TABOO AND GENETICS 47 



and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, 

 we know that some of these internal secretions 

 are not excessively compHcated — for instance 

 adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be 

 compounded in the laboratory. We may say 

 that it cannot possibly be that the ovarian or 

 testicular secretion is composed of enough 

 different chemical substances to produce each 

 different effect. 



There remains only the supposition that the 

 female already possesses the genetic basis for 

 becoming a male, and vice versa. This is in 

 accord with the observed facts. In countless 

 experiments it is shown that the transformed 

 female becomes hke the male of her own strain 

 and brood — to state it simply, like the male she 

 would have been if she had not been a female. 

 If we think of this basis as single, then it must 

 exhibit itself in one way in the presence of the 

 male secretions, in another way under the 

 influence of the female secretions. In this way a 

 very simple chemical agent in the secretion 

 might account for the whole difference — merely 

 causing a genetic basis already present to express 

 itself in the one or the other manner. 



This may be illustrated by the famihar case 

 of the Crustacea Artemia salina and Artemia 

 Milhausenii. These are so unlike that they 

 were long supposed to be different species ; but 

 it was later discovered that the genetic basis is 



