Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/219

Rh A further distinction between the sexes, common to mankind and to all the mammalian class, must be sought in the moral faculties. Take what species we like we find the males bolder, more pugnacious and quarrelsome, more adventurous and restless, and less tractable and docile. The females, on the other hand, save in protection of their young from real or supposed danger, are mild, gentle, and inoffensive. Of this no more indisputable instance could be found than the case of domestic cattle, the cow—with the exception of certain "strong-minded" individuals—being perfectly harmless, while the bull, when above four years old, is one of the most dangerous animals known, attacking and killing human beings, not for food, like the lion or the tiger, but out of pure "superfluity of naughtiness." Very similar is the distinction between the character of the sexes among the Quadrumana. No animal is more wantonly and gratuitously mischievous than an adult male baboon, and we are unable to find an instance of one having been tamed so far that he could be allowed his liberty. The females, on the other hand, are capable of domestication. Were there any necessity to multiply instances a fair-sized volume might be filled with accounts of the intractability of male mammalia of different species, as contrasted with the mildness and docility of their females, while in no animal is the case reversed. That the sexual distinction of character in our own species is precisely analogous in its nature will, we trust, be admitted without argument.

We find, therefore, summing up the foregoing facts, that throughout the mammalian community the males are larger and heavier than the females, whom they, moreover, especially exceed in thoracic and cerebral development; that they are consequently stronger, more intensely animated, and in disposition bolder and fiercer. The very same differences are found in average men as compared with average women, with the additional peculiarity that here the superior size of brain expresses itself in higher intellectual power.

It would be ridiculous to suppose that all these diversities, structural and functional, are objectless, and do not imply a corresponding diversity of duties. This accordingly we find to be the case: The male, at least in all species which form unions of any degree of permanence—whether monogamous or polygamous—defends and protects the female and her young ones. Thus, if a herd of elephants is menaced, the most powerful tuskers take their station on the side where danger appears, while the females and the young are placed as far as possible out of harm's way. If bisons are attacked by wolves, the bulls form a circle inclosing the cows and calves, A similar order is adopted by wild-horses. A gorilla will encounter any danger in defense of his mate, and even among baboons the old males will face an approaching enemy while the weaker members of the troop make good their escape. A lion has been seen in the same manner covering the retreat of his lioness and her cubs.