Man and woman : a study of human secondary sexual characters / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Man and woman : a study of human secondary sexual characters / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    generally considered large, it is clear that when we get beyond 13 pounds we reach a point at which the average difference between males and females is trifling, so that there is almost as great a chance of females as of males reaching the extremely large weights. The only practicable way of obtaining informa- tion concerning these cases lay in collecting the scattered records. 1 have collected all that I can find in medical journals of standing, chiefly English, during the past half century, being aided by the references in Neale's Medical Digest. I have only noted the cases that appear to have been healthy and well developed and weighed over 13 pounds at birth. One unexpected difficulty I encountered: in many cases, even when numerous measurements were given, no reference was made to sex. While such cases were necessarily rejected, I may say that I think it probable that most, and perhaps all, of these rejected cases were males ; this was so in - the only case in which, by writing to the medical reporter immediately on publication, I was able to repair the omission; the medical mind seems to share in some degree the instinctive conviction that the typical human being is a male, and that in the case of males it is unnecessary to make any reference to sex. My cases were thus reduced to 21. Of these there were only 3 females to 18 males. The females all died at birth, as well as about half the males. However rough this method of estimation may be, it is highly improbable that any more methodical inquiry on children of this size would entirely reverse so large a preponderance of males.1 Such a result, it will be seen, while it amply confirms the conclusion that even in size the male shows the greater varia- tional tendency, cannot be considered as absolute proof that there exists a selection at birth which in its operation tends to the destruction of the larger male children either at the moment of birth or during the succeeding days and weeks, though it renders such selection probable. This element of doubt, however, by no means renders Professor Pearson's attack on my position any stronger. It is sufficient to show that for more than a century past evidence has accumulated which indicates that the group of data on which Professor Pearson solely and absolutely relies for the foundation of his argument is modified by an influence which renders it tainted for such a purpose. In view of this circumstance, and of the fact that I had rejected this group of 1 I have since met with a discussion of this question from the obstet- rical standpoint (H. Dubois, Les Gros Enfants au Point de vue Obstet- rical, These de Paris, 1897) which independently confirms my results. At weights of over 7000 grms. Dubois found nine boys to three girls. Among only moderately large infants there was no such excess of males; but of the three heaviest babies of all only one was a girl, and she was the least heavy of the three.