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[16] So deep-rooted has been this opinion of female inferiority that it has formed the basis of many theories of sex. Thus Richarz holds that "the male sex represents a higher grade of development in the embryo." Hough thinks males are born when the female system is at its best, females in periods of growth, reparation, or disease. Tiedman and others regard females as an arrested male, while Velpau, on the other hand, believes them to be degenerated from primitive males. See Geddes and Thomson, Evolution of Sex, p. 39.

[17] The theory of Lester Ward, to which I have already referred, supports this view.

[18] I have left out of my inquiry any reference to plants, though all that has been said of the protozoa in the last chapter is equally true of the protophyta, the basis of plant life. Among plants there are many beautiful and instructive examples of the relative position of the female and the male plant. A well-known case is that of the hemp-plant, where the sexes are indistinguishable up to the period of fertility, but when the male plants have shed their pollen, and thus fulfilled their duty of fertilising the female plants, they cease to grow, turn yellow and sere, and if at all crowded wither and die. Many other examples might be cited, but the question is too wide to enter on here. See Lester Ward, op. cit., pp. 318–322.

[19] Encyclopædia Britannica, article on "Sex," by Prof. Geddes; also Evolution of Sex, pp. 20, 21. Prof. Lester Ward, Pure Sociology, Part II, Chap. XIV, gives an ingenuous and complete view of the early superiority of the female, to which he gives the name of the Gynæcocentric theory, as opposed to the usual Androcentric theory, based on the superiority of the male. While fully appreciating the suggestiveness and value of this theory, and also acknowledging very gratefully the help I have derived from it, it must be stated that some of the facts brought forward in its support by the distinguished American cannot be accepted. Nor am I able, as will appear later, to accept the conclusion he arrives at of the passive character of the female. See also a popular article by Prof. Ward, "Our Better Halves", The Forum, Vol. VI., Nov. 1888, pp. 266–275.

[20] Van Beneden, Animal Parasites and Messmates, p. 55.

[21] Milne Edwards, Leçons sur la physiologie et l'anatomie comparée de l'homme et des animaux, Vol. IX. p. 267.

[22] In addition to the works already mentioned, see Darwin, Descent of Man, Vol. I. p. 329; Haeckel, Evolution of Man, and A Manual of the Anatomy of the Invertebrated Animals, by T. Huxley, pp. 261–262.

[23] Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. I. p. 345.

[24] Thomson, J.A., Heredity, p. 39.

[25] Article by Ryder, Science, Vol. I., May 31, 1895, p. 603.

[26] Schreiner, Olive, Woman and Labour, pp. 77–78.

[27] These examples of female parasitism have been taken from Evolution of Sex, p. 17; see also pp. 19–22. The authors bring them forward with many other examples to prove the main thesis of their book—that the character of the female is anabolic, that of the male katabolic. In establishing this theory they do not appear to give sufficient importance to the fact that this degeneration of the female is only found where the conditions of life are parasitic.

[28] Evolution of Sex, p. 21; Pure Sociology, pp. 316–317.

[29] "Notes on the Mosquitoes of the United States," by L.O. Howard, Bulletin No. 25, New Series, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, 1900, p. 12. Quoted by Lester Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 317.

[30] Descent of Man, p. 208.

[31] Science, Vol. XV., Jan. 1902, p. 30.

[32] Fulton, Naturalist to the Scottish Fishery Board. Cited in Evolution of Sex, p. 22; see also pp. 25, 272, 295.

[33] Pure Sociology, pp. 317, 318.

[34] Birds of Britain, by J. Lewis Bonhote, p. 208; also pp. 190–221.

[35] A similar condition will be found in the even more complex societary forms of ant-hills. Among the vast population of the ants all the workers and soldiers are arrested in their sexual development, remaining, as it were, permanent children of both sexes. It seems probable that this explains the limit that has been reached in the evolution of these wonderful creatures, which in certain directions have attained to an extraordinary development, and have then become curiously and immovably arrested. See Problems of Sex, by J.A. Thomson and Prof. Patrick Geddes, p. 24; Mind in Animals, by Büchner, p. 60; and Woman and Labour, by Olive Schreiner, p. 78.

[36] Problems of Sex, p. 34. I would recommend this admirable little book to all students.

[37] Descent of Man, Vol. I. p. 329.

[38] Pure Sociology, p. 316; Science, Vol. VIII., Oct. 1886, p. 326. Letter by Dr. L.O. Howard.