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Amram Scheinfeld, the author of a very successful book, You and Heredity, has undertaken the challenging task of writing about such an old, controversial question as the differences between the sexes. The result is very interesting and readable and contains many informative tables and amusing drawings by the author. In the course of his courageous enterprise he soon found himself caught between biology and sociology. He writes in the preface, 'The most significant fact about this book, I believe, is that it isn't what it started out to be'. Originally he intended to devote himself mainly to social factors as the decisive influence in shaping the character traits of men and women and 'to give only passing attention to biological sex differences'. But in the course of his laborious work he felt himself compelled to depart from 'the prevailing tendency among social scientists to regard differences between women and men in behavior, thought, temperament, and achievement, as chiefly the products of "conditioning"'. These 'current theories' began to appear to him very questionable.
Scheinfeld follows egg and sperm from beginning to end in all their phases—physical, physiological and psychological. He bases his work on the investigations of numerous specialists in biology and sociology. Out of the wealth of the interesting, occasionally startling material that the author compiles and discusses, only a few examples can be mentioned here.
Probably one hundred twenty males to one hundred females are conceived, whereas the ratio at birth is only one hundred five or six males to one hundred females, so much higher is the prenatal mortality of the male. Sex-linked heredity factors account