When, years ago, my attention was first attracted by the idea that,
for the solution of our problem, we ought to turn our attention to the
sugar in normal urine, no very exact tests for sugar were possible.
The reactions were not very sensitive, the fact being that the surest
evidence of the presence of sugar was obtained not from the reduction
processes but from the method used by Brücker for preparing a potassium
compound of sugar.
Every investigation which I undertook in his times for the confirmation
of my theory was very arduous. The few cases which I at first had under
observation presented formidable difficulties. The occasion of my first
turning my attention to sugar in the urine was a case of a woman who
had borne five children, and, after violent and continuous mental
excitement, was suddenly seized with diabetes mellitus. I frequently
examined her urine, and always found an abnormal amount of sugar. She
had twice given birth to children whilst suffering from diabetes, and
on each occasion the child was a female. This fact struck me, because
previously, whilst she was strong and well, she had borne sons only.
But, on the appearance of the disease mentioned, she had two daughters
in succession, of whom the first one lived and the other was still-born.
I numbered amongst my acquaintances a family, of whom, in the course
of years, I was acquainted with the grandmother, a daughter, and two
grand-daughters. The grandmother had, including the third generation,
fifteen descendants, of whom twelve were girls and three were boys.
Two of the boys were the sons of the grandmother, and the first two
children she had borne. She was under medical treatment, and the
analysis of the urine showed a considerable quantity of sugar. She had
six daughters. One of these daughters, who survived the others, had
five children, amongst them one boy, who soon died.
Two of the grand-daughters of this family became mothers, each bearing
one daughter. I had the opportunity of examining the urine of all the
mothers of this family, and always found sugar in it. Sometimes the
saccharine contents reached a remarkable quantity, and yet were not
such as could be diagnosed to indicate an unhealthy condition.
Amongst the acquaintances of my youth was a young lady of good family.
Carefully reared, she was, as a child, too much sheltered from the
influences of the open air, and in later years much imprisoned in-doors
by hard study in different branches of art and science. As a young lady
she was fairly tall and well nourished, but pale and possessed of
little color.
It happened that I had an opportunity of examining this young lady’s
urine. As I found a considerable quantity of sugar, I was led to the
conclusion that the girl (she was engaged) would have principally
female offspring.
Many years had elapsed. The young lady had ripened into a stately
matron, and told me that she had the happiness to be the mother of five
daughters and a son. I am altogether without the statistics necessary
to deduce from a great number of similar cases the average relative
number of the sexes born of women suffering from diabetes. But this
must be pointed out, that, notwithstanding the high percentage of sugar
excreted in the case of women suffering from pronounced diabetes,
female offspring do not necessarily always appear. They will probably
be in a very striking majority when compared with the males, but the
complete disappearance of the male sex is not to be anticipated,
because male individuals, though in the minority, can appear. And this
was to be anticipated, seeing that in the so-called slighter cases of
this complaint the abnormal metabolism can be sensibly improved by
attention to diet.
* * * * *
Diabetes amongst women has a marked influence upon the functions of the
sexual organs. Thus, for example, the menses cease, a condition which,
according to gynæcologists, is occasioned by an abnormal condition of
the womb and of the ovaries which become atrophied. (Schauta.) On the
other hand, diabetes may also result from diseases of the reproductive
organs. (Imlach.) When the cause of the complaint is removed from the
female genitals the sugar also disappears from the urine.
From both of these facts, which rest upon medical observation, it
follows that the excretion of sugar has some definite connection with
the processes at work in the female generative organs. In the cases
when the excretion of sugar continues for a considerable time, it is
of greater significance, and indicates chronic derangement of the
metabolism, in connection with which a serious change comes over the
internal organs of generation.
* * * * *
Now, if there is a possibility that disturbances so extensive can be
set up in the female genital tract when there is an excretion of sugar,
it is also very possible that certain modifications may be produced
by a small _constant_ excretion of sugar. These changes can show
themselves in the ovum to this extent, that they may be of considerable
significance and not without influence upon the development of sex.
Women who suffer from pronounced diabetes frequently miscarry. In what
way the disease influences ovulation I cannot here discuss.
* * * * *
The connection of the development of sex with an imperfect physiological
combustion of the food can only be considered as demonstrated, if it is
possible, by means of certain exact experiments in this direction to
reach results which incontestably make for the possibility of influencing
sex. Cases of this kind, in which the work of observation was conducted
by myself alone, and in families closely connected with me, where there
were exceptional wishes in this direction, I shall mention presently.
Most striking of all are the cases where a number of daughters have
come into the world one after another as the results of a marriage.
The condition of a woman in a well-regulated married state, _when,
as we will suppose, five or six girls are born, one after another,
must be considered to be of a kind that departs more or less from the
normal_. The human female, if we regard the general statistical data,
ought to bring forth approximately the same number of male and female
individuals. If we find so remarkable an excess in the direction either
of males or females, that six or seven of the same sex follow one
another, there must be a reason for this. In my opinion that cause is
now to be ascertained only from the results of analysis of the urine
for sugar, mentioned above.
In the cases where we have to deal with an excessive predominance of
female offspring, Trommer’s test will show us the presence of sugar.
But it is safest, as I have already said, to use the phenylhydrazin
test in the manner described. If it be demonstrated that in any such
case sugar practically exists in the urine, in never so small a
quantity, dietetic treatment is to be resorted to, until even the
minutest trace of sugar has been made to disappear.
The treatment consists in giving the mother a highly nitrogenous diet
with fat, and adding only so much carbo-hydrate as is absolutely
necessary to prevent its want being felt.
This diet should be continued for a considerable time, even although
the sugar in the urine may have disappeared. It is best to begin the
change of diet a good while (about 2 or 3 months) before impregnation.
During the menstruations which fall within this period, the ripened ova
will be voided unfertilized, and new ova which have been influenced by
the altered conditions of nutrition in the organism will ripen in their
place.
(If we follow such information as we have concerning the development
of sex in man, we thence conclude that the difference in sex appears
at the beginning of the third month of pregnancy, and is definitely
expressed in the fourth month. From this it would appear not to be
superfluous if the recommended alteration of diet was maintained until
the beginning of the third month.)
When the ovule of a human female, dieted in this way, becomes
fertilized, it has been so far ripened by the process of nutrition
conducted in the organism of the mother, that when it attains the stage
of development, it resolves itself into cells which compose an organism
containing male characteristics.
After impregnation it is still advantageous that whilst the condition
of the urine is examined at intervals of a few days, the corresponding
diet should be continued during the advancing stages of the development.
Although I do not here take the trouble to illustrate these diet
processes by explanations, every one can have regard to these
particulars for himself, and conduct the diet even after impregnation
has taken place in accordance with the information given above.
In a case like that mentioned, where, after marriage, female ova
were successively formed and developed, practically a process of
physiological combustion was going on in the mother which did not
suffice for deriving all the advantage possible from the food, so that
the available elements might be all oxidized. In consequence, only
female ova were fertilized and only female individuals born. This
condition of things remained the same for a number of years.
In such a case the question is not alone one of a small residuum of
sugar, but in addition to this it is probably not impossible that other
substances also were evacuated from the body, to make use of which was
not within the power of the process of combustion.
With a rational diet, these substances also might be withheld from
evacuation and, as well as the sugar, be made available for combustion
with a corresponding increase of nourishment.
In experiments of this kind metabolic activity will show itself in the
organism, as it may be perceived from the nitrogenous constituents of
the urine that a greater exchange of nutritive matter is taking place,
a thing that happens also with normal individuals.
Under these circumstances the specific gravity of the urine is also
increased, and it may sometimes become relatively considerable (1030 to
1035).
In consequence of the influence which the altered diet, if commenced a
sufficiently long time before conception, exerts both over the mother
and over the ovum which is being prepared for fertilization, it is
possible that this ovum may develop itself into a male individual.
It also sometimes happens that, even with careful dieting, the
conditions which are necessary for our purpose are not realized--viz.:
that the sugar does not disappear from the urine, that the mother
cannot accommodate herself to a diet of the kind required. She finds
the situation intolerable, because she cannot do without an abundance
of starchy substances and sugar, and in consequence all hope of a
satisfactory result falls to the ground.
There are persons who from their youth upwards have lived principally
on vegetable food, and are therefore not accustomed to take the
nitrogenous substances of their diet in the concentrated form in
which they are presented in the albuminous constituent of meat. They
obtain the necessary nitrogen for the body from large amounts of food
containing a great quantity of water, and it may happen that they
cannot easily submit themselves to such a change of diet without
pernicious consequences. To this class belong the women who live in the
rural districts of many of the mountainous regions of central Europe,
where little flesh is eaten. With them it might often be a difficult
matter to make an abrupt change of diet of the desired kind. Such
individuals can be reconciled to the kind of diet we recommend only by
a gradual advance in the quantity of concentrated nitrogenous food. But
in such cases it might very likely prove possible to attain our end by
a corresponding vegetable diet.
* * * * *
The following case, which was conducted under my control with the
greatest care, and was also a case of an intelligent woman, who showed
the greatest willingness to do anything, in order that she might have
male offspring, is of the highest interest for our theory.
This woman was of a family in which principally female children had
been born. Although all its members were fruitful, no great number
of descendants seemed to have been reached. It is not unlikely that
the multiplication of descendants was restrained. The existence of a
tendency to provide female ova for fertilization was also proved by
testing the urine for sugar.
In the case of this woman, who wished to have male offspring, the
examination of the urine each time showed, as with the other women of
the family, traces of sugar. With her ordinary diet sugar was found
in the urine (that of twenty-four hours being collected) in minute
quantities. The unoxidized minute traces of sugar signified imperfect
combustion.
When the diet is to be altered, it is necessary to select it in
such a way that the nitrogenous substances may predominate and that
the carbo-hydrates may be excluded as far as possible. Of course a
sufficient quantity of fat must be added to the food.
The food to be taken was regulated on these principles, and the dieting
began. After eight days the last traces of sugar in the urine had
disappeared. The woman’s health was good, and she at once showed
herself contented with the highly nitrogenous diet.
The menses lasted five days, and after them, five more days having
elapsed, impregnation took place, the same diet continuing. After about
eight weeks of pregnancy the food was gradually altered. The state of
the woman’s health during pregnancy presented no remarkable features.
She had taken all necessary care of herself, and her condition during
the pregnancy, in like manner as before it, when she had to alter her
diet until the sugar disappeared from the urine, was satisfactory. She
was in due course confined of a boy.
A year and a half passed. The woman bore, after similar treatment as on
the former occasion, a second boy. In the interval no further control
was exercised over her way of living, but a few weeks before she
conceived means were taken to regulate her diet, so that no perceptible
trace of sugar resulted from its physiological combustion.
During five years this woman did not conceive. The results of
examinations of the urine, which were made from time to time, showed
quite clearly that sugar was always normally present. The quantity was
not determined. At the end of this period the woman, after a long rest,
and a similar preliminary dieting, once more became pregnant. This time
also the result was a boy. After two years another boy followed. In
this case also a similar process of dieting had preceded.
After such occurrences it was sufficiently demonstrated that it could
be only the influence of the diet that showed itself in this way;
because in this case one would be convinced that it was not a mere
accident that the woman here spoken of produced only male offspring.
In the case of this woman it was evidently the diet that affected the
development of sex, and exerted such an influence that, under the
improved conditions, the metabolism both in the mother and in the
ripening ovum preparing for fecundation, took such a form that a male
individual was developed.
She again became pregnant after a lapse of two years. Before her
pregnancy the same system of diet was followed as on the previous
occasions. She miscarried in the fifth month. Violent emotions and
mortifications, accompanied by anxious cares, were, together with other
coincident unfavorable circumstances, the cause of the miscarriage. The
offspring was male.
Soon after, some four months after the miscarriage, she again became
pregnant. Also on this occasion dieting had preceded, such as I have
frequently carried out for the development of a male individual. But a
miscarriage again supervened. The fœtus was obviously male.
* * * * *
But what was now wanting was an experiment that could be added to the
preceding, and would serve to show that a human female, who, under the
influence of our method of dieting, invariably bore sons, would, in the
case of paying no attention to diet, bring a female into the world.
The evidence was forthcoming, for the woman in question again became
pregnant without any consideration being bestowed on her bodily
condition, and without anything being done to remove the traces of
sugar from the urine. After having seven times borne males she became
this time mother of a female, which, born before the due time, soon
died. After that she was not again pregnant. Probably some change
supervened in consequence of which she became permanently unfruitful.
* * * * *
This incident shows sufficiently that the ovum in the case of the woman
who served for our experiment possessed an inherent tendency to develop
into a female, and was also ripe enough to be fertilized. As we had
exercised no influence upon it so as to effect any change in the ovum
(in the same way as we had previously been able to affect the others
by the diet in order to procure the ovum of a male) the result was a
female.
The female tendency was therefore already present in the ovum,
and indeed the mother supplied convincing evidence of the female
constitution of the ovum whilst it was yet unfertilized, because sugar
existed in her urine. The previous determination of the sex could
also in this case present no difficulty. In the earlier cases, when
male individuals followed one another, we always aimed, by means of
our support given by means of the nourishment of the mother, not only
at the ripening of the ovum which was to be fertilized, but also at
the development of a male individual. In the last case the ovum was,
without any assistance, capable of being fertilized, but it developed
into a female.
A ripe, fertilizable ovum in the ovary of a woman whose urine
habitually contains sugar has a tendency, when the proper conditions
are supplied, to develop into a female. In consequence, it is in such
cases from the outset possible, without exercising any influence
over the mother, without adopting any diet, to anticipate after a
conception, the birth of a female individual. But if these conditions
do not exist, if no sugar can be detected in the urine, the use of
the same influence in order to obtain a male individual is still not
superfluous. In this case also there is a need of an alteration of
diet, although the individual in question accomplishes the process of
physiological combustion in a manner which must be called the most
favorable possible, seeing that with a mixed diet all the oxidizable
materials are completely used up.
Supposing that a mother of this sort wished for female offspring,
one would not be in a position to give any advice. In this case
one cannot, according to the facts which have been mentioned above,
exercise any influence over an alteration in the course of the
development of the ovum which would occasion the birth of a female.
Such a mother is, up to the present time, beyond the reach of an
influence that can affect the development of the future sex.
* * * * *
Two other cases follow in which male children were desired, several
females having so far been the offspring of the marriage. The
corresponding arrangements for the regulation of the diet, which led to
the complete disappearance of sugar from the urine, showed themselves
effective in the ripening of the ovum, and, after conception had taken
place, in both cases a male individual was formed and developed.
In addition to this, four other cases were under observation, in
which no influence was exercised on sugar occurring in the urine in
quantities, such as correspond to a normal healthy state. Without any
kind of influence of diet, three females were born.
In a fourth case I had a negative result. In three cases the result was
positive. In the last three cases I was able to examine the urine as
often as I wished, whilst in one case I was allowed to do so only at
long intervals as a favor.
* * * * *
Let us now in conclusion endeavor to make some short reflections on the
results which we are able to attain.
First of all one would say that in certain regions and among certain
peoples, where meat forms the principal diet, only male, or principally
male, offspring would be anticipated.
The nutrition of the mother certainly plays a leading part in the
development of the ovum within her body. The different experiments
which breeders have made, and the observations which have repeatedly
shown in the case of the invertebrata (v. Berlepsch, ‘_Die Biene und
ihre Zucht_,’ second edition; Landois, ‘_Physiologie_’), a connection
between food and the development of sex leave no doubt that, in the
case of the human subject also, a certain diet of the mother would not
be without influence on the ovum developing within her. Here, however,
in the case of the ripening of the ovum, according to my opinion, the
result does not depend on the diet alone, but rather on the process of
metabolism in the mother.
How the physiological combustion goes on in the organism, and what
changes take place in it, in consequence of the altered diet, until
the sugar entirely disappears, is in the case of human beings of the
highest importance, and furnishes an index of the consequences.
In individual cases the diet is directed in accordance with the results
that show how the food has been assimilated and does not depend upon
these alone. In other words, whether the mother eats much meat is a
secondary consideration. Whether and how the food taken is completely
made use of in the process of combustion--that is a matter of
importance for the purpose we have in view.
Any one, who keeps before him the fundamental principles of this
theory, will see plainly that it is possible, under certain
circumstances, to procure male progeny by means of the influence we
have indicated. _The wish to have female progeny is a desire for the
gratification of which it is not at present possible to give any
directions._
* * * * *
In connection with all that I have already said I will here mention
that the method which I employed to procure the ripening of an ovum
for male progeny in cases where I had previously found sugar normally
present, which served as an indication for the application of my
treatment, I attempted to apply also in the case of individuals with
whom no trace of sugar was to be found. The method of proceeding,
judging by my experiences thus far, should be as follows.
First of all, it must be elicited whether any special disease exists,
and especially any that indicates anomalies in the metabolism. Of
course capacity for generation and the possibility of conception are
presupposed.
If the history of the case shows no circumstances that would hinder the
application of the method, we inform the patient that she must furnish
us with the urine necessary for the occasional examination. It is best
to use for this purpose a urine glass marked in grammes and containing
two litres, in which the urine of twenty-four hours is to be collected.
It is well at the beginning of the procedure to put a few drops of
formaline into the measuring-glass, so that the urine may not, in
consequence of standing, decompose, and so become unfit for accurate
analysis. Of the collected quantity of twenty-four hours, about 200
grammes should be poured into a small phial, well corked, and used
for analysis. In making the analysis it is best to proceed in the
following order: First, we determine the _reaction_ of the urine with
litmus paper. In normal urine the reaction is generally acid. Next
the _specific gravity_ is determined. This is most easily done with
Ultzmann’s urometer, by means of which the density of the urine can
be easily determined. That varies in normal urine generally between
1015 and 1020. In exceptional cases it may sink very low, which often
happens after much fluid has been taken. In other cases it rises
under pathological circumstances enormously high, as, for example, in
diabetes. In the case of a thorough preparation of the organism by the
use of a great quantity of concentrated nitrogenous food with a view to
influencing sex, the specific gravity very often reaches 1030 and more.
After the specific gravity we measure next the _quantity of urine_
collected in the twenty-four hours.
* * * * *
We proceed next to determine the normal _urine-sugar_, and for
this purpose use a number of the well-known tests--Nylander’s, the
fermentation test, and Trommer’s test--which have been already
described. If these give a positive result, we proceed to a quantitative
examination by means of the polariscope. If the quantity of sugar found
is very small, we exert ourselves to get rid of it by a suitable diet,
because otherwise no certain influence over the embryo in the direction
of the production of male offspring can be exercised. If, however, we
find no sugar by any of the above tests, we seek for it by means of the
phenylhydrazin test also described above. A few experiments on the
melting point of the phenyl-glycosazon crystals will easily give us
certain information. In the analysis we observe particularly whether the
positive result of the phenylhydrazin test has originated from the sugar
or from the reducing substances. With the polarization apparatus we
determine the quantity of lævo-rotatory substances, _the optical
rotation_, in per cents., as these stand in a certain relation to the
reducing substances. We make these experiments with urine that has not
been decolorized. The former becomes greater as the quantity of the
latter increases.
* * * * *
_The determination of the reducing substances_ can be effected by
Salkovski’s gravimetric method, but I prefer Moritz’s volumetric
method, on account of its simplicity. For the experiment we prepare
the following solutions: 1. A solution of sulphate of copper of 80.78
grammes Cu S O{4} + 5 H{2} O, in a litre; 2. Solution of caustic soda
of 120 grammes Na H O, in a litre; 3. Watery solution of ammonia, of
7.1 per cent. N H{3}, specific gravity 0.9722. For conducting the
volumetric analysis we place in one of Erlenmayer’s flasks, containing
about 250 cubic centimetres, about 2 cubic centimetres each of the soda
solution and the solution of sulphate of copper, and add 140 cubic
centimetres of the ammonia solution. We thus obtain a dark blue fluid,
which we now boil. During the boiling we allow the urine to be analyzed
to flow in from a burette until the fluid becomes colorless. A table
given by Moritz in the forty-sixth volume of the ‘_Archiv für klinische
Medizin_,’ shows us in per cents. the quantity of reducing substances
contained in the urine we have used.
In conclusion we investigate the condition of metabolism by _determining
the excreted nitrogen_. Nitrogen is excreted both by the urine and the
fæces. The greater part is found in the urine, whilst, on the contrary,
the quantity of nitrogen excreted in the fæces amounts to more than 1
gramme per day. If, then, we determine the quantity in the urine alone
and add 0.94 gramme as a correction for the nitrogen excreted with the
fæces, the resulting error will be unimportant. The best and at present
most useful method of determining the nitrogen is that of Kjeldahl. I
generally use it in my analyses as one that can be conveniently carried
out. For this purpose we place 5 cubic centimetres of filtered urine in
a long-necked flask, add about 3 decigrammes of yellow oxide of mercury
and 10 cubic centimetres of chemically pure sulphuric acid. We then
carefully warm the brownish-black mixture over the flame of a Bunsen
burner until it has become colorless. We now allow it to cool. The
mixture is now poured into an Erlenmayer flask containing three-quarters
of a litre of water, is neutralized with 30 per cent. soda-lye, and then
40 cubic centimetres of a 4 per cent. solution of potassium sulphide is
added. The whole is next subjected to distillation. Decinormal sulphuric
acid contained in the receiver takes up the ammonia which distils over.
The acid still remaining free after the completion of the distillation
is titrated with decinormal caustic soda. As 1 cubic centimetre of
decinormal sulphuric acid corresponds to 0.0014 gramme of nitrogen, we
can easily reckon the quantity excreted daily. We know how much nitrogen
is contained in 5 cubic centimetres of urine, and can easily find to how
much the daily quantity amounts by multiplying by it and dividing by
five.
The nitrogen found in the urine can be expressed as albumen by
multiplying it by 6.25 (Neumeister), at the same time making a
correction for the nitrogen in the fæces as described above.
This is all that there is to say about the analysis of the urine, which
is of so much importance for our experiments. In order to show the
practical application, I will add the following analyses, as actually
made in exercising an influence over sex to obtain male offspring.
* * * * *
1. Case of a woman twenty-three years old, who, before anything was
done to influence the sex of her offspring, had been married five
years, and had given birth to two girls. The urine was collected
from eight in the morning until the same hour of the next day in a
measuring-glass. The quantity in twenty-four hours was 1,650 cubic
centimetres. Analysis gave the following results:--
ANALYSIS.
_Reaction_: Acid.
_Specific gravity_: 1017.
_Quantity in 24 hours_: 1650.
_Color_: Light yellow, fairly pale.
_Sugar_: None perceptible with Trommer’s test, the fermentation
test, and Nylander’s test.
_Phenylhydrazin test_: Negative.
_Optical rotation_: Very slight, not determinable.
_Reducing substances_: 0.135 per cent.
_Nitrogen_: 12.76 (Correction 0.94).
_Nitrogen as albumen_: 79.75.
I recommended that more meat should be taken, and that sugar and
other forms of carbo-hydrate should be avoided. After the lapse of
eight days, I again procured urine for examination. Analysis gave the
following results:--
ANALYSIS.
_Reaction_: Acid.
_Specific gravity_: 1018.
_Quantity in 24 hours_: 1050.
_Color_: Somewhat darker than on 17, 1.
_Sugar_: None perceptible with Trommer’s test, the fermentation
test, and Nylander’s test.
_Phenylhydrazin test_: Negative.
_Optical rotation_: Not determinable.
_Reducing substances_: 0.15 per cent.
_Nitrogen_: 13.5 (Correction: 0.94).
_Nitrogen as albumen_: 84.37.
The result was that the reducing substances and the nitrogen (expressed
as albumen) had increased. The diet of this woman was constantly
altered in the direction of increasing the amount of albumen, until,
after the lapse of about three weeks, the following results were
obtained:--
ANALYSIS.
_Reaction_: Acid.
_Specific gravity_: 1030.
_Quantity in 24 hours_: 1000.
_Color_: Dark, brownish-yellow.
_Sugar_: Cannot be determined by Trommer’s test, the
fermentation test, and Nylander’s test.
_Phenylhydrazin test_: Positive; the glycosazon-crystals have
melting-point 110° cent., therefore do not result from sugar.
_Optical rotation_: 0.2 per cent. lævo-rotatory.
_Reducing substances_: 0.32 per cent.
_Nitrogen_: 21.9 grammes (Correction: 1 gramme).
_Nitrogen as albumen_: 136.8 grammes.
The woman was kept in this condition four weeks. In the meantime
menstruation took place. It lasted four days, during which time no
change appeared in the analysis. An analysis was made every week.
Another menstruation occurred, lasting four days, and impregnation took
place six days later. After this the menses ceased. As I mentioned
above, the sex of the embryo is already determined in the third month
of pregnancy, for which reason I kept the patient under dietary
influence up to that time. In the interim I made ten analyses at short
intervals, the average results of which I shall now give.
AVERAGE of TEN ANALYSES.
_Reaction_: Acid.
_Specific gravity_: 1028-1032.
_Quantity in 24 hours_: 750 cubic centimetres, to 1200.
_Color_: Golden yellow, always dark.
_Sugar_: None could ever be detected.
_Phenylhydrazin test_: Positive (owing to the presence of
glycuronic acid compounds; melting-point of crystals 105°
cent. to 120°).
_Optical rotation_: 0.2-0.3 per cent. lævo-rotatory.
_Reducing substances_: 0.29-0.35 per cent.
_Nitrogen_: 17.9 grammes to 22 grammes (Correction 1 gramme).
_Nitrogen as albumen_: 111.8-137.5 grammes.
When after 5 analyses the nitrogen (expressed as albumen) had reached
its highest point, it fell suddenly. Some immediate experiments proved
that it was necessary to give more carbo-hydrates and less albuminous
food, in order to re-establish the previous relations.
The woman was subsequently allowed to follow whatever course she
preferred, and bore a fine boy at full term.
The task still remains of examining many facts and theories already
known which may apparently be contradictory to our teaching.
And here should be first of all taken into consideration the
experiments in diet made by various stockbreeders (Bellingers, Wilkens,
etc.). In them, however, the results of the analysis of the products
of excretion are not given, and in particular there is no information
respecting the combustible and useable sugar evacuated from the
organism, or any other substances from the organism which might have
been of importance for the evaluation of the food. It is possible
that in experiments with diet, without reference to the excretion of
sugar, the results may be sometimes in favor of the male and sometimes
in favor of the female sex, upon which latter no active influence is
exercised. Herr U. P., a nobleman resident in a country district of the
Russian Baltic provinces, informed me by letter that in his herds the
greater number of calves are born in February. The February calves are
principally male. The cause in this case may be as follows:--Conception
takes place in the May of the previous year. After having been kept
some six months in the cow-houses, the beasts are turned into the
spring meadows, and are impregnated at a period when metabolism is
active in consequence of their altered mode of life. All the cows are
in heat. The notable result obtained in the ensuing February may be
explained as the consequence of the better physiological combustion of
the food.
According to statistics more boys than girls are born in the years with
a poor harvest. Bad harvest years are those which favor a flesh diet,
as the food-stuffs from the vegetable kingdom do not suffice for the
cattle, nor for the people either; in consequence of which the cattle
are killed, and more flesh enters into the diet of the women who are
fructified. If people in general had the normal aptness for procreation
in such famine years, the flesh-diet might turn the scale in favor
of the male sex; it being presupposed that the other conditions were
fulfilled.
If Thury’s law be considered, Thury also held the ripeness of the ovum
to be of importance for male or female ova. The ova were regarded
by this author, as being more or less ripe, or as male and female,
according to the time, whether it happened to be at the beginning or
at the end of the rutting. To me, however, the ripeness seems to
depend upon the process of physiological combustion in the organism of
the mother. According to Thury no attention need be paid by us to the
ripeness for fructification, as this ripeness is attained independently
of our interference. But, on the other hand, our influence has the
effect of producing a male ovum out of the ovule ready to be fructified.
If the dieting of a woman in the way we recommend is practicable and of
definite effect upon the development of the future sex, we arrive at
a conclusion which may be summed up as follows:--If a woman be dieted
according to our method, she can reach a stage in which she becomes
sexually superior to the man, and her offspring will then be male, in
accordance with the law of the cross-heredity of sex.
Transcriber’s Notes:
--Text in italics is enclosed in underscores ( _italics_ ).
--Subscripted text is enclosed in braces ( {subscripted character(s)} ).
--Obvious punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
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--The Chapter headers for Chapters I, II and III were misprinted as
Chapters I, III, and IV (respectively). Subsequent printings have
corrected the error, and have been adjusted here.