9. That is, if we look simply to statistical results, as Arbuthnott did, and as we should do if we were examining the tosses of a penny. If the remarkable theory of Dr Düsing (_Die Regulierung des Geschlechts-verhältnisses..._ Jena, 1884) be confirmed, the matter would assume a somewhat different aspect. He attempts to show, both on physiological grounds, and by analysis of statistics referring to men and animals, that there is a decidedly _compensatory_ process at work. That is, if for any cause either sex attains a preponderance, agencies are at once set in motion which tend to redress the balance. This is a modification and improvement of the older theory, that the relative age of the parents has something to do with the sex of the offspring. Quetelet (_Letters_, p. 61) has attempted to _prove_ a proposition about the succession of male and female births by certain experiments supposed to be tried upon an urn with black and white balls in it. But this is going too far. (See the note at the end of this chapter.) 10. It is precisely analogous to the conclusion that the _flowers_ of the daisies (as distinguished from the _plants_, v. p. 109) are not distributed at random, but have a tendency to go in groups of two or more. Mere observation shows this: and then, from our knowledge of the growth of plants we may infer that these little groups spring from the same root. 11. In this discussion, writers often speak of the probability of a "_physical connection_" between these double stars. The phrase seems misleading, for on the usual hypothesis of universal gravitation _all_ stars are physically connected, by gravitation. It is therefore better, as above, to make it simply a question of relative proximity, and to leave it to astronomy to infer what follows from unusual proximity. 12. Professor Forbes in the paper in the Philosophical Magazine already referred to (Ch. VII. §18) gave several diagrams to show what were the actual arrangements of a random distribution. He scattered peas over a chess-board, and then counted the number which rested on each square. His figures seem to show that the general appearance of the stars is much the same as that produced by such a plan of scattering.