Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/163

Rh semi-fluid contents of their bodies takes place. The result of this process is the production of new individuals which, deriving their protoplasm from two parents which are not exactly alike, are themselves different from either of them, and have individual peculiarities which are, it is true, the resultant of the peculiarities of the parents, but which are nevertheless new variations.

In the simplest forms of conjugation the functions of both parents appear to be identical, but in organisms which are a little more specialized we find male and female reproductive bodies, and the offspring is the result of the union of the male element of one individual with the female element of another; that is, we have true sexual reproduction in its simplest form.

Among the lower animals and most plants both sexes are united in the same individual, but the law of physiological division of labor, the principle that an organ or organism, like a machine, can do some one thing better and with less expenditure of force when it is specially adapted to this one thing than when it is generally adapted for several functions, would lead to the preservation by natural selection of any variations in the direction of a separation of the sexes, and we should therefore expect to find among the higher animals what we actually do find: the restriction of the male function to certain' individuals, and the restriction of the female function to others. From this time forward the male is an organism specialized for the production of the variable element in the reproductive process, and the female an organism specialized for the production of the conservative element. We soon meet with structural peculiarities adapted to aid and perfect the performance of these respective functions; and the various organs, habits, and instincts by which, among the higher animals, the rearing of young is provided for form one of the most interesting chapters of natural science. On a priori grounds we should expect a still greater specialization to make its appearance. Since the male organism has for its function the production of the variable reproductive element, and since variations which originate in a male have their perpetuation especially provided for, it would clearly be of advantage that the male organism should acquire a peculiar tendency to vary, and any steps in this direction would accordingly be seized upon by natural selection and perpetuated. The female organism, on the other hand, having for its function the transmission of the established hereditary features of the species, we should expect the female to gradually acquire a tendency to develop these general characteristics more perfectly than the male. The male organism would thus gradually become the variable organism, as well as the transmitter of variations, and the female organism would become the conservative organism, as well as the originator of the conservative element in reproduction.

The study of the higher forms of life shows that this specialization