THE GENESIS OF SEX. 167 



fore you leave this room ? The hole being unaltered in size, the num- 

 ber of molecules undiminished, this apparent paradox can only be 

 explained by again supposing the size of the molecules to be dimin- 

 ished almost intinitely — so that, instead of entering at the rate of one 

 hundred millions every second, they troop in at a rate of something 

 like three hundred trillions a second ! I have done the sum, but fig- 

 ures when they mount so high cease to have any meaning, and such 

 calculations are as futile as trying to count the drops in the ocean. 



In studying this fourth state of matter we seem, at length, to have 

 within our grasp and obedient to our control the little indivisible par- 

 ticles which, with good warrant, are supposed to constitute the physi- 

 cal basis of the universe. We have seen that, in some of its proper- 

 ties, radiant matter is as material as this table, while in other properties 

 it almost assumes the character of radiant energy. We have actually 

 touched the border-land where matter and force seem to merge into 

 one another, the shadowy realm between known and unknown, which 

 for me has always had peculiar temptations. I venture to think that 

 the greatest scientific problems of the future will find their solution in 

 this border-land, and even beyond ; here, it seems to me, lie ultimate 

 realities, subtile, far-reaching, Avonderful, 



" Yet all these were, when no man did them know, 

 Yet have from wisest ages hidden beene ; 

 And later times thinges more unknovvne shall show. 

 Why then should vvitlesse man so much misweene, 

 That nothing is, but that which he hath seene? " 



THE GENESIS OF SEX.* 



Br Professor JOSEPH LE CONTE. 



THE subject on which I address you to-day is one which is still 

 veiled in much obscurity — so much so, indeed, that it is barely 

 alluded to by evolutionists, is not touched upon by physiologists, and 

 is regarded by the popular mind, even the intelligent popular mind, as 

 wholly beyond the possible ken of human science. 



1, Defining the Subject. — In regard to the origin of sex there 

 are two distinct yet closely-related questions : 1. The origin of sex in 

 the history of the individual ; 2. The origin of sex in the history of 

 the organic kingdom. The one question is, " What are the conditions 

 which determine the appearance of the one or the other sex in the de- 



* In order to explain the forms of expression in some parts of this article, it is neces- 

 sary to state that it was delivered in 1877 as a lecture to the class in Comparative Pb.ysi- 

 ology in the University of California, and again in 1878 to the class in Physiology of the 

 medical department of the same. 



