April 1S92.] THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 403 



be given from the one just stated, namely, that we have not 

 an absolute katabolism in the male cell, but a relative kata- 

 bolism, or if in a 



Non-sexual cell, . C = 100, A = 20, K = 19, that in a 



Male cell, . . C = 100, A = 20, K= 18, and in a 



Female cell, . . C = 100, A = 20, K = 1 0. 



This view would result in giving us at the maturity of the 

 male cell a capital = 102, and for the female cell a capital 

 of 110, and we would have a relative anabolism of the female 

 cell over the male cell. 



That the second view just elaborated was not taken by 

 the authors seems to be proved, firstly, by the sentences 



" conversely, expenditure may predominate and we may 



live on for a while with loss of ivcight or in katabolism. This 

 losing game of life is what we call a katabolic habit," &c. ; 

 and secondly, by the view stated in the chapter on the 

 physiology of fertilisation, when the male nucleus is degraded 

 to the position of a carrier of waste materials. But more 

 about this latter point anon. 



To return to the view I stated in the first place, and which 

 I believe to be the author's view, that a male cell is " abso- 

 lutely " more katabolic than a female cell, i.e., that such a 

 cell is spending more than it is able to take in. 



Whence, then, does such a katabolic cell obtain the 

 material for the excess of destructive metabolism ? It can- 

 not obtain it from without, and must therefore draw on its 

 capital of living matter ; but the capital being attacked and 

 spent to maintain the life of the cell, must, of necessity, 

 become reduced in amount, and the cell as a whole must 

 become smaller, if we do not suppose that the waste 

 products accumulating within the cell help to increase 

 its bulk. 



It has been suggested that all sexual organisms have 

 probably to pass, during a certain early stage of their 

 development, through an hermaphrodite condition, before 

 either primary sexual characters, i.e., such characters as 

 are directly associated with the essential functions of the 

 sexes, or secondary sexual characters, as the numerous 

 distinctions in size, colour, skin, skeleton, &c., are developed ; 

 in other words, before male (katabolic) or female (anabolic) 

 tendencies have arisen. 



