MENDELISM AND SEX 127 



of the fittest. The males are more resistant to the 

 harsh effects of a low nutritive diet than are the 

 females. Moreover, the interesting case of the 

 bee should have been sufficient to expose the fallacy 

 of the belief that the environment can determine 

 sex. The queen bee lives under special and uniform 

 conditions, and she is fed on highly nutritive material. 

 If conditions determine sex, then she should produce 

 offspring definitely predominating in one direction 

 with respect to sex, for it should be mainly feminine 

 or mainly masculine. Moreover, if high nutrition 

 determined the formation of females, then the 

 parthenogenetic eggs of the unfertilised, but specially 

 fed, queen bee should be mainly or wholly female. 

 But the reverse is the case. The unfertilised eggs 

 all produce male bees or drones, while females or 

 workers are alone produced from the fertilised eggs. 

 The simple fact that the act of fertilisation thus 

 determined the sex of the individuals arising from 

 fertilised eggs is by itself sufficient to show that sex 

 is determined within the germ-cells, and is not 

 dependent on environment. 



It is recognised now, by those who are engaged 

 in the experimental investigation of the question 

 of sex and of cognate problems, that sex itself, like 

 other qualities, is predestined in the germ-cells, 

 and is definitely determined by fertilisation. And, 

 when it has thus been predestined and determined, 

 external influences cannot alter it. It is, however, 

 possible that in particular cases the proportions in 

 which the sexes may appear are determined by 



