TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 471 



to pole, either chromosome transmits at its equatorial end to its sister only part 

 of the lines it receives at its polar end, a proportion of them being attracted (or 

 ' refracted ') into the fibre. 



§ucli problems, which are too complex to lend themselves to mathematical 

 analysis, can alone be settled by the method of physical experimentation, and 

 the 'interpretation must needs follow the observation. It is only, indeed, by 

 these last experiments that tlie problem of the working of the cell-figure has 

 received an adequate explanation on the mitokinetism theory. 



3. A Slalemcnl upon the Theory and Phenomena of Purpose and 

 Intelligence exhibited by the Protozoa, as illustrated by Selection 

 and Behaviour in the Forammifera. By E. Heron-Allen, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. 



The author seeks to make the position which he has taken up in this 

 matter definite, and to state the limits beyond which at present he is not 

 prepared to go. He postulates : — 



(i.) That every living organism having a separate and independent existence 

 of its own is endowed with that measure and quality of the faculties of 

 Purpo.se and Intelligence which are adapted to, and called forth by, the 

 individual needs of that organism. 



(ii.) That these faculties are illustrated by the utilisation by certain Protozoa 

 (Foraminifera) of foreign substances, selected by the animal from a large 

 heterogeneous mass of environmental adaptable material, and utilised in such a 

 manner as to provide the animal with means {n) of adaptation to its special 

 environment, and (h) of defence against its known and special enemies. 



(iii.) That it is not competent for a consistent evolutionist to postulate 

 a break in his evolutionary cycle (which must, ex hypothexi, be continuous) for 

 the introduction at some arbitrary point of an unknown influence of unknown 

 origin to which he wives the name of Intelligence, upon which Purpose depends. 



(iv.) That the phenomena to which he has called attention have no relation 

 to, and are not to be confounded with, adaptations or tropisms, and he is 

 not to be interpreted as having made any claims based upon any such confusion. 



4. The Vj.vplanation of Secondary Sex Characters as Characters of 

 Abandoned Function, with Observations on the Insufficiency of the 

 ' Hormone ' Theory. By F. W. Ash. 



Male secondary characters are not otherwise unique ; on the contrary, the 

 character may be bisexual (specific), unisexual, or wholly rudimentary, accord- 

 ing to species. 



The problem is — why are certain somatic characters, not essentially sex- 

 distinguishing, sex-limited in particular species ? No explanatory theory can 

 suffice that does not answer that question. 



The selection theory fails to explain why the dimorphism is not neutralised 

 by biparental heredity ; while the ' hormone ' hypothesis does not account for 

 the particular form assumed by the secondary character, • 



Male secondary characters cannot well represent (as some have held) a first 

 stage in the evolution of structures that are to be afterwards extended to the 

 other sex ; such a view entails such inconsistent assumptions as that newly 

 evolving organs tend to over-develop in males while still incapable of appearance 

 in females and young, and yet may at the same time be rudimentary (not 

 incipient) in the two latter ; or that archaic and general characters (such as the 

 canine tooth) are still being independently evolved in divers widely separated 

 typen. 



The 'hormone' theory, apart from the insufficiency before mentioned, 

 implies an artificial ontogenetic distinction between the same organs in allied 

 species; for example, between the tusk of tlie Indian and that of tiie African 

 elephant ; or between similar tissue in different parts of the same animal (an 

 bptween lertHin feathers in a bird and tlie other feathering). 



