134 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play of 

 its little limbs, fed with unwholesome food, or uncherished 

 by genial warmth, may from these circumstances have 

 so imperfect a development of its organs as to be in con- 

 sequence devoted to sterility. When a cow brings forth 

 two calves, and one of them is a female, it is always 

 barren, and partakes in part of the characters of the 

 other sex a . In this inttance, the space and food that 

 in ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are divided 

 between two ; so that a more contracted dwelling and a 

 smaller share of nutriment seem to prevent the develop- 

 ment of the ovaries. 



The following observations, mostly taken from an 

 essay of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, since they are intimately 

 connected with the subject that we are now considering, 

 will not be here misplaced. In animals just born, or 

 very young, there are no peculiarities of shape, exclusive 

 of the primary distinctions, by which one sex may be 

 known from the other. Thus secondary distinctive cha- 

 racters, such as the beard in men, and the breasts in 

 women, are produced at a certain period of life; and 

 these secondary characters, in some instances, are 

 changed for those of the other sex ; which does not arise 

 from any action at the first formation, but takes place 

 when the great command " Increase and multiply " 

 ceases to operate. Thus women in advanced life are 

 sometimes distinguished by beards ; and after they have 

 done laying, hen-birds occasionally assume the plumage 

 of the cock ; this has been observed more than once by 



a See J. Hunter's Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal (Eco- 

 nomy. 



