1904.] MONTGOMERY — MORPHOLOGICAL SUPERIORITY. 365 



full of suggestive ideas and again calls to mind the loss that geology 

 has sustained in the untimely death of J- B. Hatcher. Had he 

 lived he would have continued to make important contributions to 

 the geologic history of the West, especially in connection with the 

 problems concerning the non-marine formations whose importance 

 he fully recognized and in which he was so deeply interested. 



T. W. Stanton. 

 Washington y D. C, November ly , 1^04. 



THE MORPHOLOGICAL SUPERIORITY OF THE 

 FEMALE SEX. 



BY THOMAS H. MONTGOMERY, JR., PH.D.* 



Read October 7, 1904. 



It is remarkable the view should still generally obtain that the 

 male sex is superior structurally to the female. This has resulted 

 mainly from the fact that most writers upon sexual dimorphism have 

 been males and, on the principle that charity begins at home, 

 wished to give their sex all credit. Social economists in their ill- 

 considered gleanings from Biology hold for the most part that the 

 male is the superior, structurally and psychically, speaking of man 

 as the '^ progressive '' and woman as the '' conservative " element 

 of human society. But even if these terms are correctly applied, 

 which is assuredly open to question, it does not follow that conser- 

 vatism denotes inferiority and progressiveness superiority, at least 

 from the morphological standpoint. Some naturalists share this 

 opinion, though the facts are in patent contradiction to it; others 

 grant the female is the superior in the lower animals, but not in the 

 higher ; most express themselves very decidedly that in the human 

 species at least the male is the morphologically more perfect. It 

 is a question of fundamental importance in any consideration of 

 sexual dimorphism, especially in the valuation of the so-called sec- 

 ondary sexual characters. And should the common view be dis- 

 proved, the relations of the sexes would show in a very different 

 light ; the male must be regarded as the inferior organism. 



1 Contributions from the Zoological Labratory of the University of Texas, No. 

 62. 



