of the weak, and as such a 

 predominance is favorable to the procreation of the 

 male sex, it would follow that the number of males 

 would tend to surpass incessantly that of the females, 

 amongst whom no want of energy or power would turn 

 aside from generation, and the species would find in it 

 a fatal obstacle to its reproduction. But, on the other 

 hand, if it was true that the strongest females and the 

 best nurses amongst them produce females rather than 

 males, nature would thus oppose a contrary law, which 

 would establish the equilibrium, and by an admirable 

 harmony would secure the perfection and preservation 

 of the species, by confiding the reproduction of either 

 sex to the most perfect type of each respectively." 



