TABOO AND GENETICS 39 



of biological data for social problems would do 

 well to read the opening chapter of Prof. Mor- 

 gan's " Critique of the Theory of Evolution " 

 (9), for even a summary of which space is lacking 

 here. College reference shelves are still stocked 

 with books on sex sociology which are totally 

 oblivious of present-day biology. For example, 

 Mrs Oilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley 

 (Truth About Woman) and the Nearings 

 (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's 

 theory in substantially its primitive form, and 

 not even sociologists like Professor Thomas 

 (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely 

 break away from it. 



The old question of male and female predom- 

 inance in inheritance has been to a considerable 

 extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both 

 sides to the controversy. Most exhaustive 

 experiments failed to trace any characters to 

 any other part of either sperm or egg than the 

 nucleus. Transmission of characteristics seemed 

 to be absolutely equal by the two parents. 

 The male nucleus enters the egg practically 

 naked. Hence if the characters are transmitted 

 equally, there is certainly ground for supposing 

 that only the nucleus of the egg has such 

 functions, and that the remainder merely pro- 

 vides material for early development. Yet this 

 does not seem to be strictly true. 



Parthenogenesis (development of eggs with- 



