ve
the age of twenty.

Among savages the women often take part in war, for instance the
Amazons of Dahomey. Drinking habits are also the same or absent in
both sexes, which equalizes matters. When the men predominate in these
people, this is often due to infanticide committed on young girls, and
also to overwork of the women. With the Cingalese the natality of boys
is greater than that of girls, while in Asia Minor two girls, in
Arabia even four girls, are born to one boy. The Arab says, "Allah has
given us more women than men; it is, therefore, clear that polygamy is
a divine commandment."

=Production of Sexes at Will.=--I will say a few words on the question
of the causes of production of the sexes. There is no want of
hypotheses, assertions, nor even of experiments on this subject; but,
we are obliged to admit that up to the present we know nothing
certain. No one has yet succeeded in producing experimentally in
animals males or females at will. According to one theory, which has
created much impression, overfeeding produces females and underfeeding
males. Although this appears to be true in certain cases among some
animals, it is in no way proved in a positive manner.

It has also been suggested that selection produces the sex which is
deficient in numbers; but here again proofs are wanting. It has been
maintained that crossing tends to breed females, while consanguineous
marriages produce males; in other words, that mongrel races show an
excess of female births, while races in which marriages are very
consanguineous, and polyandrous tribes show an excess of males. It is
much better to leave this question alone till science has furnished us
with conclusive proofs. Certain results obtained with the lower
animals give hope that the future may shed some light on this point.

Again, marriage customs are not always in relation to the excess of
one of the sexes. Races in which men predominate are not always
polyandrous, and those in which women are in excess are not always
polygamous; sometimes even the contrary exists. Polygamy is thus not
always due to a surplus of female births, or to the death of many men,
but often to religious prescripts, as among the Islamites and Mormons.
In polyandry, poverty often plays a greater part than consanguineous
marriages or surplus of male births. Religious prescription of the
husband's continence during his wife's menstrual periods, pregnancy,
and even the period of nursing, a p