Carl Dusing (1884) on The Regulation of the Sex-Ratio

In three publications in 1883 and 1884 Carl Dusing of Jena gave a mathemati cal account of the influence of natural selection on the sex ratio based on the same argument that Darwin had advanced in The Descent of Man (1871). T he argument thus became quite well known, being included in the principal b ooks on the subject around the turn of the century, as well as in the Encyc lopaedia Britannica, references to Dusing being given. By 1930, when Fisher gave a verbal account of the argument in The Genetical Theory of Natural S election, he saw no need to give references, and no other book of the perio d treated the subject, as a result of which Dusing's contribution became lo st to view. We here give the important paragraphs of Dusing's mathematical account, translated into English. (C) 2000 Academic Press.