From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem
concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow
up to meet the need of society for reproduction.
The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be
applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or
breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under
control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical
operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose
as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary
record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one
sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on
important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding
to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in
inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled
experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding
possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in
experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected
record were it not for the data of experimental biology.
How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately
employed, it is worse than useless--it can be confusing or actually
misleading.
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