136 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 
imfant tightly swathed, as was formerly the custom, in 
swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play of 
its little limbs, fed with unwholesome food, or uncherished 
by genial warmth, may from these circumstances have 
so imperfect a development of its organs as to be in con- 
sequence devoted to sterility. When a cow brings forth 
two calves, and one of them is a female, it is always 
barren, and partakes in part of the characters of the 
other sex?. In this instance, the space and food that 
in ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are divided 
between two; so that a more contracted dwelling and a 
smaller share of nutriment seem to prevent the develop- 
ment of the ovaries. 
The following observations, mostly taken from an 
essay of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter, in the 
Philosophical Transactions, since they are intimately 
connected with the subject that we are now considering, 
will not be here misplaced. In animals just born, or 
very young, there are no peculiarities of shape, exchusive 
of the primary distinctions, by which one sex may be 
known from the other. Thus secondary distinctive cha- 
racters, such as the beard in men, and the breasts in 
women, are produced at a certain period of life; and 
these secondary characters, in some instances, are 
changed for those of the other sex; which does not arise 
from any action at the first formation, but takes place 
when the great command “Increase and multiply” 
ceases to operate. ‘Thus women in advanced life are 
sometimes distinguished by beards; and after they have 
done laying, hen-birds occasionally assume the plumage 
See J, Wunter’s Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal Qeconomy, 
