30 ORIGIN OF SEX. 
Columella* and Celsus}, in ancient times laid gront stress upon 
the selection of seed-corn ; and Virgil} says — 
“Tve seen the largest seeds, tho’ view’d with care, 
Degenerate unless th’ industrious hand 
Did yearly cull the largest.” § 
To recapitulate ara e conclusions arrived at in this paper 4 f 
are :— g 
1. That in plants, and animals as well, that are actively occu- 
pied in vegetative, physiological, pathological or other efforts 
which are antagonistic or complementary to the office of repro- — 
duction, the proportion of females borne during such times is 
greater than where the plant or animal has reached full develop- 
mental maturity || and growth, is in good health, and is occupied ~ 
principally in the process of reproduction. In this latter condi- | 
tion offspring of a higher developmental condition are produced, — 
and the proportion of males is increased. 
2. Females are in better condition (that is, they are fatter, 
more active in growth), more troubled by disease,§ or other pro- 
cess antagonistic to reproduction where they conceive with fe- 
males than with males; and they are made poorer, become more 
exhausted, and less healthy, by the production of female offspring 
than by male products. 
4. It is just possible that the ovules from which females 
derived may have a higher initial vitality (vigor) though the 
be less highly developed than those from which males are derived, 
yet no egg can properly be said to be predestined to pa male 
female. 
5. That female plants like female animals are less highly devel 
oped than males, and are the result of an inferior developmental 
reproductive effort on the part of the female dea 
"De Re Rustica, — . 
Darwin; 
ARE NS EDE ONE E E R T 
p tication, vol. ii, p. 303. 
_ §Darwin, yin, op. eit., voli, p. 31 
|| See farther ahs harbors paper on The a Aspects of oe el « 
tho Relative: Pistality or Gat ng of Different Pregnancies.—New Y 
Offspri 
Record, January 15 and February 15, 1874. 
T Dr. Gouverneur Emerson was the first to ‘point out the effect of a prenie a epi- 
demic (cholera) in reducing the proportion of male births. See his proof in hi 
oe Sis American Journa? of Medien Sctencee, duir, 200, Pp. 78-85. 
