SEX 8 1 



first, must have resembled that of trade. It was not 

 necessary, but often advantageous. This, however, is 

 not sex. Sex implies the production of gametes which 

 have the reduced number of chromosomes. These 

 gametes are diverse, the one produced by the male in 

 animals small and motile, that produced by the female 

 relatively large and incapable of propelling itself. Still, 

 the outcome of the fertilizing process and all that goes 

 with it is a shuffling of determiners, with a correspond- 

 ing diversity in the members of the resulting genera- 

 tion. It is because of sex that scarcely any two human sex and 

 beings are alike, that life takes on such extraordinary J 

 diversity everywhere. This diversity has permitted 

 adaptation to almost every kind of environment; has 

 furnished, as it were, keys to open every door of oppor- 

 tunity. If we think of this as the principal meaning of 

 sex in the scheme of evolution, we may regard the sexual 

 differences as merely means to an end. The egg cell 

 carries the cytoplasm with which to support the first 

 stages of development ; it cannot seek the sperm, nor 

 could two egg cells, thus provided, seek one another. 

 So the sperm, free from baggage, which the Romans 

 truthfully called "impedimenta," can travel in search 

 of its mate ; but two sperms would not have between 

 them enough nutrient substance to support the early 

 cell divisions. The differences now appear to have a 

 meaning, and it is interesting to note that those char- 

 acteristics which distinguish the gametes, also more or 

 less distinguish the sexes themselves in their relation to 

 one another. 



5. We may have our opinion concerning the utility Mechanism 

 of sex, but it is quite another matter to decide why termination 

 individuals are male or female. Many opinions have 

 been expressed, but it is only rather recently (1902) 



