88 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



under peculiar circumstances." But we may 

 go further than this, and assert without fear of 

 contradiction, that every physical or mental 

 characteristic which exists in either sex, also 

 exists (at least in a latent state) in the other.* 



It seems that when one sex is fairly estab- 

 lished, its usual accompanying characters appear, 

 those of the opposite sex being held for the 

 time in abeyance. But if the proper develop- 

 ment of the characters peculiar to the sex of 

 an animal is prevented, the sexual polarity of the 

 organism is always more or less reversed ; the 

 check upon the development of the characters 

 of the opposite sex is removed, and they 

 become in their turn more or less developed. 

 According to Mr. E. Saunders, even bees in- 

 fested by the curious parasite Stylops, assume 

 the outward appearance of the opposite sex. 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond. 1882, pp. 228, 229.) 



Confinement has been known to hinder the 

 development of secondary male characters, 

 especially in birds.f There is a mongrel breed 

 of the domestic fowl, called the Sebriglit 



* This is proved by the occasional hereditary transmission of 

 diseases necessarily peculiar to one sex, through the other. 



f Darwin, " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 158. 



