1890.] Recent Literature. . FS 
evolution. Further, the essential nature of sex-character has the 
greatest practical bearing on human affairs, and its thorough compre- 
hension cannot fail to be of great utility to society. In fact, such 
knowledge is the one thing needful to regulate the unbridled fancies 
of the uneducated mind which attempts to deal with the subject, and 
which has produced innumerable absurdities since the human imagina- 
tion began to be active. 
The authors have produced a book which has not only scientific 
but literary merits, and many of its bright passages indicate the artist 
as well as the thinker. The more delicate parts of the subject are 
handled with a tact that cannot give offence to persons of most oppo- 
site views, ; and a judicious reserve is maintained in the presence of 
unsolved social problems, with the discussion of which the volume 
closes. 
The fadiga character of sex-diversity is demonstrated, and is 
traced in the characteristic peculiarities of the germ-cells of the sexes, 
as at present existing. The superior activity of the male cell (sperma- 
tozoöid), with its expenditure of energy in segmentation so long as 
material for its nutrition is accessible, is taken as reflected into the 
male character generally. The large, inactive female cell (ovum), 
abounding in nutritive material, which is ready for active functioning 
on the accession of male energy, is thought to be reflected more or 
less in the general habit of the female. The facts in evidence which 
sustain this position are as numerous as are the phenomena of life, 
and a large number of them are recorded in the present work. The 
views of the authors are more expressly stated in the following extracts : 
** Without multiplying instances, a review ofthe animal kingdom, or 
a perusal of Darwin’s pages, will amply confirm the conclusion that 
on an average the females incline to passivity, the males to activity. 
In higher animals it is true that the contrast shows rather in many 
little ways than in any one striking difference of of habit, but even in 
the human species the contrast is recognized. Every one will admit 
that strenuous, spasmodic bursts of activity characterizes men, especi- 
ally in youth, and among the less civilized races; while patient con- 
tinuance, with less violent expenditure of energy, is as generally asso- 
ciated with the work of women. 
** For completeness of argument two other facts, which will after- 
claim full discussion, may here be simply mentioned: (a). At 
the very threshold of sex-differences we find that a little active cell or 
spore, unable to develop of itself, unites in fatigue with a larger, more. 
quiescent individual. Here, at the very first, is the contrast between 
