110 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



good milking cow will produce a male from whom a 

 cell in union with an ovule will produce a female, 

 and that she, when mature, will have large mammary 

 glands yielding a good supply of milk, and even milk 

 of a particular quality " ? ^ The existence of the latent 

 germ is manifested in that strange phenomenon 

 called " secondary sexual character," female birds in 

 old age, or after their ovaries have been removed, 

 being known, for example, to take the habits of the 

 male. In every individual there necessarily exists 

 the nature of the opposite sex in a latent form, and 

 this occasionally manifests itself in other ways than 

 by transmission, as when a woman assumes a mascu- 

 line manner or a man a feminine one. Usually these 

 peculiarities are accompanied by certain physical 

 indications of virility or effeminacy, the masculine 

 woman having hard features and the rudiments of a 

 beard, and the feminine man the smooth face or the 

 rounded form of a woman. We cannot doubt but 

 that latent heredity, or at least the principle of the 

 metamorphoses of heredity, is at the bottom of all 

 strongly marked divergences from a family type, 

 whether physical or moral. In this way we may 

 account for the appearance of a " black sheep " in a 

 ^ Darwin's Variation of Animals and Plants. 



