Bonaparte and Josephine no children
were born, but after he had separated from the Empress and wedded Maria
Louisa of Austria, an heir soon came. Yet Josephine had children by
Beauharnais, her previous husband. But as all is not known as to the
physical condition of Josephine during her second marriage, it cannot be
assumed that mere lack of adaptability was the cause of unfruitfulness
between them. There may have been some cause that history has not recorded,
or unknown to the state of medical science of those days. There are
doubtless many cases of apparently causeless unfruitfulness in marriage
that even physicians, with a knowledge of all apparent conditions in the
parties, cannot explain; but when, as elsewhere related in this volume,
impregnation by artificial means is successfully practised, it is useless
to attribute barrenness to purely psychological and adaptative influences."

* * * * *

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Producing Boys or Girls at Will.

1. CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?--This question has been asked in all
ages of the world. Many theories have been advanced, but science has at
last replied with some authority. The following are the best known
authorities which this age of science has produced.

2. THE AGRICULTURAL THEORY.--The agricultural theory, as it may be called,
because adopted by farmers, is that impregnation occurring within four days
of the close of the female monthlies produces a girl, because the ovum is
yet immature; but that when it occurs after the fourth day from its close,
gives a boy, because this egg is now mature; whereas after about the eighth
day this egg dissolves and passes off, so that impregnation is thereby
rendered impossible, till just before the mother's next monthly.--_Sexual
Science._

3. QUEEN BEES LAY FEMALE EGGS FIRST, and male afterwards. So with hens; the
first eggs laid after the tread give females, the last males. Mares shown
the stallion late in their periods drop horse colts rather than
fillies.--_Napheys._

4. IF YOU WISH FEMALES, give the male at the first sign of heat; if males,
at its end.--_Prof. Thury._

5. ON TWENTY-TWO SUCCESSIVE OCCASIONS I desired to have heifers, and
succeeded in every case. I have made in all twenty-nine experiments, after
this method, and succeeded in every one, in producing the sex I
desired.--_A Swiss Breeder._

6. THIS THURY PLAN has been tried on the farms of the Emperor of the French
with unvaryin