5 68 TRANSMISSION 



resulting in a choice collection of " beliefs," covering about all 

 the combinations possible. It is held : 



1. That the male is prepotent on general principles, because 

 males are stronger and more virile than females. 



2. That the female is prepotent, especially among mammals, 

 because her associations with the offspring are so much more 

 intimate, both physiologically and socially. 



3. That that parent is prepotent which has the stronger 

 nervous and sexual organization, whatever that may mean. 



4. That the male is prepotent over the forward and upper 

 parts of the body and the mental qualities. 



5. That the exact reverse of the last statement is the truth. 



6. That the male governs the external and the female the 

 internal organs and parts. 



Instances are not wanting to " prove " any of these beliefs ; 

 indeed, proof by the method of instance is the favorite form of 

 argument for or against any one of them, and it is not too much 

 to say that by this method these or any other assumptions may 

 be readily substantiated. 



We have learned long ago the unreliability of conclusions of 

 this kind, and it is worth while to distinguish clearly, so far as 

 we are able, between what is known and what has not yet been 

 learned touching this important matter. 



In general the sexes are equipotent. So far as is now known, 

 no part of the germ cell is naturally predestined to provide any 

 particular part of the body. The germ cells from both parents 

 are bearers of the hereditary substance in the proportion in 

 which they possess it, and either sex may and does transmit 

 any and all the characters of the race to its offspring of either 

 sex. We may say then, in general, that that parent will be 

 prepotent whose hereditary substance is least mixed and, there- 

 fore, most intensified along the line of established characters. 

 The only way we can go farther than the general principle just 

 stated is by extensive studies solving the coefficient of heredity 

 between each parent and its offspring of both sexes for different 

 characters separately. 



This has been done for a number of characters, both in men 

 and in animals, though the list is too small to do more than to 



