HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE 
No. 85 
Editors: 
HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. 
Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, Litt.D., 
LL.D., F.B.A. 
Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. 
Prof. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. A complete classified list of the volumes of The 
Home University Library already published 
will be found at the back of this book. SEX 
BY 
PATRICK GEDDES 
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS 
AND 
J. ARTHUR THOMSON 
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 
Joint Authors of " The Evolution of Sex " 
gw 
NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
LONDON 
WILLIAMS AND. NORGATE Copyright, 1914, 
BY 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
(By MISS E. L. SHINNIE) 
FIG. PAGE 
1. Male and female Bird of Paradise {after 0. 
Hertwig 17 
2. Male and female spider {after Vinson) .... 18 
3. The Bell-animalcule-Vorticella 22 
4a, 46, 4c. Volvox colonies: Asexual, female and male 
{after Klein) 24, 25 
5. Ovum and Spermatozoon {after E. B. Wilson) . . 35 
6. Fertilisation in Adder's Tongue Fern (Ophio- 
glossum {after Bruchmann 36 
7. Diagram of a flower {after Sachs) 37 
8. Freshwater Hydra 46 
9. Fertilisation of eggs of Starfish {after Fol) ... 48 
10. Male and female of Crested Newt {from specimens) 51 
11. Male and female Boneilia {after Lacase-Duthiers) . 58 
12. Male Sea-horse-Hippocampus {from a specimen) 65 
13. Male and female Hercules beetles {from specimens) 66 
14. Male and female fish, Phallostethus {after C. Tate 
Regan) 70 
15. Forms of abdomen in female, male, and parasitised 
male crab {after Geoffrey Smith) 84 
16. Male crab, Inachus, parasitised by Sacculina {after 
Geoffrey Smith 86 
17. Female Paper Nautilus, Argonauta argo {from a 
specimen) 89 
18. Male Argonauta argo {after Muller) 90 
19. Male spiders, posing and dancing {after Prof and 
Mrs. Peckham) 129 
20. Female spider carrying her cocoon {after Blackmail) 133 CONTENTS 
CHAP. PAGE 
I The Study of Sex 7 
II The Evolution of Sex 20 
III Sex-Charactebs Illustrated ...... 56 
IV Theory of Sex Dimorphism ...... 72 
V What Determines Sex ? 98 
VI The Cycle of Sex 117 
VII Corruptio Optimi Pessima 142 
VIII Pros and Cons of Sex-Education .... 156 
IX The Ethics of Sex 180 
X Sex and Society 202 
Bibliography 245 
Index 254 SEX 
CHAPTER I 
THE STUDY OF SEX 
Objections to the study of sex-What sex has meant in the 
past - What sex means to-day-What sex may come to 
mean-Various ways of studying sex. 
Objections to the Study of Sex. - To 
many otherwise sensible people, even the 
word "sex" is abhorrent, still more a book 
about sex. They will not, therefore, be read- 
ing this volume, but their objections may 
be considered, (a) In some cases the repug- 
nance expresses an organic lack of sympathy 
with the aim of science, for many estimable 
people have no use for scientific analysis. 
They are lacking in the curious spirit, and 
are not worried by obscurities. They are 
not interested in any theory of the internal 
tides that sway them. To those who are 
built on those lines, there is no more to be 
said. One feels, however, that while ignor- 
ance may be bliss when everything is plain 
sailing, some accurate knowledge is likely 
to be useful when the bark of life gets near 
the rocks in stormy weather. Science is for 
the control of life, as well as for its enlight- 
enment. 
7 8 
SEX 
(&) In others the repugnance comes from 
the poetic and artistic side, and recalls to us 
the warning tale of Amor and Psyche. Love, 
they rightly say, is the most wonderful thing 
in the world; to inquire into its mysterious 
origins and pre-human analogues repels us. 
Why thus dig at the roots of the Mystic Rose? 
Is there not risk of losing by scientific analysis 
far more than one gains? Even the savage 
mother very long ago preferred - what she 
sometimes still prefers - her poetic fancy of 
the child-spirit entering her womb from the 
totem-ground, where desirable qualities of 
strength, swiftness, endurance, and the like 
were actualised or symbolised, to an acknowl- 
edgment of the naked fact of physical pater- 
nity! To those who feel so strongly that "love" 
is an artistic preserve - a charmed corner of 
the Earthly Paradise - where science is a 
trespasser, little can be said by us biologists. 
Unless it be this, that from their position 
it is impossible to see one of the biggest facts 
about "love," namely its evolution. Per- 
haps this also, that when the steps of the evo- 
lution of love are faced and climbed, the poetic 
and spiritual possibilities are found to be 
more assured than ever, since they appear 
henceforth, not merely as the dreams of the 
poet, but as the promise of the race. And 
what are most dreams, after all, but tendrils 
- coarse and fine - groping or feeling after 
the hitherto unattained? 
(c) For others the repugnance is more 
intellectual and deliberate. To talk about sex, 
they say, makes for morbid self-conscious- 
ness, for indelicacy, even if not impurity. THE STUDY OF SEX 
9 
To bring the facts of sex into broad daylight 
is obscenity; to disclose the organic springs 
of love is to degrade Man to the brute level; 
to raise into the focus of consciousness what 
ought to remain sub-conscious is a "psychical 
rape." The latest and unforgivable sin of a 
materialistic and scientific system of education 
is thus to presume to give any instruction 
whatever in regard to the process by which 
the race is continued! And how much more 
awful even to broach the subject of the Scylla 
and Charybdis of adolescence! 
We should not be writing this little book 
at all - when more agreeable occupations 
invite us - did we not believe that the people 
perish for lack of knowledge - of sex; that 
it is ignorance, not science, which engenders 
pruriency and communicates filthy-minded- 
ness; that for lack of a little instruction many 
are made miserable when they should be happy, 
many even ruined, in soul and in body. There 
is too much mist about the life-journey, from 
its origins and at its climax - mists dark and 
unwholesome, favouring errors of judgment 
and errors of conduct; and of the ever-bright- 
ening lights of science there can be few better 
uses than here and there to guide the way- 
farer, even though they may not yet serve 
to clear all the mists away. 
One appeal we would make to those who 
dread in sex only the dangers of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, and who, as we think, 
fail to see that here lies the way towards the 
tree of life as well. Are not physicians, alienists, 
and nurses precisely the people who see most 
of sex in its diseased forms? But are they 10 
SEX 
thereby in anyway more tempted towards sin? 
Surely otherwise. While as to normal sex, 
which essentially interests us here, and as 
at heart and through life zoologists and bot- 
anists, each and both of us, what harm have 
we to tell of our simply or magnificently sexed 
animals, our gloriously sexed flowers? And 
coming to the human species, and to our 
lifelong friends the painters, above all the 
sculptors, who, beyond any of us, study life 
naked and unashamed, have not these ex- 
pressed for every age and generation, its high- 
est ideals, human or divine? 
What Sex has meant in the Past. - There 
might have been a world without sex - a 
parthenopeia - of which we get a hint from 
the swarming generations of green-flies on 
our rose-bushes and hop-vines, which, all 
the summer through, increase by virgin birth, 
with not a single male to be seen till the autumn. 
The question thus arises, Why might not the 
organic world have been run on sexless lines? 
We shall see later on how naturally sex arose 
in the early days, or rather ages, of organic 
evolution, and that it has ever been one of 
the conditions of progress. Maternity itself 
would probably have ceased if there had not 
been the love of mates. Strong as is the vital 
impulse, it probably could not have reached 
beyond a certain level had it not evoked the 
device of sex, and thus renewed its inspiration 
for the uplift of the type, as well as encourage- 
ment, through a new life-ecstasy, of its indi- 
viduals. 
In mankind the fact of sex has saturated 
through history. It is not improbable, as THE STUDY OF SEX 
11 
Mr. Heape has maintained, that the ancient 
systems of custom and belief which we know 
as Exogamy and Totemism are in origin char- 
acteristically Male and Female expressions 
respectively. The specialisation of the mother 
and home-maker made the consolidation of 
the family possible. The division of labour 
between the sexes increased the likelihood of 
invention and opened up different lines of 
occupation, discipline, and culture, which have 
often crossed and influenced one another. 
In many ways, intellectual, emotional, and 
ethical, there has been alternate stimulus 
between the sexes. There has been a mutual 
culture, and sometimes a mutual degrada- 
tion. Love and passion have stimulated, if 
not indeed created, music and dance, paint- 
ing and other arts; they have been among the 
mainsprings of poetry; they have entered into 
the heart of religion - from the widespread 
ancient phallic worships (which have been 
too harshly judged, from their defects and vices 
alone), down to much in the latest cults of 
to-day. Sex-prompted enthusiasms have led 
to high ethical endeavours, as in chivalry 
and its quests, and even in wars, though these 
may have left the world the poorer after them. 
To those who may think that we are making 
too much of the role of sex in history we would 
suggest that they read, for instance, Karl 
Pearson's Chances of Death. From his interest- 
ing study of the Aryan terms for sex and kin- 
ship, he concludes "that the sex-instinct, 
as one of the two chief motors of primitive 
life, has fyeen chiefly instrumental in creating, 
not only terms for relationship, but also terms SEX 
12 
for the chief human affections and desires." . . . 
"Many roots have originally a sexual sense, 
and are by analogy or association afterwards 
used for wider household, agricultural, or social 
occupations." "Accordingly, if we find in the 
sexual impulse not only the source of a de- 
veloped terminology for relationship, but also 
the first germs of the social instincts in man, 
shall we not cease to regard it as "a most un- 
lovely germ of appetite," and recognise it for 
what it really has been - nay, still really is 
- the ultimate basis of the very highest, as 
well as of the very lowest, phases in human 
action and human feeling?" 
What Sex means To-day. - This little 
word covers half the happiness of mankind, 
and half the misery too - indeed, what pessi- 
mist would not say more! It brings about the 
re-arrangement of the whole life at adoles- 
cence, and gives the individual a fresh start - 
up or down. It is the organic tendril that 
fastens the growing spirit to the most endur- 
ing supports in our external heritage; , in art 
and literature and great example. It is the 
physical basis of the most powerful emotion 
in human life - the love of mates, and it is 
capable of rising higher and falling lower than 
any other impulse we know. It gives wings 
or shackles; oftenest, a little of both. 
The seamy side is indeed painfully obvious. 
Morbidities and vices in adolescence are all 
too common. Many lovers fail in continence. 
Many marriages sink into commonplaceness 
and stupor, into quarrelsomeness or indiffer- 
ence. The ranks of those who habitually 
buy and sell sexual gratification are crowded. THE STUDY OF SEX 
13 
Unnatural vices lurk in dark places. There 
are many who have allowed their minds to 
become unclean, who keep up the trade of 
pornographic printing, or chew the cud of filthy 
stories, whose thoughts are always turning 
to the flesh and the lusts thereof, who 
can hardly look at a woman without be- 
coming adulterous in heart. In many men 
who are not unhealthy-minded there is a 
selfish celibacy which postpones marriage for 
the "assured position" that best helps a man 
to life-ruin. In the old stories the lover 
galloped boldly off with his lady; but nowa- 
days the motor-car serves oftenest to post- 
pone the wife - till love is past its youth. 
On the other side, too, our modern wealth- 
spirit fosters feminine selfishness, and spreads 
that love of untaxed pleasure which shirks 
maternity or minimises it. In too many 
of the lives which prosperity has freed from 
strain or struggle for existence, it seems as 
if not only the lights of chivalry and romance 
had gone out, but even of everyday affection 
and courage also. 
What Sex may come to mean.-A study 
of the past and the present should not be 
without its suggestions of the possible. What 
are the lines of change that seem feasible and 
not too Utopian? (1) A gradual introduc- 
tion of carefully thought-out sex-education, 
differentiated for age and circumstances, is 
likely to do much towards healthy-minded- 
ness, towards lessening morbid brooding, 
towards a wholesomer view of everything 
connected with the continuance of life. (See 
Chapter VIII.) 14 
SEX 
(2) Moral education, too often neglected 
or unskilled in the past, is likely to do much 
in the way of renewing that vital continuity 
of upward growth which is so often and so 
easily distorted or broken, between the simplest 
organic dreamings and stirrings of sex-impulse 
and the ideals of lover and poet, of eugenist 
and statesman. The biological setting is inval- 
uable, but it tends fundamentally to be matter 
of fact; it must be complemented by an ideal 
setting. Hence (were it but as the surest 
way to keep evil out) the noble examples of 
the past, the possibilities of the future, should 
pre-occupy the mind. Only with this dual 
education, organic yet ideal, physiologic yet 
poetic, can our complex modern city life be 
again grown healthily, and become, as in the 
best and simplest rustic life of old, healthy 
from root to flower. 
(3) It seems legitimate to look forward to 
a very considerable lessening of the troubles 
of adolescence, when doctor and psychologist, 
teacher and parent find time to unite their 
brains in the task. There can be no doubt 
that the ideal of preventive medicine has not 
been sufficiently borne in mind in connection 
with this critical period, and that things are 
left to themselves in a fatalistic fashion. There 
should be more preparation for the prob- 
able storms - a preparation which many sav- 
age tribes have tried to meet in a mannei' 
that maxes us ashamed of our own "muddling 
through." It is likely that the establishment 
of frank relations between young people and 
their physician will save many from mis- 
erable years and even from shipwreck. THE STUDY OF SEX 
15 
It may also be suggested that one of the 
gains of the study of sex will be a better under- 
standing of many phenomena which bur- 
den and grieve the spirit. The saying, "To 
know all, is to forgive all" is a warning to the 
intolerant; but there are yet more useful 
sayings, since it is not of such great moment 
whether we forgive or not. What is import- 
ant to our successors is whether Nature 
forgives. What is important is the practical 
action we take in furthering or discouraging, 
and it is here that understanding is of essential 
importance. 
It is a fact, for instance, that we have in 
our midst the persistence of "fossils of several 
stages of sexual habit." In regard to these 
we know better what to do or what not to 
do when we see them in their historical sig- 
nificance. Sex-festivals, as in some parts of 
Russia, for instance, with their strange ming- 
ling of religious emotion and sexual license, are 
not inexplicable perversions of a pathological 
character so much as survivals of a primeval 
civilisation. Other instances may be found 
nearer home, e. g. in that persistent and de- 
liberate ante-nuptial experimenting as to the 
fertility of a proposed marriage, which has 
lingered so long in northern countries. 
Various Ways of studying Sex. - The 
problems of sex have been attacked along 
various lines of investigation. (a) There is 
the historical method which traces the rela- 
tions of the sexes through the ages, which 
deals with the history of marriage, of adoles- 
cence-ceremonies, of courtship, of concubi- 
nage, of prostitution, and so on. It varies. 16 
SEX 
of course, as emphasis is laid on the anthropo- 
logical, the economic, or the religious aspects 
of the facts, but its method is definitely his- 
torical. It aims at tracing out the evolu- 
tion of the sex-relations from their pre-human 
to their human, from their primitive to their 
civilised expressions. 
(6) Another method is that of comparative 
anthropology, which studies the customs at 
present to be observed in different peoples, 
especially of those who are called savages, 
who may be more profitably called our "con- 
temporary ancestors." Thus the study of 
the aborigines of Central Australia, as pur- 
sued by men like Spencer and Gillen, has 
yielded very valuable results, especially those 
bearing on exogamy and totemism. But 
without going outside our own civilisation 
there is much to be gained from a comparative 
study of customs, rites, and lingering super- 
stitions. Logically pursued, this comparative 
method may be extended to a study of the 
sex-relations among animals. 
(c) A third method is biological - the study 
of sex as seen in animals and plants, and this 
is usually pursued along two somewhat different 
lines. On the one hand, we have physiological 
investigations, into the role of sex-functions 
in the internal economy of the organism; on 
the other hand, we have the study, more ob- 
servational than experimental, of the express- 
ions of sex in plant and animal, in insect and 
bird, in amphibian and mammal. All the dif- 
ferent modes of sexual reproduction, all the 
different illustrations of sex-dimorphism, all the 
forms of mating, have to be studied (Figs. 1 and 2). M 
F 
Fig. 1. - A Bird of Paradise - Paradisea apoda. The decora- 
tive male (M) and the relatively plain female (F) (After 
O. Hertwig.) 
17 18 
SEX 
The more precise physiological study passes 
insensibly into medical inquiries as to the 
normal and abnormal exercise of sexual func- 
Fig. 2. - Minute male and large female spider. Nephila nigra, 
I natural size. (After Vinson.) 
tions, as to the phenomena of adolescence, 
maturity and the climacteric. The more 
general Natural History study passes insen- THE STUDY OF SEX 
19 
sibly into psychological inquiries as to the 
sexual impulses, instincts, and emotions, as 
to the rise and progress of that human com- 
plex which we call "love"; and thence, alas, 
into its pathology also. 
In our insistence on the fundamental neces- 
sity of the biological approach - apart from 
which human nature cannot be rightly under- 
stood - we are far from falling into the fallacy 
of forgetting that the biological interpretation 
requires to be supplemented by the psycho- 
logical and the social. We wish to make our 
position in this respect quite clear. Through 
and through, and back to the ovum, Man is 
a mammal, with a mammal's structure and 
functions, development and pedigree, with a 
mammal's strength and weaknesses. Truly, 
"all flesh is not the same flesh, but there is 
one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, 
another of fishes, and another of birds,"- 
there is specificity through and through; yet 
there is a common ground of protoplasm that 
makes the whole world kin; and Man cannot 
disown his mammalian ancestry. He is solid- 
ary with the animal creation and with mammals 
in particular. 
On the other hand, while Man still has his 
feet, as it were, in the natal mud, he has hitched 
his wagon to a star. With his power of ra- 
tional discourse, his awareness of his own his- 
tory, and his capacity for controlling his con- 
duct in relation to general ideas and ideals, 
he is able to pass far beyond animal confines. 
Therefore we have sympathy with a recent 
writer who says: "The links that bind a young 
man in the pride of life with a rutting stag. 20 
SEX 
or a mother and her baby with a she-bear and 
her cubs, are insignificant compared with 
the differences that divide them. Human 
conduct, human happiness, and the present 
and future of the human race are bound up 
with the differences between man and animals, 
and not with the resemblances." We should 
say "with the differences as well as with the 
resemblances," and we should alter the word 
insignificant to "of less moment than"; but 
the quotation expresses an important pro- 
test against a too simple "biologism," and 
with this protest we heartily concur. 
Yet our course of action must be not to 
make less of biology either in enquiry or in 
use, but of the higher sciences more - of psy- 
chology, ethics, and social science for choice. 
CHAPTER II 
THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
Ancient origin of sex-The case ofVolvox - Significance of 
conjugation in the Protozoa - Body-cells and germ- 
cells- Advantages of sexual reproduction - Sperm-cells 
and egg-cells - Significance of fertilisation - Males and 
females-Testes and ovaries - Sex-dimorphism - Sex- 
awareness - Physical fondness - /Esthetic attraction - 
Co-operation of the sexes - Love. 
In the volume Evolution in this Library, we 
have discussed some of the great steps in 
the history of organisms: the appearance of 
the relatively simple Protists; the parting of 
the ways between plants and animals; the 
differentiation of Protozoa and Protophyta THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
21 
from one another and among themselves; 
the establishment of multicellular bodies; the 
beginnings of brains and of behaviour; the 
evolution of the dominant types of the animal 
kingdom; and, finally, the emergence and as- 
cent of Man - the supreme Mammal. We 
have now to inquire into the evolution of 
sex and the significance of the various steps 
so far as these can be read at present. 
Ancient Origin of Sex. - The cords of 
human love are complex, even in its average 
expressions in civilised mankind. There is 
a subtle interweaving of strands - physical 
and psychical, aesthetic and intellectual, in- 
dividual and social. Yet in spite of all trans- 
figuration, the flesh and blood attraction 
persists, and we land in fallacy if we forget 
that these sex-impulses which are at once 
the glory and the shame of mankind - and 
this increasingly throughout the ages - have 
a yet inconceivably longer history behind 
them, and thence spring up within us with 
the tremendous momentum of the organic 
past. 
It is a significant fact that we are confronted 
with sex at the very roots of the genealogical 
tree - in the primeval sub-kingdom of the 
Unicellulars, the Protozoa, and the Protophytes. 
In these relatively simple organisms multi- 
plication takes place by fission or by budding, 
or by spore-formation; but along with these 
modes of multiplication there is a quite distinct 
process, that combination of two individuals 
which is called conjugation. It used to be 
believed that the simplest organisms showed 
no sexual reproduction, but subsequent re- 22 
SEX 
searches have shown that this is very far 
from being the case. Many single-celled 
organisms unite in pairs and two become 
A B C 
Fig. 3. - The Bell-Animalcule - Vorticella. A, a typical 
individual showing contractile fibre (CF) inside a non- 
contractile sheath, the twisted nucleus (N), a contractile 
vacuole (CV), a food-vacuole (FV), the mouth, and the 
surrounding cilia. B, an individual which has in part 
divided into a cluster of small units or microzooids (Z). 
C, an individual, which may almost be called female, 
with which a minute individual or microzooid (M), which 
may be almost called male, is conjugating. 
one; a total conjugation in which there is 
obviously so far a decrease, not an increase 
in numbers. Others, such as many ciliated 
Infusorians, show partial conjugation, that is, THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
23 
they become closely united and exchange 
nuclear elements, after which they separate 
again. In other cases, the ordinary forms 
produce special elements (spores) which con- 
jugate, and these are sometimes dimorphic - 
macrospores and microspores - corresponding 
to the eggs and sperms of higher animals. 
In the life history of the common bell- 
animalcule, Vorticella (see Fig. 3), a small- 
sized free-swimming individual attaches itself 
to and bores into another individual, of nor- 
mal size, which remains moored by its con- 
tractile stalk to the water-weed. What have 
we here but male and female in miniature? It 
is true, of course, that most of the Protozoa 
remain strictly unicellular (or perhaps one 
should say non-cellular), so that they can 
only be analogues of males and females among 
multicellular creatures. They correspond, in- 
deed, not so much to higher organisms, as to 
the sex-cells of higher organisms; they are like 
ova and spermatozoa which have not formed 
"bodies." But the important fact is that 
even among the Protozoa we find examples 
of special reproductive units which combine 
in pairs, and are dimorphic - macrospores 
and microspores. For here we are at the 
beginning of sex. 
The Case of Volvox. - The second step 
on the ladder is best illustrated by Volvox, 
an Infusorian colony, not uncommon in clear 
ponds, which shows us a body in the making. 
It is a beautiful green ball of a thousand or 
ten thousand flagellate cells, according to the 
species, bound to one another by bridges of 
protoplasm. It rolls itself quickly through 24 
SEX 
the water and feeds in part at least like a 
green plant. But let us consider its repro- 
ductive relations. 
It occasionally happens that a component 
unit of the ball of cells may become repro- 
ductive and divide to form a daughter-colony 
(see Fig. 4a) without more ado. This is an 
almost vegetative way of multiplying, at least 
Fig. 4a. - A Volvox colony showing in the interior four 
daughter-colonies (DC), produced asexually. (After Klein.) 
a parthenogenetic one. But in other conditions, 
when nutrition is checked, a less direct mode 
of reproduction occurs. Some of the cells in 
the living ball become large, well-fed elements 
- the ova; others, less anabolic, fade from green 
to yellow, divide and re-divide into many minute 
units - the spermatozoa. Here we see the 
formation of dimorphic reproductive cells in 
different parts of the same organism. But we 
may also find Vol vox colonies in which only THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
25 
ova are being produced (see Fig. 4b), and 
others in which only sperms are being pro- 
Fig. 4b. - A Volvox colony in a female phase, producing 
numerous ova or egg-cells (E). (After Klein.) 
Fig. 4c. - A Volvox colony in a male phase, producing clusters 
of male-cells or spermatozoa (SP). (After Klein.) 
duced (see Fig. 4c). The former seem to be 
more vegetative and anabolic than the latter; 26 
SEX 
we may begin to call them female and male 
organisms respectively; for here we are at the 
foundation of the differences between the two 
sexes. But so far as we know there is no "sex- 
behaviour" in these two kinds of colonies. 
The minute spermatozoa, restless and anarchic 
from first to last, are set free into the water, 
and some of them coming into the vicinity of 
ripe female colonies are attracted to the ova - 
attracted from a slight distance by that more 
or less mysterious attraction, of which our 
first germ of knowledge is expressed in the 
technical word "chemotaxis." 
Significance of Conjugation in Proto- 
zoa. - In his fundamental investigations on 
the conjugation of Infusorians, Maupas in- 
quired into the significance of the process. 
He asked, for instance, whether the conjuga- 
tion accelerated subsequent division - the or- 
dinary process of asexual multiplication which 
these Infusorians exhibit. His answer was 
a decided negative. While a pair of Infuso- 
rians (Onychodromus grandis) were engaged 
in conjugation, a single individual had, by 
ordinary division, become the ancestor of 
from forty thousand to fifty thousand indi- 
viduals. He showed, moreover, that the 
intricate internal changes associated with con- 
jugation and the subsequent reconstruction, 
involved a prolonged inertness during which 
the organisms were exposed to great risks 
from their enemies. 
Puzzled by this result, Maupas made a 
more extended series of observations. In 
November, 1885, he isolated an Infusorian 
(Stylonichia pustulata) and observed its gener- THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
27 
ations till March, 1886. By that time there 
had been two hundred and fifteen generations, 
produced by ordinary division, and since 
these organisms do not conjugate with those 
of the same stock, there had been no conjuga- 
tion. At the date referred to, however, it was 
observed that something had gone far wrong. 
The individuals were being born old and debili- 
tated; the powers of nutrition were lost; and 
the asexual multiplication came to a standstill. 
Meanwhile, before the generations had ex- 
hausted themselves, several of the individ- 
uals had been restored to their natural con- 
ditions, where they conjugated with unrelated 
forms of the same species. One of these was 
again isolated and watched for five months. 
In this case, up till the one hundred and thir- 
tieth generation, the organisms showed them- 
selves able to conjugate with unrelated forms 
when removed to fresh conditions. Later 
on, even this power was lost, and at the one 
hundred and eightieth generation the indi- 
viduals of the same family were observed 
making futile attempts to conjugate with each 
other. 
What happened in these isolated colonies 
was a wholesale degeneration, both in struc- 
ture and function. The individuals decreased 
in size until they were only a quarter of their 
original proportions, they showed very marked 
nuclear degeneration, the powers of feeding 
and dividing came to an end, the senile stock 
finally died out. 
From all this Maupas drew a natural in- 
ference - that there is a limit to the number 
of successive asexual divisions, and that con- 28 
SEX 
jugation must occur, else the whole life ebbs. 
The conjugation may be dangerous for the 
individual, it is a loss of time so far as im- 
mediate multiplication is concerned, but it 
is necessary to keep up the vigour of the stock. 
Without it, the Protozoa, which are otherwise 
practically exempt from natural death, must 
die. Conjugation is the necessary condition of 
their eternal youth. The experiments made 
by Maupas were conducted with great care, 
and they formed (along with other facts) 
the basis for what is sometimes called the 
"dynamic" theory of conjugation - that it is 
"a satisfying of an inherent periodic physio- 
logical need of living matter, resulting in a 
renewal of the vigour of the cell." But sub- 
sequent experiments have given a somewhat 
new complexion to the facts. It has been 
shown, for instance, that Infusorians are 
extraordinarily sensitive to their own waste 
products, and it has been suggested that 
the degeneration described by Maupas was 
due to self-poisoning rather than to the ab- 
sence of conjugation. 
Some subsequent investigators have watched 
hundreds of successive asexual generations 
without seeing the slightest trace of senile 
degeneration. Calkins has cultivated the slipper 
animalcule (Paramoecium) for over six hun- 
dred generations without conjugation, by giv- 
ing beef extract when degeneration threatened 
to set in. The same warding off of evil has 
been obtained with the same Infusorian by 
stimulating with infinitesimal quantities of 
alcohol, strychnine, and the like. The trend 
of recent work has been to suggest that in THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
29 
a perfect environment conjugation may be 
dispensed with. But this does not of course 
contradict the view that the conjugation of 
unrelated forms may serve to invigorate the 
constitution. 
From the recent investigations of Wood- 
ruff at Yale, we select one experiment. On 
May 1, 1907, he started with a "wild" slipper- 
animalcule (Paramoecium aurelia) which was 
isolated from an aquarium. When it had 
divided into two, and each of these into two, 
the four individuals were isolated to form 
the starting-points of four pedigree-lines. "The 
pedigreed culture has been maintained by 
a specimen isolated from each of these lines 
practically every day up to the present time 
(May 1, 1912), thus precluding the possibility 
of conjugation occurring and facilitating an 
accurate record of the number of generations 
attained." The varied culture-medium was 
invariably boiled so as to render the accidental 
introduction of "wild" individuals impossible. 
During the five years ending May 1, 1912, 
3029 generations were observed, and those 
at the end were as healthy as those at the 
beginning! There were 452 generations in 
the first year, 690 in the second, 613 in the 
third, 612 in the fourth, and 662 in the fifth. 
The mean rate was over three divisions in 
forty-eight hours. No periods of marked 
physiological depression occurred - the varia- 
tions of rate that were observed being either 
normal rhythms or the effects of environ- 
mental changes of temperature and culture- 
medium. Woodruff concludes that "the pro- 
toplasm of a single cell may be self-sufficient SEX 
30 
to reproduce itself indefinitely, under favourable 
environmental conditions, without recourse to 
conjugation." His experiments indicate that 
senescence and the need of fertilisation are 
not primary attributes of living matter. 
Without surrendering the idea that con- 
jugation, though not necessitated by a long 
succession of asexual reproductions, may serve 
to re-invigorate the protoplasm when the 
environment is not perfect, we are led to look 
about for some other part that conjugation 
may play in the life of the race. The sug- 
gestion has been made that it enables the 
organism to withstand changed environmental 
conditions - a view which may be readily 
combined with the idea of re-invigoration. 
It has been suggested, also, that it may be 
a process by which the average character 
of the species is sustained, disadvantageous 
peculiarities of any individual Protozoon being 
counteracted by other characters in the un- 
related neighbour with which it conjugates. 
Or it may be that the process of conjuga- 
tion is a source of variation by bringing about 
new combinations among the essential sub- 
stances of the two conjugates. The recent 
work of Jennings supports the view that the 
significance of conjugation lies in securing 
biparental inheritance, which often implies 
variation. When the conditions of life are 
untoward, conjugation is apt to occur, and 
it may be followed by new combinations of 
qualities, some of which are suited to the 
altered conditions of life. Conjugation pro- 
motes variations, and some of these pay by 
securing survival. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
31 
Body-cells and Germ-cells. - The next 
step in the evolution of sex was the confirming 
of what forms like Vol vox began - the setting 
apart of special reproductive cells as distin- 
guished from the somatic cells. In a develop- 
ing embryo we see a process of division of labour, 
whose structural result is called differentia- 
tion. Some cells become contractile and some 
sensitive, some digestive and others skele- 
tal, and so on, but some do not share at all 
in body-making - and these are the germ- 
cells that continue the race. 
What we see beginning in Volvox is estab- 
lished in almost all multicellular organisms, 
from sponge and polyp to bird and mam- 
mal, from seaweed and liverwort to fern and 
tree - namely, sexual reproduction, the con- 
tinuance of life by means of special germ- 
cells. In many cases it is combined with 
asexual reproduction by buds or fragments, 
and the difference between the twTo methods 
must be carefully considered. 
Advantages of Sexual Reproduction. - 
The question thus arises: What are the advan- 
tages of the liberation of special germ-cells as 
against the process of budding, or of frag- 
mentation where a considerable sample of the 
body is set adrift? (a) An obvious answer is 
that the method of sexual reproduction - 
starting a new organism from a fertilised ovum - 
is much more economical than the asexual 
process. In the one case two cells suffice to 
start a new organism; in the other cases thou- 
sands of cells may be required. There is 
something in this answer, but it cannot be the 
complete one, since many plants and many 32 
SEX 
of the lower animals feed so easily that economy 
is not of any account. A single Hydroid polyp 
developed from a fertilised ovum soon builds 
up asexually a great colony of thousands of 
Individuals. It must also be remembered that 
the economy of sexual as against asexual re- 
production is in many cases only apparent - 
the wastage of germ-cells being frequently 
enormous. (&) A second suggestion is that 
asexual reproduction is incompatible with the 
complex organisation of a higher animal. 
We cannot think of a bird multiplying by 
fission or of an elephant giving off a bud! 
They are too highly differentiated. No piece 
of a higher animal could serve as a represen- 
tative sample of the whole, as an excised piece 
of polyp does. The possibility of keeping 
pieces of tissue alive after excision from the 
body is very much greater than was formerly 
supposed, but a separated piece of a higher 
animal is not in natural conditions viable. 
Now there is doubtless good sense in this 
suggestion, but it cannot be the complete 
answer. This must be granted when it is 
noted that some very complex organisms 
give off buds, witness the bulbils of the tiger- 
lily, a highly evolved flowering plant, or the 
remarkable buds of the beautiful free-swim- 
ming Tunicates known as Salps. The Salp 
is a very intricate animal, with a much 
specialised body, and yet it alternates repro- 
duction by germ-cells with reproduction by 
budding. This is effected by means of a re- 
productive "stolon" - a shoot-like outgrowth 
containing prolongations from most of the 
important organs in the body and becoming THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
33 
eventually separated into a chain of buds. 
In other words, a means has been evolved 
whereby an animal with a complex body may 
continue to produce buds, just as simple polyps 
do. (c) The third suggestion is that the 
distinction between germ-cells and body cells 
would justify itself in leaving a free course 
for the differentiation of body cells (as nervous, 
contractile, glandular, and so on), and in 
securing that the reproductive cells were 
in some measure at least sheltered from the 
influences of the accidents and incidents of 
bodily life. Reproduction by special germ- 
cells obviates or lessens the risk, attendant 
on asexual reproduction, that the offspring 
share in the acquired bodily defects of the 
parent. Of course it must likewise operate 
against the transmission of extrinsically ac- 
quired bodily gains. On the other hand, the 
important constitutional gains which begin 
as germinal variations are more or less se- 
curely entailed by the germ-cell method, 
in virtue of what is called the continuity of 
the germ-plasm (see our Evolution, p. 114). 
Variations are indeed common among asexually 
produced plants, as we see at a Chrysanthe- 
mum show, but the germ-cell method is even 
more productive. Some recent work sug- 
gests that the nutritive and other environ- 
ment of the young germ-cells within the body 
may serve to provoke germinal variations, 
acting in fact as "liberating stimuli." Thus 
the risk of transmitting bodily defects is les- 
sened, while the supply of heritable changes 
of endogenous origin is increased. Another 
advantage probably lies in the fact that the 34 
SEX 
commencement of the new individual life at 
the level of a single cell means an ever re- 
current re-unification of the inheritance. For 
no one can think of the germ-cell as like an 
ill-packed portmanteau with a higgledy-piggledy 
of hereditary items: it is a living creature in 
a condensed form, an individuality with a 
unified organisation. So far, then, an answer 
to the question: In what respects is sexual 
reproduction an improvement on asexual re- 
production? 
Sperm-cells and Egg-cells. - The next 
step was also a confirmation of what some 
form like Volvox began - the definite estab- 
lishment of dimorphic germ-cells or gametes. 
One type of germ-cell was relatively large, 
with a good deal of cytoplasm (or general 
cell-substance) in proportion to nucleus, pro- 
vided with some store of nutritive material, 
and therefore sluggish - the Ovum. The other 
type of germ-cell was relatively small, with 
little cytoplasm in proportion to nucleus, with 
very little reserve material, and therefore 
predisposed to move towards nutritive sub- 
stances, to explore - the Spermatozoon. This 
evolution of dimorphic gametes, with anti- 
thetic but complementary qualities, was an 
echo of the macro- and micro-spores of some 
Protozoa, but there was, without doubt, a 
fresh start made when animals with a "body" 
came upon the scene. 
In most animals the infinitesimally minute 
and intensely active spermatozoa seek out the 
ova which, though often invisible to the un- 
aided eye, are relatively large. The sperma- 
tozoon is often only tjjVot of the size of THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
35 
the ovum. In the flowerless plants, such as 
ferns and mosses, there are actively locomotor 
spermatozoa or antherozooids (see Fig. 6), 
but though there long seemed to be no inter- 
Fig. 5. - Ovum and spermatozoon (S) of a sea-urchin, alike 
magnified over 750 times, showing relative size. (After 
E. B. Wilson.) The ovum shows the cell-substance or 
cytoplasm (C) with an intricate structure, the nucleus (N) 
with readily stainable bodies known as chromatin threads 
(CHR), and with a nucleolus or germinal spot (GS). 
mediate step between this and the seeming 
static pollen grain of higher plants, a mobile 
spermatozoon has been found to emerge from 
the pollen tube in certain cycads, and also 
in the strange Gingko or Maiden-hair Tree 
brought to our gardens from the temple en- 36 
SEX 
closures of old Japan. And the pollen-grains 
of ordinary flowering plants, although they 
correspond to the whole male generation, and 
usually abbreviate away the formation of sper- 
matozoa in adaptation to the loss of watery 
Fig. 6. - Female reproductive organ or archegonium in the 
Adder's Tongue Fern - Ophioglossum-and the motile 
male cells or antherozooids (SP). The egg-cell is marked 
OY; it lies in a flask-like recess, the neck of which shows a 
mucous secretion through which the male cells make 
their way. (After Bruchmann.) 
environment, are adapted to passive transpor- 
tation, from blossom to blossom, by the wind 
or by the agency of insects (Fig. 7). 
To the question why the dimorphism of 
germ-cells should have been justified in the 
course of evolution, two answers may be 
given, (a) A number of facts point to the THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
37 
general conclusion that cross-fertilisation is 
advantageous. Darwin first clearly showed - 
Fig. 7. - Diagram of a flower. S, sepal; P, petal; ST, stamen 
with anther (A) liberating polien grains; P, pistil; OV, 
ovary enclosing an ovule which shows an embryo-sac 
with the egg-cell (E), the endosperm nucleus (N), and 
the antipodal cells (C); on the stigma are seen several 
pollen-grains (PG) whose pollen-tubes are growing down 
the style towards the egg-cell. (After Sachs.) 
and despite some exaggerations his general 
conclusion survives - that the progeny of 
cross-fertilised plants are more successful and 38 
SEX 
more fertile than those of similar plants self- 
fertilised. Now cross-fertilisation will be more 
readily secured if one of the germ-cells be 
specialised as a locomotor element. Were 
both locomotor, as in some Protozoa, the 
likelihood of cross-fertilisation would b#1 greater 
still, but the egg would not then be so well 
adapted in the way of providing the initial 
material for development and some nutri- 
ment as well. As for the condition seen in 
most Crustaceans and in Nematode worms, 
where the sperms are sluggish, and amoeboid 
rather than flagellate, the males have to make 
up for the loss of activity on the part of their 
spermatozoa, by directly bringing these into 
close proximity to the ova. (&) The other 
advantage of division of labour among the 
germ-cells is that the one which is to undergo 
development after fertilisation by the other 
can be safely endowed with a legacy of yolk, 
can be ensheathed within envelopes which 
protect the delicate embryo, or can be hidden 
away in safe places within the mother's body 
and there undergo development. Thus, look- 
ing backward, we may justify as great steps 
in evolution the specialisation of egg-cells and 
sperm-cells (see Fig. 5). 
Significance of Fertilisation. - In most 
animals large numbers of ova are produced, 
and in many cases only a small percentage are 
fertilised. Inconceivably large numbers of 
spermatozoa are produced, but all die, except 
the small minority that reach the ova. In all 
but a few cases the spermatozoon and the 
ovum that unite in fertilisation come from 
different parents; for although there are many THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
39 
hermaphrodite (bisexual) animals, e. g. snails, 
earthworms, leeches, pairing none the less 
occurs, in fact, of two-fold nature, simul- 
taneous or successive. There remain rare 
cases, such as some of the parasitic flukes and 
tapeworms, in which there is self-fertilisation 
(autogamy), the ova being fertilised by sperma- 
tozoa from the same individual. The sperms 
may reach the ova after these have been laid, 
as in the case of salmon; or just as they are 
laid, as in the case of frogs; or within the 
body of the female, as in all reptiles, birds, 
and mammals. It is evident, therefore, that 
the sexual union, which leads to "insemina- 
tion" and which from observation of the 
higher animals long seemed to be the very 
essence of the process, is really of later acquire- 
ment. The gist of fertilisation throughout 
life remains as the union of two sex-cells, 
however that may be accomplished. It may 
be noted that artificial insemination has been 
successfully effected in some of the higher 
animals, such as sheep, cows, mares, white 
mice, and hens. The spermatozoa can be 
kept for some time in weak salt solutions. 
What does fertilisation imply? (1) It im- 
plies an intimate and orderly combination 
of the paternal and maternal inheritances, 
which are probably borne in greater part 
by the nuclear elements or chromosomes of 
the spermatozoon and ovum respectively, and 
in some measure also by the extranuclear 
protoplasm of the two germ-cells. (2) During 
the maturation of the spermatozoon and 
ovum, the number of chromosomes (which 
is always definite for each kind of organism) 40 
SEX 
is reduced to half the normal, so that fertilisa- 
tion restores the normal number. (3) Besides 
bearing the paternal contribution to the in- 
heritance of the offspring, the spermatozoon 
also introduces a minute body known as the 
centrosome, which plays an important part 
in the subsequent division of the fertilised 
ovum. (4) It is also certain that the sperma- 
tozoon acts as a stimulus which sets the egg 
dividing - or, it may be, removes some in- 
hibiting factor which was keeping the egg 
from dividing. In a variety of cases what 
the sperm does, whether in stimulation or in 
removing a check, can be replaced artificially, 
and this in many different ways. The experi- 
ments of Loeb, Delage, and others have shown 
that the ova of starfish, sea-urchin, worm, 
mollusc, fish, and even frog can be made to di- 
vide without being fertilised. Alterations in the 
chemical and physical state of the medium, 
e. g. the addition of a little magnesium chloride 
to the sea-water, may replace ordinary fertilisa- 
tion, at least in so far as setting division agoing 
is concerned. The artificial stimuli effectively 
used are very varied - physical, chemical, and 
mechanical - an electric shock, a superabun- 
dance of carbonic acid gas, and even a pin- 
prick. They differ for different kinds of eggs, 
and even for eggs of the same kind at different 
stages of ripeness. Perhaps there is some 
common factor in all the effective stimuli, 
but what it is remains unknown. According 
to some experimenters, the egg responds di- 
rectly to the external stimulus; according 
to others the artificial conditions do not di- 
rectly induce segmentation, but modify the THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
41 
intimate condition of the egg in such a way 
that it becomes auto-parthenogenetic. The 
second view is suggested by cases in which the 
egg does not begin to segment until some time 
after it has been restored to its natural me- 
dium. (5) Lastly, it is probable that, in some 
cases at least, fertilisation irrevocably deter- 
mines the sex of the offspring into which the 
fertilised ovum will develop. 
Looking backwards, we see that fertilisation 
involves great waste of life-material. It must 
therefore have some great advantage. When 
we consider the five things above indicated 
as involved in ordinary fertilisation, we may 
notice that sex is sometimes determined quite 
apart from fertilisation and previous to this, 
that a stimulus to division may be effected 
by some artificial change, that the ovum has 
originally a centrosome of its own which it 
might conceivably retain, and so on. In 
short, there can be little doubt that the chief 
significance of fertilisation is to be found in 
the first two implications. There is a mingling 
of two inheritances, which may favour varia- 
tions and also counteract them; and there is 
a restoration of a certain norm of nuclear 
constitution subsequent to a remarkable pro- 
cess of reduction. In this reduction there is 
a notable opportunity for variation, since the 
number of chromosomes is reduced to half 
the normal. Suppose the chromosomes in the 
nucleus of an unripe egg were represented by 
a pack of cards, the process of maturation 
(usually the giving off of the first polar body) 
involves a literal loss of half of the pack. The 
normal number is restored by the addition 42 
SEX 
of another half-pack borne by the fertilising 
spermatozoon. 
Green-flies or Aphides produce prolifically 
all through the summer, without there being 
any males in existence at the time; the eggs 
in a bee-hive that are not fertilised develop 
into drones; in some of the wheel-animalcules 
or Rotifers the males have never been found; 
the same is true of some of the gall-flies; and 
there are numerous parth eno genetic plants. 
The question is, therefore, pertinent - Why 
is fertilisation the rule, seeing that many 
creatures get on very well without it? The 
probable answer must be that fertilisation is 
of profound racial significance - in affording an 
opportunity for new departures and in tending 
to secure a holding fast of that which is good. 
Males and Females. - The next step in 
the evolution of sex above the clear differ- 
entiation of egg-cell and fertilising element is 
that of two disinct types of individual - the 
sperm-producer and the ovum-producer, the 
male and the female. In Volvox we may 
find the same colony producing numerous 
ova and numerous sperms, and other colonies 
producing only ova or only sperms. The 
hermaphrodite or bisexual organisms that occur 
at many levels in the animal kingdom and 
are so common among Plants, represent in 
part a pristine condition, and in part a second- 
ary incorporation of one sex by the other - 
in most cases, it may be, an acquisition of 
femaleness by males. 
The fundamental problem is to account for 
the evolution of two kinds of individuals 
within the species - the sperm-producers or THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
43 
males and the egg-producers or females; and 
our view (developed many years ago in The 
Evolution of Sex (1889), and briefly applied in 
our Evolution in the present series) is that the 
difference between the sexes expresses the 
same kind of constitutional alternative that 
we see in the contrasts between spermatozoon 
and ovum, between animals and plants, be- 
tween active Infusorians and sluggish Sporo- 
zoa, in fact between the free and the sedentary 
groups which recur at so many levels of the 
animal kingdom, and in short between pre- 
ponderant activity and passivity in all forms 
of life. 
The first step, at least, in the scientific 
explanation of a phenomenon is to show that 
it is a particular case of a general sequence, 
and our theory of sex interprets the difference 
between male and female as an instance of a 
primeval and ever recurrent alternative in 
variation - namely, between increased expen- 
diture and increased income; between relative 
predominance of disruptive, analytic, down- 
breaking processes, on the one hand, and a 
relative predominance of constructive, syn- 
thetic, up-building processes, on the other 
hand; between, to put it shortly, a relative 
preponderance, to the extent of constitutional 
bias, of one or other of these katabolic and 
anabolic processes which all physiologists agree 
are mingled in the life of protoplasm and cell, 
tissue and organ. The resulting bias of this 
whole life-process, this ever-mingled metabolism, 
is thus for us expressed in sex and its subvarieties 
(themselves, as almost every family shows, 
preponderatingly accented one way or other), 44 
SEX 
but also in the contrasts of allied species and 
genera, of families and classes, sub-kingdoms 
and kingdoms. Sex and variation are thus 
deeply one, and the variations on which Natural 
Selection operates are thus fundamentally di- 
chotomous. 
Granted the advantage of cross-fertilisation 
and of dimorphic sex-cells, it seems clear that, 
other things being equal, those species would 
get on best which exhibited two distinct con- 
stitutions or forms, sperm-producers and egg- 
producers. As the difference became defined 
- the expression, we maintain, of a contin- 
ually recurrent dichotomy - it would doubt- 
less react on the sex-cells. More effective 
ova would be produced by the more anabolic 
females, and more effective spermatozoa by 
the more katabolic males. 
Returning to Vol vox, we see that some of 
the cells in the ball become large, well-fed 
ova; others, less anabolic, fade from green 
to yellow, divide and re-divide into many 
minute units - the spermatozoa. The large 
cells or ova of one colony are fertilised by the 
small cells or spermatozoa of another colony. 
The formation of dimorphic reproductive cells 
may be seen going on in different parts of the 
same colony, but it often happens that the 
spermatozoa are formed first and the ova 
later - which is like a temporal division of the 
sexes. In other cases the eggs are formed 
first. Or we may find Volvox balls in which 
only ova are produced, or only sperms - the 
sexes being separate. The former seem to be 
more vegetative and nutritive than the latter, 
and we are at the foundation of the divergence THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
45 
between the sexes. Occasionally, moreover, 
ova are produced which develop partheno- 
genetically. In fact, this primitive organism, 
with its asexual, hermaphrodite, unisexual, 
and parthenogenetic forms, is a very epitome 
of the evolution of sex. 
Testes and Ovaries. - In a sponge, which 
shows no organs in the strict sense, and only 
the beginnings of tissues, the germ-cells appear 
sporadically in the middle stratum (or meso- 
gloea) of the body, and both sperms and ova 
may be seen developing in the same sponge. 
An important step was taken, however, when 
the formation of gametes began to be localised 
and when these foci of gamete-making began 
to be enclosed, protected, and nourished by 
adjacent tissue. At first, doubtless, the differ- 
ence between the egg-multiplying gonads (or 
ovaries) and the sperm-multiplying gonads 
(or testes) was only to be detected with the 
microscope, though it was very profound. 
But gradually there came about a specialisa- 
tion of the accessory parts in relation to the 
deeply different functions of egg-multiplying 
and sperm-multiplying, and recognisably dif- 
ferent ovaries and testes were established. 
Furthermore, there came to be associated with 
ovaries and testes a good deal of auxiliary 
tissue that had nothing directly to do with 
oogenesis or spermatogenesis. Accessory glands 
and ducts were formed. 
It is probable that variations or mutations 
involving the tissue in the vicinity of the 
reproductive organs have been from time to 
time caught up into their service, and it is 
not necessary to suppose that these advan- SEX 
46 
tageous accessions, such as having a yolk- 
gland near the ovary, arose as pure coinci- 
dences. For it is a well-known fact (whether 
Fig. 8.- The freshwater polyp, Hydra, hanging down from 
a leaf (L). It is about half an inch in length. The 
diagram shows the tubular body; the tentacles around 
the mouth; the male organs or testes (T) in very simple 
expression as minute knobs of cells; the ovary (OV), a 
protruding nest of cells with one ovum (E). 
we understand it or not) that variations are 
often correlated. It seems as if one germinal 
change may have several inter-linked effects. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
47 
This idea requires to be extended to the 
body as a whole. A somatic character, which 
to begin with had nothing to do with sexual 
reproduction, may come into its service, and 
be more or less changed in connection with 
its new function. Some investigators, such 
as Tandler and Grosz and Kammerer, have 
gone the length of maintaining that all sex- 
characters have arisen from the transforma- 
tion of species-characters. "Just as in the 
primitive Metazoon body the cells lying next 
the gametes came by change of function into 
the service of reproduction, so it may have 
been that more distant cell-complexes, which 
had already reached some degree of structural 
differentiation and subserved other functions, 
suffered partial or even total loss of their 
original function, and became auxiliary to 
reproduction." 
Sex-dimorphism. - In many of the simple 
backboneless animals, the two sexes are prac- 
tically identical in appearance, and exhibit 
no definite sex-behaviour. Thus without a 
microscope it is often impossible to tell a 
male starfish from a female, or a female from 
a male sea-urchin. Nor can we see that the 
one sex is attracted to the other. The fertilisa- 
tion of the eggs is more or less haphazard, but 
it must be noted that large numbers of indi- 
viduals are found living together, and that the 
males and females become mature about the 
same time. Both ova and spermatozoa are 
set adrift in the sea, and as there are thousands 
of sperms for every ovum the chance of fertili- 
sation is much greater than would at first sight 
appear likely. Moreover, from within a short 48 
SEX 
distance there is a "chemotactic" attraction 
of the spermatozoa to the ova (see Fig. 9). 
It should be noted that animals like sea- 
urchins with superficially similar sexes are 
none the less in a sense very sexual, at the 
breeding season at least, for they produce 
enormous quantities of eggs and sperms, and 
Fig. 9.-■ Fertilisation of ovum of starfish - after Fol. In 
I the spermatozoa are seen surrounding the ovum, 
which is enveloped in a delicate zone of mucus. A 
minute "receptive cone" is seen on the surface of the 
ovum. In II a spermatozoon is entering, the locomotor 
tail is seen protruding, a membrane is being rapidly 
formed around the ovum. In III the spermatozoon 
has entered, the membrane is completed, the ovum has 
become non-receptive. Only a small part of the ovum 
is shown. 
the reproductive organs are huge in proportion 
to the body. Thus one of the British star- 
fishes (Luidia ciliaris) produces at least 200 
millions of eggs. 
As we ascend the series, the evolution of 
sex-dimorphism becomes gradually apparent. 
Following the differentiation of tissues and 
structures accessory to the reproductive organs 
the body itself begins as a whole to be sexed. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
49 
Various structures, quite extra-genital, begin 
to have alternative expressions, more or less 
mutually exclusive, and masculine and femi- 
nine individuals thus at length appear. Ani- 
mals began to put on secondary sex characters; 
and this was the great step of sex-dimorphism. 
It need hardly be said that in this we find every 
conceivable grade of contrast. 
Besides the divergence in structure, there 
is a functional contrast between male and 
female. In face of the extraordinary variety 
of the Animal Kingdom, generalisation has 
its hazards; but, on the whole, we may say 
that the male tends to more intense metabo- 
lism, to more exuberant expenditure of energy, 
to live a keener but shorter life, to have much 
less expensive reproduction, to be more im- 
petuous, combative, and experimental, and 
to be the more divergent from the youthful 
and the ancestral type. Yet the female is 
not, therefore, necessarily the less evolved, 
since her relative nearness to the ancestral 
stock, her less accented specialisation, her 
persistent youthfulness may also carry with 
it the very promise of the race. Hence in 
fact the divergent types of masculine and of 
feminine beauty in our own species, the former 
more strongly individualised, but the latter 
by common consent more humanised, and 
thus more adapted to the expression of the 
ideals of racial and of social evolution. Biol- 
ogy and art, mythology and poetry are thus 
not the separate cultures we conventionally 
regard them, but correlated aspects of the as- 
cent of life. 
Sex-a wareness. - Another step in the evo- SEX 
50 
lutionary ladder is represented by those ani- 
mals which show sex-awareness, which give 
distinct evidence that the presence or prox- 
imity of one sex acts as a stimulus to the other, 
leading, primarily or ultimately, to the liber- 
ation of the sex-elements. When this is the 
case, fertilisation is more likely to be secured. 
As an example of this still very lowly plane of 
sex-attraction, where there is no sexual union, 
but where proximity or contact is the lib- 
erating stimulus provoking a discharge of 
germ-cells, we may take the familiar case of 
the salmon. The female fish makes a furrow 
in the gravelly bed of the river and lays her 
eggs there; the attendant male is stimulated by 
the presence of the ripe female and by the 
presence of the eggs to liberate the sperms or 
milt upon them. No doubt many of the thou- 
sands of sperms are lost forthwith, but what 
occurs is an improvement upon the primitive 
and wasteful broadcast semination of the 
waters. 
It remains, however, certain that in the 
lower reaches of the animal kingdom where 
no sex-behaviour exists, the fertilisation of 
the eggs is more or less haphazard. This 
involves the production of large numbers of 
ova and huge numbers of sperms, which we 
interpret as implying: (1) that simple organ- 
isms are naturally very prolific, and (2) that 
a survival bonus was persistently awarded to 
those members of a species that were consti- 
tutionally most prolific. The constitution- 
ally prolific survived, while the constitutionally 
non-prolific would tend to be eliminated. 
We would dwell for a moment upon this THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
51 
necessarily great productivity of germ-cells 
on the part of simple animals, because it seems 
to us that it became a widespread constitu- 
tional characteristic in many lines of evolu- 
tion, and lasted long after the necessity for 
it was past. Perhaps even man has thus 
to pay for his long pedigree, for the over- 
production of both eggs and sperms, though 
relatively moderated as compared with lower 
animals, still remains a main difficulty of 
Fig. 10.- Crested Newt - Triton or Molge cristatus. M, the 
male with a scolloped dorsal median fin; F, the female 
without a crest. They differ greatly in coloration. 
individual and of social life, albeit also a potent 
factor in their progress. 
Physical Fondness. - A further step is 
represented by those animals which show the 
beginnings of sex-behaviour. The note of 
physical fondness is sounded. In diverse 
forms there is a courtship of touch, often 
prolonged and not without its refinements. 
The male may play with the female, caressing 
her, it may be dancing before her. Some of SEX 
52 
the newts illustrate this grade of behaviour, 
the males touching, fondling, and embrac- 
ing the females, and doubtless thereby fanning 
the fire of sexual excitement (see Fig. 10). 
The case is of especial interest since there is no 
pairing in the strict sense. The male deposits 
the sperms in minute packets or spermato- 
phores - which adhere to stones in the water, 
and the female passes these into her body. 
^Esthetic Attraction. - The next step is 
made when to the primary tactile courtship 
there is added a variety of aesthetic appeal. 
We may well say variety, for it is a long gamut 
that includes the song of the nightingale and 
the trumpeting of the elephant, the croaking 
of frogs and the instrumental serenading of 
the cicadas, the drumming of the snipe and 
the tapping of the death-watch on the wainscot. 
There are displays of other gifts - of strength, 
agility, and beauty, for the blackcocks hold a 
tournament before their grey hens, the cock- 
of-the-rock has an excited dance, and the 
Argus pheasant displays his hundred eyes. 
Some of the glow-worms attract their mates by 
flashes of light, some butterflies by their fra- 
grance. In short, to the physical fondness of 
one sex for another there is added a more or 
less elaborate aesthetic fringe, and not the 
least interesting point is this, that there is scarce 
a thread of this embroidery that has not been 
caught up and sublimed in the subtly woven 
cords of human love. 
Let us take the interesting picture that 
Prof. Emery has given us of the Italian fire- 
fly (Luciola italica). The females sit among 
the grass while the males fly about in search THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
53 
of them. When a female catches sight of the 
flashes of an approaching male, she allows 
her splendour to shine. He sees the female's 
signal, and is swiftly beside her, circling round 
like a dancing elf. But one suitor is not enough. 
The female attracts a levee. In polite rivalry 
her devotees form a circle and await the co- 
quette's choice. In the two sexes, Emery 
says, the colour of the light is identical, and 
the intensity seems much the same, though 
the love-light of the female is more restricted. 
The most noteworthy difference is that the 
luminous rhythm of the male is more rapid, with 
briefer flashes; while that of the female is 
more prolonged, with longer intervals, and 
more tremulous - illumined symbols of the 
contrast between the sexes. The female Luciola 
sits surrounded by her suitors; flashes of light 
come and go; finally a choice is made and 
the party breaks up. Whatever the lumi- 
nescence may mean physiologically in the 
constitution of the insect, it seems to be a 
love-signal between the sexes. 
It is confessedly very difficult to prove 
that the courtships of animals are associated 
with emotions analogous to ours, but in many 
cases there are visible manifestations similar 
to those which accompany emotion in our- 
selves. To refuse to believe that the exuber- 
ant song of birds is associated with joyousness 
is a sternness of scepticism for which we are 
not prepared. In many cases, apart from 
any immediate gratification of sexual desire, 
the mates look as if they liked one another. 
They pine when they are separated; and if 
they are not pleased to be reunited, they 54 
SEX 
have an extraordinary power of behaving and 
looking as if they were. 
Co-operation of the Sexes. - Yet a higher 
grade is illustrated by those animals which 
work together, and remain associated for a 
considerable time - it may be for life. It is 
true of many birds that the cock and the hen 
unite their energies in building the nest and 
in providing for the young; the cock often 
takes his share or more than his share of brood- 
ing; some are faithful to one another for a 
season; others, like the eagles, mate for life. 
The story of the hornbills has been often told. 
The female lays an egg within a hollow tree; 
the male closes up the entrance with resinous 
material until only a small slit is left; he feeds 
her through this opening day after day until 
he is as lean as she is fat. The egg is hatched, 
but the male, as Mr. Pycraft tells us in his 
fine History of Birds (1910), "is reduced to 
a mere skeleton, so lowered in vitality that on 
a sudden fall in the temperature, such as takes 
place after rain, he not seldom falls down ex- 
hausted and dies." It is unnecessary to beg 
any questions by calling this behaviour self- 
sacrifice, - but it cannot be gainsaid that the 
male spends himself in a manner which is 
objectively other-regarding. 
In Mammals also we find examples of last- 
ing partnerships on a monogamous basis, 
where, as it seems to us, animal love reaches 
its highest level, surviving the excitements of 
the reproductive period, steadying itself in 
the wider sympathy which is at once the con- 
dition and the result of practical co-operation, 
broadening itself, too, in its altruism as it THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 
55 
laps the family in its folds, surviving even 
its dispersal. 
Love. - The differences between man and 
the animals are not less important than the 
resemblances, and as man has come to him- 
self the complex attraction which we call 
love has been in proportion heightened and 
deepened and sublimed. As man emerged - 
a rational creature in some measure conscious 
of his instincts and his aims, capable of con- 
trolled conduct as a social person, all things 
became new, including love. While the deep 
organic impulse remains as a legacy from a 
remote past, while the elements of physical 
fondness and aesthetic attraction are not lost 
without impoverishment, while practical part- 
nership remains all but indispensable, there 
are undoubtedly new elements, notably of 
intellectual and ethical sympathy, and the 
self-consciousness of it all which is expressed 
in the sentiment of love. 
At the same time it cannot but seem either 
strangely unobservant or pharisaic when men 
or women resent any analogy between animal 
love-making and their own. We may trade 
with our legacy, but we cannot refuse it, and 
it is not inconsistent with recognising human 
love as a new synthesis to observe that strands, 
both coarse and fine, which are prominent in 
lower forms of life have been caught up and 
utilised in man. From another point of view, 
this also should be said, that it is well for us 
to take admiring knowledge of the artistic 
character of many animal love-makings, for 
they put man's often too rough-and-ready 
manners to utter shame. SEX 
56 
CHAPTER III 
SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
Classification of sex-characters - Illustrations of sex-charac- 
ters - General impressions - The general contrast. 
Since the beginning of the present century 
the difficult problem of the origin, develop- 
ment, and evolution of sex-characters has 
been illumined by a series of brilliant ex- 
perimental researches, which have made a 
reconsideration of the whole subject impera- 
tive. This has been facilitated by the masterly 
work of Kammerer, who has gathered together 
the most important data and submitted them 
to an analysis at once fair-minded and critical. 
Classification of Sex-characters. - At 
many levels in the animal kingdom there are 
marked differences between the males and 
females of a species - so marked in some 
familiar cases that different popular names 
are applied to the two sexes (e. g. cock and 
hen, ruff and reeve, stag and hind), so marked 
in some unfamiliar cases that zoologists have 
unwittingly named as different species what 
were afterwards recognised to be but male 
and female of a single form. When the differ- 
ences between the sexes are well marked we 
speak of sex-dimorphism. 
The contrasted characters that go to con- 
stitute sex-dimorphism are of different kinds. 
They may concern the essential reproductive 
organs - the ovaries and testes of female 
and male respectively, which, though arising 
in the same way in the embryo, may come SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
57 
to be so different that even on external inspec- 
tion the two sexes can be distinguished at a 
glance. Thus in most Mammals the testes 
are carried in an external pouch or scrotum 
(into which they descend, as if by a sort of 
normal rupture, at a certain stage in develop- 
ment), while the ovaries always remain internal. 
In the second place, the dimorphism may 
be expressed in conspicuous differences in 
the accessory reproductive organs, such as 
egg-laying structures or ovipositors in the 
females and organs for effecting sexual union 
in the case of the males. Thus every one 
knows that drone-bees have no sting, for a 
sting is a transformed ovipositor turned to 
a new use, and is therefore confined to the 
queen-bees (functional females) and the worker- 
bees (usually sterile females). A male spider 
is clearly marked off from his mate by the 
extraordinary transformation of the tips of 
the second pair of mouth-parts - the pedi- 
palps - into organs which are used in transfer- 
ring the fertilising spermatozoa into the female. 
In the third place, the dimorphism may be 
expressed in peculiarities, like antlers, manes, 
combs, and spurs, which have nothing directly 
to do with reproduction, but which the males 
have and the females have not. In a number 
of less familiar cases, the female has structures 
which are conspicuous by their absence in 
the males, though in these cases it must be 
confessed that the males are more or less 
degenerate. Thus many a male Rotifer has 
no food-canal, and the male of a remarkable 
marine worm called Boneilia is a pigmy para- 
site on its mate (see Fig. 11). SEX 
58 
Fourthly, the dimorphism may find ex- 
pression not in any peculiar structures or 
peculiar transformations of structures, but in 
Fig. 11.- The peculiar green worm Boneilia viridis - the 
female (F) with a long retractile bifid grooved proboscis 
(PR), and the pigmy male (M). (After Lacaze-Duthiers.) SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
59 
a more diffuse way - affecting the size (females 
being usually larger), the proportions of parts, 
the colour (males tending to be more bril- 
liant), and other features, or in numerous 
little ways giving a slightly different turn to 
the analogous organs in the two sexes. 
It is usual to classify the differences between 
the sexes as "primary" and "secondary," to 
which some would add "tertiary." The "pri- 
mary" differences refer to the reproductive 
organs, the "secondary" to those that appear 
in other parts of the body, such as the larynx 
or the hair. A clearer scheme of division, 
slightly modified from Poll's and Kammerer's 
table, may be thus expressed - 
SEX-DIFFERENCES 
I. Essential. 
In the gonads - ovaries and spermaries. 
II. Accessory or Incidental. 
(a) Subsidiary to the gonads: - 
internally, as in accessory glands; 
externally, as in pairing or egg- 
z laying organs. 
( (&) Somatic and extra-genital: - 
internally, as in vocal organs; 
externally as in colour, hair, feath- 
ers, etc. 
It is evident that most of these sex-differ- 
ences have both a structural and a functional 
side, a morphological and a physiological 
aspect; but for practical purposes one side 
may often be disregarded. Thus a chitinous 
decoration or instrument on a male beetle 60 
SEX 
has no vital activity after it is once formed; 
it is the structural side that is important. 
On the other hand, the differences in the 
blood of a male and a female, which have 
been shown to be of profound importance, 
may not have any detectable structural ex- 
pression. Similarly, there are many subtle 
differences in instincts and impulses, in physi- 
ological habit, and in length of life, which 
are very real though we cannot say much about 
their structural expression. 
Another consideration that must be kept 
in mind in the classification of sex-differences 
is the degree of permanence in their expres- 
sion. An adult peacock can never be confused 
with a peahen, but there are many birds, e. g. 
some ducks, which show great dissimilarity 
between the sexes at the breeding season 
and great similarity at other times of year. 
In many fishes, such as sticklebacks, the males 
are conspicuously different from the females 
at the breeding time, but inconspicuously differ- 
ent at other times. In short, there are many 
nuptial characters which wax and wane accord- 
ing to the sexual state of the organism. 
Illustrations of Sex-characters. - Con- 
venient surveys of sex-differences are to be 
found in Darwin's Descent of Man and in 
Cunningham's Sexual Dimorphism. For our 
purpose, we do not require more than a few 
typical cases. Among mammals illustrations 
abound. The male gorilla is larger and stronger 
than the female, with more powerful canine 
teeth, and with a well-marked crest along 
the top of the head, which is absent in his 
mate. The mandrill has, again, enormous SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
61 
canines, and the bony prominences of the 
upper jaw which rise on each side of the elon- 
gated snout, are covered with blue naked skin, 
with ridges and furrows; the canine, the promi- 
nences, the furrows and the colouring 
are much less marked in the females. The 
male elephant seals of Kerguelen's Land have 
an inflatable nasal proboscis, the free part 
of which projects for six inches; and the bladder- 
nosed seal of the North Atlantic ice-fields has 
the base of the nose dilated on the dorsal side 
to form a bladder which can be blown up till 
it is as big as the head. The male narwhal 
has its canine tooth on one side produced into 
a spiral tusk which may be ten feet long; its 
fellow on the other side normally remains 
about ten inches long; in the female both are 
rudimentary. Stags have their antlers, but 
in the reindeer these occur in both sexes. Those 
of the female are smaller and less branched, 
and she retains them till she bears her young in 
April or May, whereas the male loses his, as 
usual, immediately after the breeding season 
(at the end of November). Darwin noted that 
the antlers appear in both sexes very early, in 
fact, in four or five weeks after birth, whereas 
it is not usual for stags to have antlers till 
their second summer. According to some 
authorities, when Cervidse began to have 
antlers, they were specific characters shared 
by both sexes; they have become secondarily 
restricted to the males (except in reindeer). 
But according to others, the antlers were, 
to begin with, restricted to the males, and 
have become secondarily the possession of 
the female reindeer. It is difficult to decide SEX 
62 
between these rival views. To explain the 
possession of antlers by the female reindeer, 
Cunningham refers to the fact that the females 
use them as weapons and that the older females 
often lead large herds of young males and 
females. In cattle, sheep, and goats, the horns 
usually occur in both sexes; in antelopes, they 
may be confined to the males, as in kudu and 
saiga, but in most cases, e. g. eland and oryx, 
they occur in both sexes; in the aberrant 
pronghorn of the Rockies the horns are rudi- 
mentary in the female. The long curved tusks 
of the wild boar, the exaggerated tusks of the 
babirusa, the tusks of the Indian elephant, the 
spur on the hind-leg of the duckmole and 
the echidna are other well-known masculine 
features. 
Among Birds sex-dimorphism reaches a climax 
in the birds of Paradise, the humming-birds, 
and the game-birds. In the males it is com- 
mon to find specially decorative feathers 
which can be erected and displayed to the 
best advantage. Every one knows the magnifi- 
cent tail feathers of the peacock, the wing 
feathers of the Argus pheasant which are raised 
to form a circular fan, the curved outermost 
tail feathers of the blackcock, the brilliant 
tufts and elongated tail feathers of many 
humming-birds, the decorations of the birds 
of Paradise, which baffle description, the re- 
markable tail of the lyre-bird, and the long 
neck feathers of the ruffs. 
Besides more decorative plumage the male 
bird often exhibits other distinctive features. 
The cock has his spur and larger comb and 
wattles; the prairie cock has an inflatable SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
63 
bare orange-coloured sac on each side of the 
neck; the turkey-cock has his large spur, and 
the fleshy process on his forehead, pendulous 
but erectile, is larger than in the female; the 
male huia of New Zealand has a short, strong 
and nearly straight bill, while that of the 
female is much longer, more slender, and 
curved; the great bustard has an inflatable 
throat pouch at the breeding season. 
In Reptiles sex-dimorphism is not usually 
striking, but there are some good illustrations 
among lizards. The male of the American 
chamaeleon (Anolis) has an erectile crest along 
the back and tail, and some male chamaeleons 
have bony projections in front of the eyes. 
Among Amphibians the male newts have more 
brilliant colours and crests on their back and 
tail, but only, it is said, in those species in which 
the male does not clasp or embrace the female. 
In male frogs and toads there are often swollen 
cushions or pads on the hand, which are of 
service in grasping the female. In some cases, 
as in the common edible frog of the Conti- 
nent, the male has resonating sacs formed as 
pouches from the lining of the mouth, and 
in Rhinoderma darwinii these are much en- 
larged and form a receptacle for the eggs! The 
eggs laid by the female are taken by the male 
into his mouth and pass to the sacs where 
they develop into small frogs. In Nototrema, 
a tree-frog of tropical America, there is an 
interesting occurrence of a structure peculiar 
to the female, namely, an egg-pouch on the 
back. It is formed by an invagination of 
the skin from behind forwards, and into it 
the male pushes the eggs w'ith his hind feet. SEX 
64 
Among fishes the sexes are often very like 
one another, but there are many illustrations 
of sex-dimorphism. In some gristly fishes 
or Selachians, like the skate, the males have 
very conspicuous "claspers." They are special- 
ised parts of the pelvic fin, have a complex 
musculature and skeleton, and are entirely 
wanting in the females. In the male Chimaera, 
these parts are even more complicated, and 
"on the head there is further a remarkable 
knobbed and curved spine projecting forwards, 
and covered at its extremity with sharp denticles. 
There can be no doubt that this also is used 
for holding the female, although the exact 
mode in which it is used has not been observed" 
(Cunningham). 
The male salmon has the tip of the lower 
jaw turned up and enlarged at the breeding 
season. It forms a curious blunt hook-like 
process, which is possibly of use when the 
males charge one another. In many cases, 
such as lumpsucker and stickleback, which 
are as contrasted types as one can think of, 
the males are distinguished at the breeding 
season by the brilliant colouring. In the 
male sea-horse (see Fig. 12) and some of its 
relatives, the most striking sex-distinction is 
the possession of a pouch in which the eggs 
develop. It is noteworthy that in the genus 
Solenostoma, the pouch is in the female, which 
is more vividly coloured and spotted than the 
male. Perhaps she has to attract her mate! 
There is among insects an embarrassing 
wealth of instances of sex-dimorphism. Male 
butterflies and moths are often more brilliant 
and decorative than the females, but the SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
65 
reverse is sometimes the case, and, more com- 
monly still, the sexes are similar. The males 
Fig. 12.- The Sea-horse - Hippocampus. A male, showing 
the brood-pouch (B) in which the eggs are carried, the 
prehensile tail (T), and the rapidly vibrating dorsal 
fin (DF). 
have often more elaborate antennae and other 
sense-organs, which are important in finding SEX 
66 
the female. Among the Dynastid beetles the 
males often have extraordinary horn-like projec- 
tions from the head and prothorax (see Fig. 13). 
They are outgrowths of the chitinous cuticle 
Fig. 13.- The Hercules Beetle - Dynastes. In the male (M) 
a horn on the back of the head works against a still larger 
horn arising from the top of the prothorax. The female 
(F) is smaller and without the horns. 
and cannot be moved of themselves, though 
they may be brought together like the limbs 
of tongs when the head and the prothorax are 
moved. Their use is uncertain. In the stag- 
beetles (Lucanidee) the mandibles of the males SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
67 
are sometimes as long as the body, and, like 
the antlers of stags, they often seem to be very 
much in the way. Darwin called particular 
attention to the great differences in the degree 
of development of the male excrescences in 
beetles, some species having them in extra- 
ordinary exuberance while others show no 
dimorphism to speak of. In some cases, as 
in many moths, the female beetles are sluggish 
and have no wings. In the glow-worm (Lam- 
pyris noctiluca) the males have well-developed 
wings and very large eyes; the female has 
smaller eyes and no wings. Among spiders, 
the males are often pigmies compared with 
their mates, and often much more brilliantly 
coloured. It has been calculated that the 
disproportion of size is sometimes such as 
would be observed if a man 6 ft. high and 
150 lb. in weight were to marry a giantess of 
80 ft. in height and 200,000 lb. in weight (see 
Fig. 2). 
Among Crustaceans sex-dimorphism is com- 
mon, even if we do not take into account 
the extraordinary cases in which the female 
is parasitic and the male free-living. One of 
the most striking cases is that of the giant 
crab (Macrocheira) of Japanese waters, where 
the male has huge forceps many times longer 
than the body, while the female is very much 
smaller and has the forceps unexaggerated. 
Many male crustaceans have specially de- 
veloped clasping organs and are often larger 
than their mates. Every one knows the com- 
mon Gammarus of the shore, where the male 
is much larger and stronger than his mate, 
whom he carries about with him for prolonged SEX 
68 
periods. In some of the acorn-shells there are 
pigmy males. 
In the other divisions of the Animal King- 
dom there is little illustration of sex-dimor- 
phism. The male cuttlefish often has a pe- 
culiarly modified "arm" which becomes a 
receptacle for sperms and is liberated into 
the mantle cavity of the female. In the paper 
nautilus (see Fig. 17) we have one of those 
exceptional cases where the female has a posi- 
tive character, which is unrepresented in the 
male: she has two of the arms remarkably 
modified and a very beautiful shell used as 
a cradle for the developing eggs. The male 
is much smaller and shows no hint of an exter- 
nal shell (see Fig. 18). 
Mr. Cunningham has directed attention to 
some examples of sex-dimorphism among worms. 
In some marine Polychsetes, e. g. species of 
Nereis, both sexes become extraordinarily 
changed at sexual maturity - so much changed 
that mature forms have been placed in one genus 
and immature forms in another. There may 
be an alteration in the shape and size of the 
locomotor appendages, in the form and number 
of the bristles, and in the size of the eggs and 
tactile structures. But the point is that these 
alterations are different in the two sexes, being 
more pronounced in the males. In the Japan- 
ese Palolo worm the females are deep green 
above and greenish-yellow below, while the 
males are light greenish-yellow above and 
pinkish-white below. 
We may conclude this survey with mention 
of Boneilia, an interesting green worm with 
a flask-shaped body an inch or two in length SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
69 
and a flexible bifid proboscis much longer (see 
Fig. 11). But this is the female, for the male 
is only about a hundredth of her size and lives 
as a parasite within the oviduct. It is one of 
the most extraordinary cases in the whole 
Animal Kingdom. The microscopic male em- 
bryos, after swimming freely by means of cilia, 
attach themselves to the proboscis of a female, 
pass down to the gullet, and eventually to the 
oviduct. They have not even a mouth, and 
are little more than minute bags of sperms. 
There is very little sex-dimorphism among 
Echinoderms, but a very curious case is re- 
ported by Koehler, an authority on the group, 
who states that the males of one of the brittle- 
stars, Ophiacantha vivipara, have five arms, 
while the females have always more (six to 
eight). 
General Impressions. - Taking a retro- 
spect, we notice that in most cases the positive 
character is on the male side. He has an extra 
something which the female does not possess 
in a developed state, if at all. It is important 
therefore to recall two or three examples of 
the converse. The females of the frog genus 
Nototrema have a pocket on the back into which 
the male pushes the eggs. So far as wre know 
the marsupium is never more than a rudiment 
in male marsupials. In the red-necked phala- 
rope the female is the more decorative bird. 
Drone bees have not the sting which the 
queens and workers possess. 
We should also note, after a survey of sex- 
characters, that conspicuous difference between 
the sexes is the exception, and general similarity 
the rule. In many of the higher animals the 70 
SEX 
males and females are very like one another 
in external appearance. Cat, mouse, rabbit, 
and hare, may be mentioned among mammals; 
rook, kingfishers, and many parrots among birds. 
Below the level of crustaceans, in animals 
like starfishes and sea-urchins, marine worms, 
thread-worms, jelly-fish, and corals, it is rare 
to find more than minute sex-dimorphism. 
Fig. 14.- The sexes in a small fish - Phallostethus dunckeri. 
The female (F) is the larger. The male (M) bears a rel- 
atively large intromittent organ projecting below the 
gill-cover. (After C. Tate Regan.) 
The General Contrast. - Contrariwise, al- 
though there may not be any marked dimor- 
phism, there may be a profound functional 
difference. There are many facts, long since 
summarised in The Evolution of Sex, which go 
to show that the metabolism of the male and 
the female are very different. They live at dif- 
ferent physiological rates; the metabolism of the 
male is relatively more intense. The ratio of ka- 
tabolism to anabolism is greater in the male 
than in the female. We may quote a few sen- SEX-CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED 
71 
fences from another biologist, who expresses the 
same view. In his Sex Antagonism (1913), 
Mr. Walter Heape writes: "The Male and 
the Female individual may be compared in 
various ways with the spermatozoon and 
ovum. The Male is active and roaming, he 
hunts for his partner and is an expender of 
energy; the Female is passive, sedentary, one 
who waits for her partner and is a conserver 
of energy." 
Perhaps the average differences between the 
sexes may be summed up tentatively in this 
tabular contrast - 
Male. 
Sperm-producer. 
With less expensive reproduc- 
tion. 
More intense metabolism. 
Relatively more katabolic. 
Often with shorter life. 
Often smaller. 
Often more brilliantly coloured 
and more decorative. 
Rising to more intense outbursts 
of energy. 
More impetuous and experimen- 
tal. 
More divergent from the youth- 
ful type. 
Often more variable. 
Making more of sex-gratification. 
More combative. 
Female. 
Egg-producer. 
With much more expensive 
reproduction. 
Less intense metabolism. 
Relatively more anabolic. 
Often with longer life. 
Often larger. 
Often quieter in colour and 
plainer in decoration. 
Capable of more patient 
endurance. 
More persistent and con- 
servative. 
Nearer the youthful type. 
Often less variable. 
Making more of the family. 
Consolidating the family. 72 
SEX 
CHAPTER IV 
THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
Darwin's theory - A Lamarckian theory - Physiological theo- 
ries - The role of internal secretions - Sex-changes 
in crabs - Specific characters and sex-characters - Diffi- 
culty as to origins - Suggestion as to the mode of origin 
of sex-characters. 
Darwin's Theory.-As every one knows, Dar- 
win proposed a theory of sexual selection to 
account for the frequent occurrence of second- 
ary sex characters, such as are familiar in 
cases like stags, stag's-horn beetles, peacocks, 
and birds of Paradise. On the one hand, he 
pointed out, there are the combats between 
rival males which tend to leave those with 
less perfect weapons or less ability to use them 
without their fair share in parentage. On 
the other hand, there is preferential mating, 
in the course of which the female chooses or 
seems to choose the more decorative, or agile, 
or melodious, or otherwise attractive suitor, 
thus tending to increase these gifts and graces 
in the hereditary equipment of the race, as 
far at least as the male sex is concerned. 
There is considerable difficulty in regard to 
the facts of the case. Where the weaker males, 
worsted in combat, are killed, or expelled 
from the herd, or left unmated, the elimina- 
tion may be reasonably interpreted as tending 
to raise the standard of those qualities in vir- 
tue of which the successful males succeeded. 
In some cases, however, it is stated that the 
males unfortunate in war are lucky in love. THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
73 
Much depends on the relative numbers of the 
sexes, and many of the alleged cases of great 
numerical disparity have been shown to be 
fallacious. 
The late Alfred Russel Wallace was a per- 
sistent critic of the theory of sexual selection, 
pointing out, for instance, that there is little 
convincing evidence that the female bird 
really chooses her partner, or chooses him 
because of any particular excellence in colour 
or plumage, song or dance. Contrariwise, 
some ornithologists maintain that in some 
species certain males are left definitely un- 
mated, and that they are inferior in attractive- 
ness. In the mysterious case of spiders, where 
the courtship is often elaborate, the fastidious 
female sometimes kills a suitor who does not 
adequately please her; as well as afterwards, 
it may be, the one who does. By that time, 
however, the latter has had some measure, 
at least, of success in reproduction and in 
thus handing on to his progeny his meritorious 
qualities. So that his death is of less moment 
to the race. Many of the illustrations of 
sexual selection which Darwin gave remain 
very convincing, but the theory requires to 
be strengthened by more precise evidence 
that considerable numbers of the less attractive 
or less well-equipped males are either left 
unmated, or have less numerous and less suc- 
cessful families as the result of their matings. 
The theory may be consistently improved 
by recognising what some students of com- 
parative psychology have indicated, that the 
female probably surrenders herself not to a 
male selected because of some particular ex- SEX 
74 
cellence, but rather to the one whose ensemble 
most successfully excites her sexual interest. 
In some passages Darwin seems to credit the 
female with a high degree of taste or aesthetic 
fastidiousness; he was doubtless on safer ground 
when he wrote, "it is not probable that she con- 
sciously deliberates; but she is most excited 
or attracted by the most beautiful, or melo- 
dious, or gallant males." A useful suggestion 
has been made by Groos that the displays 
of the excited suitors - displays often more 
reflex than controlled - have the effect of 
infectiously exciting the female and of over- 
coming her coyness, a character which is of 
no inconsiderable racial value. An easily 
excited, readily persuaded female type would 
not make for racial stability. 
The difficulty that a particular quality of 
the male could not be augmented by selection 
without also affecting the corresponding char- 
acter in the female progeny of successive gen- 
erations, will be discussed later, but we may 
point out that although a quality passes into 
the inheritance of both sexes, the conditions 
of development may prevent it finding ex- 
pression except in one sex. 
Another difficulty is raised by the fact that 
there are some cases of pronounced sex-dimor- 
phism where there is no evidence either of 
preferential mating or of combats. Subsidiary 
hypotheses have been invented to meet these 
cases, such as Wallace's that Natural Selection 
woidd tend to eliminate females that were 
conspicuous during incubation, or Gunther's 
that masculine characters have their justifica- 
tion as a means of "bluffing" enemies. THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
75 
Perhaps the most serious difficulty is that 
some of the modern experimental work in 
regard to selective breeding is beginning to 
shake the confidence with which many have 
held the Darwinian view that marked aug- 
mentations can be accounted for by the grad- 
ual accumulation of minute increments gener- 
ation after generation. It may be that such 
selection as is afforded by combats and pref- 
erential mating is quite inadequate to build 
up slight fluctuations into extraordinary differ- 
entiations like the stag's antlers and the pea- 
cock's tail. 
A Lamarckian Theory. - In his interesting 
Sexual Dimorphism, J. T. Cunningham argues 
in support of a Lamarckian interpretation: 
"In either sex unisexual characters have, as 
a general rule, some function or importance 
in the special habits or conditions of life of 
the sex in which they occur." "But the im- 
portant truth, which appears to have been 
generally overlooked, is that in the case of 
each special organ its special employment 
subjects it to special, usually mechanical, 
irritation or stimulation, to which other organs 
of body are not subjected. Every naturalist 
and every physiologist admits that in the 
individual any irritation or stimulation, regu- 
larly repeated, produces some definite physi- 
ological effect, some local and special change 
of tissue in the way of either growth or absorp- 
tion, enlargement or decrease, or change of 
shape. Thus not only hypothetically at some 
former time, but actually at present in every 
individual, the unisexual organs or appendages 
are subjected in their functional activity to SEX 
76 
special strains, contacts, and pressures, that 
is, to stimulation, which must and does have 
some physiological effect on their development 
and mode of growth." To explain the re- 
striction of sex-characters to one sex, to the 
period of maturity, and often to one period 
of the year, Cunningham supposes that "he- 
redity causes the development of acquired char- 
acters for the most part only in that period of 
life and in that class of individuals in which 
they were originally acquired." Unisexual 
characters are largely of the nature of excres- 
cences which originated from mechanical or other 
irritation in the male or the female at particular 
times and in particular states of body. They 
are now part and parcel of the inheritance, but 
they are not expressed in the body except in 
association with physiological conditions the 
same as those under which they were originally 
produced. 
Cunningham seeks to show that sex-char- 
acters may be legitimately interpreted as the 
hereditary outcome of special irritations. The 
legitimacy of this interpretation depends (1) 
on the experimental evidence that can be 
adduced to show that callosities, excrescences, 
proliferations, etc., do arise as the direct 
result of stimulation; and (2) on the case 
that can be made out, on experimental or on 
logical grounds, for believing that somatic 
modifications may be directly transmitted 
in some degree at least. This raises the whole 
question of the transmission of somatic modi- 
fications, which are acquired by the individual 
as the direct result of peculiarities in function 
or in environment. We have considered the THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
77 
pros and cons at some length elsewhere, and 
it appears to us that the seriously discussable 
evidence on the affirmative side is not sufficient 
to warrant an acceptance of Cunningham's 
position, at any rate without the considerable 
degree of restatement which the Lamarckian 
theory requires - though again it is to be ad- 
mitted that this restatement is in progress 
and on various sides, as from Semon to 
Bergson. 
A Physiological Theory. - Professors Hesse 
and Doflein have made the interesting sugges- 
tion that, as reproduction is commonly of much 
less organic strain to males, they have so far 
a surplus of plasmic material and vital energy 
at their disposal, which may account for their 
frequently greater variability, for certain char- 
acteristics of habit and temperament, and for 
exuberant growths of various special kinds. 
To the objection that the male is often 
much smaller than the female, and that his 
nutritive income is proportionally less, the 
answer is that' the decisive fact is one of ratio, 
e. g. between the amount of material used in 
reproduction and the weight of the body in the 
two sexes, or between the size of the repro- 
ductive organs and the size of the body in the 
two sexes. 
In cases where the sexes expend approxi- 
mately equal amounts of material in repro- 
duction, almost no sex-differences occur. Thus 
in many fishes, such as the herring, the ovaries 
and testes are about the same size, and enor- 
mous quantities of milt are shed by the males 
in the water. In the viviparous Cyprinodonts, 
on the other hand, where there is internal fer- SEX 
78 
tilisation and economy of sperm-material, the 
males show both permanent and periodic dis- 
tinguishing features (see Fig. 14). 
In his critique of this "surplusage theory," 
Kammerer indicates some serious, and indeed 
fatal, objections. (1) It may explain how the 
male has a good deal to spare on decoration, 
but it sheds no light on the specific line that 
his disposal of the surplus takes - a mane for 
the lion and antlers for the stag. (2) It is 
easy to pick out cases that suit the theory, 
but what of the broad fact that in hundreds 
of cases among birds and mammals, reptiles 
and insects, the two sexes are equal in size, 
equal in numbers, and uniform in appearance, 
although the expenditure on the male's side 
remains very much less than on the female's? 
(3) The female's reproduction is more ex- 
pensive, yet it is the female that tends to 
fatten. And why is it that when her repro- 
ductive expenditure is over, her accessory 
sex-characters do not improve (except in 
rare cases), but become less marked than 
ever? (4) There are many cases where the 
male has to fertilise the eggs of many females, 
and where he has no masculine peculiarities, 
which is what the theory would suggest. But 
there are also many cases of a similar sort, 
where the polygamous male, like peacock, 
pheasant, stag, bull, sea-lion, shows an exu- 
berance of masculine features. Indeed it may 
be argued that increased sexual function in the 
male tends to increase the masculine features, 
and vice versa. 
Another physiological theory was put for- 
ward by the authors in 1889 in The Evolution THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
79 
of Sex, where it was maintained that the deep 
constitutional difference between the male 
and the female organism, which makes of the 
one a sperm-producer and of the other an 
egg-producer, is due to an initial difference 
in the balance or rhythm of chemical changes. 
That is to say, the two sexes differ funda- 
mentally in the life-ratio of anabolic to kata- 
bolic changes. In the female, the balance 
of income and outlay, of constructive to dis- 
ruptive changes, is the more favourable one; 
the anabolic process tends to have relative 
preponderance, and this profit may be de- 
voted to growth, and towards offspring, in 
producing which she hence can afford to bear 
the larger share. In short, the life-ratio 
of anabolic to katabolic changes, g, in the 
female is normally greater than the corre- 
sponding life-ratio, g, in the male of the same 
species. Now it would be crude to suppose 
that structures like yolk-glands or milk-glands 
are the direct outcome of the relatively greater 
anabolism of the female. Nor can greater 
exuberance of integumentary structures and 
more abundance of pigmentation in them 
be regarded as the necessary outcome of the 
relatively katabolic male constitution. But it 
may be that masculine and feminine second- 
ary sex-characters are on the whole congruent 
with the kind of constitution which implies 
maleness and femaleness respectively. Whether 
a character in the germinal inheritance finds 
expression or not may depend on whether 
the organism is male or female in its fundamental 
metabolism; and similarly what degree of ex- 
pression a particular character finds oppor- SEX 
80 
tunity for in development may be deter- 
mined in the same way. 
The Role of Internal Secretions. - It 
has long been recognised that the reproductive 
organs exert a pervasive influence on the 
body, as is conspicuously seen in the changes 
that occur at adolescence, and in pregnancy, 
even in remote parts of the body. The fact 
is expressed in Helmont's aphorism: "Propter 
solum uterum mulier est, quod est," which 
Chereau changed into "Propter solum ovarium 
mulier est, quod est." 
The view of Pfliiger, that the gonads exert 
an influence through the nerves associated 
with them, has given place to the view, origi- 
nating with Brown-Sequard, that the in- 
fluence passes into the body by the medium 
of the internal secretions of the gonads. To 
Starling we owe the convenient term "hor- 
mones" for the specific stimulating substances 
in these internal secretions, and more recently 
Schafer has given convincing illustrations of 
their subtle and multifarious efficacy within 
the organism. 
It may be explained that a male organ or 
testis in a higher animal consists of sperm- 
making cells arranged in tubules, of inter- 
stitial cells of various types, the whole within 
an outer envelope of connective tissue. Simi- 
larly the female organ or ovary consists of 
ova disposed in groups of follicles, of inter- 
stitial cells of various kinds (the stroma of 
the ovary, the follicle cells, and the corpus 
luteum), all within the sheath of connective 
tissue. 
It has been shown by many investigators THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
81 
that the interstitial cells of the mammalian 
testis possess a relative independence of the 
germinal portion. They may be well developed 
at a time when the germinal part is still em- 
bryonic; they may occur at some distance from 
the seminiferous tubules; they may be normal 
in old testes from which the sex-elements have 
disappeared, or in diseased testes in which 
only the seminiferous part is affected. Three 
functions have been assigned to the secretion 
of these remarkable glandular cells, that it 
is nutritive for the testis, that it acts as a 
formative stimulus for the secondary sex-char- 
acters, and that it affects genital excitement. 
It has also been shown that masculine char- 
acters (e. g. in the horse and in man) may 
develop although the sperm-making part of 
the testis is degenerate, so long as the inter- 
stitial tissue remains well developed. It follows 
that the stimulating internal secretion, with- 
out which the masculine characters do not de- 
velop, is produced by this interstitial tissue. In 
mole, marmot, man, and other mammals, the 
interstitial tissue waxes and wanes, and the 
recurrence of "heat" in animals is preceded 
by activity of the interstitial tissue before sperm- 
making activity sets in. Similarly in the fe- 
male, the internal secretions that pass from the 
ovary have their origin, not in the germinal, 
but in the interstitial part of the organ. 
Let us consider the case of fowls. For 
three or four weeks after hatching, chickens 
do not show any external marks of sex. In 
size and colour of comb, in plumage and limbs, 
pullets and cockerels are alike, and it is not till 
towards the thirtieth day that the external SEX 
82 
differentiation begins to be apparent. By 
the forty-fifth day the comb is more pronounced 
and more vividly coloured in the male; the 
wattles begin to develop; the young cocks 
crow towards the second month; differences 
in the plumage begin to differentiate the two 
sexes more and more sharply. 
So far we are on familiar ground, and it 
is also well-known that the removal of the 
testes hinders the development of the second- 
ary sex-characters. But a recent investi- 
gation by J. des Cilleuls has made matters 
more precise. He has shown that the ap- 
pearance of the secondary sex-characters in 
the young cock coincides with the appearance 
of interstitial cells in the testes; that the inter- 
stitial cells and the distinctively cock-char- 
acters increase concurrently; and that the 
cock-characters continue to be accentuated 
till after the sixtieth day, while the essential 
part of the testes - the seminal tubules - 
remain embryonic. It would appear, there- 
fore, that the internal secretion of the inter- 
stitial cells serves as a stimulus for the develop- 
ment of the secondary sex-characters. 
A great number of very interesting experi- 
ments have been made in reference to the 
role of the internal secretions in connection 
with sex-characters, and while there seems 
to be a tendency to hurry to very definite 
conclusions while the investigation is still 
very young, it seems legitimate to say that 
in many cases the diffusion of the internal 
secretion throughout the body serves as the 
liberating stimulus evoking the development 
of sex peculiarities which have hitherto re- THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
83 
mained latent or unexpressed. It must not 
be supposed that the internal secretion from 
the gonads causes the sex-characters, though 
it may be a condition of their normal develop- 
ment in the individual. The gonads are the 
nurses of the secondary sex-characters, but 
not their producers. The sex-characters were 
in the hereditary treasure-box, even though 
not exhibited. But it is certainly very remark- 
able that even when a gonad is absent, the 
secondary sex-characters lying latent may be 
called into some measure of expression by 
an injection of the secretion. 
Sex-changes in Crabs. - It was the French 
zoologist Giard who first called attention to 
the extremely interesting phenomenon which 
he called "parasitic castration." Many young 
crabs, e. g. of Stenorhynchus, are infested by 
other Crustaceans of the family Bopyridse, 
which become mature at the time when their 
hosts should also be mature. But the gonads 
of the crab have been destroyed by the para- 
site, and a remarkable change has been brought 
about. If the crab be a male it exhibits some 
of the structural features of a female, it loses 
its masculine impulse, and it actually defends 
its parasite as a female does her eggs, the para- 
site protruding on the outside of the tail just 
where a female crab carries her eggs. It used 
to be remarked as very curious that only female 
crabs were attacked, but Giard showed that 
many of the apparent females were parasitised 
males. If the victim be a female, there is no 
change of structure or of instinct, except that 
she cherishes the parasite instead of eggs -• 
which are absent. SEX 
84 
Giard's work has been extended by that 
of Geoffrey Smith, in a series of researches 
remarkable for their thoroughness. In the 
case of male crabs of the genus Inachus, for 
instance, he found that castration, brought 
about by Sacculina and the like, induced a 
very striking expression of latent feminine 
and female features. The crab developed 
egg-carrying abdominal limbs like those of a 
female and it produced eggs. The normal 
crab is not in any sense a hermaphrodite, 
Fig. 15.- Forms of Abdomen in a crab, Pachygrapsus. A, of 
a female; B, of a male; C, of a parasitised male approxi- 
mating to the female type. (After Geoffrey Smith.) 
but the effect of castration is the development 
of the latent characters of the other sex. 
Potts has studied the castration of male 
hermit-crabs by Peltogaster and of male shore- 
crabs by Sacculina. In the former, the male 
characters persisted; in the latter, though the 
castration was incomplete, some female char- 
acters appeared. Smith and Potts are both 
of opinion that what happens is a change of 
the metabolism of the crab on to female lines. 
In Inachus, the putting on of external feminine 
characters preceded the appearance of the 
ovaries, so that the theory of a specific secre- THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
85 
tion passing from the gonads to the body is in 
this case excluded. 
Smith's theory has an important bearing 
on the significance of sex and on the role as- 
cribed to internal secretions. Without going 
into technicalities, let us seek to understand 
more precisely what he means by saying that 
the parasite disturbs the general metabolism 
and that this affects the expressions of sex. 
In a normal female crab the ripening ovary 
takes up lutein and fat; this seems to stimulate 
the liver to make more, and to lessen another 
of its functions, namely, making glycogen 
(or animal starch) which is used in growth. 
In the ripening female the blood becomes 
progressively charged with fat and lutein, 
and this might be described as the distinc- 
tively feminine condition of the blood. Now 
the roots of the Sacculina penetrating through 
the male crab affect the metabolism just as 
an ovary does in a female. They take up fat 
and stimulate the liver to make more. The 
glycogenic function is depressed, for there is 
an absence of demand for glycogen, there 
being no growing or moulting after the Sac- 
culina has protruded on the under side of 
the crab (see Fig. 16). It has not been shown 
that the male's blood is actually charged with 
lutein and fat, but the liver is always coloured 
with lutein, and so are the Sacculina roots, 
showing that a transference of these materials 
has occurred, perhaps so rapidly that their 
presence in the blood cannot be detected. 
Smith's view is in general that the parasite 
alters the composition of the male's blood to 
or towards a female condition, and that this SEX 
86 
is naturally followed by the development of 
female secondary characters, or by the regener- 
ation of an ovary instead of a testis from 
the indifferent germ-cells that remain at the 
end of infection. In short he would supple- 
Fig. 16.- Male crab Inachus with the sac-like parasite, 
Sacculina (S) protruding between the under surfaces 
of the abdomen and the cephalothorax. Forceps and 
abdomen modified towards female type. (After Geoffrey 
Smith.) 
ment the role of hormones by recognising the 
importance of metabolism-stimulation. 
Using the terminology of The Evolution of 
Sex, Geoffrey Smith says of the adaptive 
regulation of the metabolism in the parasitised THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
87 
male crab that "this adaptive regulation 
consists in the production of at least a par- 
tially female condition of metabolism as op- 
posed to a wholly male condition, the female 
condition being preponderantly anabolic or 
conservative, as opposed to the katabolic 
male condition, and by this change from a 
katabolic to a more anabolic condition the 
animal can withstand better the drain on its 
system increased by the parasite." 
Sex-characters and Species-characters. 
- The interesting thesis has been already 
mentioned (Tandler, Kammerer, Tandler and 
Grosz), that sex-characters have been derived 
from ordinary species-characters, which have 
been brought into special correlation with the 
reproductive organs and their internal secre- 
tions. Tandler writes: "All secondary sex- 
characters were indeed at first specific char- 
acters . . . and not primarily associated with 
the genital sphere." Thus the milk-gland has 
doubtless arisen from a group of sebaceous 
glands, common to both sexes. Later on, it 
underwent transformation, and in the female, 
came into the service of another function, and 
under the influence of the gonads. There is 
no puzzle in the fact that it is represented in 
an undeveloped state in the male. 
Kammerer comes to the same conclusion: 
"The sex-characters simply form a particular 
group of species-characters: all sex-characters 
are at the same time species-characters." In 
this connection he refers to Mobius's thesis 
that there is a sort of somatic sex, a sex-differen- 
tiation of all the organs and tissues, whether 
they show a visible difference or not, so that SEX 
88 
one may, he notes, invert the previous sentence 
and say that all species-characters are also 
sex-characters. But, in any case, there are 
certainly no special sex-characters, which stand 
apart from other species-characters, as things 
per se and autonomous. 
In their recent work Tandler and Grosz are 
very emphatic in their conclusion that all sex- 
characters have been derived from specific 
characters or "systematic" characters, which 
in the course of time have been brought (by 
the usual method of variation and selection) 
into the service of reproduction. This oc- 
curred at different periods, as is suggested by 
their different degrees of variability to-day. 
And in the course of their evolution they have 
come into correlation with the gonadial glands 
of internal secretion which supply in a remark- 
able way their indispensable liberating stimuli. 
"The secondary sex-characters are, to begin 
with, systematic characters and they ulti- 
mately owe their development and differen- 
tiation to the harmonious co-operating of the 
glands of internal secretion." 
The thesis that: "All secondary sex- 
characters were at first specific characters," 
appears to us to be an exaggeration of a sound 
idea. There are, it seems to us, numerous 
peculiarities of one sex or the other which can- 
not be readily derived from specific charact- 
ers supposed to be common to both sexes. And 
if it be said that the cases we would adduce 
are not fair samples of sex-characters, we would 
reply that it is very difficult to. draw a line 
round "secondary sex-characters," separating 
them from other sex-differences. This is THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
89 
especially difficult among invertebrate animals 
where we have little knowledge of glands of 
internal secretion connected with the essential 
gonads, and are therefore bereft of that useful 
criterion of a secondary sex-character which 
has been discovered in vertebrates. 
Let us consider, then, a few striking sex- 
differences in their bearing upon Tandler's 
Fig. 17.- Female of Paper Nautilus - Argonauta argo -• 
with its brood-chamber shell, enveloped by the ex- 
panded ends of two of the arms. 
theory. The female paper-nautilus, or ar- 
gonaut, is very different from the male. She 
is much larger, she has two "arms" peculiarly 
modified to secrete a unique shell, not homolo- 
gous with other cephalopod shells, which 
is used as a brood-chamber for the developing 
ova (see Fig. 17). The small male has no 
such shell and no such modification of two 
of the arms. When he is sexually mature, one 90 
SEX 
of his arms becomes laden with sperm-packets 
and is discharged as a " hectocotylus " into 
the mantle cavity of the female (see Fig. 18). 
These are familiar facts, but we do not 
know of any evidence for supposing that the 
ancestors of the argonaut ever had an ex- 
Fig. 18.- The minute male of the Paper Nautilus - Argo- 
nauta argo - showing the mouth surrounded by eight 
arms, one of which has been "hectocotylised," i. e. much 
specialised for reproduction. The locomotor funnel and 
the mantle opening may be seen to the left, one of the 
eyes to the right. Twice natural size. (After Muller.) 
ternal shell of the argonaut type or modified 
arms such as the female now shows. There 
is no hint of such a thing. Moreover, the 
shell is not for living in, but for the protection 
of the eggs; it is a cradle, not a house, and it 
has no meaning except in the female. Unless 
indeed one supposes that both sexes used to 
carry the eggs, or that the ancestors of Argo- THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
91 
nauta were hermaphrodites - but for any such 
hypotheses, there are no bases. 
Let us take one of those very interesting 
cases where the female has something definite 
and positive which the male has not - the 
frog Nototrema with its dorsal pouch in which 
the eggs are carried. Is there any warrant 
for supposing that this was once a specific 
character? Another case in point may be 
found in the so-called claspers of male Se- 
lachians. In a fish like the skate they are 
very conspicuous sex-characters; they are highly 
specialised structures with complicated mus- 
culature and skeleton. They are very definitely 
male organs, without any representation in 
the female. There is no warrant for supposing 
that the ancestors of our modern Selachians 
had structures like these claspers in both 
sexes, or even rudiments of them. 
Again, in most mammals, though the ovaries 
always remain internal, the testes are carried 
in an external pouch or scrotum into which 
at a certain stage of development they de- 
scend, as it were by a rupture normalised. 
This is a definite male peculiarity, a speciali- 
sation not necessarily present; it is not hinted 
at in the female; and again there is no warrant 
for regarding it as a transformation of any 
specific character ever common to the two 
sexes. In the same way the protruding egg- 
sacs of many female water-fleas, e. g. Cyclops, 
are extra things on the female's part. 
Difficulty as to Origins. - Darwin's theory 
of sexual selection suggested that a variation 
in male animals in the direction of, say, better 
weapons or more beautiful plumage, would 92 
SEX 
be profitable to its fortunate possessors. They 
would be more successful than others in re- 
production and their stock would prevail; 
those of their kin who had not the excellence 
in question would be sooner or later eliminated. 
If the facts bear it out, the theory is a sound 
interpretation of the survival of certain char- 
acters. But it did not pretend to explain 
the origin of the variations assumed to have 
occurred, and it is this question of origins 
which makes all our evolutionary inquiries 
difficult alike. 
At this point the Lamarckian interpreta- 
tion has theoretically the advantage, for if 
males acquired weapons as a direct organic 
response to fighting, and decorations as the 
organic reward of doing their best in the way 
of showing themselves off without them, or 
as the result of functional changes in the 
blood-pressure and in the distribution of the 
blood-vessels, then the problem of origin is 
solved. And if these individual acquisitions 
are entailed on the offspring, then the problem 
of their becoming racial characters is also 
solved. But, as we have already hinted, 
there are great difficulties in the way of this 
interpretation. 
If we pass to the suggestive view that dis- 
tinctive sex-characters are all derivable from 
specific characters by a change of function and 
by becoming correlated with the reproductive 
organs, whose internal secretions supply the 
physiological nexus, then the problem of the 
origin of the sex-characters is not different 
from that of the origin of any of the species- 
characters. We have, indeed, to assume that THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
93 
in the course of time the species-character 
varied in rather a novel way, but it seems to 
have been a common thing in the course of 
evolution that an apparently new organ should 
arise by a transformation of a very old structure. 
Thus the spinnerets of a spider are very novel 
contrivances, but they represent transformed 
abdominal limbs; the serpent's fangs are folded 
or channelled teeth, and its reservoirs of venom 
are specialised glands of the mouth and lips; 
a bird's feather is part of a reptile's scale glori- 
fied; and the hammer and anvil that form part 
of the delicate apparatus for conveying vibra- 
tions from the drum to the inner ear were 
once part and parcel of the rougher and more 
commonplace mechanism of the jaws. There 
is abundant analogy, then, in support of the 
view that ordinary species-characters may be 
transformed into sex-characters. But the origin 
of the transformation remains obscure. More- 
over, there are many sex-characters which 
cannot be traced back to specific characters 
common to the two sexes. Finally, care must 
be taken not to invest the internal secretions 
with more than a trigger-pulling and quanti- 
tative influence. 
Having cleared the ground, we come back 
to the vague proposition that sex-characters 
arise as germinal variations. Here, it may 
be, we are up against a fundamental character 
of organisms, that they continually tend to 
vary and often to vary creatively. But let 
us not treat this characteristic as if it were 
altogether and hopelessly mysterious. Without 
straying far from our present path, we may 
recall some of the possibilities. Fluctuations 94 
SEX 
in the nutritive stream may evoke responsive 
changes in the germ-cells. The opportunities 
afforded in maturation and fertilisation may 
bring about a shuffling of the chromosome 
cards. External changes may serve as varia- 
tional stimuli to the highly complex germ- 
plasm. 
Going deeper, perhaps, we recall what Spen- 
cer, for instance, emphasised, and what the 
progress of chemistry since his day has made 
even more vivid, the tendency in matter 
to complexify. Perhaps the living unit, which 
we know as the germ-cell, utilises this complex- 
ifying tendency in a progressive differentia- 
tion of its own. It is important at all events 
to remember that a sex-cell is not an ordinary 
detached cell, it is a gamete, an individuality 
condensed; and just as an intact organism 
from Amoeba to Elephant tries experiments, 
so it may be that the implicit organism of the 
germ-cell tries experiments - which we call 
variations. 
Suggestion as to Mode of Origin of 
Sex-characters. - Let us suppose that a 
germ-cell already predisposed to develop into 
a female is the seat of a variation in the he- 
reditary constituent corresponding to the future 
ovary. Let us suppose that this variation is 
in the direction of producing an accessory yolk- 
gland. In the course of development the varia- 
tion, if consistent with the rest of the consti- 
tution, is actualised and there is the beginning 
of a yolk-gland - an advantageous addition 
obviously. In the course of time the organism 
reproduces and its germ-cells have entailed 
on them (in accordance with the conception of THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
95 
germinal continuity) the primary constituent 
(determinant or factor) of a yolk-gland. But 
the difficulty immediately arises in the mind 
that this new hereditary item will be found not 
only in the germ-cells which will develop 
into females (where it will be relevant), but 
also in the germ-cells which will develop into 
males (where it will be irrelevant). The ques- 
tion, then, is what will happen to the yolk- 
gland determinant in those germ-cells that 
are going to develop into males. The answer 
is that it will remain latent, not because its 
expression would be irrelevant, but because 
it arose as a variation in a germ-cell predis- 
posed to develop into a female. It is solidary 
with femaleness, which, for us, means a me- 
tabolism-ratio or rhythm with relatively pre- 
ponderant anabolism. Metaphorically, it is a 
seed which will germinate in female soil, which 
will not germinate in male soil, though it 
will remain latent there. 
For the sake of clearness, let us take the 
same occurrence on the male side. In a germ- 
cell (whether ovum or spermatozoon, or fer- 
tilised ovum), predisposed to develop into 
a male - i. e. a sperm-producer, a variation 
arises, say, in the direction of brilliant pig- 
mentation of the skin. If it is consistent with 
the rest of the organisation, it is realised in 
development, the spermatozoa have it en- 
tailed on them, and it is transferred to a mul- 
titude of ova. But it develops only in those 
fertilised ova which are going to develop 
into males. It does so develop because it 
was to begin with a variation - a new depar- 
ture - made by a male-producing gamete. It 96 
SEX 
is a seed which can germinate only in a male 
soil, which will remain latent in a female soil. 
Thus a germinal variation in the partheno- 
genetic ova of bees, which develop into drones, 
will be unexpressed in the queens, but none the 
less faithfully handed on by them. 
We suggest, then, the hypothesis, that 
distinctively masculine characters arose from 
variations in gametes predisposed or pre- 
determined to develop into males, that dis- 
tinctively feminine characters all arose from 
variations in gametes predisposed or pre- 
determined to develop into females, and that 
this primal difference in origin explains (1) 
why the new gains are often confined in their 
expression to one sex, and (2) why they hang 
together in an hereditary congeries. The 
hypothesis is in no w'ise inconsistent with 
the view that many sex-characters are trans- 
formed species-characters, for the new depar- 
ture in such cases was the transforming. Nor 
does the hypothesis conflict in the least with 
the facts in regard to the importance of 
hormones in the individual development of 
the sex-characters, which is a question in the 
physiology of development. Nor does the 
hypothesis conflict at all with the view that 
some process of selection favoured the per- 
sistence and diffusion of the new character. 
Nor does the hypothesis conflict at all with 
the view that the sex-characters behave in 
inheritance as Mendelian characters. The 
hypothesis concerns the origin, not the develop- 
ment, or the evolution, or the mode of inher- 
itance. 
One of the arguments that may be used THEORY OF SEX-DIMORPHISM 
97 
in support of our hypothesis is that used in 
a slightly different connection in The Evolution 
of Sex. It is this. There are numerous dis- 
tinctively masculine characters which have 
some measure of "family resemblance,'' which 
look as if they had something in common, 
which are congruent with the intenser me- 
tabolism of the male sex. To a thorough-going 
Lamarckian this is readily intelligible, for 
he regards the colour-display, the exuberance 
of integumentary outgrowth, the erection of 
parts of the body such as crests and tail-feath- 
ers, the growth of weapons on the one hand 
and embracing organs on the other, as natural 
developments of the intensely living, lusty 
male, as natural individual developments, whose 
results have gradually been incorporated in 
the heredity-bundle. But is not this too 
simple a view of the matter? It has not been 
proved that Nature works in this direct way. 
The suggestion above made is that such meas- 
ure of congruence as there is in, say, mas- 
culine sex-character (e. g. brighter colouring, 
exuberant decoration, smaller size), may be 
hypothetically interpreted as due to their 
having arisen as germinal variations or muta- 
tions in germ-cells predetermined to develop 
into males. 98 
SEX 
CHAPTER V 
WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
The determination of sex - Different lines of inquiry -• 
Possible influence of environment on developing organism 
- Possible importance of the relative condition of the 
germ-cells at fertilisation - Are there predetermined 
male-producing and female-producing germ-cells ? - The 
Mendelian view of sex - Possible influence of environ- 
ment in determining the relative numbers of male-producing 
and female-producing germ-cells - A physiological view. 
The Determination of Sex. - From ancient 
times much interest has been. taken in the 
question: What settles the sex of the off- 
spring? Many of the answers are bound up 
with "theories of sex" of an unscientific sort, 
whose name is legion. There are several 
scores of books and pamphlets dealing with 
the problem, most of which must be dismissed 
at once because of obviously fatal defects in 
their scientific procedure. Some lay stress 
on whimsical conditions, which cannot be 
seriously considered; others on unverifiable 
factors, such as the parental desire for a male 
child. Some are physiologically absurd; and 
others base a big generalisation on an out- 
rageously small number of cases. 
The general problem is: What determines 
whether a fertilised egg-cell will develop into 
a male or a female organism? But let us 
look at a few particular forms of the problem. 
What are called "true twins" in the human 
race arise from the division of an ovum into 
two independently developing cells, and they WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
99 
are always of the same sex. But ordinary 
twins, which arise from two distinct ova de- 
veloping simultaneously, are often of differ- 
ent sexes. Why this difference in the two 
cases? 
The eggs which the queen-bee lays without 
fertilising them from her store of spermatozoa 
(received from a drone in her nuptial flight) 
develop into drones, but the likewise un- 
fertilised eggs produced during the summer 
months by green-flies or aphides develop 
into females - parthenogenetic viviparous fe- 
males - until the end of the season, when 
males are produced. Why are the cases so 
different? 
In one household the family consists of 
boys and girls; in a second of boys only; in 
a third of girls only. Why is this? 
Different Lines of Inquiry. - Since Dar- 
win's day the problem has been attacked 
scientifically, along three distinct lines - 
(a) Some conclusions as to the determina- 
tion of the sex of the offspring have been based 
on statistics, for instance, as to the relative 
numbers of male and female offspring pro- 
duced in different localities, at different times, 
with different ages of parents, and so on. 
It is said, for instance, that late marriages 
tend to increase the proportion of boys, that 
after prolonged wars when men are scarce 
more boys are produced, that the younger the 
mothers the more girls there are born. 
(6) Some conclusions as to the determina- 
tion of the sex of the offspring have been 
based on the minute study of the germ-cells 
in particular cases. Thus it has been shown 100 
SEX 
that some animals produce two kinds of ova, 
e. g. large and small, and that the larger develop 
into females. This may be illustrated by 
Hydatina senta among Rotifers; the large 
eggs develop into females, the small ones into 
males. 
(c) Some conclusions as to the determina- 
tion of the sex of the offspring have been 
based on experiment, e. g. subjecting the eggs, 
or the embryos, or the parents, to peculiar 
conditions of nutrition, temperature, and the 
like, and observing whether the numerical 
proportion of the sexes in the offspring is in 
any way different from that which obtains 
in ordinary conditions; or by contrasting the 
results of fertilising immature and over-ripe 
ova; or by contrasting the results of using 
fresh or stale sperms; or by trying particular 
breeding experiments in reference to what 
are called sex-limited characters. 
Possible Influence of Environment on 
Developing Organism. - The first theory we 
shall notice lays emphasis on "Nature" in 
the wide sense. It supposes that in some 
cases the sex of the offspring remains un- 
determined for a considerable time, and that 
environmental conditions - nutritive in par- 
ticular - give the bias to one side or the 
other. Yung, of Geneva, who was one of the 
first to attempt the experimental study of 
sex-determination, found that tadpoles, which 
normally develop into about fifty-seven fe- 
males to forty-three males, yielded, when 
fed with beef, fish, and frog-flesh, respectively, 
seventy-eight, eighty-one, and ninety-two fe- 
males in the hundred. But Yung did not WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
101 
pay sufficient attention to differential mor- 
tality, and this defect in method has vitiated 
a number of similar experiments. 
Several experimenters, for instance, have 
noticed that when a crowd of caterpillars 
are under-fed, there is an unusually large pro- 
portion of males among the survivors. But 
as the sex of the caterpillar is really deter- 
mined before it hatches out of the egg, the 
experiments only showed that there may be 
great differences in the rate of juvenile mor- 
tality in the two sexes. The females seem to 
be more susceptible to starvation. 
It used to be supposed that between the 
beginning of the individual life (the fertilisa- 
tion of the ovum) and the time when sex- 
characters become clearly apparent, there is 
an intervening indifferent period. But more 
penetrating research has shown in many cases 
that this so-called indifferent period, if it is a 
reality at all, is very short. In many cases 
it is possible to distinguish microscopically 
between the male and female gonads in the 
very young embryo. 
It is important, however, to bear in mind 
cases like that of the male crab referred to 
in Chapter IV, where a testis destroyed by 
a parasite was replaced by an ovary pro- 
ducing eggs. There was no indefiniteness 
about the crab's sex-determination; what hap- 
pened was the activation of the germs of 
femaleness, and also of feminine characters, 
of whose latency there is evidence in many 
different kinds of males. Now and again 
these awake a little if there is a thoroughgoing 
change of constitution, such as the parasitised 102 
SEX 
crab so well illustrates. Oftener, however, we 
find cases where in a female's body normally 
latent masculine characters are awakened into 
expression. 
A number of interesting experiments have 
been made with organisms that are often, 
but not always, hermaphrodite, such as the 
grey freshwater polyp, Hydra grisea, and the 
prothallia (sexual generation) of some ferns. 
It has been shown that optimum conditions 
result in a predominance of females, and that 
groups wholly male can be produced by rela- 
tive starving. What happens in these cases 
is the inhibition or suppression of one set of 
sex-organs in favour of another, and although 
the frequent or normal occurrence of hermaph- 
roditism removes the instances given from 
the case of ordinary unisexual organisms, we 
submit that the facts are relevant in showing 
how closely sex and metabolism are wrapped 
up together. 
Possible Importance of the Relative 
Condition of the Germ-cells at Fertilisa- 
tion. - A second theory - a favourite one 
with breeders - supposes that the sex of 
the offspring is settled by the relative condi- 
tion of the germ-cells at the time of fertilisation. 
Some say that if the ovum come from a young 
mother and the sperm from an older father, 
the offspring will tend to be male. Others 
say that an ovum fertilised soon after ovula- 
tion is likely to develop into a female. Many 
breeders maintain that the sex of the offspring 
tends to be that of the more vigorous parent - 
a favourite theory with the fathers of many 
boys. But a solid foundation on which to base WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
103 
these and similar views has not been supplied. 
We have, however, two very careful sets of 
experiments. O. Schultze experimented with 
enormous numbers of mice, and found that 
the proportions of the sexes were not affected 
by differences in the ages of the parents, by 
differences in apparent vigour, by close in- 
breeding, or by frequency of successive births. 
Nor did he find that any kind of nutritive 
change made any difference. As the outcome 
of prolonged experiments with frogs, Hertwig 
and Kuschakewitsch found that either over- 
ripeness or under-ripeness of the eggs (due 
to artificially delaying or hastening fertilisa- 
tion) led to a large excess of males. Kuschake- 
witsch, working with ova of a high degree 
of over-ripeness, actually got cultures of 
males only, and with only 4.6 per cent, of 
deaths. 
It will be seen that these two sets of ex- 
periments point in opposite directions. For 
frogs, it appears that the state of the ovum 
at fertilisation is very important; for mice, 
it appears that much may be changed without 
affecting the proportion of the sexes. It may 
be that the particular change of condition 
that does make a difference has been hit 
upon in the case of frogs, and missed, as 
yet, in the case of mice. It may be that 
sex is determined in different ways and at 
different times at the various levels of the 
scale of being. 
Are there Predetermined Male-produc- 
ing and Female-producing Germ-cells? - 
It is possible that many ova are so constitu- 
tionally predetermined that they will develop SEX 
104 
into females only, while others will develop 
into males only. We are sure that this is pos- 
sible, because in the vine-pest Phylloxera 
among Insects, and in Hydatina among Roti- 
fers, and in other cases, there are large eggs 
which develop into females, and small ones 
which develop into males. In both these cases 
the ova develop without fertilisation, so that 
there is no question as to the possible influence 
of the sperm. 
Reuter has shown in one of the mites (Pedi- 
culopsis), and Von Malsen has shown in a 
primitive worm called Dinophilus, in both 
of which fertilisation occurs as usual, that 
there are large egg-cells which develop into 
females, and small egg-cells which develop 
into males. Size is never of much account 
except as an index of something deeper, and 
it is interesting to note that the Marchals 
have proved that the asexually produced 
spores of some of the mosses, though all similar 
in appearance, are individually predestined, 
indeed, fixedly predetermined, as male-produc- 
ing and female-producing units. 
We have already mentioned that "identical 
twins," which are developed from one ovum, 
are always of the same sex. In one of the 
armadillos (Praopus or Tatusia hybrida) Von 
Jhering found on two occasions eight embryos, 
apparently from one ovum, and all male. 
In some of the parasitic Hymenoptera, such 
as Encyrtus, one ovum forms a group of em- 
bryos, all of the same sex - female if the 
egg be fertilised, male if it be not fertilised. 
These facts suggest that the sex of the off- 
spring is already settled in the ovum, but WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
105 
that fertilisation may be necessary if a female 
is to develop. 
In about thirty different kinds of animals 
there are two kinds of spermatozoa differing 
in detail of form, but the significance of this 
dimorphism is not known. Of greater interest 
is the fact that in a considerable number of 
animals, especially insects and arachnids, half 
of the spermatozoa have in their nucleus 
the same number of nuclear rods or chromo- 
somes as the ova have, while the others have 
one fewer. This extra chromosome, which 
half have and half have not, is called the 
X-element or accessory chromosome, and there 
are facts which go to show that the presence 
of two X-elements in the fertilised ovum 
implies development into a female organism, 
while the presence of only one means a male. 
It is possible that the amount of chromatin 
is of some importance, the ova with more 
chromatin developing into a female. It is 
possible, as E. B. Wilson suggests quite pro- 
visionally, that the X-element contains factors 
(ferments or hormones?) that are necessary 
for the development of maleness or female- 
ness, and that they are so adjusted that in 
the presence of a single X-element the male 
character finds expression, while in the pres- 
ence of two X-elements the female character is 
liberated. 
The Mendelian View of Sex. - In the 
volume of Evolution a brief reference has 
been made to the important discovery known 
as Mendel's Law which formulates the mode 
of inheritance of certain kinds of characters 
- called unit characters or Mendelian char- 106 
SEX 
acters. In simple clear-cut cases the gist 
of the matter may be thus stated. If A be 
a well-established, pure-bred variety with a 
certain differentiating character (D), e. g. a 
colour, a crest, long fur, horns; and if B be 
another well-established variety with a cor- 
responding but contrasted differentiating char- 
acter (R), e. g. another colour, no crest, short 
fur, hornlessness; and if A and B are crossed, 
the hybrid offspring (Fi) will resemble one of 
the parents only, say A, as regards the con- 
trasted characters in question. The char- 
acter (D) that prevails was called by Mendel 
a dominant; the character (R) that remains 
latent was called a recessive. (In many of 
the cases now known the dominance is im- 
perfect, more or less of the recessive character 
being exhibited, but it is unnecessary to dis- 
cuss this.) Now, if the hybrids be bred to- 
gether, their descendants will be of two kinds, 
three-fourths of them with the dominant 
character and one-fourth of them with the 
recessive character. When those with the 
recessive character are inbred, they yield 
only recessives. They are pure or homozy- 
gous as regards this recessive character. When 
those with the dominant character are inbred, 
a third of them yield only dominants (to put 
it shortly), and two-thirds of them yield domi- 
nants and recessives in the previous propor- 
tion of about three to one. That is to say, a 
third of the dominants are pure or homozygous 
dominants; while two-thirds of them are impure 
or heterozygous in respect to the dominant char- 
acter. Diagrammatically expressed, the facts 
are - WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
107 
D R . . . Parents 
D(R) . . . Hybrid offspring 
25 p.c. D 50 p.c. D(R) 25 p.c. R 
(pure dominants) (impure dominants) (pure recessives) 
D 25 p.c. D+50 p.c. D(R)-|-25 p.c. R R 
To illustrate contrasted Mendelian char- 
acters we may select a dozen and place them in 
parallel columns - 
Dominant. 
Hornlessness in cattle. 
Short hair in rabbits. 
Normal movements in mice. 
Crest in poultry. 
Broodiness in poultry. 
Unbanded shell in snail. 
Tall stems in peas. 
Round seeds in peas. 
Absence of awn in wheat. 
Red chaff. 
Two-rowed ears in barley. 
Markedly dentate leaves in 
nettles. 
Recessive. 
Presence of horns. 
Long Angora hair. 
Waltzing in mice. 
Absence of crest. 
Absence of this. 
Banded shell. 
Dwarf stems. 
Wrinkled seeds in peas. 
Presence of awn. 
White chaff. 
Six-rowed ears. 
Slightly dentate leaves. 
So far, very briefly, the results of experi- 
ments; but Mendel also suggested an inter- 
pretation. In the case of the hybrids (Fi) 
he supposed that the germ-cells were formed 
of two kinds in equal proportions, each kind 
bearing only one of the two contrasted or 
alternative characters. If each of the hybrids 
of the Fi generation produces in both sexes 
50 per cent, of its germ-cells bearing the item 
or factor corresponding to the dominant char- 
acter, and 50 per cent, not bearing it, if fer- 
tilisation be fortuitous, 25 per cent, of the 108 
SEX 
fertilised egg-cells will bear only the dominant 
character, 50 per cent, will bear both the 
dominant and the recessive character (only 
the dominant being eventually expressed or 
well-expressed), and 25 per cent, will bear only 
the recessive character. This is the theory 
of the segregation of pure gametes and it is 
the central conception of Mendelism. A 
scheme will make it clear. (See Evolution, 
p. 134.) 
Male 
cells. 
Female 
cells. 
1 pure dominant. 
D(R) 
'D(K) 
2 impure dominants 
1 pure recessive. 
When an organism produces only one kind 
of germ-cell, as regards a particular character, 
it is said to be homozygous; when it produces 
two kinds of germ-cells, some bearing the 
factor of a given character, and others not, 
it is said to be heterozygous. Thus in our 
previous scheme the forms labelled D (R) 
are heterozygous, while those labelled D or 
R are homozygous. 
If sex, like any other character, is due to 
some item or factor or determiner in the chromo- 
somes of the germ-cells (situated, it may be, 
along with sex-linked characters, in the sex- 
chromosome already referred to), there are WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
109 
three theoretical possible Mendelian interpre- 
tations. Both males and females may be sex- 
hybrids or heterozygous - male D(R) X fe- 
male D(R) - a view supported by Castle; 
or the male alone may be heterozygous, the 
female being a homozygote recessive - male 
D(R) X female R - a view supported by 
Correns; or the female only may be heterozy- 
gous, the male being a homozygote recessive 
- a view supported by Bateson. 
The last form of the Mendelian interpre- 
tation is supported by a number of striking 
facts, especially in regard to the common 
currant moth and the canary. In the case 
of the currant moth (Abraxas grossulariata), 
it is believed that the females are heterozygous 
(having maleness recessive) and give rise to 
equal contingents of male-producing and fe- 
male-producing ova; that the male moths are 
homozygous as regards sex, being without "the 
femaleness-factor," and give rise only to 
male-producing spermatozoa; that when a 
male-producing spermatozoon fertilises a male- 
producing ovum, the result is of course a male; 
and that when a male-producing spermatozoon 
fertilises a female-producing ovum, the result 
is a female, femaleness being by hypothesis 
dominant over maleness. If the Mendelian 
interpretation of sex-inheritance be confirmed, 
it will probably be found that in some types 
the male is heterozygous and in others the 
female. A third possibility is that both sexes 
are heterozygous or sex-hybrids. If the Men- 
delian view be confirmed it means that male- 
ness and femaleness behave in inheritance like 
shortness and tallness in dwarf and giant varie- 110 
SEX 
ties of pea; it implies that there is some defi- 
nite body - perhaps of the nature of a fer- 
ment - which is either present or absent in 
every germ-cell. This is not at all incompatible 
with a physiological interpretation, for it may 
be that this mysterious sex-determinant acts 
as an accelerant or depressor of the rate of 
metabolism; and it may be that the nutritive 
conditions within the reproductive organs dur- 
ing the processes of oogenesis and spermato- 
genesis exercise a discriminate selection allow- 
ing more of the male-producers or more of the 
female-producers to survive. 
The Mendelian interpretation accounts well 
for the usual equality between males and fe- 
males in a given stock, less well for the strange 
disproportions which occur within a single 
family. The latter may, however, be due to a 
discriminate selection during the production 
and maturing of the ova. 
Doncaster refers to the confirmation which 
the Mendelian theory of sex receives from the 
results of castration. In vertebrates, the 
castration of the male may prevent the ex- 
pression of masculine features, but it does 
not induce the expression of feminine char- 
acters. This would suggest that the male is 
homozygous, that is to say, purely masculine, 
without any feminine characters latent. The 
castrated female, on the other hand, often 
develops a striking series of masculine features, 
which suggests that she is heterozygous, i. e. 
with masculine characters latent. We would 
point out, however, that in many cases there 
is a lack of positiveness in the feminine char- 
acters as compared with the masculine ones. WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
111 
So that there might be considerable femininity 
in the castrated male, without there being 
much to show for it. It would be interesting 
to experiment with some exceptional case, 
such as the Red-necked Phalarope, where the 
female bird looks the more masculine of the two. 
Possible Influence of the Environment 
in Determining the Relative Numbers of 
Male - producing and Female - producing 
Germ-cells. - Recent observations have gone 
much against the view that the sex of the young 
offspring can be affected by peculiar nurture. 
It is possible, however, that nurtural condi- 
tions, such as the nutrition of the parents, may 
be influential at any earlier date, e. g. in deter- 
mining the relative numbers of male-pro- 
ducing or female-producing ova, or in deter- 
mining the percentage of survival of one kind or 
the other, for there is often a struggle for 
existence among germ-cells. We recall, for 
instance, the green-flies which produce females 
all the summer through, but suddenly pro- 
duce males on the advent of autumn. It may 
be that the seasonal change, acting on the 
nutritive condition of the maternal body, 
brings about the production of ova that de- 
velop into males. 
The careful experiments that Cuenot and 
Schultze made on mice with a view of testing 
whether altered nutrition affected the ordinary 
proportion of males and females, gave no 
support to that view. Schultze extended his 
experiments over three generations; but the 
high feeding of grandparents, as well as parents, 
did not seem to have any influence on the 
proportion of the sexes among the offspring. SEX 
112 
On the other side, there is the work of Heape, 
who shows for some mammals and birds that 
peculiarities in nutritive and other environ- 
mental- conditions may exert a selective in- 
fluence, affecting the numerical proportions 
of male-producing and female-producing germ- 
cells. Russo has made interesting experi- 
ments in treating rabbits with lecithin (a 
very nutritive substance forming a great part 
of yolk of egg), as the result of which he thinks 
he is able to increase the number of female 
offspring, namely, by increasing the production 
of a certain type of ova, rich in nutritive re- 
serves. His experiments have been adversely 
criticised, and they were not numerous enough 
to win conviction. Until repetition of the ex- 
periments on a big scale has shown that Russo 
was in error, his thesis should be kept in mind, 
that the sex of the offspring depends on the 
special metabolism of the germ-cells, and that 
the number of ova which exhibit the male or 
the female type of metabolism is alterable by 
the environmental conditions. This is, in fact, 
part of the thesis of our Evolution of Sex. Re- 
membering the case of mice, however - and 
there are others equally negative - we are pre- 
pared to find that it is only in certain organisms 
that the germ-cells are not predetermined very 
early in their history. 
Many investigations have yielded results 
quite against the view that changes in environ- 
ment can change the numerical proportion of 
the male and female offspring - which is in 
most cases near equality. On the other hand, 
there are some investigations which support 
the view that changes in nutrition and other WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
113 
environmental conditions may affect the mother 
so as to alter the ordinary proportions of the 
sexes - probably enough by affecting the rela- 
tive numbers of male-producing and female- 
producing germ-cells. Thus Issakowitsch, work- 
ing with the parthenogenetic females of one 
of the water-fleas, Simocephalus, and Von 
Malsen, working with the primitive worm-type. 
Dinophilus, in which the ova are fertilised, 
found that differences of temperature affected 
the proportions of the sexes, apparently by 
affecting the nutrition of the mothers. Both 
sets of experiments are the more satisfactory 
that they seem to be free from any fallacy due 
to differential death-rate in the young of the 
two sexes. 
A Physiological View. - To the view of 
sex, expounded in The Evolution of Sex in 
1889, a reference must again be made, for we 
find ourselves unable to get away from the 
conviction that there is no sex-determinant 
or factor at all, in the morphological or in 
the Mendelian sense, but that what settles 
the sex is an initial difference in the rate or 
rhythm of metabolism. This may also be 
expressed as a difference in the relation of 
nucleoplasm and cytoplasm as well as in the 
ratio of anabolism to katabolism. 
According to this view, the deep consti- 
tutional difference between the male and the 
female organism, which makes of the one a 
sperm-producer and of the other an egg-pro- 
ducer, is due to an initial difference in the 
balance of chemical changes. The female 
seems to be relatively the more constructive, 
the male relatively the more disruptive. The SEX 
114 
sexes express a fundamental difference in the 
rhythm of metabolism. 
A young germ-cell has, metaphorically, an 
alternative between two different, but equally 
viable, lines of life - the male and the female. 
It is shunted on to the one or the other by 
the surrounding conditions. Influences which 
favour a preponderance of anabolic processes, 
which affect the nucleus-cytoplasmic relation 
in a manner favouring cytoplasmic assimi- 
lation, tend to the increase of female-pro- 
ducing eggs. Influences that operate in the 
opposite direction favour the increase of male- 
producing eggs. 
What we are suggesting is a physiological 
way of looking at the problem, and the idea 
that the sex-contrast expresses a physiological 
alternative. This is confirmed in various 
ways. For instance, there is sometimes very 
striking evidence that sex is "a quality that 
pervades all the cells of the organism." E. B. 
Wilson notes the extraordinary fact - surely 
of profound importance - that: "In the Mosses 
the Marchals demonstrate that all the products 
of a single spore are likewise immutably de- 
termined, since new plants formed by re- 
generation from fragments of the protonema, 
or from any part of the gametophyte, are al- 
ways of the same sex." 
Of the association of maleness (or sperm- 
producing) and femaleness (or ovum pro- 
ducing) with different conditions of metabolism 
many illustrations might be given, but we must 
be content here with two or three. Is it not 
significant, for instance, that in some cater- 
pillars the blood has a different colour in the WHAT DETERMINES SEX? 
115 
two sexes, being green in the females and 
bright yellow or colourless in the males? 
Dr. Francis Hare has made out a very good 
case for the theory that menstruation repre- 
sents a periodic discharge of carbonaceous 
anabolic surplus in the blood - which is ear- 
marked, so to speak, for the organically an- 
ticipated offspring. What but a physiologi- 
cal theory is suggested by the state of affairs 
described by G. du Plessis in Grubea pro- 
tandrica, one of the Syllid worms, which is 
male in autumn and winter, female in spring, 
and neuter in summer? 
It is interesting to consider those cases 
where the sex changes in the course of life! 
A case recently described by Prof. F. Braem 
is very suggestive. He experimented with 
a simple Annelid worm, Ophryotrocha puerilis. 
Taking a female which had ripe eggs and 
showed no trace of hermaphroditism, he divided 
it into two. The head portion, with thirteen 
segments, was isolated. In three weeks it 
had regenerated seven segments with parapodia. 
It was then killed and found to be male. The 
ova had mostly disappeared from the repro- 
ductive organs, leaving only a residue, and a 
functional testicular portion had developed, 
which was producing spermatozoa. Braem 
suggests that in consequence of the amputation 
the very young, indifferent germ-cells had de- 
veloped into male cells, which require less sub- 
sistence than ova. What is certain is that the 
reproductive organs had changed from pro- 
ducing eggs to producing sperms, and such 
cases appear to us to favour the view that the 
sex-difference is fundamentally physiological. 116 
SEX 
In conclusion, our view is that the difference 
between an ovum-producer and a sperm- 
producer is fundamentally a difference in the 
balance of chemical changes, i. e. in the ratio 
of anabolic and katabolic processes, which 
may, of course, have its structural expression 
in the relation of nucleoplasm and cytoplasm. 
Nor do we leave this difference in metabolism- 
rhythm as a mere vague phrase, for we see its 
analogue in the contrast between the ovum 
and the spermatozoon, macrogamete and micro- 
gamete, between the encysted and the flag- 
ellate cell, between the plant and the animal, 
and in many a familiar contrast all through 
the series of Organisata. We adhere, in short, 
to the thesis of The Evolution of Sex that the 
sex-difference is but one expression of a funda- 
mental alternative in variation, to be seen 
throughout the world of life. But we may add 
that the numerous and puzzling minor variations, 
which, as we have above seen, exist between 
species and species, may be explained, not so 
much in terms of the structural and the heredi- 
tary differentiations which embryologists and 
Mendelians are wont to look for or to assume, 
but rather in terms of time-variations; that is 
in acceleration or retardation of the phases 
of life in adult or in embryo, in sex-elements or 
in their initial germ-cells, and in the interre- 
lations of these. THE CYCLE OF SEX 
117 
CHAPTER VI 
THE CYCLE OF SEX 
The curve of life - Childhood - Adolescence in general -• 
Puberty in man - Courtship among animals - Falling 
in love - Married life and parental affection - The 
difficult age and senescence. 
The Curve of Life. - The course of an 
individual life may be conveniently repre- 
sented by an ascending and descending curve. 
There is the ascent of development and growth; 
there is the period of maturity, full strength 
and reproduction; and there is the descent of 
waning powers and senescence. In adaptation 
to particular conditions of life and as expres- 
sions of particular constitutions, there is among 
animal types a remarkable diversity in the shape 
of the curve. There are great differences in the 
relative proportions of the successive chapters 
in life. There may be slow or rapid embryonic 
development - witness the contrast between 
the salmon with its years of growth and the 
blow-fly complete in a few days. There may 
be a long larval period, as in the frog, or none, 
as in the snake; there may be a prolonged 
adolescence, as in an eel, or a precocious ma- 
turity, as in a rat. Here we see a lengthening 
out, and there a not less remarkable telescop- 
ing. What a contrast, for instance, between 
may-flies with a long aquatic larval life of 
two or three years and a short aerial adult 
life of two or three days, and the majority 
of, say, amphibians with their relatively short 
youth and their prolonged adult life. Not SEX 
118 
only then does the general shape of the curve 
differ widely in the various types, but looked 
closely into, it shows all manner of minor irreg- 
ularities, ups and downs like a pulse or a barom- 
eter tracing, and the pattern of these again dif- 
fers widely from species to species. Molluscs 
strikingly record these tides of life upon their 
shells, sometimes so clearly that upon a few 
full-grown examples of the top-shell (Trochus) 
we may not only read the normal record of the 
species, but within this again the minor fluctua- 
tions of each individual's life history - his 
personal equation as it were; and not only his 
accidents, but his ailments and recoveries, 
throughout adolescence, in maturity, and above 
all in senescence. 
Childhood. - The remarkable work of Freud, 
which is now being reckoned with by alienists 
and physicians, emphasises the view that 
in very young children there are often experi- 
ences more or less connected with sex, which 
may have considerable influence on the sub- 
sequent life, sowing the seeds of hysteria and 
obsessions. Unless Freud's psycho-analysis be 
unsound there is a more or less subconscious 
sexual life in young children, which may be 
exaggerated by careless caressing, exuberant 
fondling, and worse, into a very detrimental 
precocity or into unsuccessful attempts at 
repression which may find pathological means 
of gratification. In normal cases, happily, 
the infantile deviations pass into oblivion; 
and there is a happy period of latent sex until 
puberty approaches. 
It must not be overlooked that while a 
pathological side may exist in very early THE CYCLE OF SEX 
119 
years, there is a still more important normal 
experience, for even the infant is garnering, 
though it be half-consciously, its mother's love. 
In the subsequent play-period there is doubt- 
less a partly imitative and partly instinctive, 
but normally quite subconscious, expression of 
the deep constitutional sex-differences. 
Adolescence in General. - Leaving the 
babe to his mother and the expert in eugenics, 
and the child to his play and all that is summed 
up in the word "School" (see Prof. Findlay's 
excellent School in this Library), we have 
here to do with the adolescent. We may regard 
adolescence as a main node on the ascending 
curve of development, when childish ways and 
childish things are put away, when juvenile 
characters are for the most part slipped off as 
a crab slips off its shard, when adult characters 
are gradually put on, when the life begins to 
take definitive shape, when the limit of growth 
comes within sight, and when sex-impulses, at 
first mere passing whispers, compel a hearing 
to their mingled voices. As regards the latter 
it is practically the period between fifteen and 
twenty or more in boys, between fourteen and 
eighteen or nineteen in girls. 
We may profitably compare human adoles- 
cence with the analogous period in animal de- 
velopment; for while everything became in a 
sense new with Man, there is an essential unity 
of life which makes the whole world kin. The 
growth of an organism is usually a good illus- 
tration of the law of diminishing return; it is 
an ascent whose gradient becomes steeper and 
steeper towards the top. But although the 
early rapidity of growth is never afterwards SEX 
120 
approached, there is often in animals, as in 
man, a remarkable reacceleration towards ado- 
lescence. This means a serious drain on the avail- 
able energies of the organism, and the candle 
cannot be burnt at both ends. There is in- 
creasing stability and yet increasing instability, 
there is great vigour and yet great "slackness," 
and the rapidly growing adolescent is naturally 
a good deal preoccupied - organically, not con- 
sciously, preoccupied - with his or her inter- 
nal affairs. All this means that he or she 
should have plenty of rest and plenty of play. 
The study of adolescent animals leads us 
to include in our conception of adolescence 
the idea of internal change, rearrangement, 
and readjustment. The adolescent creature 
becomes more complex, from its teeth to its 
nerve-paths; there is new differentiation. But 
it also becomes - if adolescence be successful 
•- more controlled, more unified, more strongly 
vertebrated, more toughly and subtly knit 
together; there is new integration. This two- 
fold progress is not achieved without cost; 
there are "growing pains." In the transition 
from tadpole to frog, from caterpillar to but- 
terfly, there are remarkable processes of break- 
ing down and rebuilding, and crises of inflam- 
mation that are sometimes fatal. Now we 
must in some measure carry with us to the 
study of human adolescence this idea of re- 
differentiation and reintegration (i. e. of new 
complexities and new controls) - gains which 
have to be paid for. Thus it is that adolescence 
is full of portent as well as promise. 
A third biological fact must enter into our 
conception of adolescence. It embraces the THE CYCLE OF SEX 
121 
momentous, critical time when decision is 
given in regard to the individual variations 
that crop up during the juvenile period. It 
is in early youth that variations or new de- 
partures take shape; the play-period (poorly 
though we provide for this) gives them some 
elbow-room; but it is in adolescence that 
they have to run the gauntlet, and this at 
once of natural selection and of social criticism. 
From one side threaten the conditions of the 
organic struggle for existence, on the other 
the rules of the serious game of life, and with 
these come all sorts of restrictions, from the 
law of the jungle to the conventions of social 
behaviour; each and all closing in upon the 
individualities, the idiosyncrasies, the peculiari- 
ties, in a word, the variations of the young 
life. The same thing applies, in a measure at 
least, to modifications, that is to say, those 
bodily and mental peculiarities which are 
acquired as the result of peculiarities of nur- 
ture. Great modifiability is characteristic of 
early youth, but it is often during the later 
adolescent period that it is decided whether 
a piece of juvenile veneer is to persist or not. 
When youthful modifications, for good or ill, 
survive the adolescent period, the chances 
are that they will persist throughout life. 
Puberty in Man. - Puberty is not so much 
an event as a result, that of a gradual process 
of bodily ripening, which is quickened by 
the maturation of sex. In illustration of the 
ordinary changes which mark this stage in 
the life of the body, we notice the beginning of 
the coalescence of the caps of the long bones 
with their shafts, and, as a negative character. 122 
SEX 
the disappearance of the thymus gland, which 
is a distinctively juvenile organ. As sexual 
changes, the male shows an increased growth 
of hair, an enlargement of the larynx, and 
an increase in the size of the genital organs; 
the female shows a change in the shape and 
size of the uterus, an enlargement of the mam- 
mary glands, and the onset of menstrua- 
tion. While the reproductive organs, through 
their internal secretions, have been influential 
all through development, they come to have 
a special influence when mature. And besides 
the influence of the internal secretions, there 
is that due to the fact that the essential or 
germinal parts of the gonads have passed 
into more active functioning. 
At the time of sexual maturity, according 
to Steinach, the brain is greatly influenced 
by the internal secretions, it is "eroticised," 
and this has far-reaching influences on the 
metabolism. Through the vaso-motor system 
the changes in the brain affect the blood- 
supply to various parts of the body. The 
organism becomes impressionable to the other 
sex in a new way. Certain sympathetic ganglia 
become increasingly susceptible to peripheral 
stimulation. And the brain-ganglia become dis- 
posed to lower the tonus of certain inhibitory 
centres in the spinal cord. Of course, there are 
also psychical factors which, in Man's case, may 
be as supreme, as the hormones and nerve-cells 
are fundamental. 
It is at puberty that the conflict first becomes 
serious between the life-instinct which seeks 
self-preservation and advancement and the 
love-instinct which is not less primordial. THE CYCLE GF SEX 
123 
The former is the more egoistic, the latter the 
more altruistic; the former is linked primarily 
to nutrition, the latter to reproduction. In 
everyday life they clash; there is a struggle 
between the compulsion of the sexual instinct 
and the opposing force of sexual denial which 
may owe its strength to ethical, religious, or 
practical inhibitions. The outcome of the 
struggle may be damaged health, a bondage 
to evil habits, a serious neurasthenia, the es- 
tablishment of "anxiety neuroses"-most of 
these being fictitious substitutes for the ac- 
tivities which should naturally accompany 
or follow normal sex-arousal. But the outcome 
may also be a strengthened control, an enriched 
life, and a love that will not die. It must be 
remembered that other besides sexual factors 
are in operation during the adolescent period, 
for the organism is being tried and tested in 
many ways. Thus it is certain that the disorder 
or disharmony is by no means wholly due to 
the unsatisfied claims of the reproductive sys- 
tem, but is associated with a lack of objec- 
tive, of sound human interests, and of real 
responsibilities. 
Courtship among Animals. - In discussing 
"the ladder of love" we have referred to 
the great variety in the behaviour of the two 
sexes in their relations to one another at the 
breeding season. The broad facts are, that 
there is often an over-mastering excitement 
changing the animal's character and appearance, 
that there is often a seeking out of the females 
by the males and rarely the other way, that the 
excited males in many cases fight fiercely with 
one another, and that they often make dis- 124 
SEX 
plays - of agility, mettlesomeness, of beauty, 
of fragrance, of musical talent, and so forth - 
before the senses of their desired mates. The 
difficulty is as to the psychological interpreta- 
tions to be put upon the facts. One is apt to 
be uncritical in reading too much of man into 
beast; yet again, reacting from a too generous 
anthropomorphism, one is apt to take a wooden 
view of animal life, by depreciating the psy- 
chical side. 
In giving a few illustrations of courtship 
among animals (the subject of a recent fasci- 
nating volume by Mr. W. P. Pycraft), we may 
begin with the combats of rival males, since 
these often take place in presence of the females 
and appear to have in part the effect of arousing 
or enhancing their sexual excitement, as well 
as expressing that of the males themselves. 
Stag may fight with stag till they drip with 
blood, it may even be till the antlers interlock, 
and death is stronger than them both. We 
have seen an old buck antelope punishing a 
presumptuous upstart "with a fury that seemed 
almost maniacal. The rival sea-lions slash 
at one another's necks with their sharp canines 
and make long wounds whose scars remain 
for many a day. 
Among birds, the capercailzie cocks fight 
savagely in the early spring till the snow is 
often spotted with their blood. From the 
shelter of a sheep-fold j'ust after sunrise we 
have watched the jousting of four or five 
blackcock on a flat sward among the hills. 
Almost transfigured they were with passion, 
so that we could scarce believe they were 
the same birds; and how absorbed as they THE CYCLE OF SEX 
125 
bluffed one another, spreading their wings, 
raising their tail, bowing till their chin touched 
the ground, or vaulting into the air. From 
the branches of two smaller alder trees nu- 
merous females looked dowm on the tournament 
of the cocks, and were seemingly very much 
interested spectators. 
In a lighter mood the ruffs - so extra- 
ordinarily individualised that no two are 
alike - fight the whole day long in the fen- 
lands (no longer, alas! in Britain). About 
anything or nothing these glorified sand- 
pipers fight almost as dramatically as game- 
cocks, seizing one another by the beak, leaping 
into the air, and striking with the wings; and 
it is likely that those who excel in the after 
all bloodless jousts have their reward in im- 
pressing the females and driving off rivals. 
For the ruff is a thoroughgoing polygamist. 
It is interesting to notice, also, that as with 
the blackcock, the sparring between the males 
is supplemented by a self-abandoning display. 
"Nothing," says Wolley, "can be more ex- 
pressive of humility and ardent love than 
some of the actions of the ruff. He throws 
himself prostrate on the ground, with every 
feather in his body standing up and quivering; 
but he seems as if he were afraid of coming 
too near his mistress." 
Some male spiders fight with apparent 
seriousness at the breeding season, but the 
meaning of the fighting is doubtful. The 
Peckhams, w'ho watched "hundreds of seem- 
ingly terrible battles" between the males in 
twelve different species, came to the con- 
clusion that "they are all sham affairs gotten 126 
SEX 
up for the purpose of displaying before the 
females, who commonly stand by, interested 
spectators." And though a phrase like "sham 
fight" be somewhat too anthropomorphic, 
there is certainly a puzzle, for the males in 
their duels seem to take very good care not to 
hurt one another. "It seemed cruel sport 
at first to put eight or ten male spiders into 
a box to see them fight, but it was soon apparent 
that they were very prudent little fellows." 
. . . "In fact, after two weeks of hard fight- 
ing we were unable to discover one wounded 
warrior." 
It is difficult to deal briefly with the problem 
of the significance of the combats. In a few 
cases, as in sea-lions, they may be regarded 
as literal and serious combats for the possession 
of females - of a larger harem in fact. In 
many cases, such as some antelopes, they have 
the effect of driving off candidates who are too 
weak or too young to hold their own. Some 
of these are left unmated till the next season, 
and some are even killed. Thus there will be 
worked out a discriminate elimination of the 
relatively less fit males, and here sex may be 
said to operate as a factor in evolution. 
It is probably unwarrantable to speak of 
the males getting up their tournaments in 
order to impress the females. They fight 
to win the females, they fight because they 
are jealous, they fight because they are high- 
strung, they fight because of the irritability 
induced by unsatisfied sexual appetite, and 
so on; but it is very unlikely that they fight 
"in order" to impress. What probably hap- 
pens is that certain males in their whole be- THE CYCLE OF SEX 
127 
haviour excite the females more effectively 
than do others, and are in consequence more 
successful in reproduction. The type suc- 
cessful in courtship will naturally tend to define 
the direction of further evolution. 
Pass now from combat to song, in the old 
minstrel fashion. Every one recognises that 
the musical displays of singing birds play an 
important role in their courtship; and it is 
well nigh inevitable to draw a similar con- 
clusion in regard to the instrumental music 
of crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas, and the 
like - especially in cases where the sound-pro- 
ducing is confined to the males. It is diffi- 
cult to believe that the noise falls on deaf ears, 
and yet the evidence is far from conclusive. 
Instead of collecting representative forms of 
animal courtship, let us linger over this single 
question to illustrate the difficulty of the prob- 
lem. Many insects have sense-organs which 
may be interpreted as auditory, but there is 
little direct proof of this. In fact, the numerous 
experiments that have been made with the 
hope of definitely settling whether insects hear 
have not yielded convincing results. They have 
shown that there are many sounds to which 
insects credited with hearing pay no attention 
whatsoever. Perhaps these sounds were not 
of the sort to which insects' ears are attuned, 
and Dr. Karl Peters suggests that the experi- 
ments which have yielded negative results 
have been too much restricted to sounds 
that have no biological significance to the 
creatures experimented with. He has, him- 
self, made careful observations on a case 
which strongly suggests that there may be 128 
SEX 
hearing in the strict sense, and that the pro- 
duction of sound may be utilised in insect- 
courtship. 
Peters's observations relate to an Alpine 
moth which is abundant at Arolia, at a height 
of about 2500 metres. The males fly about 
actively; the females are sluggish, and sit 
mostly on the tussocks of grass, where they 
are very inconspicuous. The males are able 
to produce a cracking noise, which is peculiar 
to them, and the females respond to this, even 
when it is impossible for them to see the males, 
by vibrating their body and wings. The re- 
action on the female's part begins when the 
male flies past overhead or settles down close by; 
it stops when the sound stops. It seems difficult 
to avoid the conclusion that the female hears 
the male's love-signal. It seems likely that 
sight plays a role on his part, and that the 
tremulous, vibrating movements of the female 
attract his attention. 
We cannot say more in regard to this fas- 
cinating subject of animal courtship. In 
a great variety of ways, male animals seem to 
express their emotions in the presence or prox- 
imity of their desired mates. Many male 
spiders have a characteristic love dance, in 
which they circle round and round the short- 
sighted females, as if they were showing off 
their agility and beauty. Many birds, such 
as the Argus pheasant and the peacock, make 
elaborate displays, bending and bowing, strut- 
ting and saluting, in a manner that beggars 
description. Finest and most familiar is the 
musical appeal of many birds. We must not 
read too much into them, for the suitors are THE CYCLE OF SEX 
129 
as it were sex-intoxicated, expressing their 
ardour instinctively and with abandon, rather 
than with deliberation or strategy. But we 
must not think of them too cheaply, or sur- 
render them too readily to the physiologist 
to whom love is a mere label for the alterations 
of metabolism that follow from the brain being 
eroticised by hormones. 
Fig. 19. - Two male spiders. A, Astia vittata posing before 
the female. B, loins mitratus dancing before the female. 
(After the Peckhams.) 
Falling in Love. - Coming now to human 
affairs, there is a sense in which "falling in 
love" may be termed instinctive, if we take 
instinct to mean a reaching-out of the whole 
organism - impulsively rather than deliber- 
ately, synthetically rather than analytically, 
intuitively rather than rationally. We are 
not referring to a passing fancy for a pretty 
face, nor to a sudden impulse of the flesh, 
but to something much more wonderful - 
which is probably the highest expression of 
"instinct" in the Bergsonian sense. It is 130 
SEX 
the feeling - say rather the instant and vivid 
assurance - that this is the person who is well- 
pleasing in my sight, whom I wish to honour, 
who calls forth what I believe to be the best 
in me, with whom I should like to live, for and 
along with whom I should like to work, - 
and whom, therefore, at all risks I must win! 
In normal human love there is first and 
fundamentally the instinctive organic attrac- 
tion, which in certain temperaments may be 
almost subconscious. Secondly, there is the 
aesthetic attraction, aroused by excellencies 
other than those which may be roughly called 
"physical." We refer to qualities of voice, 
eyes, gesture, manner, and so on, and with 
these, nowadays scarce separably, of costume 
also. Thirdly, there is the sentimental attrac- 
tion, which is purely psychical. This per- 
son, as a person, is attractive to us, winning 
our affection. Love is an affair of body, soul 
and spirit, but compounded in varying degrees 
in each individual, and these again changing 
throughout the hours, seasons, and years. 
Schopenhauer recognised the value of fall- 
ing in love, regarding it as an expression of 
an instinct, which by the attraction of the 
mutually pleasing, works for the eugenic 
welfare of the race. Fere, on the other hand, 
looking at the facts with a sceptical scientific 
eye, declares that the most impulsive and 
instinctive unions are most frequently the 
worst as regards progeny. The probability 
is that Fere's conclusion is too much based 
on the study of pathological cases, for de- 
generates and perverts attract one another 
strongly. THE CYCLE OF SEX 
131 
Alienists and others who have given special 
attention to the subject, whose judgment is 
of more value than any number of uncritical 
opinions, declare that the least successful 
marriages are those which arose from a too 
specialised attraction - too purely physical, too 
purely aesthetic, too purely intellectual. Mar- 
riage based solely on the attraction for high 
moral and intellectual qualities may be as un- 
successful (particularly as regards progeny) 
as marriage on a sensory basis. The lasting 
basis is manifold, not simple. As Fere says, 
"the harmonious union of mediocre people 
often works out better than the discordant union 
of those endowed with superior qualities." 
All this is of course but outline analysis, 
but it is fundamental. The normal love of 
civilised man and woman is like a tree with 
deep roots, going far down into animal nature 
- roots that may be pruned, but never wholly 
cut - but with lofty branches that rise into 
the sunlight and bear the fruits of the spirit. 
We do not speak indeed of love that does not 
rise off the ground, but of the normal love of 
free men and women, who are neither ashamed 
to be fond in due season, nor to look forward, 
around, or back upon their children. 
The danger is in thinking of these things 
too simply, for human love has in the course 
of its evolution become a very complex relation- 
ship. The sexual attraction, at first compara- 
tively simple, becomes more subtle, yet also 
more vividly impassioned; and so it intensifies 
into "love at first sight," at its best at once 
instinctive and poetic. To this there has also 
been added the deliberate desire for children 132 
SEX 
(specific children, so to speak - sometimes 
even "dream-children") to continue the dual 
yet united line. This, again, may be at all 
levels, from mere wholesome breeding up to the 
Messianic hope of Israel of old, or again towards 
the renewing of old idealisms for to-morrow. 
So, again, from the simplest pairing to the rec- 
ognition of love as a supreme mingling of self- 
expression of self-surrender, a mode of mutual 
evocation, and thus of developing fellowship and 
joy, long surviving the period of racial sig- 
nificance. Here, then, is the place for clear 
protest against that false (because life-embit- 
tered) asceticism which Tolstoi so fiercely 
revived: purer and nobler, as well as truer 
far to the normal idealism and companionship 
of wedded life in its continuance and evo- 
lution, is such poetry as that of Coventry 
Patmore, is such sex-ethics as that of James 
Hinton. 
Married Life and Parental Affection.- 
In the Animal Kingdom we find an early 
emergence of maternal care, as if the mother 
was loath to part with these eggs or offspring 
which she has created, for it has long been 
recognised that the care of the young is like 
a prolonging of gestation. Where the off- 
spring are very numerous, as in fishes with 
their tens of thousands, there is neither need 
for nor the possibility of parental care; as 
fertility diminishes the possibility of parental 
care increases, the mother's energies are less 
terribly exhausted, and the need for care 
also increases. There is a much smaller margin 
for contingencies. And the better the nurture, 
conversely, the more the number of the offspring THE CYCLE OF SEX 
133 
tends to be reduced. Thus the bird that spends 
time in making a very secure and finely finished 
nest - an expression of its own high individua- 
tion - may very successfully hold its own as a 
species with a small clutch of eggs produced 
once a year. Similarly in mammals, the long 
gestation and the maternal care after birth make 
Fig. 20. - Female Spider - Dolomedes mirabilis - carrying 
underneath her body, attached by silk threads, the 
silken cocoon containing the eggs and eventually the 
young spiders. (After Blackwall). 
a reduction of the number of the family a suc- 
cessful economy. 
Similarly in mankind the age of marriage 
is pushed later and later as a civilisation and 
culture increase, partly as a matter of necessity 
(analogous to infanticide and artificial abortion 
among peoples living near the margin of sub- 
sistence), and partly because of selfishness. 
Partly, too, as the result of an idea, often mis- 
taken, of giving the family a good start, but 
also as a natural result of higher evolution; 
that of the continued uplift of individuality, 
through the lengthening of childhood and 134 
SEX 
of adolescence. Moreover, with this goes a 
lengthening of the normal duration of maturity 
as well. 
All investigators of the evolution of moral 
sentiments are agreed in emphasising the 
educative influence that children have on 
their parents. Just as we find a frequent 
correlation between sociality and animal intel- 
ligence - witness rooks, cranes and parrots, 
beavers, monkeys - so the life of the family 
must be recognised as a stimulus to wits and 
to good feeling alike. Fere points out very 
clearly that those who live in the relative 
security of civilisation must not misjudge the 
practice of infanticide among savage tribes, 
who are not thereby to be entirely denied 
the virtue of parental affection. When food is 
scarce and quick marches frequent, there can 
be few infants. And just as the method of 
infanticide was replaced by that of abortion, 
so the latter has often disappeared before 
a less dangerous control of conception. 
To some extent there is in each individual 
an acquisition of culture - of sympathies in 
particular - through the influence of family 
life; but there has also been a selective process 
at work favouring the survival of the more do- 
mesticated types. Thus, to take a diagrammatic 
instance, where there is less maternal sym- 
pathy there will, on the average, be less per- 
sonal nursing of infants. But that implies, on 
the average, a greater mortality among these 
infants - which tends towards the elimination 
of this sub-mammalian type. Some other 
conditions, unhappily, work towards its per- 
sistence. THE CYCLE OF SEX 
135 
Maternal love is the highest product of 
evolution in its disinterestedness and un- 
limitedness, and though paternal love usually 
lags far behind, the two together are often 
wonderful. It is beyond our scope to treat 
of parental love, but its interaction with con- 
jugal love is important. On the one hand, 
to put it concretely, the devoted husband is 
most likely to be a kind father; and, on the 
other hand, the love which realises itself in 
the family often returns enhanced to the 
pair. The love of offspring and the love of 
mates are alike ancient, but on the whole, 
priority may be ceded to the former. Maternal 
sympathy has been the very fountain of sym- 
pathy throughout the course of evolution. 
To the common human stock of altruistic 
sympathies, the females have contributed pri- 
marily as mothers, and the males above all 
as lovers. 
Much has been written on the history of 
marriage and there is general agreement as 
to its biological and social justification. In 
early days, the man's feeling of possession 
of the wife he had captured or bought, must 
have tended to secure in a somewhat coercive 
way her faithfulness; but the growth of con- 
jugal and family sympathy laid on him also 
similar obligations. In a variety of ways, 
partly by deliberate ethical purpose, partly 
by the working of natural selection, there has 
been a vindication of permanent monogamic 
marriage. It makes for the realisation of mu- 
tual affection which is an end in itself, but, above 
all, it makes for the welfare of the family. 
As Mr. Oliphant puts it in his admirable SEX 
136 
essay on The Relations of the Sexes: "It matters 
little that the institution of marriage was origi- 
nally due, not to any prevision of its social 
value, but to the need for protecting the rights 
of prosperity, the wife in primitive times being 
a chattel who must be reserved for her lord. 
Whatever causes may have underlain the 
custom of making the woman the centre of a 
home, the happy effects on the nurture of 
children must soon have become evident, and 
the consciousness of this advantage must have 
been present in every further step taken to 
preserve the sanctity of the family. Natural 
selection has secured the vogue of the mono- 
gamic union wherever the conditions of life 
have favoured an ample social development. 
Experience has proved that only where the 
self-contained family has become the unit is the 
progress of a community fully assured. What- 
ever form of marriage favours most the suc- 
cessful upbringing of children is on that ground 
alone to be judged the best. There can be 
no doubt that in the most advanced societies 
of the industrial type, children have the best 
chance where they get the undivided atten- 
tion of both parents. We find here the root 
of the whole matter. Whatever superstruc- 
ture of convention and law and sentiment may 
have been built up on the relations of the sexes 
the corner-stone must always be the well- 
being of the next generation. Directly or 
indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, this 
paramount consideration will force its in- 
fluence backward on the institutions of every 
community. Where it is ignored or inade- 
quately realised the penalty will be decay and THE CYCLE OF SEX 
137 
possibly extinction, while those societies which 
are most impressed by its significance will 
be the torch-bearers of progress." 
The subject of happiness in married life 
is obviously too large and complex for treat- 
ment here, but three notes may be per- 
mitted - 
(a) Much has been made of the diversity of 
the sexes and the inevitableness of antago- 
nism. Thus Heape writes - 
"It is not only the Feminine mind which is 
different from the Male mind; it is the whole 
Female organisation, her inclinations, feelings, 
and intuitions which are different. It is the 
woman's biological necessities, and all the 
various forces which conduce to their satis- 
faction, which, though complementary to those 
of the man for a period in their joint lives, 
are quite different from, and eventually be- 
come diametrically opposed to, his needs 
and to the natural forces which drive him." 
Like Heape we start from a recognition of 
the deep and pervasive constitutional differ- 
ence between the sexes, but we regard this 
as furnishing a great part of the attractiveness 
of the sexes for one another, both in passion 
and in love. A normal married life with some 
reasonable co-operation (and appreciation of 
the co-operation, it must be added) does not 
as a matter of fact lead to diametrical op- 
position of the partners, but very generally 
to a loving comradeship, which may, of course, 
be relatively humdrum or high-pitched as 
those involved care to make it, but which 
is none the less one of the fine things in 
life. SEX 
138 
(5) Our second note is one already expressed, 
that of the underlying unity of love in its 
sensual and spiritual expressions alike. To 
biologists this is a commonplace; it is borne 
out very strikingly in the psycho-analytic 
work of Freud. And part of the advice which 
this expert gives us is not to forget the animal 
within us and the legitimate claims of sexual 
gratification. Sublimate this, indeed, and link 
it on to the best, but deny it at your peril. 
Marriage without fondness is often severely 
punished. 
(c) On the other hand there is the opposite 
risk of conjugal intemperance. It seems likely 
that as men move away from the traditional 
patriarchal position, on the one hand, and 
from the acquiescence with the sex-para- 
sitism scandal on the other hand, women 
will lead the way to a higher standard of sex- 
ual temperance in married life. The phrase 
"monogamic prostitution" is ugly enough, 
but it expresses an ugly fact. Bernard Shaw 
touches man's animal nature on the raw when 
he says that "marriage is popular because it 
combines the maximum of temptation with 
the maximum of opportunity." It is likely, 
we venture to think, that woman's increasing 
sense of self-respect (inhibited by the survival 
of patriarchal ideas) and man's increasing re- 
spect for her, will help both towards a higher 
degree of temperance in married life. There is 
risk of smothering love in physical fondness; 
for the uxorious husband, the too effusive wife, 
seems to evoke the very opposite quality in 
their respective life-partners. The attenuation 
of the physical and the accentuation of the THE CYCLE OF SEX 
139 
psychical must be regarded as characteristic 
of the finest marriages; and there is happily 
never a dearth of high examples - on the part 
of wives, especially - of love which never 
grows old. 
The Difficult Age and Senescence. - 
In many animals sexual activity is definitely 
periodic. It is in evidence at the breeding 
season and then ceases for the year, the gonads 
often passing into a state of rest. In many birds 
they become very inconspicuous outside the 
breeding season. 
In the punctuation of the sexual life, there 
eventually comes a full stop, especially in 
the females, which is far from coinciding 
with the general life of the organism. The 
production of germ-cells conies to an end, 
and though desire may not fail, there is an 
end to fertility. It is possible that the punc- 
tuation has been regulated in the course of 
natural selection, for it is best for the race 
that it should be continued by young mothers 
- though not immature ones. One must not 
make too much of the case of Isaac. 
The cessation of ovum-production in women 
is known as the climacteric, or menopause, 
and its symptoms bear some resemblance to 
those which occur after castration. Ovulation, 
or the liberation of ova, ceases; the production 
of new ova normally comes to an end; the 
connective tissue of the ovary hardens, the 
blood-vessels degenerate, the whole organ 
shrinks. Associated with these essential in- 
ternal changes there are others more super- 
ficial. Thus the skin loses its tenseness and 
tends to become wrinkled; and the deposition 140 
SEX 
of fat increases, often excessively. Hairs 
may grow out on the upper lip and on the 
chin, and there is often an increase in the 
size of the thyroid gland. 
In man there is sometimes, initially be- 
tween fifty and fifty-four, but often later, a 
"climacterium virile," analogous to the change 
in woman. It appears to be associated with 
retrogressive changes in the gonads and often 
with a waning of sexual appetite. It is some- 
times marked by unrest, anxiety, hypersen- 
sitiveness, irritability, sluggishness, sleepless- 
ness, rushes of blood to the head, sudden rises 
of temperature, changes of blood-pressure . . . 
but, in fact, so many symptoms have been re- 
corded by medical experts that the impression 
left is not very convincing. Perhaps, it is 
enough to say that with a waning of sexual 
activity there is associated a considerable dis- 
turbance of the internal secretions of the 
body. 
It is clear that outliving the capacity of 
independent sustenance is not feasible for 
ordinary animals in a state of nature, and 
it is not tolerated. It is also clear that each 
kind of organism will reproduce best when 
it is at its prime, and that reproduction by 
organisms in their declining years would be 
prejudicial to the welfare of the species. There- 
fore we do not find wild animals long outliving 
either their full vigour or their effective reproduc- 
tivity. In Man, however, there has been an 
age-long successful attempt to throw off the 
yoke of natural selection, and the duration of 
life has probably been lengthened out far 
beyond the primitive span. For although it is THE CYCLE OF SEX 
141 
a remarkable fact that the average length of 
human life all over the world is much the 
same in different countries and conditions, we 
need not suppose that this has always been the 
average. It is more likely that the waning of 
reproductivity about the fiftieth year indicates 
the end of an older span. 
There seems to be no hard and fast rule 
as to the decline of sex in males, but, as has 
been indicated, it often wanes about the fiftieth 
year. Veterans of seventy and eighty have 
been known to retain all the vigour of youth, 
but these are very exceptional cases. Similarly, 
as regards women, although the production and 
liberation of ova may be exceptionally contin- 
ued and the menopause postponed for many 
years, the usual punctuation is between the 
forty-fifth and fiftieth year. The impor- 
tant point seems to be that in mankind life is 
continued far beyond the period of effective 
reproductivity, and that there is an element 
of danger in this. The waning of sexual desire 
after about fifty must surely be regarded as 
normal, and the fanning of its embers by arti- 
ficial stimulation as unnatural and possibly 
pathogenic. 142 
SEX 
CHAPTER VII 
CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
The pathological side - Pathological expressions of sex - 
Reasons for pathological instability - The work of Freud 
- General conditions. 
The Pathological Side. - Sex is the biological 
condition of the love of lovers - one of the 
finest things in the world; on the other hand 
it yields the pathological condition of sexual 
vice-"corruptio optimi pessima" (that cor- 
ruption of the best which is worst of all). 
What can be usefully said, in a book like this, 
regarding the seamy side of sex? It is not 
useful to give samples from the infernal circle 
of sex-diseases, to speak of the horrors of 
the lock-hospital, or to tell of visits to asylums. 
Yet it is not honest to ignore the terrible pa- 
thology of sex, which is never perhaps very far 
from any one of us. Nor is it even safe to leave 
a fool's paradise undisturbed. 
The facts do not seem to justify the fear 
which some have expressed that a scientific 
discussion of evils may suggest to the innocent 
the path of vice. It appears that sexual per- 
versions usually develop (under appropriate 
stimulus) in those who are unhappily born 
with a taint, such as lack of control; or who 
acquire or are led into bad habits in the earliest 
childhood; or who have their will-power and 
their sense of self-respect weakened by other 
vice; but there is no evidence that the appro- 
priate stimulus is supplied by scientific treatises. CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
143 
It is certainly not as a path of roses that 
these depict the way of sexual sinners and 
perverts. 
Pathological Expressions of Sex. - 
There are various bases of classification avail- 
able in arranging the diverse forms of patho- 
logical sex-expression. The first of these is 
naturally biological - 
(a) Those which have a germinal, consti- 
tutional, or hereditary origin: e. g. extreme 
sexual excitability of the congenital type, 
abnormal weakness of sexual desire, general 
lack of control. 
(6) Those which are modificational or ac- 
quired, being the direct results of degener- 
ative functions and surroundings: such as 
exaggerated sexuality acquired through diet, 
drink, etc. 
Most inborn morbidities are of the nature 
of tendencies or predispositions, and there is 
hopefulness in remembering that these will 
not develop into actualities unless they receive 
an appropriate "nurture." The hopefulness 
of therapeutic treatment is increased by the 
fact that after early childhood, when bad 
habits are readily, though subconsciously, ac- 
quired, there is a long period of latency to 
work with before the sex-impulses become 
naturally assertive in adolescence. 
As to the acquired anomalies in the sexual 
life, it is the view of Freud and others that 
many of these must be traced back to per- 
versions in early infancy, when through some 
hereditary deficiency, or through some igno- 
rance, -carelessness, or vice of nurture, habits 
are established which take a very prejudicial 144 
SEX 
grip of the constitution and often lead to 
neurasthenia, obsessions, and other health- 
shattering maladies. 
Let us briefly refer to some of the common 
pathological expressions of sex. There may 
be a disharmonious atavism - what looks like 
a harking back to an ancestral state of affairs. 
Most cases of this in mankind seem to be 
due to an arrest of development, which may 
be the result of defective nutrition during the 
ante-natal life. 
Whether through arrested development, or 
by a more literal atavism, or as the result of 
acquired neurosis, it does happen in our midst, 
often to our consternation, that there is a 
breaking down of what we regard as the normal 
relations of the sexes in a civilised community. 
In the weak-minded, in the criminal, or even 
in the old man, there may be an exhibition of 
violence or of coarseness, which is often described 
as below the human level, but is really a corrup- 
tion of it. 
Some of the vagaries of the sexual instinct 
may be ranked as due to a disturbance of the 
rhythm of life: thus there may be precocious 
expression of sexuality in young children, or 
a premature disappearance of it in adults, or 
an exaggeration of it in old age. This prob- 
ably occurs in wild nature as well as in civili- 
sation. Thus in Herrick's very careful study 
of the European cuckoo, which leaves its eggs 
to be hatched, and its offspring to be nurtured 
by foster-parents, the suggestion is made that 
there is in birds a harmonious series or sequence 
of events linked to the reproductive function, 
such as migration, mating, nest-building, egg- CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
145 
laying in the nest, incubation, care of the 
young in the nest, care of the young out of the 
nest, and migration again. What may happen 
as a variation is a disturbance of the harmonious 
sequence: one chapter may be too long drawn 
out, as when two nests are built, or another 
chapter may be more or less suppressed, as 
when birds desert their nest. 
Other sexual anomalies may be classified 
as exaggerations, like some of the extraordi- 
nary excitements occasionally incident on fall- 
ing in love, or like a hypersesthetic sensitiveness 
to erotic stimulation. Others are of the very 
opposite character - an unnatural frigidity 
and weakness of sexual desire. Or it may be that 
the instinct is awakened by abnormal excita- 
tions, whether sensory (e. g. of touch or odour), 
or psychical (e. g. by inflicting pain or by suffering 
pain). Again there are the peculiar phenomena 
of sexual inversion, or attraction to the same 
sex instead of to the opposite sex, which used 
to be regarded as an acquired viciousness or 
as the banal consequence of some lesion, but 
is now known to be frequently an innate per- 
version of instinct. This cannot be inferred 
unless it is exhibited in conditions where nor- 
mal sexual gratification is practicable. In 
some forms, the sexual inversion may be 
traced back to perverting experiences in early 
childhood; in other cases it can be referred, 
in part at least, to unnatural conditions, in- 
cluding in that phrase the absence of members 
of the opposite sex, of which our civilised socie- 
ties, even at their would-be educational best, 
yield so many and such flagrant and disastrous 
instances. The so-called "uranist" variation 146 
SEX 
is sometimes associated with other peculiarities, 
such as vanity, mendacity, hypersesthesia, and 
a femininity in males, but it seems clear that 
there are occasionally uranists who are other- 
wise normal. From all such anomalies one turns 
with relief to the opinion of Sancho Panza 
the wise, who liked a man to be a man and a 
woman a woman. 
Reasons for Pathological Instability. - 
Even a slight acquaintance with the facts 
of the case - the unhappiness, the struggle, 
the brooding, the dread, the loss of vigour, 
the bad habits, the obsessions, the evil done 
to others - raises the question why there is 
in man this apparently great liability to patho- 
logical expression? Some of the reasons 
are not far to seek. In wild nature there is 
very little disease, unless we include parasit- 
ism. Unhealthy and defective creatures are 
speedily eliminated, and there is no hereditary 
accumulation of weakness or vice. In man- 
kind this socially merciful selection is in great 
part evaded by society itself, and in many 
ways, from philanthropic to legal, all of which 
we are now beginning seriously to criticise. 
Morbid tendencies accumulate. The arti- 
ficiality and injuriousness of many human 
activities must necessarily provoke peculiar 
aberrations. The occupational factor in the 
production of sexual vice is well known. Just 
as man has to pay for his fine brain by liability 
to nervous break-down of many sorts, so he 
has to pay for that highly evolved emotional 
complex which we call "love" by liability to 
vice. "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
are of imagination all compact. . . Love CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
147 
at its best is a very complex and subtle thing; 
and just because of this it is very apt to go wrong. 
As Finot says: "The chaste, beautiful, and in- 
visible Diana becomes the monstrous Hecate, 
the foe of light; Aphrodite vanishes in the vo- 
luptuous mysteries of Astarte." 
Another point of importance is that sexual 
activity is seasonally punctuated in most 
animals, in most cases indeed suspended for 
the greater part of the year, whereas in man 
it has almost ceased to have any relation to 
times and seasons. This in itself is a great 
danger, and it is augmented when sexual ap- 
petite outlives its natural span of years. Man 
is, in fact, the most domesticated of animals, 
though these, dogs, cats, and fowls especially, 
seem increasingly to acquire his continuous 
sexual possibility throughout the seasons. Nor 
is this altogether a wonder, since it is of the 
very nature of domestication to overcome 
the peculiar difficulties of the seasons to wild 
life. Moreover, this spreading of the breeding 
season throughout the year carries with it the 
advantages of that season, in that enhanced 
intensity of individuality and life of which we 
have given ample instance in our opening bio- 
logical chapters. Here, then, as everywhere, 
our difficulties of life are also our oppor- 
tunities. 
But there is probably a yet deeper reason, 
that the sex-impulse remains more or less 
apart from the general life of civilised man. 
Though it can be caught up into what is best 
in him, it remains in great part pristine, uncivi- 
lised, untutored. Just as the ultimate sexual 
functions, e. g. conception and birth themselves, 148 
SEX 
are reflex and automatic, not controlled, so 
the sex-impulses retain their wildness. Even 
in the best of us there has surely to be recog- 
nised a volcanic element in sex, quite underlying 
the rest of our nature, and for that very reason 
shaking it from its foundations with tremor, 
if not catastrophe. There always must be some 
measure of reversion - and even of whole- 
some reversion - to the savage and the ani- 
mal. The pathological enters when this re- 
version sweeps us too far. There is a terrible 
truth in Walt Whitman's image of man emerg- 
ing "stuccoed all over with reptiles and quadru- 
peds," and in Tennyson's picture of "Reversion 
ever dragging Evolution in the mud." 
Stanley Hall has done well to emphasise 
the degree in which youth is loaded with 
palseo-atavistic qualities. Many growths that 
we do not like seem to spring from "the partly 
lapsed and unreclaimed, partly virgin and never 
cultivated Bad Lands of the state of Man- 
Soul. . . . We are influenced in our deeper, 
more temperamental dispositions by the life- 
habits and codes of conduct of we know not 
what unnumbered hosts of ancestors, which like 
a cloud of witnesses are present throughout 
our lives, and our souls are echo-chambers 
in which their whispers reverberate." 
Even in animals we sometimes see an oc- 
casional occurrence of the abnormalities and 
diseases which occur in mankind. This is 
chiefly in domestic animals, for in wild condi- 
tions abnormality and disease are weeded 
out by natural selection. It is known, however, 
that hysteria, epilepsy, mania, and the like 
may crop up among animals, and the same CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
149 
is true of sexual perversions. Thus the pa- 
rental instinct among animals may break down, 
in the madness of rut, or otherwise. Either 
parent may destroy or desert the offspring, or 
may act in a strange blind way under the in- 
fluence of panic or pain. Mammals occasionally 
have false pregnancies; birds often incubate on 
nothing; melancholia may occur in connection 
with some bodily disturbance; and abortion 
among sheep and cattle seems sometimes to 
become contagious where no external predis- 
posing cause can be discovered. 
Quite a number of mammals display an 
erotic fury, especially if their sexual appetite 
is unsatisfied. Creatures ordinarily quiet be- 
come savage and dangerous to man, as in 
the case of the male elephant. Madly excited 
males may sexually attack other males or 
immature females. There may be satyriasis 
and nymphomania among the beasts, and the 
ways of monkeys are often repellant. It is 
a noteworthy fact that the great majority of 
the records of sexual perversions in animals 
refer to captive or domesticated forms which 
suffer from repressive conditions. 
The Work of Freud.- The most important 
recent contributions to the pathology of sex 
are those of Prof. Sigmund Freud; but it is 
still uncertain how many of his conclusions 
will stand even his own criticism. For like 
most progressive investigators he has from 
time to time modified several of his doctrines 
in the light of fresh facts. One of the general 
results of his work has been to show that 
some sexual agency operates to an unexpected 
extent in the causation of neurotic manifesta- 150 
SEX 
tions. Some of these, like hysteria and obses- 
sions ("psycho-neuroses"), are traced back 
by Freud to erotic experience in childhood, 
to the influence of unconscious or repressed 
idea-complexes. Neurasthenia and anxiety- 
neurosis ("true neuroses") are referred to 
the present abnormal condition of the sexual 
functions of the individual. Hysteria, it may 
be said, is more psychic; and neurasthenia more 
toxic; but both have a sexual basis. 
In nervous ("neuropathic") families there 
is often sexual precocity in the young children, 
even in the suckling, and there is often careless 
over-fondling on the part of the parents; con- 
stitutional weakness and precocious experience 
may thus combine with very detrimental re- 
sults. After the third or fourth year there is 
the happy latent period of childhood, but the 
influence of early habits may last and may warp 
the whole adolescence. It seems to be quite 
clear that repressions of the instinctive and 
subconscious sexual life of childhood make for 
evil, and that the therapeutic line is the culture 
of expression. Freud goes the length of saying 
that obsessions are in every case transformed 
reproaches which have escaped from the at- 
tempted repression and are always connected 
with some pleasurable sexual arousal of child- 
hood. 
The hereditary factor counts for much, but 
there seems no room for doubt that an ignorant 
and voluptuous mother, an uncontrolled or 
careless father, or a vicious nurse, or a preco- 
cious playmate, may give a twist to the child's 
life in its earliest years. But Freud clearly in- 
dicates that there is no justification for fatalism; CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
151 
it depends largely on nurture in the widest 
sense what shall be the issue of the universal 
conflict between the life-instinct and the love- 
instinct. And he gives us this sound advice 
as the practical conclusion of his astonishing 
psycho-analyses: Educate positively through 
love; avoid repressive measures, but aid the 
expression of the normal; let the child establish 
its own psychic and social individuality. 
In regard to neurasthenia and the anxiety- 
neuroses which find so many expressions in 
modern life, such as irritability, nervousness, 
"fidgetiness" hypersesthesia, digestive and car- 
diac troubles, Freud is not inclined to attach 
much importance to the direct influence of 
the "rush" of civilisation. Much more fre- 
quently the root of the mischief is sex-repres- 
sion. There is, as every one knows, too long a 
period between the awakening of strong sexual 
desire in adolescence and the possibility of 
regular gratification. Some are able to make 
this dis-harmony an opportunity for discipline 
in nobility, and they have their reward. In 
other cases, the attempted repression of chastity 
is biologically a failure; there is injury to body 
and mind, and sometimes the fixation of an 
infantile condition. An artificial substitute 
may be found for the repressed sexual gratifica- 
tion, and the result is pitiable. In other cases 
the outcome is neurasthenia due to a condition 
of the nervous system induced by excessive 
masturbation, or more spontaneously from fre- 
quent nocturnal emissions, - which in moder- 
ation are to be regarded as a wholesome safety- 
valve. In yet other cases, the solution is 
taken in sexual gratification before marriage. 152 
SEX 
which may result in the same neurasthenia, 
or in sexual disease, or in ethical and social 
disaster. 
But while the hot-blooded youth may land 
himself in neurasthenia, it is more character- 
istic of a maturer age to suffer from "anxiety- 
neurosis." If we understand Prof. Freud 
aright, his view is, to put it concretely, that 
what is called the result of "overwork," for 
instance, is often the result of a stifled or 
neglected sexual life. The " anxiety-neuroses " 
which make many people a little "queer" 
are attempts - often very curious - to get at 
substitutes for the omitted specific action 
which should follow sex-excitement. The "anxi- 
ety-dream" is the representation of a sup- 
pressed or repressed sexual wish, but even 
in the dream the sexual factor may have an 
entirely non-sexual expression. 
The "anxiety-neuroses" may be the results 
of sexual repression, or of some sudden 
confronting with the facts of sex (a strong 
argument for some common-sense awareness 
of what the continuance of life implies), or of 
impotent husbands, or of frigid wives, or of 
diminishing potency associated with increas- 
ing lust, and so on. A dammed-up libido, 
as Dr. Hitschmann says, hunts out for a weak 
place and breaks through, expressing itself 
in neurotic "substitute gratification." But 
again, Freud ends with the hopeful note of 
all those who have worked towards an in- 
creased control of life, maintaining that de- 
generation and nervousness are not in any 
way inevitable results of cultural progress, 
but excrescences which are to be avoided. CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
153 
Medical experts sometimes point out that 
the hysterical neurosis of the unmarried may 
be due not so much to unsatisfied sexual de- 
sire, as to the absence of aims and interests 
sufficiently real to take their attention off 
themselves. According to Fere, sexual pre- 
occupation in both sexes is not necessarily 
an evidence of particularly strong sexual needs; 
it may be the expression of degeneracy. What 
is blamed as a cause is thus sometimes only a 
symptom. For what cause of degeneracy equals 
that of unemployment? and this for rich and 
poor alike, albeit operating in slightly different 
ways. 
General Considerations. - Anticipating 
somewhat, we may suggest some general con- 
siderations which should be borne in mind when 
we stand aghast at the prevalence of sexual 
vice. After the worst has been seen, it remains a 
fact that there is in our midst a strong stream 
of clean living and clean loving. There is, 
after all, a large body of men and women of 
good will, whose whole bent is towards whole- 
someness and healthfulness. Again, diseases, 
dreadful though they be, are not mysterious 
and fateful, but simply derangements of the 
ordinary functioning of life, of the up-building 
and down-breaking that continually goes on 
in health. They are not vengeances inflicted 
wholly from without, but consequences arising 
deeply from without, and they are not there- 
fore to be met with mere submission, but with 
contest for control; they are not to be endured 
merely but cured, cured for the race, and at 
least palliated for the individual. Without 
this attitude of contest, defiant of the angry 154 
SEX 
gods, and ever re-expressed through the ages 
- in literature from Prometheus on his rock 
to Henley writing his Infirmary Ballads, and 
in the medical and surgical arts from Asclepias 
and Hippocrates to Jenner and Simpson, 
Lister and Ehrlich, we should never have had 
any medical science at all. And it is in no small 
degree to hindrance from converse errors 
maintained too largely even to this day - on 
one side by moral and religious teachers, as 
on another by immoralists - that is due the 
slowness of our advances in sexual and psy- 
chological medicine. These have now, as 
of old, to be organised into hygiene - hygiene 
material and physiological, mental and moral 
- and this is already much in advance of 
public appreciation and application of it. 
Just as disease, then, for the physiological 
physician, is metabolism which has got out 
of time, out of place, and out of proportion, 
so sexual vice is the fallen state of virtue, 
and is not to be regarded as some mysterious 
and catastrophic intrusion. 
Another important consideration is hidden 
in the conventional euphemism which calls 
sexual vice "the social problem." Such in- 
deed it is; for just as certain diseases, like 
lead-poisoning, are occupational or environ- 
mental, so sexual vice, like "drinking," is 
in some of its expressions bound up with in- 
jurious occupational and environmental con- 
ditions and with apparently unrelated social 
deteriorations. Sweated labour fills the ranks 
of prostitution; and its crowded living-rooms 
blunt the sense of decency and stimulate 
precocious sexuality. In all cases, of course, CORRUPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA 
155 
the attempt must be made to distinguish 
between the casual and the chronic sinner, and 
between a viciousness that is inborn and a 
viciousness that has been acquired. 
The social aspect of rebellion against the 
conventional regime of repression must always 
be kept in mind. Sexual gratification outside 
matrimony cannot be abstracted off as if it 
were a purely personal and physiological 
episode. According to the form it takes, it 
has a train of consequences - personal, domes- 
tic, and social. There is the risk of venereal 
disease which may, and too often does, pass 
to wife and children, or break out anew in 
later life -as general paralysis, again often 
with family ruin; there is also the risk of in- 
duced sterility; and beside these still com- 
paratively personal results, there is the in- 
evitable complicity in sustaining a horrible 
social system. There is the baseness - at best 
base thoughtlessness - of seduction; there is 
the birth-stain of illegitimate children, and 
the misery so often brought on their mother. 
There is the personal and social rotting that 
so often follows the dissimulation and mean- 
ness of adultery. And sa on. 
In regard to the risks of repression it cannot 
be truthfully said that there is unanimity 
among experts. According to Freud, for 
instance, there is for many a great danger lest 
the dammed-up passion seeks out a weak spot 
and breaks through into neurotic substitute 
gratifications. He admits that conquering 
through sublimation and the transference of 
the force of the sexual instinct from sexual 
ends to higher cultural aims may succeed in 156 
SEX 
some, while in others it leads to neuroses or 
some other injury. Fere, on the other hand, 
looks forward without alarm to an increasing 
control of sexual appetite, to an "adjourn- 
ment" of sexual gratification till after mar- 
riage. No general rule can be laid down, but 
it is safe to say that most men would be none 
the worse, but all the better, of greater self- 
restraint; and this not only in deed, and in 
word, but also in thought. Just as the ancients 
were mistaken in regarding chlorosis as a 
mal d'amour, so the doctrine of the evil effects 
of chastity requires very careful criticism. It 
is certain that continence neither injures the 
reproductive organs nor the sentiment of love, 
and Fere goes the length of saying that "there 
is no pathology of continence." As the historic 
religions have especially shown, there may be 
a high culture of continence, and this of wide 
applicability; despite all that may be said of 
its limitations or its failures. 
CHAPTER VIII 
PROS AND CONS OF SEX-EDUCATION 
The control of life - Objections to sex-instruction - In favour 
of sex-instruction - The general character of sex-instincts 
in man - Instruction by parents - Instruction in school 
- Modes of instruction - Cautions - Education and sex. 
The Control of Life. - The idea of the 
biological control of life, which had its first 
theoretical basis in Darwinism, found epoch- 
making illustration in the achievements of 
Pasteur. He showed that the days of folded SEX-EDUCATION 
157 
hands and resignation are over; it is Man's 
prerogative to use science so that he may enter 
more and more fully into possession of his 
kingdom. Pasteur and his successors - men 
like Lister and Koch, Bruce and Ross - have 
given object-lessons on a grand scale, illus- 
trating the truth of Comte's great saying: 
"Knowledge is foresight, and foresight is 
power." 
As a practical corollary, believing that sci- 
ence is for the control as well as the illumina- 
tion of life, believing that forewarned is fore- 
armed, we give definite instruction to young 
people in regard to health and disease, foods 
and poisons, exercise and rest, and so on. As 
the results are well known to be useful, the ques- 
tion rises: Why should we not apply the same 
method in regard to sex-hygiene? We instruct 
youth in regard to the digestive system and 
the skin, the nervous system and the muscles, 
but the reproductive system is tabooed. Why 
this conspiracy of silence? Is it not a loss that 
even the long used "Elementary Physiology" 
of so great, and in other respects fearless, a 
teacher as Huxley, should have practically 
assumed that physiology is sexless? 
Objections to Sex-Instruction.-There is, 
perhaps, an inhibitory awkwardness - largely 
a false shame - in regard to all that comes with- 
in hailing distance of the lusts of the flesh; but 
along with that there is some sound educational 
perception of the risks of bringing sexual im- 
pulses into the focus of consciousness. Let 
sleeping dogs lie! The answer to this objection 
is that all care must be taken not to anticipate 
interest, that the instruction must be graduated. SEX 
158 
and that in the case of boys the facts of sex 
obtrude themselves into consciousness at an 
early age. The dogs are not sleeping. If cor- 
rect information be not given, there is likely to 
be a haphazard acquisition of what is often 
inaccurate and discoloured. There is also in 
the conventional reticence a not unwhole- 
some recognition of the mysticism which has 
always surrounded the physical basis of love 
in general, and has in particular enveloped 
woman, especially in her progress from pu- 
berty to maturity - a mysticism which has 
contributed much to helping man up the 
steps from physical desire and fondness to the 
higher sentiments of love. 
The answer to this objection is that it may 
be possible to conserve the mysticism without 
withholding the instruction which seems to 
be practically desirable. It touches the im- 
agination, for instance, to show that the sex- 
impulses have had a long evolution. It may 
be possible to suggest that in the control of 
sex-impulses there is an opportunity for dis- 
ciplining body and mind, and enriching the 
whole personality. In any case, it can be shown 
that the recognition of a certain mystery in sex 
rests on its sacredness, not on there being any- 
thing shameful about it. 
It is often said that in previous generations 
men and women got on very well without this 
"fad" of sex-education. But the question 
is, whether they really did! It has to be re- 
membered, moreover, that there has been 
in the last half-century a marked weakening 
of family control, and that in manufacturing 
centres especially the emigration from the SEX-EDUCATION 
159 
home begins very early. Religious control 
has also slackened throughout large sections 
of the population. And as to the alleged ab- 
sence of sex-instruction in the past, it should 
be remembered that in many primitive peoples 
there are elaborate initiation courses. 
In Favour of Sex-Instruction. - The 
question before us is whether it is desirable 
to try to instruct young people in reference 
to the facts of sex. No one will wisely give a 
dogmatic answer to this question, for the basis 
of experiment is still very narrow. The ques- 
tion is raised because there is so much evil 
in connection with sex - foulness of thought 
and speech, pruriency, indecency, adolescent 
troubles, incontinence, sexual vice, and "im- 
morality." These evils do not necessarily 
form an argument in favour of sex-education, 
for it is possible that we might make bad worse. 
And although some teachers have put on record 
that the sex-education they give has been re- 
warded, it is possible to answer that they were 
peculiarly gifted, or that they worked in pecu- 
liar conditions. And although notable workers 
like Miss Jane Addams of Chicago, whose 
Spirit of Youth in the City Streets we cannot 
too highly recommend, have recorded the state- 
ments of those who have gone badly astray, 
that it would have been otherwise "if they had 
only known," it is possible to answer that this 
is a common form of excuse. Yet these cold- 
blooded arguments against anything at all are 
usually whirled away when we come into per- 
sonal contact with disaster, and are forced to 
ask ourselves whether fore-warning might not 
have been a safeguard. 160 
SEX 
If saying nothing were working well, most 
of us would be inclined to let well alone; for 
none of us like speaking about sex, and there 
is certainly danger of giving instruction un- 
wisely and of breaking in on the adolescent's 
reserve of mind. But the method of saying 
nothing is not working well; so that it seems 
that more experiment in the line of sex-edu- 
cation should be made. Prof. Stanley Hall 
emphasises the advantage of getting the right 
presentation first, preoccupying the mind with 
a dignified and frank outlook. Otherwise the 
chances are many that the adolescent gets 
hold of erroneous information and assumes 
a wrong point of view, both often referable to 
sexually perverted or precocious acquaintances 
of whom there is always a small percentage 
in every community, and who seem to have 
abnormal success in infecting others with their 
own unwholesomeness. 
The mental content covered by the word 
sex is so intimately personal that there is 
truth in what some have said in regard to the 
danger of bursting into the youth's reserve 
of mind. The danger must be admitted espe- 
cially in reference to girls; and the answTer is 
that we must learn to give without violence 
such instruction as experiment proves to be 
most useful. 
The General Character of Sex-Instincts 
in Man. - It is important to notice that while 
man has strong, innate sex-impulses, the 
associated sex-instincts are general rather than 
precise. Among some of the lower animals, 
such as Insects, where instinctive behaviour 
prevails, there are often very definite reproduc- SEX-EDUCATION 
161 
tive instincts of a complicated sort, which 
sweep their possessors through an intricate 
routine of courtship, pairing, and preparation 
for the young - often never seen! Among 
backboned animals also (see Chapter VI) 
there are numerous examples of complex repro- 
ductive instincts, though they rarely exhibit 
the same degree of intricacy that is seen in many 
insects. In man, however, the reproductive 
and sexual instincts remain very general. This 
is perhaps because of man's language, pro- 
longed family life, and social traditions, through 
which the need of very precise instincts has 
been superseded. In any case, the fact is 
that we have, in regard to sex-functions, very 
little instinctive knowledge of what various 
phenomena mean, or of what is normal, or of 
what is to be carefully avoided. A boy or 
girl may slide into bad sexual habits without 
being well aware of what is happening. If 
nothing "straight" is ever said by any one, 
it is difficult to deny the justice of the sufferer's 
reproach: "But you never told me anything 
about that!" 
Instruction by Parents. - If it be granted 
that there should be more experimenting in 
sex-education, the question arises: Who is 
to instruct? One thinks first, of course, of 
the parents, who have the greatest responsi- 
bility and stake, who have, also, in many cases 
the invaluable organic sympathy. For those 
of tender years, every one will agree that the 
wise mother is incomparably the best coun- 
sellor. But when we face the present-day 
facts of the case we cannot believe that the 
solution of the problem lies wholly with par- 162 
SEX 
ents. It seems that few parents give any 
sex-instruction to their children, though an 
increasing number are using some of the ex- 
cellent little books which have been written 
in this connection both for parents and chil- 
dren. Few parents are able to utilise the 
indirect, impersonal, biological approach which 
seems to be more effective than direct advice. 
As with religious instruction, many parents 
who feel their responsibility keenly are too 
shy to be of much direct use to their children. 
Moreover, the personal aspect of the case rises 
too obtrusively in a boy's mind when his 
father speaks to him on the subject of sex. 
There is, again, the serious fact of very early 
emigration from home and home control. 
It is plain, too, that those children who most 
need definite instruction and warning, because 
of hereditary predisposition to go wrong, are 
least likely to get it. In ideal conditions, no 
doubt, the sex-instruction should be given 
at home; but, as things are, it seems certain 
that it must also be attempted in school. 
We have referred in the Bibliography to some 
books which may be useful to parents who 
are able and willing to discharge for them- 
selves the duty of instructing their children 
in regard to the continuance of life and the 
facts of sex. It goes without saying that, 
without ever mentioning sex, many parents 
do the best of services for their children by 
garrisoning their minds with good examples 
and ideals of self-control and healthy-minded- 
ness, thus preoccupying the heart "out of 
which are the issues of life." 
Instruction in School.- As things are at SEX-EDUCATION 
163 
present, it appears that the sex-education 
will have to be given in school, and that it should 
be linked on to such subjects as nature study 
and biology, human physiology and domestic 
science - the linkage being left to the teacher's 
discretion. As the gift of speaking effectively 
about such a secret and sacred thing as sex is 
probably rare, it must be left an open question 
whether the instruction is to be given by the 
headmaster or headmistress, or by the class 
teacher, or by the teacher of biology, or by the 
school physician, or by the loan of books and 
pamphlets. 
It is a fact that there are teachers - both 
men and women - who at present give sex- 
education consummately well, and to whom 
the pupils express lasting gratitude. It is 
obvious, of course, that sex-instruction may 
be given blunderingly, just as religious instruc- 
tion may be given profanely, but teachers are 
not falling off in efficiency or goodwill. 
Modes of Instruction. - What forms should 
the sex-education take? It will need to be varied 
with reference to different sections of the com- 
munity, and with reference to the difference be- 
tween boys and girls. The problems are indeed 
universal, but the counsels given must be ad- 
apted to different conditions and possibilities. 
We cannot think for a moment of anything like 
a doctrinaire scheme of instruction, coercively 
imposed from without. Not only because this 
means fixing w'hat should be left elastic, and 
saying farewell to spontaneity and enthusiasm, 
but because it must be confessed that we have 
not sufficiently consulted the child. If we are 
ultimately to succeed we must first be humble 164 
SEX 
enough and scientific enough to try to find 
out patiently and sympathetically what the 
person most concerned thinks about all this. 
This inquiry has begun, but it has not gone far. 
What seems practicable is to ask that some- 
thing should be done along a graduated series 
of educational methods, leaving it to the dis- 
cretion of the teacher to decide how far along 
the series it may be profitable to go. We there- 
fore submit a tentative graduated series. 
(a) Much may be done in adolescence by 
developing external preoccupations and in- 
terests and real responsibilities; by opening 
up paths of legitimate excitement - in work 
and play, in art and wholesome adventure, 
in dramatic and musical exercises; and by 
making certain that there are disciplines in 
enduring hardness - for instance in scouting, 
in boys' brigades, in girls' guildries, in climbing 
and swimming and exploring. As Stanley 
Hall says in a sentence: Develop motor 
activities. It seems good sense that in the 
practice of these the sexes should be generally 
separate but sometimes together. 
(6) General assent will also be given to a 
second proposition - that we should develop 
all forms of education (religious, ethical, and 
imaginative) which fill the mind with noble 
examples; which exalt the sentiment of human 
love by associating it with the chivalrous, the 
poetic, and the romantic; and which set a 
premium on self-control, courtesy, mutual re- 
spect between the sexes, and healthy-mind- 
edness. In short, we must hitch the sex-wagon 
to a star. 
(c) While agreeing to respect the natural in- SEX-EDUCATION 
165 
stinct of reserve in regard to sex, teachers will 
probably admit that it is not a very dignified 
device to shy off from the facts when they 
present themselves in the course of studies in 
history and the like. " Bowdlerism " defeats 
its purpose. What is to be suggested is that 
mystery is observed because sex is sacred, not 
because it is shameful. Without drawing mor- 
als in any wooden way it is surely possible 
to suggest from history and biography that 
control and chastity make marriages happy 
and nations strong, while the corruptio optimi 
is already hell. 
(d) Without spoiling good botany and nat- 
ural history something may be done to remove 
the facts of sex and reproduction from their 
human and personal setting, to show them 
in their natural setting - which often has an 
extraordinary charm - and to disclose from 
the long history the gradual ennobling and en- 
richment of what we call love. Even nature 
points the way to the stars, and most teachers 
who are interested in the life of plants and ani- 
mals are agreed that the study puts an end to 
morbid inquisitiveness and lets the open air into 
the whole subject of sex. "For him to whom 
sex is impure there are no flowers in Nature." 
(e) Beyond clearing-up the subject of sex 
through the medium of sound botany and zo- 
ology, many will at present decline to advance. 
Others, who are perhaps more thoroughly 
acquainted with the facts in regard to the 
troubles and mistakes often associated with 
adolescence, are convinced that, for boys in 
particular, it is necessary to go further. The 
medical inspection of school children, though 166 
SEX 
still incipient, has done good service in showing 
how much suffering is avoidable, and the 
idea at least has taken possession of the public 
mind that, as Dr. Leslie Mackenzie puts it, "the 
child shall have, at every stage of his growth, 
his maximum chance of attaining to physio- 
logical fitness." The realisation of this ideal, 
already in progress in individual inspections, 
in school clinics, and in words of counsel, must 
include attention to the sex-life of the adoles- 
cent. Some headmasters have straight talks 
with their boys, warning them against the dan- 
gers of adolescence; others lend books or tracts 
of good advice; in many cases, as it seems to 
us, the most effective counsel will be that of 
the school-physician, who can speak with most 
authority and without embarrassment. 
Cautions. - It appears to us that with sex- 
education in school we shall do well to hasten 
slowly. (a) Society does not move en bloc, 
and a frankness which seems quite natural 
in some communities will be keenly resented 
in others. Whatever direct instruction is 
given, it must be carefully differentiated. In 
some of the shameful conditions of life that 
still obtain in our midst, the children have 
nothing to learn of the seamy side of sex; 
what must be done is to show them that there 
is another side. 
(b) Another point is that while parents can 
do what they like in the way of sex-instruction 
- which is usually nothing - school teachers 
must move cautiously. They must make sure 
that they are carrying the parents with them, 
and in some cases this has been done with the 
happiest results. As in regard to religion, so SEX-EDUCATION 
167 
in regard to sex, there are some who deny 
that the education authorities are justified 
in intruding into what ought to be a parental 
responsibility. 
(c) It seems quite plain that girls require 
much gentler sex-education than boys. By 
nature and by tradition they have a deeper 
reserve, and the difficulty cannot be ignored 
that, as things are at present, many of them 
will not marry. It may be dangerous, there- 
fore, to bring to the focus of consciousness 
instincts which often remain normally at a 
subconscious level. 
In regard to quite young children (under 
twelve), we venture to formulate certain 
requirements or desirabilities. Any instruc- 
tion in regard to the continuance of life should 
arise out of nature-study, from the experience 
of pets - rabbits and doves for choice, but 
also poultry, and also from cat and kittens, 
bitch and puppies; and why not from the ex- 
perience of farmyard visits, with their innocent 
familiarity with the ways of its domesticated 
creatures? While there may be legitimate si- 
lence or postponement of answer, there must be 
no shirking or beating about the bush once an 
answer has been embarked on. Nothing must 
be said which will have to be unlearned after- 
wards, for no one can do a child much greater 
harm than telling it something which it will 
afterwards discover to be untrue. While some 
instruction must be given nowadays, if we are 
not to fail of our duty, it is safer to err in saying 
too little than in saying too much. As children 
of the same age vary greatly in development, 
and as there is great risk of anticipating interest. 168 
SEX 
the instruction as regards mankind should 
be indirect and unobtrusive, so that while it 
is of use to those who have reached the stage 
of natural interest, it will hardly be noticed 
by those who have not. While there should 
not be any suggestion of any shadow of shame- 
fulness over the subject, it must be treated 
with reverence and as a great mystery - as it 
certainly is. 
It is with no unconsidered lightness that 
we advise that an attempt should be made to 
give children a frank, unashamed, and reverent 
outlook on the essential facts concerning the 
continuance of life. We do not forget the 
solemn warning that it were better for a 
man to be cast into the sea with a millstone 
round his neck than that he should cause an 
innocent child to offend. But the child may be 
caused to offend by cowardly reticence as well 
as by too great outspokenness. There is a 
time to speak and a time to keep silence, and 
all sex-education must be differentiated with 
reference to particular cases. It may be agreed, 
however, that whether the sex-instruction is 
direct or indirect, through hygiene or through 
nature-study; whether it is given by the parent 
or by the head of the school, by the science 
teacher or by lending booklets - care must be 
taken not to anticipate interest, not to excite, 
not to say what is untrue, not to teach what 
will have to be unlearned afterwards, not to 
make false mysteries (such as dusting a stigma 
with a pollen-laden feather might dispel), not 
to deal with the pathological, not to frighten, 
not to pretend that men and women are angels; 
and, above all, not to say too much. SEX-EDUCATION 
169 
Education and Sex. - Let us again attack 
as a common misunderstanding the idea that 
the ordinary physical and intellectual life 
and education is one thing, and sex-life and 
education quite another. They interact; and 
this in every possible way - the type of phys- 
ical and intellectual life and education normalis- 
ing or denormalising the sex-life, according as 
we manage it, and so conversely, the sex-life 
ennobling or deteriorating the whole general 
education in its turn. 
We have been considering how young people 
may be educated in regard to the facts of sex; 
but we must now turn the problem round, and 
inquire whether the facts of sex do not point 
to the need for a reconsideration and read- 
justment of our educational routines. - 
In the adolescence of the organism, during 
which in mankind, the voice of education is 
clamant, we have already recognised a period 
of rapid growth and redifferentiation. There 
is increasing stability and yet, for the time, 
great instability; there is great vigour, and 
yet great "slackness"; it is not a period of the 
inclined plane of life, it is a period of taking 
steps. This means that the adolescent should 
have plenty of rest and plenty of play and 
plenty of broad human interests. But when 
such physiological ideas become considered in 
high places, what will become of some of our 
most cherished present school and university 
arrangements - their leaving certificates, their 
entrance and scholarship examinations, with 
their standards "working up" as these are all 
so rapidly doing? 
If this progress in "raising the standard" 170 
SEX 
be continued during the next generation in 
anything like the same way it has gone up in 
ours, we shall have practically a recrudescence 
of the ancient memory contests of the Finns, 
combined with the Egyptian Trial of the Dead. 
Of course, without the poetry of the first, or 
the religion of the second, but with a com- 
bination of their respective toil and terror. 
Indeed, do we not already inflict far too much 
of this intellectual strain, this moral anxiety, 
upon many a sensitive youth and on far too 
many conscientious girls; and though we 
justly shudder at the ancient ritual which 
could pass a child through the fire to Moloch, 
are we so much gentler or wiser in passing our 
children wholesale through examinations for 
Mammon? And though we have not as yet 
materially flattened down our children's fore- 
heads in deference to the established fashion 
of certain old-fashioned tribes, do we not more 
seriously deform them in both compressing 
and depressing their growing brains? 
As from the biological standpoint of this 
volume, we support the woman's cause, and 
the child's, so, perhaps above all, we plead for 
the adolescent, both youth and maid; and 
we claim a brief hearing from parents, from 
teachers and examiners, both secondary and 
higher, and from the authorities to whom 
these parents and teachers alike have for two 
or more generations been increasingly aban- 
doning their responsibilities and powers. 
There are, indeed, increasing and hopeful 
signs, even in the world of examination (as 
notably for the Rhodes Scholarships and the 
Navy), of the subordination of exclusive book SEX-EDUCATION 
171 
and memory tests to a fuller and more all- 
round type of examination; so why may not 
"Estimation versus Examination" be made 
the slogan of a needed general revolt? Against 
this, to do the said authorities justice, the 
resistance would neither be enthusiastic nor 
strong, in fact the surrender more speedy, 
more complete, more willing even, than as 
irate besiegers we commonly realise. 
Hence - without, of course, here entering 
into educational details beyond our present 
province - let us re-emphasise the significance 
of adolescence as the critical phase between 
childhood and maturity; and this for body 
and mind, for soul and spirit: and plead here, 
if possible more fully than even Stanley Hall 
has done, for a reconsideration of that whole 
scholastic and academic treatment of this, 
which has been organised almost entirely in 
relation to the equipment of knowledge, or 
at most to the exercise of certain intellectual 
powers; and, we believe, with bad psychology 
even for these too highly-rated fragments of 
the problem, themselves too much dissociated 
in practice. 
Only within comparatively recent memory 
have our boarding-schools ceased seriously 
to starve the growth of their boys and girls 
at the very period when an ample diet is most 
necessary; and even parents, who now know 
sugar to be no luxury but a needed muscle 
food, are still dubious of fruit! Still on the 
whole, the hungry boy now gets fed; but he 
is still apt to be starved of his own measure of 
sleep. So let us support the family and school 
doctor in prescribing sleep as a first treatment 172 
SEX 
for the sleepy; and even rest to those we are 
apt to call lazy, when they are coming through 
the languor of physical growth, or that yet 
more pedagogically exasperating dullness and 
inattention which is often but a symptom of 
the mysterious and difficult maturation of 
brain. 
Taking our own cities of Edinburgh and 
Aberdeen, as certainly among those of largest 
proportional educational quantity and en- 
deavour - and surely sometimes even quality, 
as the world goes - though every one knows 
the tales of boyish adolescent backwardness 
of men of genius, like Hume and Scott, what 
of their opportunities of peaceful interior 
development would they now be allowed in 
our day? 
It is, of course, replied to such arguments 
that genius is uncommon and cannot be pro- 
vided for. But this is prescientific; for genius 
is common until wasted. Every normal adoles- 
cent is something of a genius; and our problem 
is to encourage his spark, not smother it under 
lessons, dull it with constraints, or weary it 
out of use or into evil through long terms of 
drudgery, weighted by impending crises, and 
scourged by approaching fears! 
Examine as you will later in college life, or 
at its close, and correspondingly for appren- 
ticeship: but leave these youngsters in their 
period of metamorphosis far more largely than 
at present to nature, who never has hastened 
her Psyche to unfold her wings by shaking up 
the chrysalis. 
True, our human metamorphosis is in obvious 
external ways not thus passive, but who yet SEX-EDUCATION 
173 
knows but that some of its finest elements 
- those of the essential Psyche - may be? 
Consider some of these: conveniently in our 
modern world take Art and Science. 
First, science, both as simpler and more 
obviously concerned with the much-respected 
equipment of knowledge; and for our own 
science of biology recall the "grand old men," 
second surely to none in history - Darwin, 
Wallace, and Hooker so lately with us, Haeckel 
and Weismann happily still here. Records of 
adolescent distinctions in the ordinary sense 
are not much evident - the very absence 
of them much more so! But these, like all 
true naturalists, were boy-naturalists, having 
acquired the essential feeling of their subject 
in early years before adolescence, and escaping 
conventional instruction - at least, till they 
were mature enough to take it for themselves. 
So conspicuously it is and has been with 
the great artists who have attained long life. 
They remain great to the end; and this we 
believe, so far as we can read their biography, 
is in association with early aptitude and effort, 
and adolescent choice and opportunity in de- 
veloping' it; whereas (and here is an essential 
point) our secondary artists and scientists 
are not necessarily secondary, but largely 
those who have been more or less starved of 
their proper opportunities in childhood and in 
adolescence; and who have thus begun to learn 
too late, after the adolescent growth and plas- 
ticity had been wasted and stiffened, in our 
conventional but for them irrelevant ways. 
Moreover, generalising such biographies yet 
further, though, after efforts even late begun, 174 
SEX 
considerable or even high productivity may 
be obtained during the age of maturity, this 
tends to go off with the first or second decline 
of vigour of sex, as with the advent of the for- 
ties or fifties, leaving on the whole only those 
who had the right pre-adolescent beginning 
and adolescent opportunity still efficient after 
the great climacteric period of the early sixties. 
This hypothesis, even difficult to express, is, 
we admit, also still fully to verify; yet we 
submit it, both as giving cause to think of 
our pedagogic process, and hope of its im- 
provement. This, too, at the very highest 
levels, for what we have said for art and science 
may also be justified; and perhaps not less 
clearly from the lives of men of letters. 
And must not all this apply perhaps even 
more plainly to woman? Does not she need 
an adolescence of even more rest and happi- 
ness, and even less strain? What, too, of 
her period of highest development ? - not even 
of young beauty, divine though its phases be 
and each entrancing in turn, from Artemis to 
Aphrodite, and thence to the bright perfec- 
tion of Pallas, to the full-blown rose of Hera. 
Beyond all these it is the ageing Demeter, the 
matron, corn-mother and bread-giver, who most 
fully presides throughout civilisation; while 
beyond her again, past the later climacteric, 
and in full old age, there does at times and 
should more often arise that wisdom of the 
Sibyl, which penetrates beyond even that 
of the sage. 
Such high types of woman's originality and 
intelligence, though rarer than those of the 
able man-educated woman one increasingly SEX-EDUCATION 
175 
meets, are natural and normal for all that, 
since they remain also more organically femi- 
nine, with their keen and subtle wits more 
directly rooted in woman's wit and in mother- 
wit; their broader than masculine common- 
sense, their warmer and more varied sympathies 
being again developments of mother-sense and 
mother-kindness. 
May we not learn something here from 
Catholic tuition, with its far more emphatic 
idealism of woman, and its tradition of educa- 
tion accordingly? Are our well-established 
girls' schools and women's colleges, with their 
predominant examinations and ball-games - 
so curiously replacing Mangnall's "Questions" 
and "the use of the globes" - really as com- 
plete and final as their governing bodies and 
their prize products are wont to proclaim? 
May they not make their next steps in progress 
by for a moment turning backwards? For 
thus, in the first step, they would recover the 
meanings of the despised old "globes" and 
"accomplishments"; which were alive in the 
time of the great ladies of the Renaissance, 
who sold their jewels to fit out Columbus on 
his voyage over the sphere, and later adopted 
the new astronomy before either church or 
universities; and who not only helped on the 
new learning, but the vernacular literature 
and the Renaissance arts as well. How did 
they accomplish all this? Because at that 
period of commanding masculine intensity - 
with men again like their Roman exemplars, 
lords of action, and masters of thought with 
Plato and the Greeks - they were themselves 
correspondingly evolved and intensified as 176 
SEX 
women; and thus, more than ever in history, 
and for good as well as evil, they made them- 
selves queens of life. 
For though at its best these Renaissance 
ladies excelled our own, despite our better 
established "educational advantages," in sheer 
intellectual attainments, were not these also 
associated with an intensive ideal of feminine 
perfection? Men were then not a little inspired 
by the heroines of antiquity, and above all by 
the Goddesses and Muses of its ideals. If so, 
may we not do well to recover these, and not 
merely see progress in subjecting women to the 
more masculine educational influences and am- 
bitions of to-day? 
Consider now even a second step backwards, 
back to the convent and its school. May 
we not thus come to understand more fully, 
to judge more patiently, that respect which 
even some of our own scientific and free- 
thinking friends in other countries still have 
for it, with preference even for their own daugh- 
ters? In countries so Protestant as ours, none 
need fear any wholesale acceptance of what 
seem to us their limitations. But may not the 
sympathetic study of them help us to abate some 
of our own converse limitations? 
Return, however, to education as we find it 
at home among ourselves. A notable sign of 
progress is surely that of the rise of colleges 
of Domestic Economy, with their vast crowds 
of girl students - in Edinburgh alone some 
four thousand, and this with but a few years' 
growth. Moreover, these, from modest be- 
ginnings of household management, are grow- 
ing up - prominently both in London and SEX-EDUCATION 
177 
Edinburgh - to claim academic rank, as a new 
and true Faculty of the University. 
The primary schools, too, are showing the 
same tendency; while special schools of nurs- 
ing, of health and gymnastics, and above 
all of child-care and mother-helping, are in- 
creasingly commanding the respect and atten- 
tion of educationalists. 
Parallel to the admirable revolutionary out- 
break of boy-scouting, there is growing up for 
girls a corresponding novitiate of domesticity; 
and though the first be sometimes reproached 
as too primarily addressed to the youthful 
hunter and savage in every boy, and the latter 
as sometimes too much tending to make a Cin- 
derella of the girl - these are doubtless but 
transient limitations and exaggerations, and 
may soon help each other towards a more and 
more human completeness. Each of these 
methods, even if still somewhat crudely ex- 
pressed, is a return to nature, to human nature, 
to sex-nature; and not simply an escape from 
that dull over-pressure of mere second-hand 
knowledge, which has too long been the fetish 
and the curse of schools, but a recovery of 
the real first-hand knowledge, which, however 
simple, readily grows to more. With boys made 
more courageous and girls more gentle, we 
cannot surely but see our way to the next 
step - boys also more gentle, girls more cour- 
ageous too. Although we believe, and would 
fain realise in education, that "virtue" should 
become increasingly the same for both sexes, 
it is well not to forget the differing meanings of 
the old Latin word virtus - as of predominant 
courage and vigour, affection and purity, for 178 
SEX 
the sexes respectively. It is by accepting and 
starting from these differing bases in sex and life 
- different in the childhood of the race and of 
its individuals - we may thence best advance, 
and so make virtue, in all its modern sense and 
its ethical values, more common to both sexes: 
never indeed identical, yet more and more subtly 
intermingled, and towards higher and higher 
flower. 
Yet let no one imagine that we would debar 
the adolescent girl any more than the youth 
from the university; nor propose for any an 
adolescence of mere irresponsibility or idleness. 
Our ideal is one of novitiate, and with fuller 
and more varied opportunities and interests; 
and this on one side indeed of arts and graces, 
refinements and pleasures - of youth enriched 
from nature and science, poetry and literature, 
music and dancing, yet also rich in oppor- 
tunity of what valiant lad and generous girl 
alike desire - ay, and more deeply - oppor- 
tunities of enduring hardness, of sharing the 
realities of the world's labours. If there be 
anything in the progress of civilisation - and 
are there not grounds for believing that we 
are just entering upon a new uplift of civilisa- 
tion from a too squalid and palaeotechnic 
industrial age to a finer neotechnic one - from 
a civilisation that is too harshly determined 
by steam, and mechanical industries, by mar- 
kets, wars and Mammon, to a finer age re- 
founded on electricity and striving towards 
finer industries and arts, hygiene and educa- 
tion, nobler homes and cities above all? If, 
as is the present fact, the electric age, the 
housing age, the civic age, a time of moral and SEX-EDUCATION 
179 
intellectual genius and of creative art, be all 
waiting for the better education of our boys 
and girls, why not begin more fully its refining 
novitiate? This nobler city is not that around 
us, not that of the old-fashioned economists, 
with their "necessities, comforts, and luxuries," 
respectively adjusted for the deterioration of 
lower, middle, and upper classes - as the 
"populace, the philistines, and the barbarians" 
of Matthew Arnold's enduring sarcasm - but of 
life and industry reorganised towards the up- 
lift of them all. Art and science, health and 
sanity, morals and citizenship are all increasingly 
becoming seen to be rooted in the realities of 
labour; and the present lack or failure of them 
is seen to lie in the commonly contrasted 
drudgery, exploitation, and idleness which are 
the curse of the existing classes. Thus there 
appears the necessity of nature-education, and 
of occupation-education, for one and all: and 
hence it is that our boy-scouts and girl-guides, 
with their present limitations, are in advance 
of the traditional schools, with all their ad- 
vantages. For Baden-Powell is among the 
prophets; though that need not prevent others 
from having their turn. 
With this approaching renewal of social 
health, the much-needed remoralisation of the 
sexes will correspondingly be advanced, and 
this largely in the natural ways of simpler 
communities - thus abating our present anxi- 
eties, perhaps even abating the necessity of 
each of our purifying and even prophylactic 
endeavours, urgent though we see all these to 
be to-day. 180 
SEX 
CHAPTER IX 
The Ethics of Sex 
The greatness of love - The evolutionary outlook - Man's 
distinctiveness - Self-control - Healthfulness - Healthy- 
mindedness - Clean living - Two standards - Facing 
the facts - Ideals - Courage and kindness - In summary. 
Many difficult moral problems are involved 
in the fact of sex and in the relations of the 
sexes in mankind. What of masculine self- 
control, of chastity before marriage, of the 
possibility of a uniform standard for both 
sexes, of faithfulness after marriage, of sexual 
temperance, of the rights and wrongs of di- 
vorce, of enforced celibacy and spinsterdom, 
of the penalties imposed on breaches of exist- 
ing conventions and laws, of the finer relations 
between the sexes and the moral evolution of 
these to higher issues? We cannot do more than 
suggest certain considerations to be borne in 
mind in facing these very difficult problems. 
The Greatness of Love. - Beside the love 
of a mother for her children, comes the love 
between man and woman, one of the great 
things of the world, one of the mainsprings 
of life. It is a transforming force in the in- 
dividual life-history, like an enthusiasm or 
like religion. It is a spring of conduct which 
has prompted much of the heroism and hard 
work of the world. If we spoil it, or make 
little of it, we lose one of the great possibilities 
of happiness and uplift. If we degrade it, THE ETHICS OF SEX 
181 
one of the lights of life, a very "candle of the 
Lord," goes flickering, guttering out. 
The Evolutionary Outlook. - The sex- 
impulses, at once the glory and the shame of 
mankind, have an inconceivably long history 
behind them, and spring up within us with a 
tremendous organic momentum. Here we 
have at once warning and encouragement. 
Warning, because for most of us there are 
brutish elements in our sex-impulses, which are 
badly out of date, and which, if allowed to 
develop, will be as tares strangling out the 
wheat. When they become insidiously domi- 
nant we have what occupies a considerable 
part of the terrible records of sex-pathology. 
Few men escape paying a tax for their great 
inheritance; and the tax often takes the form 
of some distressing atavism of the flesh. It 
is the case, however, that the ape and the 
tiger do die down, if we do not feed them. 
But besides warning there is encouragement 
in the evolutionary outlook. Looking back- 
wards we can discern that sex-love has evolved 
in fineness without losing in intensity. It has 
become more complicated, more subtle, more 
psychical, more lasting. 
Up through the animal kingdom we see 
a crude stimulus being replaced by physical 
fondness, and that being adorned by aesthetic 
embroideries. Then we find the sexes, in 
some of the birds and mammals, remaining 
gladly together throughout life, working to- 
gether in harmony. Now, there is no doubt 
that the human ideal of love is one in which all 
the finer threads of prehuman sex-attraction 
(of the delicacy of some of which the protago- 182 
SEX 
nist of man's apartness and perfection has no 
notion) are interwoven and sublimed - phys- 
ical fondness, aesthetic appeal, affection, intel- 
lectual sympathy, and some capacity of work- 
ing together. We are encouraged towards that 
ideal by knowing that the trend of evolution 
is in that direction. For most men, however, 
there is a long way to travel before they get 
free from the risk of a reversion which so often 
drags their evolution in the mud. Perhaps 
man's difficulties have been increased by the 
absence (or more commonly by the loss) of 
any very definite periodicity in his sexual appe- 
tite. We see the same dropping out of perio- 
dicity in domesticated or artificially sheltered 
animals, and we know how dangerous it is. 
Man's Distinctiveness. - Man's affiliation 
to the rest of creation must be kept in mind 
if we are to think rightly about sex; but let 
us hasten on to say that man's differences 
from animals are as important as the resem- 
blances. For with man all things became new 
- sublimed in a rational experience. The 
primary impulses and emotions (including 
those of sex), the raw materials of morality, 
and the springs of conduct which man in- 
herited from prehuman ancestors - all became 
new. This makes a world of difference. Man 
not only loves, but he knows that he loves. 
He thinks and speaks and dreams about love. 
He has ideas on the subject, and ideals to which 
he would make his love conform. He not only 
feels sex-impulses; he passes them, when he has 
got that length, under the review of his judg- 
ment. He has also, even in spite of himself, to 
think racially and socially, to consider the grati- THE ETHICS OF SEX 
183 
fication of his sex-impulses not only in relation to 
himself, not only in relation to another beside 
himself, but in their racial and social conse- 
quences, immediate and possible. 
Self-control. - Whether we look back upon 
the course of evolution and see that progress has 
been the reward of the controlled and strenuous 
types; or take instruction from the pathologists 
of the mind and learn how easy it is to slip be- 
low the rational and human level if the power 
of inhibition is weak; or read history and biog- 
raphy and the counsels of the wise - we reach 
the conclusion that self-control makes for in- 
dividual and racial progress. 
While some men have very strong wills 
and others have very subdued passions, most 
men of average flesh and blood who would 
live clean lives, need all the help they can 
get, it may be from religious and moral ideals, 
from artistic fastidiousness, or from a feeling 
of social solidarity. Sex-impulses rise with 
so much momentum within us, which of us is 
sure that he will stand? Counsel may be ex- 
pressed in ethical or psychological, in bio- 
logical or medical phraseology, but it always 
amounts to the same thing, and there is no 
other way. Just as we go into training if 
we are looking forward to some big effort, 
so for the critical trials of life we have to train 
in self-control, in enduring hardness, in doing 
difficult things, in going through with some 
task we do not like. Perhaps we may venture 
to say, however, that we should not think too 
much about this, but go at it cheerfully as 
part of the day's work. We are meant to 
be artists in fashioning our characters, not 184 
SEX 
hodmen. The general experience is unani- 
mous that discipline in control of thoughts, 
words, and deeds helps a man to keep a rein 
on his sex-impulses. The ethical value of 
athletics and of exercises like climbing and 
long tramps is great. Without being a prig, 
the adolescent can keep always before him 
the ideal of vigorous health, which has a very 
close connection with morals. But it is not 
adolescents only who require discipline in 
control. Fere refers with a touch of scorn to 
those husbands who do not hesitate to inflict 
a new pregnancy upon their wives a few weeks 
after their delivery, and refuses to accept the 
apology that otherwise they must do worse. 
Those are not awanting, he says, who are able 
to respect the period of pregnancy and lacta- 
tion, who are neither the worse of it nor un- 
faithful. Yet there is a risk that the increasing 
personal and political freedom of women may 
lead them to attempt to "force the pace" of 
moral evolution, demanding more sexual tem- 
perance than the average man can at present 
stand; but against that has to be set the de- 
sirability of coming to an end with a condi- 
tion of affairs in which wives are not allowed 
the sovereignty of their own bodies. That this 
is wrapped up with housing reform and the 
like, is obvious. 
Healthfulness. - Those who get a fair 
start and have not too hard a life know that 
a failure in vigorous health usually means that 
there has been slackness or indulgence or care- 
lessness in some form or other, excepting the 
casualties of microbic infection, though even 
this occurs in many instances because the THE ETHICS OF SEX 
185 
organism was caught napping. Healthfulness 
is a very reliable index of moral condition - 
even in some of its higher reaches. Over- 
working is wrong as any other excess is; and 
the fact that it is not in itself pleasant does 
not lessen its hurtfulness. It always lowers 
the standard of health and weakens the first 
line of defence against evil. Therefore just 
as Prof. Stanley Hall speaks of religion as a 
great prophylactic against sexuality - a wise 
saying not to be taken superficially - so the 
biologist must say as much for healthfulness. 
Not, of course, that being in good form means 
exemption from sexual storms. But the hope 
is that the discipline of self-control involved 
in maintaining a high standard of physical 
fitness will help men to clean living. In any case 
it is certain that, individually and racially, 
survival is with the self-controlled. 
Healthy-mindedness. - Complete health in- 
cludes healthy-mindedness, and who would 
not rather be a cripple than have an unclean 
spirit? But how is healthy-mindedness to 
be fostered? We shall never get beyond the 
ancient counsel: "Keep thy heart with all 
diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." 
Many know "the expulsive power of a new 
affection," as Dr. Chalmers phrased it; many 
know also the value of preoccupying the mind 
with things true, honest, just, pure, lovely, 
and of good report. To garrison the mind with 
high interests and lofty purposes makes for 
safety. 
To many comes the trouble that, through no 
fault of their own, they see obscene sights or 
indecent pictures, or read lascivious passages, 186 
SEX 
or hear ugly stories, which remain with them 
as pestilential memories. In such cases we must 
try to bear the unwholesome impressions 
out in a> swift current of joyous adventure. 
And if they sink as foul things will, and rise 
worse than ever to the surface again, we must 
change the subject persistently, and do some- 
thing active. But should they still persist, 
as they sometimes do, like blots in the brain, 
we must look at them fair and square, and 
squeeze the life out of them by understanding 
them and something of the unwelcome phy- 
siological power they have over us. As long as 
anything mysterious remains, they will return 
to us or we to them; so it may be helpful in 
obdurate cases to read up some thoroughly 
scientific book, such as Marshall's Physiology 
of Reproduction, and get a clean, clear view of 
the facts. But to read pathological literature 
because of some obsession is, we believe, the 
worst possible expedient. 
Clean Living. - Most men with a sense of 
veracity agree in confessing that the way 
of absolutely normal sex-experience is a very 
narrow way. Most have reason to fear, even 
when they are old enough to have learned 
wisdom. Even marriage may sink into mono- 
gamic prostitution. It is only a very perfect 
love that casts out all fear. 
It is well-known that purchase of sexual 
gratification may be punished by disease - by 
gonorrhoea which may end in sterility, or by 
syphilis which may end in general paralysis 
many years afterwards. In these consequences 
there is much to fear. But we would refer 
rather to something deeper - the fear of THE ETHICS OF SEX 
187 
moral disease. Just because man is highly 
evolved, he is liable to many instabilities - 
hells to match his heavens. It is a great pity 
to lapse into self-indulgence, and a great pity 
to buy sexual gratification; but it is a greater 
pity when a man becomes sexually obsessed, 
when an evil habit grips his body and suborns 
his will, when his mind becomes preoccupied 
with obscene pictures and lustful purposes. 
Without becoming morbid, then, it behoves 
most of us men to entertain a wholesome 
awareness of danger - the kind of quality a 
good climber has habitually. Fortunate in- 
deed are those who always remain gentlemen 
unafraid. 
But there is a higher argument than that of 
fear, for every honest man knows that the con- 
trolled life in all its paths is the more efficient. 
" Behold the life of ease, it drifts; the sharpened 
life commands its course." Self-restraint means 
struggle, but it is the honourable life and it 
brings a reward of higher happiness. Many 
an intellectual athlete has got rid of his sex 
through his brain, as a French saying has it. 
Fere, a leading authority on sex-pathology and 
hygiene, denies categorically that a man is ever 
hurt by continence, and affirms that he is al- 
ways the stronger. This, at any rate, is cer- 
tain: that a man will be happier all his life if 
he can come to his wife a passionate lover, with 
a clean record. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that 
while anatomical chastity is a moral achieve- 
ment, it is not the deepest virtue. The in- 
cisive declaration: "Whosoever looketh on 
a woman to lust after her hath committed 188 
SEX 
adultery with her already in his heart," ex- 
presses an even more searching standard, 
and modern science brings home to us the 
radical importance of our reflex thoughts and 
deep-down impulses, which appear to bulk 
largely in moulding our lives and the lives of 
those who may spring from us. Even our 
dreams betray us, though we are sometimes 
better (as well as worse) than they. For it 
seems well-established that a large propor- 
tion of dreams express the wish-fulfilments of 
repressed sexual desires. 
There is a higher argument still - that man 
is a social person. No man liveth or dieth 
to himself, and uncontrolled sexuality cannot 
remain a purely personal vice. Indulgence in 
sexual gratification outside matrimony cannot 
be abstracted off and discussed as a physio- 
logical episode. We have to think of our 
share in the making of the next generation, 
and in sustaining the tradition of clean living 
and chivalry. We have to think also of the 
victims of selfish and cruel betrayal, and of 
the ranks of those who earn the wages of the 
dust. We must think also of the crime of 
poisoning wife and child, and of the many 
hard and ugly things that men and women 
do to each other (in the name of Love!) in 
the clash of their lives together. 
It is impossible for reasonable men to regard 
prostitution as other than intolerable to their 
sense of honour, or to contemplate without 
shame the persistence of "the most mournful 
and the most awful figure in history," who, 
in Lecky's tragic phrase, "remains, while 
creeds and civilisations rise and fall, the eter- THE ETHICS OF SEX 
189 
nal sacrifice of humanity, blasted for the sins 
of the people." 
Two Standards. - Most men of good-will 
are agreed as to the ideal - that men should 
be as controlled and chaste as good women. 
Many experts on sex-physiology have declared 
that the attainment of this ideal would do no 
harm. Self-controlled men, at all ages, are 
daily proving that the ideal can be realised. 
Yet too many "men of the world" declare that 
the ideal referred to is absurdly Utopian for 
ordinary masculine flesh and blood as known 
to-day. But even if it be the case that many 
must consume their living with harlots, which 
we do not for a moment believe, it does not 
follow that this is inevitable on the part of the 
more individuated. 
It is often stated (by careful students of 
sex, as well as by the careless) that the normal 
Man's sexual appetites are, on an average, 
far keener and more insistent than those of 
the normal Woman. It is impossible for men 
without much (and obviously very difficult) 
consultation with good women to pronounce 
on such a matter, and perhaps there is a ten- 
dency to exaggerate the difference. Men 
know one side of the comparison, women 
know the other; the difficulty of collating 
them is obvious. We may refer, in illustra- 
tion, to the fact that a woman's desire for 
sexual gratification, though it often needs clam- 
ant awakening, may become extraordinarily 
tyrannous - sometimes fatally tyrannous - to 
her husband or second husband; and, on the 
other hand, to the fact that woman's greater 
control over her passions - for organic, ethical. 190 
SEX 
and social reasons, and for fear of consequences 
- may lead man to conclude quite erroneously 
that these passions are much less strong than 
his. 
The view of not a few experts is forcibly 
expressed by Mr. Heape (1913): "It is the 
fashion to talk glibly of the need for the sup- 
pression of brutal sexual instincts, of the 
control of sexual passion, and so forth. Such 
demands are made by woman and addressed 
to man as a perverted creature, as an abnor- 
mal product of civilisation. The fact is that 
woman's sexuality is on quite a different 
plane to that of man; she is wholly ignorant 
as a rule of man's normal requirements, and 
her virtuous demands, essentially designed for 
her own benefit as she conceives, are opposed 
to natural law." 
It is evident enough from our book that we 
do not regard the sexual instincts as "brutal," 
yet we are inclined to think that women have 
considerable justification for being more than 
a little hard on men. What does Mr. Heape or 
any one else know of man's "normal require- 
ments"? Can any one seriously doubt that 
most men are the better for the aids to sexual 
temperance? 
Our view of the matter is that sexual desire 
is quietened in most women because they are 
more moralised than men; because they are 
in the direction of sexuality more controlled, 
because they do not relinquish their first line 
of defence so readily as man does, and so on: 
but that there is also a physiological differ- 
ence. It is not so much, however, that the 
sexual desire is not insistent in woman, but THE ETHICS OF SEX 
191 
that she is so constituted that from wooing 
to consummation it takes longer for the brain 
to become eroticised, and for this to relax the 
control of the centres which normally inhibit 
response to sexual appeal. Hence, of course, 
the use of alcohol, which weakens all the 
control centres, in the devilish art of seduction. 
But quite as important is the psychical differ- 
ence, that woman is less self-regarding, that 
she keeps herself better in hand, that she is 
more parental, even to her lover. 
What of the common argument that the 
requirement of chastity should be less stringent 
in its application to man, because a woman 
cannot be physically the same again if she has 
been a mother, and in unchastity she runs this 
risk, whereas a man is physically unaffected 
by becoming a father? It can only be said 
that this popular apology is at once too ab- 
stract and too canine; it leaves out human 
considerations in pretending to emphasise them. 
Facing the Facts. - Never was there such 
free discussion of sex questions as in these 
days; and much there is to alarm the timid, 
much indeed to repel. But here as every- 
where the road lies forward, not back. We 
must grapple with each question, whoever be 
shocked; not shirk it, gloss it, retreat from it, 
in our feeble virtue. We must get at the 
facts - encouraging and disappointing; under- 
stand them; and then perchance see how to 
control them. 
What is the ideal of life? What but the blos- 
soming of noble (that is, pure) individuality, 
human and organic, into fulness, that is, of 
love, of sex? What better symbol (that is. 192 
SEX 
sign) of these than the lily? And what clearer 
word of literal revelation, what simpler yet 
deeper word of initiation to both art and 
science was ever spoken than in the ancient 
counsel and command, "Consider the lilies, 
how they grow"? 
Consider then the lily; face its elemental 
biologic-moral fact. "Pure as a lily" is not 
really a phrase of hackneyed sham morals; 
for it does not mean weak, bloodless, sexless. 
Its purity lies in that it has something to be 
pure; its glory is in being the most frank and 
open manifestation of sex in all the organic 
world. Its magnificent array is to show forth, 
not conceal: these wear their lucent argent for 
the passion-fragrant night, and these roll 
back their swart-stained robes of scarlet-orange 
to the sun-rich day; naked and not ashamed, 
glowing, breathing, warm, each flower showers 
forth its opulence of golden dust, stretches forth 
to welcome it in return. This, when we con- 
sider, is How they Grow. 
We must face then the elemental fact of sex 
and love, making much not little of it, enter- 
ing into it as into a great possession by which 
our own life and that of others may be enriched. 
And if there be strong love, much may be for- 
given - even when it sweeps men and women 
off their feet. Through history, love has cov- 
ered even the bar-sinister with its gold. 
For here primarily lies the secret of the 
strength and courage of William the Conqueror, 
here of the vivid heroism of Don John of 
Austria and many a hero more; and in the 
converse ill-assorted mariage de convenance 
lies half the cause of the sinister devilry of THE ETHICS OF SEX 
193 
Philip II, of Pedro the Cruel, of mad czars 
and imbecile kinglets without end. Here, in 
the virtuous, prudent, timid, sordid, cloister- 
ing of French maid and man, lies the old de- 
cadence of the nobles of France, and - in 
part at least - of its analogue among the 
wealthy and governing classes of to-day. Simi- 
larly, in Scotland, in the exceptional freedom 
in marriage choice, in love-choice (illegitimacy 
and all), is one of the root explanations of the 
organic vigour, of the ingenium perfervidum 
of a strenuous race. There may, of course, be 
base-born children without wedlock, but there 
are also too many base-born with it. 
Are we therefore attacking marriage - " sap- 
ping the foundations of morality," as foolish 
people always say when they are asked to face 
facts? Not so, but defending marriage, re- 
defining it; making clear its fundamental and 
indispensable nature - the mutual selection of 
congruent types, at the culmination of organic 
and psychic life. We are deepening, therefore, 
the foundations of morality. 
Over-toleration often means both moral and 
intellectual slackness, but we submit that so- 
cial judgments on passionate lapses from the 
virtue of control may be unreasonably and un- 
profitably severe. When the lover and his 
lass lose their heads before they marry, their 
loss of self-control will certainly not make their 
married life happier; but it may have a virtue 
which the "marriage for money," with all its 
respectability, never approaches. It is pos- 
sible that the ignoble may ignobly use our 
words as a cloak for lust or for the devilry of 
seduction, but our apology is for love, and we 194 
SEX 
side with Meredith: "Say not the mad, say the 
enamoured woman. Love is a madness, having 
heaven's wisdom in it - a spark. But even 
when it is driving us on the breakers, call it 
love; and be not unworthy of it, hold to it." 
What the incontinent lovers have done is 
to spoil a very fine thing, but it does not merit 
social ostracism or lasting obloquy. It was 
not very long ago a general practice in some 
parts of the civilised world, sometimes lingering 
as a survival of barbarism, sometimes delib- 
erately countenanced as a rough way of dis- 
covering whether the woman chosen could 
become a house-mother or not. In any case, 
our point is that those lovers who lost control 
have done far less harm to social stability than 
does the man who cannot look at a woman 
without lusting after her, and far less harm than 
the syphilitic who turns from his whoring to 
poison his unsuspecting wife, and kill or blind 
or rot their child. 
When all is said, however, it must be ad- 
mitted that irregularity in love-making is 
a bad start, and that there must be some good 
reason for the ancient and widespread social 
infamy of the bastard. The reason is two- 
fold. First, because too often the psychical 
element is wanting, and then there is no mar- 
riage at all, but mere pairing of the lower 
animal sort; though perhaps even this is bet- 
ter than the pairing of the lower plant sort 
which is the ideal of the mariage de conven- 
ance. Second, because mating, physical and 
psychic, can only be full and true when it is 
permanent - that is, when it goes on evolving 
throughout the lives it intertwines. THE ETHICS OF SEX 
195 
We have taken one instance of the need 
for a revision, or at any rate rethinking, of 
social judgments, and within our limits it 
must serve. But the reconsideration must be 
extended to other cases, sometimes perhaps 
confirming, sometimes perhaps modifying, cur- 
rent views. Confirming, for instance, the 
sanctity of marriage, for even apart from 
the claims and bonds of offspring and of so- 
ciety, the biological and psychic ideal is of 
permanent monogamy; the "primitive promis- 
cuity" of which we used to hear so much being 
in the main an ugly dream, a disease-utopia 
of city degeneration under domestication, and 
probably not at any place or time a phase in 
the main line of human evolution. 
In the reconsideration which is being forced 
upon us, three principles must be kept in mind: 
(1) Sex is a cardinal fact of life and one of the 
prime movers of progress. It has been well 
said that "there is gold and clay, sunlight and 
savagery, in every love-story." To increase 
the proportions of gold and sunlight is a task 
set all of us. (2) A sexually vicious habit of 
mind and body is something far more evil and 
destructive than is any single or even occasional 
lapse in temptation. (3) Irregularities in sex- 
ual behaviour or conduct have to be judged not 
merely by their effect on the individual, but 
by their influence on the race; and the latter 
influence may operate either organically through 
the channels of inheritance, or socially by af- 
fecting social institutions and social sentiment. 
Ideals. - Even lovers recognise in colder 
moments, and dramatist and moralist are con- 
stantly reminding them, that the complete 196 
SEX 
ideal has many elements, and that, alas! com- 
plete marriage is therefore mathematically 
unattainable for humanity - no such ideally 
complete physical, psychical, social, and ethical 
culmination of life being even definitely im- 
aginable. For, even granting the possibility 
of occasional perfection in either sex, we have 
a second improbability in the simultaneous 
occurrence of the ideally harmonious, yet 
contrasted type of the opposite sex, and a 
further improbability of their ever meeting. 
Hence appears one of the ways in which the 
ideal of celibacy is constantly reaffirming itself, 
and we understand better the monk and the 
nun, the misogynist and his counterpart. 
Remembering the mighty urge of nature, 
we say that this ideal of celibacy is "not nat- 
ural"; but this is to forget, for instance, the 
worker bees and ants and their vicarious 
parentage, the parallelism of bee-worker and 
woman-worker being almost painfully obvious. 
(Among the white ants half of the workers 
are arrested males). In the maidenly reluc- 
tance which meets the masculine counsel, "Do 
not refuse love if it be offered," with "I'll 
never marry if I can help it"-there are 
many elements. Some of these may be de- 
plored - such as miseducation, arrested de- 
velopment, hyper-fastidiousness, and a self- 
ish self-sufficiency; but there are others of 
a different sort, notably two. The reluc- 
tance to the loss of child-freedom, youth-free- 
dom, the shrinking from the older and more 
passive maternal life - is one main element. 
But there is also an anticipation of the fuller 
maturity which lies beyond sex-love alto- THE ETHICS OF SEX 
197 
gether, a recognition of a possibility (be this 
spiritual or social, as education, religion, or 
temperament may determine) of a paradise 
"in which there is neither marrying nor giving 
in marriage, but in which we are as the angels 
of God in heaven"-or in more modern and 
everyday (yet happily also, not unspiritual) 
phrase - a "Society of Friends." 
Is it not a little significant that it is a re- 
ligious society of that name who, taking them 
all over, seem more nearly to have realised their 
heaven upon earth? For to them the secular 
life of good deeds and social intercourse is 
most normally accompanied by the spiritual 
life. Is not this not merely in, but also largely 
through, that measure of sex-equality and sex- 
fellowship, beyond that of other faiths and 
churches? 
It should be noted, perhaps, that vigorous 
attempts were made in the early monastic 
times to establish mixed convents; and that 
these, despite all the difficulties and disap- 
pointments, did express a true ideal, namely, 
of co-operation, not separation, of the sexes. 
Despite of failures and shortcomings, this ideal 
has actually been realised in many ways - 
perhaps most effectively within recent years, 
albeit with a certain inevitable inhibition of 
distinctive sex-expression. Here, of course, is 
the great and pure, the ideal side of the Greek 
Hetairae, of the ideal Abbey of Thelema; 
here too lies the reasonable side of the conten- 
tions of the freest novelists, so far as these 
express the ideal of men and women working 
together in frank fellowship, making their dis- 
tinctive, yet mutually improved, contributions SEX 
198 
towards the betterment of the great human 
hive. 
But the question of questions, in which 
religions alone have so constantly failed, and 
which it is the task of science to help them to 
answer, is: What of the actual and practical 
present? How shall we reach this fuller per- 
fection of the human hive? Where has it 
been expressed in the world? Rarely, dimly, 
fantastically, if you will, yet surely in some 
measure in chivalry, which was no mere tem- 
poral ordering of things, still less an efflorescence 
of insincere sentimentality, but in large measure 
the provisional religion of Western Feudalism, 
which grappled more boldly than did the too 
passive orientalisms to which we have been wont 
to restrict the name religion, with the fundamen- 
tal problems of our daily life. 
In its noblest examples, the combination 
of activity with purity was practically reached; 
not evaded by help of separate cloister walls, 
as in the (so far profoundly less moral, however 
superficially more moral) discipline of monas- 
ticisms. For here lies the vital element of 
chivalry, that each sex not only expresses its 
own quality, its own superiority over the 
other, but uses this to develop the other. 
The natural courage of the youth was not 
only developed by the danger of the quest, 
but refined by its discipline and patience. 
For the woman also this meant more than 
affection and constancy: for she might be 
not his love, but his lady only, the serene 
expression of his ideals or their arousing voice, 
and thus not only suggest his general line of 
action, but keep up his moral attitude in it. THE ETHICS OF SEX 
199 
We are here reaching the fullest ideal of the 
woman-worker - she who works not merely 
or mainly for men as the help and instrument 
of their purpose, but who works with men as 
the instrument yet material of her purpose. 
Courage and Kindness. - What to aim at 
is clear, namely to set before man-child and 
maid-child, before lad and lass, man and 
woman, the elemental ideals of the sexes, of 
courage and affection. Let them, get them, 
set them to keep these respective ideals before 
each other. And so animal masculine courage 
combines with affection to rise into chivalry, 
magnanimous to others; the instinctive femi- 
nine affection rises through gain of courage 
into purity, reverential of self. 
How work this out in detail? It is incipient 
wherever children meet at play. Here and 
there a woman is sometimes facing it in her 
kindergarten; a schoolmaster in his athletic 
field, in his boy-scouts; but the elaboration, 
the development, the organisation of all this 
is the highest task of educators, of men and 
women mutually trained and strengthened. 
And here we are reaching the secret of the 
remoralisation of the sexes, of their highest 
individual possibilities, and this for and by 
lovers and celibates alike. Enough, however, 
if for the present we keep to the children. 
The boy's sword, the girl's doll; here nature 
gives the starting-points of the educator. 
Encourage, boldly develop, the game of war, 
let gun and trumpet have their little day, 
better now in nursery than later on imperial 
thrones. Drill and march, sham-fight and 
snow-fight; for it means discipline and valour; 200 
SEX 
it means geography too, in which is all the 
stuff of science; it means history, in which 
is the stuff of literature. From holding a 
mimic hill-fort as ancient Britons, or storming 
it as Roman conquerors, and reading their 
Caesar when tired of fighting, it is possible to 
advance through history with vivid, albeit 
simple, dramatisations. Fortification and en- 
gineering come in, experiments in peaceful 
handicraft - and discipline in enduring hard- 
ness - all half in play and half in earnest - at 
once a culture of courage and a preparation 
for life in the industrial world. Give them, 
too, with all this, story and song and ballad, 
give them individual banner and national 
flag, for here is the simplest concrete symbol 
of an ideal. These things done young enough, 
from war-game to peace-game the transition 
will be easy. 
But the girls meanwhile? Where are they? 
Enjoying the fun, of course, first of all; it is 
now no new physiology that laughter is trophic. 
How their presence intensifies the fighting, 
here rewards the victor, there consoles the 
vanquished, is surely an old story; surely, 
too, how they teach fair-play, and in turn 
learn it, as they learn courage also. These 
elemental matters seen to, we are in a position 
to proceed safely to higher stages. 
Let us set down our proposals clearly. Start- 
ing with the moral ideas of courage and kind- 
ness, we would discipline these in a correspond- 
ing practical life-drama; we would supply the 
corresponding intellectual instruction as need 
and opportunity arise; and we would have this 
carried out, as far as reasonably possible (and THE ETHICS OF SEX 
201 
that is far), for and by both sexes. In short, 
we would reverse much in present codes and 
conventions of education, that separate the 
children; that set but intellectual tasks, irrel- 
evant to their real life and interests, which are 
of play; that either starve practical activities or 
teach too tame and mechanical skills; that leave 
the untrained moral life, the inevitable sexual 
interest, to their fate amid evil chances. 
In Summary. - What we must aim at is 
something positive, not negative; at the culture 
not of control merely, though that is much, 
but of the chivalrous spirit as well. All through 
civilisation the finest spirits have held by the 
tradition of subliming sex-impulses by associat- 
ing then/ with the best that is in us. Sex is 
the physical condition of the finest possession 
we have; it offers opportunities by which wTe 
can build nobility into our lives. Our age is a 
difficult time of transition, but we cannot believe 
that men are going to drift away from the hon- 
ouring of women or from being able to love them 
out of a pure heart fervently. To serve an ap- 
prenticeship towards this chivalrous honour and 
controlled love of women is a great opportu- 
nity, and those who use it aright will by no means 
lose their reward. We do well to remember 
Comte's fine saying: "Between two beings so 
complex and so diverse as man and woman, 
the whole of life is not too long for them to 
know one another well and to learn to love 
one another worthily." SEX 
202 
CHAPTER X 
SEX AND SOCIETY 
Biological differences between man and woman - Role of 
men and women in evolution - Critical and constructive 
- Conclusion. 
To get a foundation from which to consider 
the role of the sexes in society, we must begin 
by referring to the structural and functional 
differences between Man and Woman. Prof. 
Arthur Keith's volume on The Human Body 
in this Library should be consulted in this 
connection. 
Biological Differences between Man and 
Woman. - We have here to do with a par- 
ticular case of the sex-dimorphism discussed 
in our fourth chapter. It is important to bear 
this commonplace in mind, for while there are 
undoubtedly differences between man and 
woman which are modificational or nurtural 
- the individual results of disparities or pe- 
culiarities in their education, training, and 
occupations, many of the differences are con- 
stitutional, inborn not made. They are in- 
trinsic, not tacked on; of ancient origin and 
therefore not liable to change quickly. They 
have a deep naturalness, and attempts to 
minimise them are not likely to spell prog- 
ress. Some are trivial, some important; 
but they appear to be correlated. They are 
expressions which have from time to time 
been given to a deep organic difference be- 
tween the sexes. They go through and through SEX AND SOCIETY 
203 
pervasively. As Havelock Ellis says: "A 
man is a man to his very thumbs and a woman 
is a woman down to her little toes." It is 
said that woman's eyelashes are in diameter 
a third thicker than man's. The differences 
can be read in the proportions of the body; in 
the composition of the blood; in the number 
of red blood-corpuscles; in the pulse; in the 
periodicity of growth; and in the amount of salt 
in the composition of the body. 
There is a whole series of anatomical facts 
which support the generalisation that in certain 
respects man's body is more specialised, going 
further away from the youthful and primitive 
type. This cannot be explained away as wholly 
due to difference in activities. It is partly 
connected with the fact that man is longer in 
reaching maturity. 
Ranke notes that the typical female form 
has a relatively longer trunk, shorter arms, 
legs, hands, and feet; relatively to the short 
upper arms still shorter forearms, and rela- 
tively to short thighs still shorter lower legs, 
and relatively to the whole short upper ex- 
tremity a still shorter lower extremity - 
and so on. In short, the woman is a less mus- 
cular, less motor type. 
The differences in the relative length of 
the limb-bones, and in the size and curves 
of the component parts of the pelvis, are 
observable at birth, but they may be obscured 
for a time by the different growth periods 
in the boy and girl. Thus the girl's period 
of most rapid increase in height falls usually in 
the twelfth and thirteenth year, while the boy's 
does not begin till the fourteenth and fifteenth 204 
SEX 
year, and the period of increase in weight 
begins correspondingly earlier in the girl. 
Much has been written about the difference 
in cranial capacity, but there is no certainty 
as to what that implies. Accurate measure- 
ments of the skull have been taken many times, 
and they show, according to Ranke and others, 
that the circumference of the skull is absolutely 
greater in the male, but relatively greater 
in the female. As to brain development, 
out of all the statements by later investigators 
the only half-certainty that emerges is that 
the central region, the seat of the voluntary 
movements, is rather more highly developed 
in the male. 
Physiologists have of late years devoted much 
attention to the investigation of the glands of 
internal secretion, but it is too soon to general- 
ise as to sex-differences. Bucura lays stress 
on the fact that the thyroid gland is not only 
relatively larger in woman but "plays an enor- 
mously greater role in her life." The same 
is true to some extent of the pituitary body, 
which never entirely loses the increased weight 
gained in pregnancy. 
It is to be noted that while these anatomical 
sex-differences may be very slight in themselves, 
especially in non-typical individuals, the sum 
of them presents a picture which is quite 
unmistakable. 
Tests show that the muscular strength of 
men is much greater than that of women. Of 
course the comparison must be made between 
those physically trained. Miss Helen B. 
Thompson's careful experiments confirmed the 
general verdict that women have much less SEX AND SOCIETY 
205 
muscular force than men. Feats like those 
of Newhaven fishwives in bygone days are well 
known; but on the whole man is the more 
muscular type, and especially stronger in 
relation to isolated feats and spasmodic ef- 
forts. 
Probably correlated is the quality often 
called "energy,"-the characteristic mascu- 
line restlessness. We may speak of woman's 
constitution and temper as more conservative, 
of man's as more unstable. Man is more 
given to experiment both with his body and 
his mind, and with other people. Compared 
with women, men show greater frequency 
of genius, insanity, idiocy, crime, and many 
kinds of anomalies. In the same connection 
we notice that man uses more oxygen and 
combustible material, and has more waste in 
consequence; that man's blood has a higher 
specific gravity, more red blood-corpuscles, 
more haemoglobin; that, in short, man is the 
relatively more active type. 
Of some significance, again, is the relatively 
great tenacity of life in women. They are 
longer lived. Alike in infancy and in old 
age they show a greater power of resisting 
death. Indeed at every age, except fifteen to 
twenty, their tenacity of life is greater than 
man's. Their constitution has staying quali- 
ties, probably wrapped up with femaleness. 
We have said enough to illustrate the differ- 
ences between man and woman; three general 
impressions are suggested by the inquiry. The 
first is that the differences are correlated, they 
hang together, they are outcrops of the deep 
fundamental distinction. We may say that 206 
SEX 
the tenacity of life, the longer life, the charac- 
teristic endurance, the greater resistance to 
disease, the smaller percentage of genius, in- 
sanity, idiocy, suicide, and crime, and so on, 
are all correlated with the distinctively female 
constitution, which may be theoretically re- 
garded as relatively more constructive in its 
protoplasmic metabolism. 
Secondly, the correlation of differences in- 
cludes the mental as well as the bodily, for we 
cannot separate them. We may assert this on 
general grounds which lead us to recognize 
the unity of the organism; but it can also 
be proved, in indirect ways at least. Thus 
we may refer to Karl Pearson's beautiful 
demonstration that the inheritance of well- 
defined psychical characters can be formulated 
like that of physical characters. "We inherit 
our parents' tempers, our parents' conscien- 
tiousness, shyness, and ability, as we inherit 
their stature, forearm, and span." The psy- 
chical characters are inherited in the same 
way, and at the same rate as the physical. 
Thirdly, we would guard against the tempta- 
tion to sum up the contrast of the sexes in 
epigrams. We regard the woman as the rela- 
tively more anabolic, man as the relatively 
more katabolic; and whether this biological 
hypothesis be a good one or not, it certainly 
does no social harm. But when investigators 
begin to say that woman is more infantile and 
man more senile; that woman is "undeveloped 
man" and man an evolved woman; we get 
among generalisations crude if not unscientific 
and practically dangerous. Not least dan- 
gerous of these generalisations is one of the SEX AND SOCIETY 
207 
most familiar, that man is more variable than 
woman, that the raw materials of evolution 
make their appearance in greatest abundance 
in man. There seems to be no secure basis 
for this generalisation; it is still doubtful 
whether any generalisation of the kind is. 
feasible. Karl Pearson has made seventeen 
groups of measurements of different parts of 
the body; in eleven groups the female is more 
variable than the male, and in six the male 
is more variable than the female. More- 
over, the differences of variability are slight, 
less than those between members of the same 
race living in different conditions. Further- 
more an elementary remark may be pardoned. 
Since inheritance is bi-parental, and since va- 
riation means some peculiarity in the inherit- 
ance, a greater variability in men, if true, 
would not mean that men as such had any 
credit for varying. The stimulus to variation 
may have come from the mother as well as 
from the father. If proved, it would only 
mean that the male constitution gives free 
play to the expression of variations, which are 
kept latent in the female constitution. But 
what is probably true is that some variations 
find expression more readily in man, and 
others more readily in woman. 
In regard to the mental differences between 
men and women, there is great difficulty in 
making definite statements until more experi- 
ments have accumulated. Moreover it is 
in this domain particularly difficult to dis- 
criminate between extrinsic acquired differ- 
ences and intrinsic innate differences. It 
has been said that men have greater cerebral 208 
SEX 
variability and more originality, while women 
have greater stability and more common sense. 
It has been said that woman has the greater 
integrating intelligence, while man is stronger 
in differentiation. "The feminine passivity 
is expressed in greater patience, more open- 
mindedness, greater appreciation of subtle 
details, and consequently what we call more 
rapid intuition. The masculine activity tends 
to a greater power of maximum effort, of scien- 
tific insight, of cerebral experiment with impres- 
sions, and is associated with an unobservant 
or impatient disregard of minute details, but 
with a stronger grasp of generalities." 
Now it is "as easy as winking," as Carlyle 
said, to make statements like that, but their 
day is over. They are but guesses at truth with- 
out scientific precision. What we now require 
is an extension of experiments like those of 
Miss Helen B. Thompson. She found that 
the ability to make very delicate and minutely 
controlled movements was slightly better in 
men-students. But may not this be con- 
nected with the greater use of knives and 
other tools? Ability to co-ordinate move- 
ments rapidly to unforeseen stimuli is clearly 
better in women. Women-students showed a 
greater power of distinguishing the higher 
and the lower notes of the tuning-fork. But 
may this not be due to more early training 
in piano-playing or the like? The eye of the 
man-student was on the whole more sensitive 
to light. The men perceived weak rays which 
were not seen by the women. Can this have 
to do with more open-air life in the case of the 
men? The women distinguished colours better. SEX AND SOCIETY 
209 
But is this not the result of training? Yet it 
is a proved fact that colour-blindness of all 
degrees is more frequent in men. 
Women showed on the whole a better mem- 
ory; they learned by heart more easily and 
retained as well. They required rather less 
time for the association of ideas. The men 
showed a decided superiority in quickness 
of perception as far as comparison could be 
made. In general mental content no differ- 
ences could be established, naturally enough 
since all the subjects of the experiment had 
attended co-educational high schools. A few 
experiments are of more value than many 
platitudes, but the basis is still too narrow for 
safe generalisation. 
Exact experiment on these lines - first laid 
down by Fechner and Wundt - may yield us 
much valuable knowledge in regard to sex- 
differences in the senses and in mental content 
at the level of consciousness, but for the deeper 
psychological differences there must be added 
other methods of analysis. There is, perhaps, 
something to be hoped for along the lines of 
the "Enquete" or "Questionnaire" method 
so much used in America. This consists in 
sending out carefully framed series of questions, 
and collecting and comparing the answers, thus 
drawing upon the experience of teachers in 
schools and colleges, physicians and others 
with sufficient training and opportunity to give 
value to their observations. To this material 
must be added what can be gathered from bio- 
graphical writings, from tradition and general 
observation as crystallised in proverbs and 
legends. SEX 
210 
It is, as Bucura points out, especially in 
the domain of female psychology, that exact 
knowledge is lacking. Trained psychologists 
have hitherto been for the most part men, 
and they have dealt with general characters 
or with those of the male. And where the psy- 
chology of woman has been treated of, two or 
three possible sources of fallacy have to be 
taken into account. The male investigator 
may be reading his own psychological proc- 
esses into his subject, so that his conclusions 
"are more likely to throw light on his own psy- 
chology than on that of his subject"; he will 
tend to know well women who are more or less 
alike, that is, of the type which he personally 
prefers; and finally, in the case of an alienist or a 
physician, the women he has the opportunity 
of studying may be very far from the normal. 
Bucura refers to a paper by Heymans, "Die 
Psychologic der Frau" (Heidelberg 1910), as 
a good example of the combined method 
of exact experiment and analysis. Heymans 
agrees with most other authors in regarding 
women as much more emotional than men, 
and he refers many of the other sex-characters 
- such as incalculability, a tendency to self- 
sacrifice, and inferior sense of justice - to this 
greater emotionality, which has a physical 
basis and is correlated with the greater vaso- 
motor excitability. Other so-called feminine 
characters, such as dissimulation, and a lower 
regard for truth, he regards, with Finot, as 
merely the weapon of the weak, and maintains 
that they are no more marked in women than 
in men where there is a reasonable equality in 
their relations to one another. SEX AND SOCIETY 
211 
Interesting too, is Heymans' discussion of 
the "divination" or "intuition" of women, 
which he regards as due to the greater role 
played by the subconscious in them, the whole 
mental processes of association and deduction 
remaining subconscious and only the result 
emerging. In this connection, the analytical 
method of Freud and his school, which we have 
referred to in a previous chapter, is of great 
interest. 
Thanks to Weismann in particular, biologists 
have become vividly aware of the importance 
of discriminating between modifications and 
variations. Any one can see that there are 
differences between the members of a species; 
some of these can be shown to be due to pecu- 
liarities in the individual's "nurture" (food, 
atmosphere, surroundings, education, exercise, 
habits, etc.); and it is only when we subtract 
all these acquired modifications from the 
observed differences that we get at the inborn 
variations, the germinal new departures, which 
are the raw materials of evolution, and the 
basis of what we call individuality. 
Now it must be noted that the majority 
of even the current comparisons of men and 
women are vitiated by ignoring this familiar 
biological distinction. Woman is set up against 
man, or man against woman, to the disad- 
vantage of one or the other, without inquir- 
ing whether the opportunities of develop- 
ment, i. e. expression of the inheritance, have 
been approximately equal. It is of the very 
A B C of embryology that inherited char- 
acters require a succession of appropriate 
liberating stimuli if they are to develop. If 212 
SEX 
these stimuli are supplied to boy and youth, 
and denied to girl and maiden, no scientific 
comparison of innate ability is possible. It 
is obviously incumbent on inquiries to try to 
discriminate, in comparing Man and Woman, 
between the innate qualities of maleness and 
femaleness, masculinity and femininity, all re- 
quiring appropriate liberating stimuli, and 
those which are individually required as the 
direct result of peculiarities of "nurture." 
Along with these must be included the defects 
that are due to disuse, or to the absence of 
appropriate stimuli. 
Role of Men and Women in Evolution. 
- Man's work and woman's work form the 
warp and woof of civilisation, and the inter- 
twining is so intricate that the discrimination 
of contributions to any particular pattern is 
extremely difficult. We cannot do more than 
attempt to illustrate the respective roles of 
man and woman in evolution. We shall refer 
to the mother-age and the patriarchate of old, 
and the industrial revolution still of but yes- 
terday. The important general idea to be 
borne in mind is that our present social state 
is like a countryside with a complex geologi- 
cal structure, with outcrops of strata of very 
diverse ages. Barbarism is not dead; the 
mother-age still lingers; the patriarchate is in 
great force; - in short, in spite of our rapid 
social evolution there are abundant survivals 
in culture. 
The Mother-age. - "Prehistoric history" 
is hazardous, but there is a good case to be 
made out for the reality of a primitive " mother- 
age." This has been reconstructed from SEX AND SOCIETY 
213 
fossils found in the folk-lore of agriculture 
and housewifery, in old customs, ceremonies, 
festivals, dances, games, and sons; in myths 
and fairy-tales and age-worn words. 
Prof. Karl Pearson finds in the study of 
witchcraft some of the fossils that point back 
to the matriarchate. In the older traditions 
"the witch resumes her old position as the 
wise woman, the medicine woman, the leader 
of the people, the priestess." "We have 
accordingly to look upon the witch as essen- 
tially the degraded form of the old priestess, 
cunning in the knowledge of herbs and medi- 
cine, jealous of the rights and of the goddess 
she serves, and preserving in spells and in- 
cantations such wisdom as early civilisation 
possessed." The witch's weather-wisdom is 
congruent with the fact that women were the 
earliest agriculturists; her knowledge of herbs 
with that of the ancient medicine woman; 
her diablerie with the ancient group-relations 
of the sexes so different from what we call 
marriage to-day; her nocturnal dances with 
the ancient choruses of marriage-ripe maidens. 
The authority and the magic circle kept by 
her broom are those of hearth and floor in 
her primeval round-hut; and her distaff and 
pitch-fork, her cauldron, her cat and dog, are 
all in keeping with the role of woman in the 
mother-age. 
But there is another way, and that certainly 
not less reliable, by which we can arrive at 
some understanding of the mother-age, and 
howr it naturally came about, namely, by a 
study of our "contemporary ancestors," as 
they have been called, that is, of peoples who 214 
SEX 
linger on the matriarchal level. Such peoples, 
as well as others at the still lower nomad 
stage of civilisation, are to be found at this 
day in Australasia. 
While the purely nomad stage lasted, little 
progress could be made, because the posses- 
sions of a group were limited by the carrying 
powers of its members. But in a favourable 
forest spot a long halt was possible, the mothers 
were able to drop their babies, and give a 
larger part of their attention to the business 
of food-getting. As before, the natural forest 
products - roots and fruits, were gathered in, 
but more and more time and ingenuity were 
expended in making them palatable and in 
drying and storing them for future use. The 
plants in the neighbourhood, which were useful 
for food or for their healing properties, were 
tended and kept free of weeds, and by and 
by seeds of them were sown in cleared ground 
within easy reach of the camp. Animals 
gathered about the rich food-area, and were 
at first tolerated - certain negro tribes to-day 
keep hens about their huts, though they eat 
neither them nor their eggs - and later en- 
couraged as a stable source of food-supply. 
The group was anchored to one spot by its 
increasing possessions; and thus home-making, 
gardening, medicine, the domestication of ani- 
mals, and even agriculture, were fairly begun. 
Not only were all these activities in the hands 
of the women, but to them, too, were necessarily 
left the care and training of the young. 
The men, meantime, went away on warlike 
expeditions against other groups, and on long 
hunting and fishing excursions, from which SEX AND SOCIETY 
215 
they returned with their spoils from time to 
time, to be welcomed by the women with 
dancing and feasting. Hunting and war were 
their only occupations, and the time between 
expeditions was spent in resting and in holding 
interminable palavers and dances, which we 
may perhaps look on as the beginnings of 
parliaments and of music-halls. 
Whether this picture be accurate in detail 
or not, there is, at any rate, a considerable 
body of evidence pointing to the "matriar- 
chate" as a period during which women began 
medicine, the domestication of the smaller 
animals, the cultivation of vegetables, flax, 
and corn, the use of the distaff, the spindle, 
the broom, the fire-rake, and the pitchfork. 
In the mother-age inheritance of property 
passed through the mother; the woman gave 
her children her own name; husband and 
father were in the background - often far 
from individualised; and, indeed, too shadowy 
for wholesomeness; the brother and uncle 
were much more important; the woman was 
the depositary of custom, lore, and religious 
tradition; she was at least the nominal head 
of the family; and she had a large influence in 
tribal affairs. 
What can be inferred in regard to primeval 
days seems to bear out our view that certain 
differences of capacity between men and women 
are of remote origin and became organic very 
early. Man, stronger and more agile, was a 
hunter and a fighter; a premium was put on 
device and a certain kind of inventiveness; he 
came into wider relations than his women-folk. 
Male types without these qualities would be 216 
SEX 
eliminated; the surviving type would gradually 
become relatively masterful, restless, pugnacious, 
inventive, and co-operative - not by individual 
acquisition, though that would help indirectly, 
but by the hereditary accumulation of con- 
stitutional variations in the direction stated. 
That, at least, is our theory. And to the 
question, "But would the daughters not inherit 
their father's as well as their mother's quali- 
ties?" we must answer that it is one of the 
mysteries of inheritance that it is often sex- 
limited. That is, it remains latent in one 
sex, whether for lack of the appropriate liber- 
ating stimulus in the environment, or be- 
cause inhibited by the constitution of the or- 
ganism. 
In the same way, if the theory of the mother- 
age stands, we must regard woman as becoming 
very early the organic repository of other 
great capacities, complementary to man's. 
It is very interesting, if true, that women 
began domestication, agriculture, medicine - 
all of them what might be called "nurtural" 
activities. It is certain that woman was from 
the first organically more moral than man in 
relation to offspring; it is probable that she 
early developed a home-instinct congruent 
with her nature. 
The matriarchate gave way because woman 
made home-life too comfortable, because popu- 
lation increased and game decreased, be- 
cause man became more domesticated, and 
later on, less of a huntsman and correspond- 
ingly more of a worker. Moreover, between 
the tendency to masculine dictature always 
renewed by war, and the preponderance of the SEX AND SOCIETY 
217 
patriarchal order congruent with pastoralism, 
the position of the matriarchate could never 
have been a very stable or secure one. 
We are thus brought to the transition period 
when the matriarchate has lost its distinc- 
tive features and the patriarchate has not 
yet been differentiated. The kin-alderman 
usurps chief power in the group and dominates 
the women. "The property still passes through 
the women, but the king has taken possession 
of them. The sex-custom of the group has be- 
come exogamous, but property does not descend 
from father to son." This is a period to which 
hundreds of fairy tales refer, notably of the Ash- 
iepattle and Cinderella type, in which the son 
of the people, helped by the wise woman to 
whom he is kind in the forest, travels to another 
kingdom, and, after exploits, marries the king's 
daughter and inherits his domain. 
Patriarchal Period. - Let us now turn 
for a little to the definitely patriarchal period, 
with early phases of which the Old Testament 
has made us familiar, in which descent through 
the male line has been established, in which 
women have lost most of their communal 
influence. To this day some will speak of 
"the head of the house," going back to the 
time of the tribal father with his subject wives, 
when the women of the house did not inherit 
property, but were property. 
It is the fashion of some - women especially 
- to find nothing but abuse for the patriarchal 
order, but the nature of things is to some 
extent independent of their organisational form. 
"For forms of government let fools contest; 
whate'er is best administered is best" may be 218 
SEX 
a mugwump's doctrine, but there is some 
sense in it. Given sound economic conditions, 
wholesome occupations, a country life, a healthy 
stock, and a good-going controversy between 
character and ideals, and perhaps it does not 
matter very much whether the framework is 
patriarchal or matriarchal. But when things 
go wrong - and that is often - then organisa- 
tional form becomes important, as a means to an 
end. What is plain is that there was black and 
white in all the periods. The patriarchate 
may imply domestic tyranny, even unto this 
day, but not necessarily. Thus Prof. Earl 
Barnes reminds us that the Hebrew woman of 
the Proverbs shows us "a singularly free and 
secure industrial position." Man's jealousy 
on behalf of his wife may have implied Moslem- 
like restrictions, but it was also a factor in 
developing a tradition of respect. That many 
of us look forward to more active sexual se- 
lection on the part of women does not hinder us 
from recognising that the patriarch's sexual se- 
lection, perhaps a little bucolic, may not have 
been a bad thing for the race, nor for women 
either. 
Again, it was probably in the early days 
of the patriarchate that capable women began 
the well-concealed art, in which they were 
till lately past-mistresses, of governing in- 
directly. It is indeed remarkable to notice 
how many great men who have made history, 
have had their Egeria, and this in any and 
every line of life, from Pericles with his Aspasia 
to Luther and Katharina. 
In the course of its evolution the patriarchal 
dispensation encountered many modifying in- SEX AND SOCIETY 
219 
fluences. Chief and most penetrating of these 
was Christianity. There is room for a long 
discourse here, but we can only allude to 
four points. The first is the far-reaching 
effect of a belief in the value of the individual 
soul. It is very noteworthy that a due valua- 
tion of women and a due recognition of the 
worth of the individual go hand in hand. 
The re-assertion of the freedom of the indi- 
vidual at the Reformation had some com- 
plement in an improved attitude to women, 
and other examples might be given. This 
is one of the reasons why the Woman-cause 
and the Labour-cause must go together. The 
second point is simply that the genius of Chris- 
tianity which sublimed the commonplace tasks 
of life into an apprenticeship of the heavenly 
citizen, also made for the ennoblement of every 
human relationship, including marriage. What 
Christianity in essence should have meant for 
women, must be distinguished from what ac- 
tually came about. And again, while biologists 
cannot but regard the celibate ideal as erroneous 
for the individual and disastrous in its racial 
consequences by removing so many of the 
best ears from any share in the seed-corn, 
and dissent from the false shame which did 
long and lingering harm by branding sex as 
animal or even devilish, we must recognise 
all the great work the church did in opening 
avenues of culture and of usefulness to Plato's 
children of the spirit. 
The period of chivalry, too, was not without 
its great influence. There was a beneficent 
humanisation of feeling towards women. The 
ladies were defended and honoured and ideal- 220 
SEX 
ised, often obeyed; and the working-women 
got considerable protection with a new kindli- 
ness. The well-known and diagrammatic il- 
lustration that the woman with child had a 
right to game and fish from the lord's pre- 
serves, and a right to gather in fields and 
orchards, points forward to a kind of pro- 
tection which the socialistic sentiments of 
our modern civilisation, as they reach towards 
concrete expression, may again sanction and 
develop. 
Some students of the chivalrous period 
have pointed out, and with some authority of 
scholarship as well as reason, that the domi- 
nant attitude of man to woman during the 
chivalrous age was that of every militarist 
period - that of the Cave Man, the forceful 
master. It is enough to admit the common- 
place that each thesis, from that of the matri- 
archate to that of the most modern femi- 
nism, from that of the patriarchate to that of 
the anti-suffragists, has its corresponding an- 
tithesis. 
Christianity did much for the status of 
women, increasing culture did much, and 
women-geniuses did much, but the general 
ideas of the patriarchate required another 
kind of hammer to break them - and that 
hammer was economic. "The commercial 
and industrial system, and the general diffu- 
sion of education that has accompanied it, 
and which has also its roots in economic causes, 
has been the chief motive force in revolutionis- 
ing the status of women." 
The ordinary household industries - spin- 
ning, weaving, storing, and the like, which SEX AND SOCIETY 
221 
were economically so important that they ab- 
sorbed the energies, not of the house-mother 
alone, but of all the unmarried females of a 
family, gradually dwindled in importance. 
Enormous numbers of young women were 
partly driven by necessity, but partly also 
attracted by prospects of independence, into 
working in or for the factories, and thus the 
authority of the head of the household was 
weakened. Even the house-mother herself 
was often forced into outside labour, and the 
distinctive features of the patriarchal home 
disappeared. 
But there were equally important if less 
directly obvious effects on the relatively com- 
fortable classes. Many of the activities of 
the middle-class woman became superfluous, 
since the same results could be less expensively 
attained by mechanical means. Improvements 
in household arrangement lightened domestic 
toil, and many a wife, who could afford to have 
help for the harder part of the work, found 
that the administrative duties which remained 
afforded a wholly insufficient outlet for her ener- 
gies. Even the essential function of mother- 
hood was not left unaffected, for actual number 
of births ceased to be a criterion of social worth, 
as brain replaced muscle in importance. It is 
interesting that this point finds definite ex- 
pression in modern literature. In Brieux's 
play, Maternity, for instance, when the fall- 
ing birth-rate is being discussed at a meeting 
of mayors, when the argument that agri- 
culture requires an increase of population is 
urged, the farmer among them replies: "I 
have a reaping and binding machine; it does 222 
SEX 
the work of a dozen men, and only cost a 
thousand francs. A child costs more." 
Mrs. Olive Schreiner, in her recent book, 
points out that at this stage, as at many other 
times in the history of civilisation, the danger 
of what she calls sex-parasitism, became acute. 
We owe to this noble writer a fine historical 
analysis of this corruptio optimi pessima, though 
perhaps she exaggerates the economic factors 
at the expense of the psychological. By the 
sex-parasitism of woman is meant the condition 
of dependence for support on the performance 
of her sex-function alone, or even on "her mere 
potentiality in the direction of a duty which 
she may never fulfil." Mrs. Schreiner's thesis 
is that the parasitism of the female has peri- 
odically come in as a great middle term be- 
tween the anti-social accumulation of wealth 
on the part of the dominant class or race and 
the degeneracy and ineffectiveness of the males, 
which is followed of course by racial decline. 
Critical and Constructive. - We have 
outlined the biological view that there is a 
deep constitutional distinction between man 
and woman, and that this finds expression in 
a large number of detailed differences, which 
are natural in origin and natural also in having 
survived ages of elimination. Coming now, 
to practical theses, we may notice first that 
some of the educational and occupational 
differentiations of man and woman in past 
times have been harmonious and consistent 
with the fundamental divergence. It seems 
consistent that men should fight, if there 
must be fighting; and that women should 
nurse, when nursing is necessary. Man hunted SEX AND SOCIETY 
223 
and explored, woman made the home and 
brought up the children. Man sailed the seas, 
woman developed home industries. Woman 
is naturally a teacher of the young, a domesti- 
cator, a gardener, and so on. Scores of these 
harmonious differentiations still exist. 
This historical commonplace need not be 
elaborated; but it suggests several remarks 
of importance. (1) When we say that this 
or that occupational differentiation is natural 
to woman, we do not simply mean that it 
has been sanctioned by convention. We 
mean that it is congruent with femaleness, 
that it occurs in many races and countries, 
and that it has stood for a long time the test 
of eliminative selection. (2) The harmless 
historical commonplace has sometimes been 
used to discourage the education of women 
and the widening of her share in the world's 
work. "Her place is in the home," it is said. 
To which it might be answered, firstly, that 
much depends on the nature of the home. 
It was a very many-sided home in which 
woman evolved. And, secondly, that in the 
present condition of things, in Britain, for 
instance, a very large number of women never 
have what most men and women mean by 
a home. (3) And, again, the historical com- 
monplace has sometimes been used by those 
who are women's best, if not always wisest, 
friends. Some who have a firm grip of the 
fact that women are wives and mothers at 
heart, who are also influenced by the preva- 
lent technical education fallacy of our day, 
have advocated a more predominantly do- 
mestic and maternal education for girls. But 224 
SEX 
there are great dangers in exaggerating what 
in moderation is sound enough. A broadly 
educated intellectually alert mother means 
much for the mental atmosphere of the home, 
and that means much for the children. But 
an over-emphasised domestic education is apt 
to force a premature development of mental 
and perhaps bodily instincts, which in many 
cases will find no realisation in life. 
Our second thesis is the converse of the 
first. It is that coercive differentiations in- 
consistent with the natural distinction have 
often been attempted, with unfortunate results. 
This misdifferentiation of women demands, 
like the harmonious differentiation of women, 
a careful historical survey, but we cannot give 
more than a few diagrammatic illustrations. 
Women have been used to draw the plough 
and to work in the mine; they are still em- 
ployed as coal-heavers. They are still too 
often to be seen bent and worn by severe 
physical tasks. Much of this is disappearing, 
but it is still necessary to say that the use of 
woman for functions which should be dis- 
charged by a beast of burden illustrates mis- 
differentiation. It is destructive of the indi- 
vidual; it is not less destructive of the vigour 
of the race if it occur during the years of child- 
bearing and child-rearing. 
Let us pass to a very different instance - 
the taking of the veil, once regarded as the 
highest devotion of a woman's life. Everyone 
recognises the beautiful significance of the 
step in particular cases, and the social utility 
of those who age after age have been truly 
called sisters of mercy; but this does not lessen SEX AND SOCIETY 
225 
the disadvantageous influence of an ideal 
that renounced most of the natural activities 
of woman and involved an indubitably great 
loss to the quality of the race by its segrega- 
tion of many of the finest types. 
But we do not require to go beyond the 
present for illustrations. Economic condi- 
tions are compelling women, in competition 
with men, into occupations and situations 
which are too hard for them, where the strain 
is too great, especially in adolescence, and 
where regularity of attendance is so stringently 
enforced that health suffers. Where sex is 
ignored and where no allowance is made for 
maternity, there is bound to be misdifferen- 
tiation. Where mothers are concerned it is 
certain that the wear and tear, the strain and 
continuity of the modern competitive system, 
whether in professional life or among hand- 
workers, must be prejudicial. 
What to do is another matter. Much will 
depend on the growing organisation of woman- 
workers, much will depend on the developing 
social sentiment and the legislation to which 
that leads. Just as there is the beginning of 
the insurance of women against a possible 
spinster-poverty, so there is the beginning of 
a state-recognition of the fundamental ser- 
vice of motherhood. And as there is social 
sentiment that rewards the victims of war 
with Glory and Pensions, is it too much to 
hope for progressive social sentiment which 
will equally reward the victims of Maternity? 
A stock argument used in defence of unequal 
political treatment of men and women is that 
men, in the long run, may be called upon 226 
SEX 
to do what women cannot be expected to do 
- namely fight. But to be set against this 
is the fact that men are not expected to bear 
children. 
It may be said, however, that this incon- 
gruent differentiation that we have been speak- 
ing about is of less importance, seeing that 
most of the women-workers are unmarried. 
Of less importance, doubtless, but of great 
importance still. Not only in affecting the 
national expense of caring for invalids, but 
also in prejudicially affecting the prevalent 
feminine type - the significance of which may 
be realised without going deeply into social 
psychology. It must be remembered that 
although many of these girl-workers and 
women-workers remain unmarried, it is from 
among their ranks that the mass of wives 
and mothers come. 
To everyone, of course, it is obvious enough 
that girls and women do not strain themselves 
for fun, but because they are in the grip of an 
apparent economic necessity. This may be 
sadly true, but it is the biologist's business to 
consider things biologically not economically, - 
to point out inevitable consequences irrespec- 
tive of costs. As a matter of fact, the con- 
ditions of work for women, as for men, are 
modifiable, and they have in many cases been 
greatly improved. But what has to be steadily 
faced is the fact that misadjustment leads to 
biological inefficiency, which is terribly expen- 
sive for the race. Biological efficiency is the 
silver at least of our national wealth; while 
money is but its bronze or nickel. 
Critics of the feminist movement have SEX AND SOCIETY 
227 
urged that one of the most obvious misdiffer- 
entiations of woman is seen in the absurd 
attempts to over-educate her. This is much 
more than a jibe. It must be admitted, for in- 
stance, that one of the serious difficulties that 
confronts us is the alleged relatively great 
infertility of types and stocks of high intel- 
lectual and social efficiency - for it is urged 
that the infertility is the nemesis of higher ed- 
ucation and of individuation generally. Her- 
bert Spencer argued that reproductivity de- 
creases as individuation increases, and there 
is a considerable body of biological evidence 
in support of this generalisation. It must be 
observed, however, that we have no proof that 
high individuation directly lessens fertility. 
What the evidence from the animal kingdom 
shows is this, that when birds, for instance, 
were evolved with big brains and strong pa- 
rental care, it was possible to survive with 
very much smaller families: those types that 
varied towards better brains and more parental 
care on the one hand, and towards economised 
reproductivity on the other, were naturally 
the survivors. But it was not the heightened 
individuation that directly lowered the rate 
of multiplication, although as individuation 
increased it became possible for the multipli- 
cation to be decreased. It must be observed, 
also, that part of the reduced fertility may be 
due to hypernutrition and the like, to the 
frequent absence of love-marriages, to selfish 
celibacy and selfish non-maternity. The highly 
individuated high castes of Brahmins and 
Rajputs show none of the usual dwindling 
tendency. 228 
SEX 
It is conceivable that the endeavour after 
self-realisation at a high level of culture may 
be so strenuous that it induces conditions 
tending against the making of good wives 
and mothers, but it can hardly be maintained 
that the deplored results are inevitable or 
intrinsically connected w'ith the education. 
They are partly due to fictitious obstacles 
thrown in the way of feminine education. 
But to admit that artificial and readily alter- 
able conditions may tell against what the 
Germans call full motherhood and strong 
children, is a very different matter from ad- 
mitting that higher education is, biologically 
considered, bad for the race. 
Here it may be fitting to refer to the ever- 
returning suggestion that the intellectuals 
among women should keep themselves free 
for work in the world which needs them so 
badly, and should leave it to their more placid, 
less ambitious, less intellectual sisters to be 
the wives and mothers. Those who admire 
the bee-hive will even point to it in support 
of their thesis, for the queen-mother's brain 
does not develop so well as that of the workers. 
But the biological objection is just the same 
as against nunneries. We cannot countenance 
a theory which deliberately leaves maternity 
to the less intellectual. In addition to the 
clever mother's contribution to the organic 
inheritance of the child, there is the hardly 
less important nurtural influence in the home. 
The idea of leaving maternity to a docile 
and domesticated type, of cow-like placidity, 
while the intellectuals run the world, is quaintly 
non-biological. SEX AND SOCIETY 
229 
We come, in conclusion, to the third side 
of our thesis, - that the lines of evolution to 
be followed are those which seem likely to 
make the most of the deeply rooted organic 
distinction between male and female, and to 
make the most of those masculine and feminine 
characteristics that have proved themselves 
for ages of vital value. 
Taking a simple illustration first, we submit 
that Man - both male and female - is a very 
slowly varying organism, though he hides his 
persistence of type under ever-changing gar- 
ments of acquirement and convention. In 
spite of affection and pose there is still a whole- 
some abundance of that mutual attractiveness 
of complementaries which has given a spice to 
life from the beginning, and is of enormous bio- 
logical importance. We venture to say that 
attempts to lessen the old-fashioned natural 
differences are to be regarded with extreme 
suspicion. There is a wholesome natural 
prejudice against the masculine woman and 
the feminine man. What an engine of progress 
there is in sexual selection, we shall more clearly 
realise when economic conditions make more 
discriminate preferential mating on the woman's 
part possible. 
And if it be important, as we have just 
hinted, that the culture of the body should 
be congruent with the fundamental distinction 
between male and female, and should make 
the most of the normal masculine and feminine 
attractions, the same is true in regard to the 
contrasted intellectual qualities of, let us say, 
mental experiment on the one hand, and rapid 
intuitive insight on the other, as also for the 230 
SEX 
complemental moral qualities of courage and 
affection. We have perhaps got away from 
the stupid survival of discussing the superior- 
ity of one sex or the other; but we have not 
sufficiently freed ourselves from obscurantism, 
since we are so slow to act constructively, in 
education, for instance, in the way of making 
the most of the complementary differences. 
Thus in the prolonged discussion over the 
pros and cons of co-education, how rarely 
has it been pointed out that neither method 
is ideal, for it is quite plain that boys and girls, 
men and women, should be taught together 
for certain reasons, and taught separately 
for certain other reasons. There are different 
studies, and different modes of presentation 
for the two sexes, if we are to make the most 
of their respective excellences. As Alsberg 
has said: "The real task of the feminist is to 
devise an education for girls so that they 
shall be capable of earning their living and 
sharing in the world's work and yet remain fit 
for the future wifehood and motherhood." 
Another step leads us to the technical edu- 
cation for the professions, and here the bio- 
logical counsel must be the same - that we 
should seek to make the most of the comple- 
mentary qualities. One of the keenest of 
intellectual combatants has said that, apart 
from maternity, the woman of strong physique 
or strong intellect may excel in any pursuit 
whatever her average male compeer. With 
this we entirely agree, but we submit that it 
profits national efficiency more when gifted 
women do what no man could do so well, 
or when men and women work together as SEX AND SOCIETY 
231 
naturally as they once played together. We 
must be content with one illustration. It is 
well that medical schools and medical posts 
should be open to women of special aptitude. 
There must be free experiment if social ef- 
ficiency is to be attained. But from our gen- 
eral biological point of view, it seems that 
the most promising line of experiment would 
be that of providing specialised education 
for medical women - not "easier" or "lower," 
or any nonsense of that sort, but different 
- so that there might arise not duplication 
of one type of medical servant in the State, 
but two distinct types of medical servant. 
It must be urgently emphasised, however, that 
the fittest medical education for women is not 
likely to be that which men, in their wisdom, 
prescribe, but that which women, with a free 
hand, work out for themselves. 
It is an ordinary rule of life that we try to 
find out the kind of work which is natural 
to us, and seek to make the most of our par- 
ticular machinery, keeping economy of energy 
as well as efficiency in view. And our main 
thesis is just this same simple one applied 
to man and woman, that the most hopeful 
line of evolutionary experiment is that which 
seeks to make the most of the deep organic 
differences which were rooted long ago in 
the lowest parts of the earth. As Ellen Key 
has declared, to put women to do men's work 
is as foolish as to set a Beethoven or a Wagner 
to do engine-driving. 
If we suppose, as we may continue to do 
for some time yet, that most women wish to 
have homes and husbands and children, we 232 
SEX 
have to face the problem of combining mater- 
nity and citizenship, production and repro- 
duction. As Prof. Karl Pearson wrote in his 
famous essay on "Woman and Labour" (1904): 
"The race must degenerate if greater and 
greater stress be brought to force woman 
during the years of child-bearing into active 
and unlimited competition with man. Either 
a direct premium is placed upon childlessness, 
upon a crushing out of the maternal instincts 
on which the stability of society essentially 
depends, or woman has a double work to do 
in the world, and she can only do it at the 
cost of the future generation." How, the same 
author asks, can woman continue to do freely 
what she alone can do for society and yet have 
full power to control hei' own special activities 
and develop her own individual life; in short, 
feel herself a free citizen of a free State? 
Just as a large class of the male community 
has accepted the special protection of labour, 
so, Pearson maintains, women must do when 
their movement becomes more solidary. In 
certain careers we already see capable women 
giving men points and beating them hollow. 
But even at this level they might be the better 
for special social protection; for instance, 
that a combination of professional work and 
maternity might be possible. But when we 
consider the growing ranks of working woman- 
kind - dressmakers, clerks, typewriters, de- 
signers, etc. - we see the force of the argu- 
ment that a demand for special legislation 
and special protection must replace the cry 
for equality of opportunity which marked the 
earlier stages of the woman's emancipation SEX AND SOCIETY 
233 
movement. "To reconcile maternal activity 
with the new possibilities of self-development 
open to women is par excellence the woman's 
problem of the future. It is not one which 
can be solved by 'equality of opportunity,' 
but solely by the recognition of maternity as 
an essentially social activity, by the institution 
of some form of national insurance for mother- 
hood, and by the correlated restriction and 
regulation of woman's labour." 
Towards these ends the enfranchisement of 
women is a means, justified for that end; and 
also rendered almost imperative as a removal 
of an inhibition which has very detrimental 
effects on the minds of many men. 
Whereas the British phase of the woman's 
movement has been most marked by the cry 
for political justice to one half of mankind, 
the German, or wider Teutonic and Scandi- 
navian movement may be described "as based 
on the demands of woman the mother, and 
as directed to the end of securing for her the 
right to control and regulate the personal 
and social relations which spring from her 
nature as mother or possible mother." In 
fact instead of "Votes for Women" the cry is 
" Mutterschutz," for the mothering of mothers. 
Of course, as Havelock Ellis says, "these 
German women fully recognise that women are 
entitled to the same human rights as men, 
and that until such rights are attained 'femi- 
nism' has still a task to achieve." 
It rests with women, in increasing measure, 
to control reproduction, spacing out the child- 
births, or even avoiding the production of 
undesirable children. It rests with women. 234 
SEX 
in increasing measure, to secure that the 
mother is no longer exhausted by too con- 
tinuous maternity - an alleviation of which 
would also yield a better quality of babies. 
It rests with women also to use the powerful 
lever of sexual selection, by giving the pref- 
erence to mates who are more likely to beget 
"super-men" (of either sex, of course). Woman 
should not be too hard on the tyrants of the 
patriarchate, for they probably helped to 
evolve her beauty, but only a partisan will 
deny that sexual selection has been one-sided 
for many centuries. As women attain to eco- 
nomic independence, sexual selection will be- 
come better balanced. 
Let us again emphasise our point that the 
evolution of civilisation has brought us to 
face problems which women are more capable 
of solving than men. The responsibilities of 
women are correspondingly great. "An en- 
lightened culture of motherhood," eugenic 
practice in regard to child-bearing, the educa- 
tion of the young child - these are essentially 
woman's problems. And if we are to look 
hopefully to the future, she must face up to 
taking her share in readjusting marriage laws, 
in working out specialised lines of education, 
in trying to lessen sweated labour, and in 
helping to solve the problem now so closely 
bound up with it of prostitution. 
The scientific position must be sceptical 
and careful. Civilisation is so complex and 
changeful that not the wisest can see more 
than a few moves ahead. It is like looking 
at the development of an animal whose adult 
form is unknown; we see a group of cells here SEX AND SOCIETY 
235 
and another there, and we think that they 
are shaping as if they were predestined to 
become this organ or that, but who can be 
sure? The more living a thing is the more it 
shows of the unpredictable and the unex- 
pected. Therefore we are not in sympathy 
with those who dogmatise on what they call 
the fit and proper lines of feminine evolution. 
Who can tell what men or women can do 
effectively until a fair trial is made? Social 
evolution is an experimental art. And one 
quite unworkable plan is that man should 
prescribe what the lines of woman's evolution 
are henceforth to be. On the other hand, we 
are rational beings who can learn from past 
history, and it is our prerogative to swim, not 
drift, in social evolution. We can ask ques- 
tions of the past; we can analyse the present; 
we can get from both some basis for deliberate 
programmes for the future. 
Conclusion. - We have now summarised, 
and so far as our space allows sustained, the 
claims of woman. Mainly no doubt as ap- 
proached from the organic side, with its in- 
dividual and its family aspect, as is fitting 
in a book primarily biological; but also, briefly 
upon the political side as well. The eco- 
nomic revendications of woman as depressed 
labourer have likewise been argued for, her 
business capacity recognised, and far fuller 
scope for her too little utilised administrative 
aptitude is pleaded for. Yet all such discus- 
sions of the woman question, varied and co- 
pious though they nowadays are, seem to us 
as yet insufficient, and at best but preparatory 
towards yet larger discussions - those of schem- 236 
SEX 
ing out the possibilities of woman as active 
citizen; and more concretely still, towards ex- 
perimentally opening out her goodly share in 
inspiring and in conducting that renewal of 
cities and city life which is at length happily 
incipient. 
Let us state this' problem in yet another 
way. What may be the place of woman in the 
contemporary transformation of the indus- 
trial age? This transition, as we are nowa- 
days beginning to see, is clearly distinguished; 
as that from paleolithic to neolithic, old stone 
age to new; for our contemporary transition 
is far too scantily described by the body of 
contemporary economists as a mere strife 
between labour and capital within the all- 
dominant "Industrial Age"; and still more 
unsatisfactorily expressed, as too much by lib- 
eral politicians, in terms of its earlier struggle 
with the renaissance or medieval elements of 
society, incomplete though this birth-struggle 
may still be. The essential transition is that 
in progress within the Industrial Age itself, 
that between its initial lower phase to the in- 
cipient higher one - in a word, from the past 
century of paleotechnic industry, mechanical, 
militant, monetary, to the opening one, that of 
a neotechnic civilisation, founded upon more 
skilled and scientific industries and arts, and 
aiming towards truer peace than any which 
can be guaranteed by armour; and towards 
these ends sustained alike by synthetic intel- 
ligence and by creative idealism. 
On one side is the present dominant civili- 
sation - of coal and steam, of machinery and 
cheap products, of expanding markets and SEX AND SOCIETY 
237 
widening empires - themselves groaning under 
ever-increasing armaments, torn by fiscal dis- 
putes, and ruled by the financiers' assumed 
omnipotence. From this standpoint, this order 
of things - avowedly mechanical, militarist, 
and monetarist at best, and thus too readily 
becoming debased, violent, and venal - seems 
to many of us, perhaps as yet to most, the only 
possible form of industrial civilisation, of which 
therefore we can but make what small tempo- 
rary and philanthropic alleviations as we can. 
For this, the history of the past is but of fading 
shadows; and even the "progress" of which 
it has boasted so much is too little to be 
estimated in quality of life, however easily 
in quantity. Towards these quantitative es- 
timates, we have indeed masters of statistics; 
and their records are convincingly impressive. 
See in the Canadian news how we pull down 
our corn-elevators to build greater - and in 
South Africa how fast the Tubercle Mine and 
the Long Ankylostome are being sunk to meet 
the Bottomless; or now that City Improvement 
and Town-planning - still too much in Second 
Empire form - are coming into fashion, how 
unprecedentedly the plan of Chicago grows, 
extending the street we last lived in, from 
fifteen miles of seldom-disturbed dirt by fif- 
teen more of mathematical dreariness! Each 
is in its way a triumph beyond question; but 
wherever any words be said of progress in 
quality of civilisation and of life towards its 
ideals, then there is silence; or if that will 
not answer, a very tumult of utilitarians and 
paleotects crying out with one voice: "Away 
with these Utopians!" 238 
SEX 
Yet the advance quietly making, in our 
own generation, since Ruskin was thus hooted 
out of economics, is that his prophecies of the 
final social economy we here call neotechnic 
are actually coming to pass. This is still 
no doubt but the day of small things, but 
the leaven has been at work, and the good 
seed growing. Though there still survive 
"practical men" and self-styled utilitarians, 
sneering at all things beyond their paleotechnic 
disorder as "mere Utopia," the practical 
Eutopians are already at work, and even 
drafting, as here, their historic estimate of 
the receding futilitarians. 
Yet our term for the incipient order as neo- 
technic is itself technic, as masculine labour 
and thought must mostly be. Complemented 
by feminine effort and inspiration, it becomes 
eutechnic, expressing the inspiration of labour 
by art and beauty. Our aims are not only 
synthetic, as men-philosophers say, but ap- 
plied - that is geotechnic, as with practical 
women, who, as the anthropologists confess, 
had the first word in cultivation, and have 
certainly the last word in home-making, as 
all can see. This nascent order is seeking 
to be eugenic, as the patriarchal Galton, and 
his well-meaning under-shepherds of the Eu- 
genic Society would have it; but mother- 
hood, from its simplest to its divinest levels, 
has ever discerned that the essential condition, 
alike of the young life and of its evocation, is 
to be eupsychic. 
Eutechnic, Geotechnic, Eupsychic - is this 
at length our view, of progress? So it has long 
seemed to us, as men working and thinking. SEX AND SOCIETY 
239 
from the substages of the paleotechnic order to 
those of the neotechnic; and each in its way 
so far analysed and generalised. Yes, yet 
no: one further connection is needed; for if 
these were all, the paleotect may say, and not 
without an element of justice, that these 
are but what he too was aiming at all along, 
in the three phases we have so harshly criti- 
cised. Instead of denying this, let us rather 
see and confess the dangers of these new stages 
repeating the errors of those they seek to replace. 
Once more feminine intuition and mother-wit, 
and even its oldest traditions, aid us; for is not 
the right order of these three the very reverse 
of that in which we have been following the 
paleotects? Should it not be, as every woman 
knows, first ethical and social, that is eupsychic, 
and thus eugenic; then synthetic and geo technic; 
and thus educative and healthy? These clearly 
presented in thought, and aimed at in consistent 
action, there will be no fear of eutechnics. 
For if we are first seeking the ideal in society, 
and its expression in the community, in the city, 
in the family, then the individual mind will be 
sane and strong; and if so, the body will func- 
tion at its very utmost health, and even pro- 
long and increase this. But given socially in- 
spired and civic purpose, vivid mind and vital 
muscle, then gesture will be graceful, but that 
is art; grip will be stout and sure, and that is 
labour: yet both reunited, in craft; and no 
longer dissociated and futile, as at present, be- 
tween factory and studio, slum and drawing- 
room. This central antithesis of paleotechnic 
and neotechnic, thus involves the passage from 
the predominant mechanocentric thought and SEX 
240 
philosophy of industrial man to the origina- 
tive, biocentric instinct and inspiration of 
domestic woman. 
Thus, in a word, we find ourselves meeting 
Bergson upon a fresh path; and this practically 
and concretely, as we began, with a reading 
of the interplay of the sexes in society. In- 
terplay in ways beyond the sex-antagonisms, 
the alternating revolts and repressions of the 
moment; yet not so far away as to the active 
combatants at present seems. 
Cherchez la femme is no mere gibe, but as true 
a word as ever was spoken in jest: even to- 
day it is a working maxim for the detective 
as well as a staple element of plot for his story- 
teller. In history we have long been accustomed 
to think of this feminine influence as on the 
whole unfavourable, from the fall of man, 
the war of Troy to the latest society scandal. 
But this plainly is but at most a half-truth, 
and the lower half at that. 
Here lies before us a lecture-syllabus of 
"Women in the Making of History," by Miss 
Alice Shield, unfortunately never now to be 
delivered, yet surely to be handed on: a noble 
history, of women Greek and Roman, woman 
as Christian and Martyr, women of chivalry 
and romance, women in defensive war and 
patriotism, women of the Renaissance and the 
Reformation, women of the Cinquecento, the 
Grand Siecle and the Augustine Age, women of 
the Revolution, and women of Modern days. 
Here plainly is a sign that the writing of history, 
even in our Universities, is not to be perma- 
nently smothered in charter-chests, but is com- 
ing forth anew, to fuller life and completer SEX AND SOCIETY 
241 
humanity. As professors writing history, stu- 
dents reading it, men have thus no longer 
their old monopoly: for here are Clio and her 
maidens re-writing and re-reading history to- 
gether; while her sister Calliope, the heroic 
muse, is seeking how to renew her world-old 
share in making it. And though thus to some 
the muse of Tragedy seem also approach- 
ing, Polymnia with her wisdom is not hope- 
lessly far away. 
Does this long argument seem far-fetched 
even outside our theme of sex? Not so; that 
is but the fault, and the difficulty, of our ex- 
position. Put most simply and broadly it 
amounts to this - that in these lower and 
still predominant phases of modern life we 
call paleothechnic, woman has no organised 
place, save as drudge to machines, as camp- 
follower to imperial armies, or as white slaves 
for finance. Whereas, in the neotechnic order, 
already happily and demonstrably nascent, 
woman reappears as all she ever was at her 
best; and it yet may be more - as eupsychic 
inspirer and eugenic mother, as instinctive 
synthetist, as educationalist, as orderly home- 
planner and citizen; and, by her guidance of 
consumption, directing industry and skill, en- 
nobling utility into art. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY 
The following volumes in this Library should be consulted r 
The authors' "Evolution," Gamble's "Animal World," Keith's 
"Human Body," McKendrick's "Physiology," Marett's 
"Anthropology," Mercier's "Crime and Insanity," Coun- 
cilman's "Disease and Its Causes," McDougall's "Psy- 
chology," Farmer's "Plant Life," Fraser Harris's "Nerves," 
Moore's "Origin and Nature of Life," Findlay's "School," 
and Myres's "Dawn of History." 
Perhaps the best general work on Sex is Forel's "The 
Sexual Question: a scientific, psychological, hygienic and 
sociological study for the cultured classes." English adapta- 
tion by C. F. Marshall. 1908. Rebman Ltd. London. 
Another general work, which has passed through many 
editions, is Iwan Bloch's "Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in 
seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur." 9th ed. Berlin, 
1909. 
A historical survey within moderate compass will be found 
in J. Miiller's "Das sexuelle Leben der Naturvolker" (2nd 
ed. 1901), "Das sexuelle Leben der alten Kulturvolker" 
(1902), and "Das sexuelle Leben der christlichen Kultur- 
vblker" (1904). Leipzig. 
Biological 
Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson: "The Evolution of 
Sex," 1889, revised ed. 1901. [With a large bibli- 
ography.] 
Paul Kammerer: "Ursprung der Geschlechtsunterschiede." 
Abderhalden's Fortschritte der naturwissenschaftlichen 
Forschung, Vol. V., 1912. [A very valuable critical 
account of most of the modern work on the biology of 
sex. With a large bibliography.] 
F. H. A. Marshall: "Physiology of Reproduction." 1910. 
[A very valuable treatise.] 
245 246 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
R. Miiller: " Sexualbiologie. Vergleichend-entwickelungs- 
geschichtliche Studien uber das Geschlechtsleben des 
Menschen und der hoheren Tiere." Berlin, 1907. 
M. Caullery: "Les Problemes de la Sexualite." Paris, 1913. 
Jacques Loeb: " Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilisation." 
Translation by W. O. Redman King. Chicago, 1913. 
T. H. Morgan: "Heredity and Sex." New York, 1913. 
M. Hartog: "Problems of Life and Reproduction." London. 
1913. [A valuable series of essays, including a criticism 
of the physiological thesis of The Evolution of Sea:.] 
Thomas E. Reed: "Sex, its Origin and Differentiation," 
New York, 1913. [An account of theories of sex and a 
new theory of a sex rhythm in the germ-cells.] 
Geoffrey Smith: "Rhizocephala." Fauna des Golfes von 
Neapel. Monograph XXIX, 1906; and very important 
"Studies in the Experimental Analysis of Sex" in Quar- 
terly Journal of Microscopical Science for 1909-1913. 
Charles Darwin: "The Descent of Man, and Selection in 
Relation to Sex." 1871. 
Alfred Russel Wallace: "Darwinism." 1889. 
Herbert Spencer: "Principles of Biology." Revised ed. 
1908. 
C. Lloyd Morgan: "Habit and Instinct" (1896) and "Animal 
Behaviour" (1900). 
J. T. Cunningham: "Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal 
Kingdom." London, 1900. [A valuable collection of 
facts, with a Lamarckian interpretation.] 
W. Bateson: "Mendel's Principles of Heredity." 1909. 
[Chapter X, Heredity and Sex.] 
K. Groos: "The Play of Animals." Translation, 1900. 
W. P. Pycraft: "The Courtship of Animals." New York, 1913. 
[A charming book, rich in fresh facts.] 
L. Buchner: "Liebe und Liebesleben in der Tierwelt." 
[One of the earliest recognitions of the important part 
"love" plays in life.] BIBLIOGRAPHY 
247 
A. Cresson: "L'Espece et son Serviteur (Sexuality Moral- 
ite)." Paris, 1913. [An interesting essay on the re- 
productive factor in evolution.] 
Havelock Ellis: "Man and Woman." [A scholarly account 
of the differences.] 
J. Tandler and S. Grosz: "Die biologischen Grundlagen der 
sekundaren Geschlechtscharactere." Berlin, 1913. [Per- 
haps the clearest recent statement of the differences 
between Male and Female. With a theory of the 
derivation of secondary sex-characters from somatic 
characters common to both sexes. With a scholarly 
bibliography.] 
C. J. Bucura: " Geschlechtsunterschiede beim Menschen. 
Eine klinisch-physiologische Studie." Wien und Leipzig, 
1913. [A very careful study.] 
H. Campbell: "Differences in the Nervous Organisation of 
Man and Woman." London, 1891. 
Pathological 
Ch. Fere: "L'Instinct sexuel, evolution et dissolution." 
3rd ed. Paris, 1911. [Perhaps the best introduction 
to the pathology of sex.] 
Prince A. Morrow: "Social Diseases and Marriage." 1904. 
Krafft-Ebbing: "Psychopathia Sexualis." 
P. J. Mobius: "Geschlecht und Krankheit." Halle, 1903, 
A. Moll: "Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften," Leipzig, 
1912, and previous works - "Untersuchungen liber die 
Libido sexualis" (1897), and "Die Kontrare Sexualemp- 
findung" (1899). 
A. Moll: "The Sexual Life of the Child" (Translation). 
London, 1912. 
Senator and Kaminer: "Marriage and Disease." A series 
of essays by experts. Translation by Dulberg. 
Psychological 
Havelock Ellis: "Studies in the Psychology of Sex." Six 
volumes. 248 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
G. Stanley Hall: "Adolescence; its Psychology, and its 
Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sex, Crime, 
Religions and Education." Two vols. London and 
New York, 1904. A very useful introductory book on 
the same subject is Slaughter's "The Adolescent." 
Lloyd Morgan, as already cited. 
K. Groos, as already cited. 
W. I. Thomas: "Sex and Society Studies in the Social 
Psychology of Sex." Chicago, 1907. 
Sigmund Freud: "Three Contributions to Sexual Theory." 
Nervous and Mental Disease Monographs, No. 17. 
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 64 West Fifty- 
sixth Street, New York. 
In the same series - 
S. Freud: "Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Topics." 
2nd ed. 1912. 
W. A. White: "Mental Mechanisms." 
E. Hitschmann: "Freud's Theories of the Neuroses." 1913. 
[A useful introduction to Freud's work.] 
S. Freud: "Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens." 3rd ed. 
Berlin, 1910. 
Chalmers Mitchell's "Childhood of Animals" and Mr. W. P. 
Pycraft's "Infancy of Animals" can be strongly recom- 
mended as important contributions to the biopsychology 
of youth. 
Educational 
Stanley Hall: as already cited. 
James Oliphant: as already cited. 
Ellen Key: "Education of the Child." Putnam's. 
M. E. Sadler: "Moral Instruction and Training in Schools" 
(2 vols). London, 1909. 
P. F. Thomas: "L'Education dans la Famille. Les peches 
des parents." 3rd ed. Paris, 1910. [An admirable 
discussion of the problens of sex-education.] 
Jane Addams: "The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets." 
New York, 1912. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
249 
C. B. Andrews: "An Introduction to the Study of Adolescent 
Education." London, 1912. 
S. Freud: "Zur sexuellen Aufklarung der Kinder." Soziale 
Medicin und Hygiene, Vol. 2, 1907. Leipzig and Wien. 
Canon Lyttelton: "Training of the Young in the Laws of 
Sex." London, 1910; and "Mothers and Sons." London, 
1910. 
Helen C. Putnam: "Practicability of Instruction in the 
Physiology and Hygiene of Sex as demonstrated in 
several public schools." Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal. Jan. 31, 1907. 
Norah March: "Sex Studies in the School and Training 
College." Journal of Experimental Pedagogy, Vol. II, 
No. 1, 1913. Also "The Biological Approach to Sex 
Studies," published by the Association of University 
Women Teachers, 59 Cambridge Street, Hyde Park. 
Mary Scharlieb and F. Arthur Sibly: "Youth and Sex. 
Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys." Jack's 
People's Books. Qd. 
F. J. Gould: "Youth's Noble Path." London, 1911. 
F. J. Gould: "On the Threshold of Sex." A book for readers 
aged 14 to 21. Daniel, Cursitor Street, London. 
"Papers for Boys." With a preface by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. Price Gd., to be had from the Head master 
of Dover College, Dover. 
Mrs. Wood-Allen Chapman: "How shall I tell my child." 
Price Is. Fleming Revell Company, London and Edin- 
burgh. 
Winfield Scott Hall: "Instead of Wild Oats." For the 
youth of eighteen and over. Fleming Revell Company. 
Caroline Wormeley Latimer: "The Changing Girl." For 
the girl of ten to fifteen. Fleming Revell Company. 
Thoroughly good are two penny tracts which may be obtained 
from Mrs. Bulley, Breck Hey, Liscard, Cheshire: "Life. 
A Pamphlet for Girls and Boys of 14," and "A Talk on 
Questions of Sex. For Young Men and Girls of 18." 
"Eighth Yearbook of National Society for the Scientific 
Study of Education." New York. Deals in detail 
with sex-education. 250 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
"Trans. American Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophy- 
laxis," Vol. 2, 1908, with many valuable papers. See 
also their pamphlets: "The Young Men's Problem;" 
"The Boy Problem;" "Instruction in the Physiology 
and Hygiene of Sex for Teachers;" "Social Disease 
and Marriage;" etc. 
Ethical 
James Oliphant: "The Relation of the Sexes." [A valuable 
essay dealing especially with ethical and practical 
problems. Price 6d., obtainable from Mrs. Bulley, 
Breck Hey, Liscard, Cheshire.] 
Geddes and Thomson: "Problems of Sex." Price 6d. 
Cassell & Co., 1912. 
A. Forel: "Sexuelle Ethik." Munchen, 1906. [A valuable 
lecture.] 
"The Position of Woman: Actual and Ideal." A series of 
lectures from various points of view. London, 1911. 
Sir Thomas Clouston: "Morals and Brain." Price Qd. 
Cassell & Co., 1912. 
Seved Ribbing: "L'Hygiene Sexuelle et ses consequences 
morales." 4th ed. Paris, 1911. [A carefully written 
book. The problems are discussed from a medical and 
ethical point of view.] 
Ellen Key: "Love and Marriage." With an introduction 
by Havelock Ellis. 
Ellen Key: "Love and Ethics." Putnam's. 
Social 
Earl Barnes: "Woman in Modern Society." London, 1912. 
[A short and wise discussion.] 
Oliver Schreiner: "Woman and Labour." London, 1911. 
[A book by itself - full of power and insight.] 
W. I. Thomas: as already cited. 
Jean Finot: "Problems of Sex." Translation, 1913. [A very 
interesting and vivid statement.] 
Brieux: "Three Plays." With a Preface by Bernard Shaw. 
London, 1911. [Inestimable.] BIBLIOGRAPHY 
251 
Ellen Key: "The Woman's Movement." Introduction by 
Havelock Ellis. Putnam's. Also "The Century of the 
Child." 
Jane Addams: "A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil." 
New York, 1912. [An essay of great power and insight.] 
C. W. Saleeby: "Woman and Womanhood." London, 1912. 
Havelock Ellis: "The Task of Social Hygiene." London, 
1912. [Including essays on The Problem of Sexual 
Hygiene, Eugenics and Love, Immorality and the 
Law.] 
E. Mertens: "Das sexuelle Problem and seine moderne 
Krise." Munchen, 1910. 
J. Lionel Tayler: "The Nature of Woman." London, 1912. 
Walter Heape: "Sex Antagonism." London, 1913. [In- 
cludes an interesting theory of Totemism.] 
Rosa Mayreder: "A Survey of the Woman Problem." 
Translation. London, 1913. 
C. Gascquoine Hartley: "The Truth about Woman." London, 
1913. [An interesting volume, full of facts - biological, 
historical, and social - interpreted with a noble pur- 
pose.] 
A select list of works dealing with women in industry will 
be found in The New Statesman's supplement for Feb- 
ruary 21, 1914. 
Sex in Human History 
By way of introduction the student may read the relevant 
part of C. Gascquoine Hartley's (Mrs. Gallichan's) 
"Truth about Woman." 
J. Muller's volumes on "Sexualleben" have been already 
referred to. 
E. B. Tylor: "Primitive Culture." A fundamental book. 
A. E. Crawley: "The Mystic Rose, a study of Primitive 
Marriage." London, 1902. 
Sir James Donaldson; "Woman; her Position and Influence 
in Greece and Rome and among the early Christians." 252 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Walter Heape: as already cited. 
J. G. Frazer: "The Golden Bough." 2nd ed. 1900. [Now 
expanded into many volumes.] See especially Totem- 
ism and Exogamy (1911). 
Letourneau: "Evolution of Marriage," in the Contemporary 
Science Series. 
W. Robertson Smith: "Kinship and Marriage in Early 
Arabia." 1885. 
E. Westermarck: "The History of Human Marriage." 3rd 
ed. 1901. 
A. Seidel: "Geschlecht und Sitte im Leben der Volker." 
1912. INDEX INDEX 
Abnohmalitibs, 145, 148 
Accessory chromosomes, 105 
Addams, Miss Jane, 159 
Adolescence, 119, 169, 171 
Amphibians, 63 
Anabolism, 79, 87 
Argonaut, 89 
Artificial insemination, 39 
Artificial parthenogenesis, 40 
Atavism, 144 
Autogamy, 39 
Bateson, 109 
Beetles, 66 
Birds, 62, 124 
of Paradise, 17 
Blackcock, 124 
Boneilia, 58, 59, 68 
Boys and girls, 177, 199 
Braem, 115 
Brieux, 221 
Bucura, 204, 210 
Budding, 32 
Calkins, 28 
Castle, 109 
Castration, 110 
parasitic, 83 
Caterpillars, 101 
Celibacy, 196 
Centrosome, 40 
Chemotaxis, 48 
Childhood, 118, 150, 167 
Chivalry, 198, 219 
Christianity, 219 
Chromosomes, 39, 41 
Cilleuls, 82 
Claspers, 91 
Climacteric, 139 
Comte, 201 
Conjugation, 26 
Continence, 156, 187 
Control of life, 156 
Co-operation of sexes, 54 
Correns, 109 
Courage, 199 
Courtship among animals, 74, 123- 
129 
Crabs, 83 
Crustacean, 67 
Cuckoo, 144 
Cu€not, 111 ; 
Cunningham, 60, 64, 68, 75 
Curve of Life, 117 
Cuttlefish, 68 
Darwin, 60, 67, 72 
Deer, 61 
Delage, 40 
Determination of sex, 98-116 
Disease, 153 
Doflein, 77 
Doncaster, 110 
Dreams, 8, 152 
Earl Barnes, 218 
Echinoderms, 69 
Economic factors, 220, 225 
Education, 151; of women, 227, 230; 
and sex, 156-179 
Egg-cells, 34 
Ellis, Havelock, 203, 233 
Emery, 52 
Eroticisation, 122, 191 
Ethics of sex, 180-201 
Evolution, method of, 93 
Examinations, 170 
Exogamy, 11 
Fairy tales, 217 
Falling in love, 129, 194 
Fere, 131, 134, 153, 156 
Fern, 36 
Fertilisation, 38, 48 
Fire-fly, 52 
Fishes, 64, 70 
Flower, 37 
Flowers, 10, 192 
Fondness, 51 
Fowls, 81 
Freud, 118, 138, 143, 149 
Frogs, 100 
General paralysis, 155 
Germ-cells, 31 
Giant crab, 67 
254 INDEX 
255 
Giard, 83 
Gingko, 35 
Glow-worms, 52, 67 
Green-flies, 10, 42 
Groos, 74 
Grosz, 47, 87 
Gunther, 74 
Hare, Francis, 115 
Healthfulness, 184 
Heape, 11, 71, 112, 137, 190 
Herrick, 144 
Hertwig, 103 
Hesse, 77 
Heterozygous, 108 
Heymans, 210 
Homozygous, 108 
Hormones, 80 
Hornbill, 54 
Hydra, 46, 102 
Hysteria, 150 
Ideals of sex, 195 
Illegitimacy, 193 
Incontinence, 194 
Individuation and fertility, 227 
Infusorians, 26 
Insemination, 39 
Instinct, 129 
Instincts, 160 
Internal secretions, 80, 140 
Jennings, 30 
Kammerer, 47, 56, 78, 87 
Katabolism, 79, 87 
Key, Ellen, 231 
Kindness, 199 
Kuschakewitsch, 103 
Lamarckian theory of sex, 75, 92 
Lilies, 192 
Loeb, 40 
Love, 55, 131, 180, 191, 193; evolu- 
tion of, 181 
Mackenzie, Leslie, 166 
Man, 189 
and woman, 201 
Man's place in nature, 19, 55, 182 
Marshall, 186 
Marriage, 131, 137, 195 
Maternal care, 132, 135 
Maternity, 10, 225 
Maturation, 39, 41 
Matriarchate, 215 
Maupas, 26 
Mendelian view of sex, 105-111 
Mendelism, 105 
Menopause, 139 
Menstruation, 115 
Meredith, 194 
Mobius, 87 
Modifications, 121 
Monogamy, 135 
Moral education, 14 
Mosses, 104, 114 
Mother-age, 212 
Nature and nurture, 211 
Nature study, 167 
Nautilus, 68 
Neuroses, 150 
Newts, 51 
Obsessions, 150 
Oliphant, 135 
Oogenesis, 45 
Ovary, 45, 80 
Ovulation, 139 
Ovum, 34 
Palolo, 68 
Paper nautilus, 89 
Parthenogenesis, 40, 99 
Pathology of sex, 142-156 
Patriarchal period, 217 
Pearson, 11, 206, 207, 213, 232 
Peckham, Prof, and Mrs., 125 
Peters, 127 
Pollen grains, 35, 168 
Potts, 84 
Promiscuity, 195 
Prostitution, 154, 188 
Puberty, 121 
Pycraft, 54, 124 
Quakers, 197 
Ranke, 203 
Religion, 185, 219 
Reptiles, 63 
Reversion, 148 
Rotifers, 42 
Ruffs, 125 
Sacculina, 84 
Salmon, 50 
Salps, 32 
Schreiner, Olive, 222 
Schultze, 103, 111 
Scrotum, 91 
Sea-horse, 65 
Secondary sex-characters, 59 
Self-control, 183 
Senescence, 139 
Sex, cycle of, 117-141; determina- 
tion of, 98-116; ethics of, 
180-201; evolution of, 20-55; ori- 
gin of, 21; pathology of, 142- 256 
156; theory of, 43; theories of, 
72-80; and Mendelism, 105-111; 
and Society, 202-241 
Sex-attraction, 52 
Sex-awareness, 49 
Sex-characters, 56-71; origin of, 94 
Sex-chromosome, 105 
Sex-dimorphism, 18, 47, 56, 202 
Sex-determinant, 110 
Sex education, 156-179 
Sex festivals, 15 
Sex-impulses, 183, 190 
Sex-instincts, 160 
Sex-parasitism, 222 
Sex-repression, 150, 155 
Sexes, contrast of, 49, 71 
Sexual reproduction, 31 
Sexual selection, 234 
Shaw, G. B., 138 
Smith, Geoffrey, 84 
Society of Friends, 197 
Song, 127 
Spencer, 94, 227 
Spermatozoa, 34 
Spermatogenesis, 34-45 
Sperm-cells, 34 ? 
INDEX 
Spiders, 18, 67, 125 
Stanley Hall, 148, 160, 185 
Steinach, 122 
Tandler, 47, 87 
Testis, 45, 80 
Thompson, Helen B., 204, 208 
Totemism, 11 
Twins, 98, 104 
Variability of the sexes, 207 
Variation, 30 
Variations, 33, 93 
Venereal disease, 155 
Volvox, 23, 44 
Vorticella, 22 
Wallace, 73 
Wilson, 105 
Witch 213 
Woman, 174, 189; in history, 240 
workers, 225 
Woodruff, 29 
Yolk gland, 46 
Yung, 100 j ' HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
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20. HISTORY OF OUR TIME. (1885-1911). By C. P. Gooch. 
22. THE PAPACY AND MODERN TIMES. By Rev. William Barry, 
D. D., author of "The Papal Monarchy," etc. The story of the rise and 
fall of the Temporal Power. 104. OUR FORERUNNERS. By M. C. Burkitt, M.A., F.S.A. A com- 
prehensive study of the beginnings of mankind and the culture of the 
prehistoric era. 
4. A SHORT HISTORY OF WAR AND PEACE. By G. H. Perris, 
author of "Russia in Revolution," etc. 
94. THE NAVY AND SEA POWER. By David Hannay, author of "Short 
History of the Royal Navy," etc. A brief history of the navies, sea 
Power, and ship growth of all nations, including the rise and decline 
of America on the sea, and explaining the present British supremacy. 
8. POLAR EXPLORATION. By Dr. W. S. Bruce, Leader of the 
"Scotia" expedition. Emphasizes the results of the expeditions. 
51. MASTER MARINERS. By John R. Spears, author of "The His- 
tory of Our Navy," etc. A history of sea craft adventure from the 
earliest times. 
86. EXPLORATION OF THE ALPS. By Arnold Lunn, M. A. 
7. MODERN GEOGRAPHY. By Dr. Marion Newbigin. Shows the re- 
lation of physical features to living things and to some of the chief in- 
stitutions of civilization. 
76. THE OCEAN. A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE SCIENCE OF 
THE SEA. By Sir John Murray/ K. C. B., Naturalist H. M. S. "Chal- 
lenger," 1872-1876, joint author of "The Depths of the Ocean," etc. 
84. THE GROWTH OF EUROPE. By Granville Cole, Professor of 
Geology, Royal College of Science, Ireland. A study of the geology 
and physical geography in connection with the political geography. 
105. COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. By Marion I. Newbigin. Funda- 
mental conceptions of commodities, transport and market. 
AMERICAN HISTORY. 
47. THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1607-1766). By Charles McLean An- 
drews, Professor of American History, Yale. 
82. THE WARS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA (1763-1815). 
By Theodore C. Smith, Professor of American History, Williams 
College. A history of the period, with especial emphasis on The Re- 
volution and The War of 1812. 
67. FROM JEFFERSON TO LINCOLN (1815-1860). By William Mac- 
Donald. Professor of History, Brown University. The author makes 
the history of this period circulate about constitutional ideas and slavery 
sentiment. 
25. THE CIVIL WAR (1854-1865). By Frederick L. Paxson, Professor 
of American History, University of Wisconsin. 
39. RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION (1865-1912). By Paul Leland 
Haworth. A History of the United States in our own times. 
Published by 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, 19 West 44th St., New York