354 ON THE NUMBER OF POLAR BODIES AND 



female state ? What are the essential characteristics of the male and 

 female states ? We know of female and male individuals, among 

 both animals and plants : their differences consist essentially in the 

 fact that they produce different kinds of reproductive cells ; in part 

 they are of a secondary nature, being- adaptations of the organism 

 to the functions of reproduction ; they are intended to attract the 

 other sex, or to ensure the meeting- of the two kinds of reproductive 

 cells, or to enable the fertilized egg to develope and sometimes to 

 guide the development of the offspring until it has reached a certain 

 period of growth. But all these differences, however great they may 

 sometimes be, do not alter the essential nature of the organism. 

 The blood corpuscles of man and woman are the same, and so are 

 the cells of their nerves and muscles ; and even the sexual cells, so 

 different in size, appearance, and generally also in motile power, 

 must contain the same fundamental substance, the same idioplasm. 

 Otherwise the female germ-cell could not transmit the male 

 characters of the ancestors of the female quite as readily as the 

 female characters, nor could the male germ-cell transmit the female 

 quite as readily as the male characters of the ancestors of the male. 

 It is therefore clear that the nuclear substance itself is not sexually 

 differentiated. 



I have already previously pointed out that the above-mentioned 

 facts of heredity contain the disproof of Minot's theory, inasmuch 

 as the egg-cell transmits male as well as female characters. Stras- 

 burger 1 has also raised a similar objection. I consider this objec- 

 tion to be quite conclusive, for there does not seem to be any way 

 in which the difficulty can be met by the supporters of the theory. 

 The difficulty could indeed be evaded until we came to know that 

 the essential part of the polar body is nuclear substance, and that the 

 latter must be regarded as idioplasm, as the substance which is the 

 bearer of heredity. It might have been maintained that the male 

 part, removed from the egg, consists only in a condition, perhaps 

 comparable to positive or negative electricity ; and that this con- 

 dition is present in the substance of the polar body, so that the 

 removal of the latter would merely signify a removal of the 

 unknown condition. I do not mean to imply that any of those 

 who have adopted Minot's theory have had any such vague ideas 



1 Strasburger, ' Neue Untersuchungen liber den Befruchtungsvorgang bei den 

 Phanerogamen als Grundlage einer Theorie der Zeugung.' Jena, 1884. 



