TABOO AND GENETICS 41 



the nuclei " only impress the individual (and 

 variety) characters upon this rough block." 



If we look at these views from one angle, the 

 apparent conflict disappears, as Professor Conklin 

 (15) points out. We can still presume that all 

 the factors of inheritance are carried in the 

 nucleus. But instead of commencing the hfe 

 history of the individual at fertihzation, we 

 must date it back, to the beginning of the 

 development of the egg in the ovary. Whatever 

 rude characters the egg possesses at the time of 

 fertihzation were developed under the influence 

 of the nucleus, which in turn got them half 

 and half from its male and female parents. 

 These characters carried by the female across 

 one generation are so rudimentary that they 

 are completely covered up, in the developing 

 embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by 

 the union of the sperm with the egg in fertiliza- 

 tion. 



In case fertihzation does not take place, this 

 rude beginning in the egg is lost. Since no 

 characteristic sex is assumed until after fer- 

 tihzation, we may say that life begins as neuter 

 in the individual, as it is presumed to have done 

 in the world. It will occur to those inclined to 

 speculation or philosophic analysis that by the 

 word " neuter " we may mean any one or all 

 of three things : (a) neither male nor female ; 

 (b) both male and female, as 3^et undifferentiated, 



