32 



THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 



males. From the earliest ages philosophers have contended that 

 woman is but an undeveloped man; Darwin's theory of sexual 

 selection presupposes a superiority and an entail in the male line; for 

 Spencer, the development of woman is early arrested by procreative 

 functions. In short, Darwin's man is as it were an evolved woman, 

 and Spencer's woman an arrested man. 



This notion of the superiority of males has formed the basis of 

 many theories of sex. As a good illustration of this opinion, a few 

 sentences may be quoted from Richarz : ' ' The sex is not a quality 

 transmitted from the parents, but has its basis in the degree of 

 organization attained by the offspring. The male sex represents to a 

 certain extent a higher grade of organization or development in the 

 embryo. This is attained when the reproductive efficiency of the 

 mother is specially well developed, and the resulting male offspring 

 more or less resembles the mother. But if the maternal reproductive 

 power be weak, the ovum does not attain to maleness, and the 

 resulting female more or less resembles the father." Thus Hough 

 thinks males are born when the maternal system is at its best; more 

 females at periods of growth, reparation, or disease. Tiedman and 

 others regard female offspring as arrested in the original state; while 

 Velpau conversely regards females as degenerate from primitive 

 maleness. 



Reacting from such speculations as to superiority of either sex, 

 Starkweather firmly maintains that "neither sex is physically the 

 superior, but both are essentially equal in a physiological sense." 

 This is true in the average, but yet in each pair a greater or less 

 degree of superiority on one side or other must usually be conceded. 

 Granting this, Starkweather states, as his chief conclusion, that "sex 

 is determined by the superior parent, ' ' also that ' ' the superior parent 

 produces the opposite sex. ' ' Referring the reader to the Encyclopedia 

 Britannica article "Sex," for some critical notes, it is enough here to 

 notice that, just like "comparative vigor," sex "superiority" has 

 little more than verbal simplicity to recommend it, since it lumps a 

 great variety of factors under a common name. Yet, in justice to its 

 author, we may admit that it is the algebraic sum of these which he 

 aims at expressing. 



IX. Darwin's Position. — Neither in regard to the origin of sex, 

 nor its determination in individual cases, did Darwin see further than 

 his contemporaries. He refers to the current theories of the influence 

 of age, period of impregnation, and the like; and further contributes a 

 great body of statistics on the numerical proportions of the sexes, 

 and the supposed influence of polygamy. "There is reason," he 

 says, "to suspect that in some cases man has by selection indirectly 



