The Facts of Sex in Relation to Metabolism. 269 
brood; the extreme forms would be small active gametes 
and large sluggish ones respectively. As the latter are 
ill-fitted to conjugate among one another, in the struggle 
for pairing the small numerous active ones would be most 
likely to find pair with these large ones, and the rejuvenesce 
of such unions would be the more efficacious, because of the 
difference of temperament between the parent gametes. 
The middle forms being produced in smaller numbers than 
the little gametes, and less useful either way, would tend to 
disappear. The difference of size between the micro- and 
mega-gametes would tend to increase, and a division of labour 
take place—the megagamete tending to accumulate nourish- 
ment to give the zygote a good start, the microgamete gaining 
activity and delicate sensibility; and by this differentiation 
of temperament the zygote would be the gainer. This I take 
to be the origin of sex. Once started in some such way, the 
difference of temperament between the gametes would tend 
to be more and more accentuated and, so to say, crystallised, 
and this would be as it were anticipated, first in the organs, 
and then in the individuals producing the gametes.” 
We have quoted this at length because of its importance 
as a corroboration of one of the general conceptions expressed 
in the “Evolution of Sex.” It seems to us legitimate to 
express the facts in another form in saying that in the cell 
colonies, which produce few large heavy-laden gametes, the 
oe a. ee ‘ i 
ratio — 1s greater than in those which produce numerous 
small active gametes, and that in the gametes “the differ- 
entiation of temperament” may be similarly stated. “Tem- 
perament” does seem a big word to apply to gametes, 
but as it must simply mean physiological habit, and as 
that must have a chemical basis, we still find it useful to 
maintain that the microgamete brings to the megagamete, 
certainly not “entities,” perhaps not katastates, but chemical 
stuffs whose nature is determined by the fact that in the 
microgamete, and in the male colony which produces it, the 
ratio = is less than the ratio i in the megagamete and 
the female colony whence it sprang. 
VOL. XL ul 
