grave constitutional inheritable
disease attacked the parent. This supervision should be carried into
adult years, for there are instances on record of inherited diseases
coming on at an advanced age, as in that of a grandfather, father, and
son, who all became insane and committed suicide near their fiftieth
year. Gout, apoplexy, insanity, chronic disease of the heart, epilepsy,
consumption, asthma, and other diseases, are all more or less under the
control of preventive measures. Some hereditary diseases, such as idiocy
and cancer, we are impotent to prevent, in the present state of our
knowledge.

A singular fact in connection with the transmission of disease is the
readiness with which a whole generation is passed over, the affection
appearing in the next. A father or mother with consumption may in some
instances have healthy children, but the grandchildren will die of the
disease. Nature kindly favors one generation, but only at the expense of
the next.

Some diseases require, in addition to the general means of prevention to
be found in a strict observance of the laws of health, some special
measures in order to effectually ward off their appearance. But the
extent of this work will not admit of their discussion. Already, indeed,
have we unduly, perhaps, extended our remarks upon inheritance. The
interest and importance of the facts must be our justification.

WHY ARE WOMEN REDUNDANT?

It cannot be without interest to look into the relative proportion of
men and women now living. It will interest us still more to inquire into
the reason why one sex preponderates over the other in numbers. This
done, we will answer the question; Is the production of sex at all under
the influence of the human will?

The female sex is the more numerous in all thickly populated parts of
the world where we have trustworthy statistics. In Austria, England, and
Wales, there are nearly one hundred and five women for every one hundred
men. In Sweden they are as one hundred and nine to one hundred. In all
cities the disproportion is greater than in the country. In London there
are one hundred and thirteen women to every one hundred men; and in the
large towns of Sweden they stand as one hundred and sixteen to one
hundred.

This is not true, however, of newly-populated regions. The relative
difference is reversed in recent and thinly-settled localities. In our
Western States, for instance, the number of the men exceeds that of the