326 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



mother of a new generation, or remain at the lower 

 level of a non-fertile working female ? It seems 

 certain that the fate mainly lies in the quantity and 

 quality of the food. Royal diet, and plenty of it, 

 develops the future queens . . Up to a certain 

 point the nurse bees can determine the future 

 destiny of their charge by changing the diet, and 

 this in some cases is certainly done. If a larva on 

 the way to become a worker receive by chance some 

 crumbs from the royal superfluity, the reproductive 

 function may develop, and what are called * fertile 

 workers,' to a certain degree above the average 

 abortiveness, result ; or, by direct intention, a worker 

 grub may be reared into a queen bee."^ 



It is unnecessary to prolong the illustration, for 

 the point it is wished to emphasize is all but in 

 sight. As we have just witnessed, the tendency 

 of abundant nutrition is to produce females, while 

 defective nutritive conditions produce males. This 

 means that in so far as nutrition reacts on the 

 bodies of animals — and nothing does so more — 

 there will be a growing difference, as time begins 

 to accumulate the effects, between the organiza- 

 tion and life-habit of male and female respectively. 

 In the male, destructive processes, a preponder- 

 ance of waste over repair, will prevail ; the result 

 ^ The Evolution of Sex^ p. 42. See also pp. 4 1 -46. 



