The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-08
MORE MALES BORN.
War Has Changed the Proportions of the

sexes.
New York, Jan. Vital statistics of
November and December show great
disproportion in the sex of infants born
in that period, and the wise doctors
who know all things smile and say
WAR"
The month of April is placed as the
time for this disproportion in births to
cease. War was declared in April of
1898, and the martial spirit then aroused
was kept active until victory was as
sured and completed when Santiago
was taken in July.
This view is taken by those who have
studied the psychical aspect of the sub
ject, and their conclusion is borne out
by the comparative reasoning which
the statistics CT the principal cities of
the union give.
In New York the ratio of increase in
male over female births in the month
of December of the present year over
the same month last year is nearly
s per cent. In st. Louis for November
it was IL per cent and December prom
ises to show a higher rate than that.
In Atlanta the week just ended shows
Is boys born to every II girls, as COM
pared with IL boys to u girls Il year
ago. Boston shows nearly the same
proportion and so does Philadelphia.
Cleveland has been too busy with the
grip epidemic to go into birth statistics.
but che consensus Of medical opinion is
that more boys are coming into the
world than girls. Providence, r. l.. is
| a boy baby town for December, and so
is Springfield, Mass, Cincinnati and all
other large cities west of the Ohio
river.
| DR.. William J. O'Sullivan. who is an
| accented authority in the line of an
| thrcpological research, is of the opin-
ion that the prenatal influence theory
of SchenCk in the regulation of sex is
| tenable although he holds with all
| other physicians, that sex is not
| changeable after certain period by
any mental influence.
THE ancients believed in it," said
| DR.. O'Sullivan, land expectant mothers
who desired male children. as all wives
| Of warriors did, addressed supplications
| TO the statues of Mars.
Prenatal influence has been a sub
| ject of discussion in the medical pro
| fession for years. The child not infre-
! quently is affected physically by some
| mental influence brought to bear on the
| mother d.. -'. E.
I'm support of this the books are
| full of instances, but there are no rec
ords of thought force on the part OF
either father or mother resulting in
| the birth of child of one sex or the
other. 1t may be that martial spirit
| VI lift Spiill ol peace pIUuuceS iHc ue-
| structor of the regeneration"
| DR.. John Vincent Sweeney of Green
| witch and Liberty streets who for II
years has enjoyed a large obstetrical
! practice in the lower part of the city
says his own personal experience in
| the last two months shows an increase
of boy babies over girl babies.
| Robust parents beget robust chill
dren,' said DR.. Sweeney, land men of
| Al,
! faculty well developed are usually the
fathers of boys who strongly resemble
| them physically and mentally.
Take a community that has lived for
| a generation at peace and under such
| conditions that the natural protector
| is not constantly on the alert against
attack by an enemy, and the faculties
| of combativeness and destructiVeness
| become inert.
Let a mother become imbued with
| the spirit of patriotism, which would
/ be commonly reflected from the hus-
band, in time of national stress, and
the impress on the unborn child would
be marked, Virility hegets virilty, No
| ture rarely contradicts itself by invest
| ing a female child with the attributes
of the male.
I'm time of great distress or grief
or when there is apprehension of danger
| or misfortune it has been OBJ
served that great per cent
of the births are of females. The wal
spirit may, and probably does, produce
the opposite result"
DR.. Charles Curtis Page, obstetriciar
and gynecologist who has an office in
| the game building with DR.. Sweeney
| has observed the phenomena with con-
| siderable interest. He has attended
more cases this month in which boys
| in his practice.
1.-The theory that the war spirit HAS
| had and will have something to do with
| determining the sex of children borr
| between now and next summer is ar
assumption that cannot be successfully
| controversial
|