spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very
simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and
a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there
is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex.

An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body
is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the
vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the
hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals
in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except
perhaps in rare instances.

Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually
considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in
which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of
course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life
began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless--i.e., with no suggestion
of either maleness or femaleness.[A]

[Footnote A: This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted
by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead
of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as
females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to
language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and
is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the
different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis,
the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the
functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as
female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male
developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense,