in directing this rising gen-eration in a direction that strengthens our dignity and our independence.

A person grows up in this country thinking of nothing but himself; he keeps late hours and expends his efforts for the sake of his own private interest, and when he is invited to take part in some general national project that would bring good and benefit to the country, he looks for his individual interest in that project and disregards every other consideration. That is because we were not raised with a broad upbringing; our upbringing was — and still is — a narrow one that does not go beyond our personal, individual circle, and does not allow our thinking to expand into the wide spaces of patriotism.

Our children care about the beauty of their dress, and are careful never to appear except in a look of complete elegance; but if one of them eats a banana while standing at a window, he does not scruple to throw the peel into the street, since the street is outside his house; and however careful he may be about the cleanliness of his house, he rarely feels his duty to keep the street clean and to regard it as a part of his homeland, which is his larger house.

If our sons had this national sense, our streets and alleys would not be what they are now — all filth and ugliness, which agree in nothing with devotion to patriotism. The patriot throws his refuse only in the place prepared for it, because he is jealous for every spot of his country as he is jealous for his room and his house. And the patriot, if he has a patch of ground adjoining his house, tills it and plants it with roses and sweet basil, and tends it with his own hands, taking part in beautifying his country, adding to its beauty a new luster.

And here is wounded Palestine,

writhing in her blood, while her fighting sons struggle — the strug-gle of men fighting to the death — with all the power, strength, and faith they have been given, in defense of her lands and to prevent an unjust partition. All of us women are pained by the situation, fervent over the stand; we wish to volunteer, and we hold meetings to discuss how we can take part in this sacred struggle. But has it occurred to us to take up with our children, in language suited to their mental level, the meaning of "defense of the homeland" and "holding onto the land," and the meaning of "force and its trampling of the rights of the weak"?

And when our child asked us for merely a little money, to donate for the sake of Palestine as the children of his school were doing, did we meet his enthusiasm with coolness and answer him that we had already donated for ourselves and for him? Or did we show our appreciation of his zeal and encourage him by doubling the sum he asked for, affirming the importance of this deed because it is for the sake of Palestine?

The time has come for our chil-dren to awaken; the time has come for them to be aware and to take pride in their nationhood, to hold their language sacred, to learn of their country's problems and warm to them as their own problems, and to sacrifice from what they own, gladly and willingly, for the sake of the orphaned and destitute children of their nation!

The Nadwa Lectures

Fouad Mrad

Muhyi al-Din al-Nasuli

Ibrahim Abd al-Al

Alfred Naccache

Read their lectures in the new number of

"The Nadwa Lectures"

On sale at all bookshops

... The article "Boy or Girl," which we published in a past issue, is still stirring a great deal of controversy. The piece we published by Mrs. "Juhayna," concerning her information about the sex of the unborn child, found an echo, especially in refined medical circles. A physician whose learning we value and whose supreme disinterestedness in the cause of truth we respect—our friend Dr. Zaki Shakhashiri—reproached us for being taken in by such tales...

And since "The Woman's Voice" seeks, through its inquiries, to arrive at the truth and nothing but the truth, from whatever quarter it may come, we continue to publish scientific infor-mation in this section. A discussion of this kind has come into our hands, and we publish it for our readers, so that they may remain in touch with this important subject.

Lately, too, a note reached us from Dr. Jean Mar'i asking us for clarifica-tion of our information on this question, and we shall publish, in installments, everything we know about this subject.

* * *

Since the beginning of the world, man has tried to discover the sex of the child in its mother's womb... And the learned have held many opinions on this subject. The father of medicine, "Hippocrates," claimed that the newborn comes into the world a male if its father is more vigorous and sounder of body than its mother; so if a man wants boys, let him marry a thin, weak woman—and vice versa.

One of the great German physicians says that he found, after long researches and numerous experiments, that a pregnant woman's bathing in alkaline solutions leads to her giving birth to a male.

And two English physicians have stated that they were able to discover a means of determining the sex of the unborn child according to the mother's wish. The gist of what these two physicians say is this: "It is known that the seed from which the human being arises divides into two parts: one representing maleness and the other femaleness. The experiments that have been carried out have proved that alkaline substances lead to the strengthening of the seed of maleness, while acid substances lead to the strengthening of the seed of female-ness." One of these two physicians was asked, "Has the time come for a mother to ask the doctor to deliver her of a boy, and for the doctor not to be at a loss to answer her request??"

He said: "The time has not yet come, but I do not think the realization of this idea will be long delayed."

Will the dream of woman and man come true, thanks to modern science?...