Since the 18th century, one phenomenon, the proportion of the sexes at birth among human beings, has contributed to various developments such as the calculus of probabilities, administrative statistics, the moral and social sciences, the statistics of variability, post-Darwinian biology and Durkheimian sociology.
Foreword.- Note on Translation.- Introduction.- 1: Physico-Theology and Mathematics (1710-1794).- 2: Physiology, Probabilities and Statistics (1795-1830).- 3: Statistical Sources, Law and Medicine (1846-1876).- 4: Selection, Sexes and Statistics (since 1871).- 5: A Sociological Issue and its Perversion (1898-1942).- 6: A Stochastic Re-Evaluation.- Conclusion.- Appendix A: Condorcet (1743-1794).- Appendix B: Charles Darwin (1809-1882).- Appendix C: Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945).- Appendix D: Sex Ratios at Birth and the Calculus of Probabilities.- List of References.