The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-01-18
DR.. Schenk's Sex Discovery.

III OCH6nk y OOH OISCOtCIfs
Professor schenck of the Vienna Uni
versity, who has been student OF en-
bryology for thirty years, has made
public statement to the effect that he has
discovered the secret of exercising an IN
fuence over animals and Ten so as 10 nix
the sex of their offspring. The professor
bases his discoveries upon the scientiflc
fact that the blood in a grown-up man con
tains 100000 corpuscles, the bearers OF.
iife-giving and nourishing oxygen, Whle
the blod in a grown-up woman contains
only 100000 His efforts have been di-
rected towards producing in the embryo
the right number of corpuscles, required
by the male, and he claims 10 nave sue
ceeGed in obtaining this by suitable nour-
ishInent of the woman and by influencing
the metabolic process in the change OF
matter. Professor Schenck emphasizes MS
claims by the statement that ne mas TEST
ed his discovery in his own family, tnat
it is by his own choice that ne is the
father of six sons, and that he has pro-
duced similar results in fourteen other
families OF relatives and friends turtner
he states that he has referred his as
covery 10 the Vienna Academy of Sci
ence 10 test and verify and make pubic
the secret of his methods
which followed his announcement puts
this matter in a somewhat serious form.
1t may prove to be all humbug, or de-
fusion, and if honest it may yet prove TO
be a failure, but the professor is said 20
be highly scientific man who has stud
led embryoloGy for many years ana mas
written extensively upon that subject
Assuming that the secret method viii
accomplish ali that is claimed for II, the
results at once become of more than orol-
nary interest. The first of these results
would be the great preponderance OF male
babies over female. When the practice
became somewhat general increase or
population would cease and graudal de-
crease would set in. This tendency would
be somewhat arrested for a time by mill
ions of persons who would otherwise re-
main as old maids and minated getting
husbands. After a while this surplus sup
ply of females would run short. In the
first i0G years after DR.. Schenks method
began to be applied two-thirds or three
fourths of the births would be males, and
the demand for females would be so great
that Schenk's method OF determination
would not be applied SO often.
The fears of Nautilus of starvation and
death from over-popuatiOn and deficiency
of food products would be wholly dissi-
pafed, but the depopulation would take
place from an entirely different cause.
If DR.. Schenk has made the discovery
claimed, how quickly will his method of
controlling the sex of infants be applied?
Undoubtedly very fast. Already million
of doctors in the world are discussing 1t
and thinking about it from every point of
view. The telegraph and daily papers
spread news of anything of Importance
of 1iob discovery
if it be genuine and scientifically practl-
cable one, will not wait long for expert
ment. 1t will speedily be applied all over
the world, and there will be a rushing de-
mand for boys and a serious falling off
in the demand for girls until the danger
becomes so alarming something will have
to be done to restore the equilibrium. The
chief reason why families prefer male
children to female is that boys can as a
rule support themselves by their own ef-
forts, while girls have to be supported as
rule by their parents.
AS a matter of fact, it is extremely
doubtful whether it would be wise or safe
TO put such a power into the possession
of men. Nearly every man wants boys
and would have them, and the outcome
would be the rapid increase of the male
over the female birth rate, eventually
At present and for years past, under the
operation of laws of nature or laws Of
chance, the male birth-rate but slightly
exceeds the female birth-rate, and the
ratio is so universal and covers a period
of so many years that it looks very much
like law of nature, and not mere chance
happening. The Springfield {Mass.) Re
publican, discussing the effects of this dis
covery, quotes some interesting statistics
bearing upon this point, as follows:
For forty years in Massachusetts, the
male birth rate relative TO the female has
not noticeably changed, the number of
male births to each 1000 female births
being 1853 in the last twenty years. as
compared with 1853 in the two decades
preceding and holding it about 1.055 year
by year of late. In Europe ten years
observation in various countries revealed
the fact that TO every 1000 females born
an average of about -,060 males were born,
the extremes being 103S in England and
1,071 in Italy. This excess of male births
in the long run appears to almost exactly
offset the greater male death rate; and
while the distribution of sexes in particu-
lar countries is often very unequal from
other than natural causes, a correct CEN
sus of the civilized world today would
unquestionably reveal practically an ex-
act equality in the number of the sexes"
From this point of view it would appear
that nature herself has fixed the sex ratio
as accurately and as safely as it can be
done and that she works wisely and in
telligently and for the best interests of
the human race.