Origin of Sex. 307 



while the female cell seems to form but three nuclei, the greater part of 

 the cell not undergoing segmentation at all, but remaining with one of 

 the nuclei, the other two being "extruded." Thus the male elements 

 are far more numerous and in the same proportion far less certain of be- 

 coming functional than the female. The case appears to be very similar 

 to that of the sexual plants, the pollen or male element of which con- 

 sists of a great multitude of granules which must be transported a 

 greater or less distance through the air with the certaint}^ that a vast 

 majority will be lost ; and the ovules of which answering to the animal 

 ova, are comparatively few in number, sedentary, secure and surrounded 

 by stores of nourishment. In their original essential qualities there is 

 no reasion to doubt that the sexual elements are exactly equal in all re- 

 spects, except that their polarities are complemental, causing them to 

 attract each other when they come within a certain distance. After the 

 division of labor took place, which assigned to one individual the male 

 and to another the female elements, the necessary difference of habit 

 imposed upon the two would inevitably lead to a differentiation in the 

 relative number of the two kinds of elements and the conditions sur- 

 rounding them. For illustration, suppose the first sexual colony to be 

 composed of males and females practically equal in numbers, and pro- 

 ducing spermatozoa and ova equal in number, activity, and capital, in 

 the way of protoplasm accompanying the nucleus. They are water 

 animals and cast off these elements to find each other by accident, under 

 conditions that insure disappointment to the great majority. No equality 

 of any sort remains constant unless the conditions producing it remain 

 the same, and they never do. If the first generation in our colony are 

 equal, the second will not be, for some will have been better fed, and 

 have had better general opportunities than others. The reproductive 

 elements of these superior individuals will be more numerous, more 

 active and better provided for. A larger proportional number of the 

 spermatozoa of such individuals will find ova and so tend to increase 

 the number of males producing numerous and active spermatozoa. The 

 individuals among these most likely to have a history are the most active 

 ones ; and these are the ones least encumbered with an excessive 

 amount of protoplasm, or whose protoplasm becomes active, as in the 

 case of cilia or flagella. The tendency then would be to develop males 

 with power to produce a great number of spermatozoa, lightly equipped 

 with active protoplasm. But since the spermatozoa have become 

 mobilized by casting off their impedimenta, it is obvious that to make 

 things even they must reach ova that are well provided, and the most 

 successful matches would therefore be between the most active and lean 

 spermatozoa and the best dowered and therefore the least active ova. It 

 might be said that under the conditions of the Irypothesis the ova should 



