1904.] MONTGOMERY — MORPHOLOGICAL SUPERIORITY. 379 



The only secondary sexual character of morphological importance 

 is that of bodily size, as we found in discussing the Invertebrates; 

 it is the only one at all commensurate with anatomical differences 

 in the genitalia. Its importance lies in the fact that greater size of 

 one sex means a longer or more intense growth, greater continuation 

 of development. This is the more evident where greater size is 

 associated with longer time before the attainment of reproductive 

 maturity. To be sure this must not be interpreted to mean that 

 longer embryonic growth period is always to be construed as imply- 

 ing higher morphological rank, for the Elephant takes longer to 

 mature than does Man, yet the Elephant is decidedly lower in the 

 phyletic scale ; so, also, some Reptiles take a longer time than many 

 Mammals. But within the same species, where one sex grows 

 larger than the other it is, ceteris paribus, a sign of distinct 

 morphological advance beyond the other. 



Now in most of the lower Vertebrates (most Anniotes and 

 Reptilia) the female is the larger, and at the same time usually the 

 more advanced with regard to the reproductive organs ; the male 

 shows his superiority only in unimportant integumentary characters. 

 For such Vertebrates it is very plain that the female is structurally 

 superior. But in most Birds and Mammals (much more rarely in 

 lower forms), while the female is still more advanced in the structure 

 of the genital organs, the male is usually the larger — a condition 

 rare among animal groups treated as a whole. Is then the female 

 still morphologically superior in these forms, or are we to consider 

 that the relation has reversed itself so that in the highest forms the 

 male has become the morphological superior ? It is the question 

 of the relative worth of the two characters : greater complication or 

 embryological advancement of the reproductive organs or greater 

 bodily size implying a longer period of development. Or we may 

 state it : the female is embryologically the superior in respect to 

 the reproductive organs, the male in regard to the other organs of 

 the body — which of course is directly correlated with the greater 

 part that the female takes in the process of procreation. While 

 different morphologists might estimate the value of these characters 

 differently, I am inclined to judge the greater embryological 

 advancement of the reproductive organs to be a condition of more 

 morphological importance than greater bodily size. 



So we reach the conclusion, that the female is clearly the super- 



