There can be little doubt that before very long every
State will have to take in hand seriously the question of
increased population and examine accurately the places
and classes in which increase is most pronounced. The
present troubles with hysterical women are greatly due
to the excess of the female over the male population,
this superfluity having nothing to do and doing it extremely
ill. There is clearly a case where legislation
might rationally diminish the number of female births,
and thus leave enough women to go round without
superfluity. Or, again, the superfluous women might
be compelled to leave the country by a process of lot drawing –
a method employed by the Athenians for
selecting their archons, and one which can be regarded
as the result of their mature consideration.G.W. Harris, first published in The New Age, 28th December, 1911