Taboo and Genetics - A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family by Melvin Moses Knight;Phyllis Mary Blanchard;Iva Lowther Peters
page 44 of 200 (22%)
page 44 of 200 (22%)
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the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly
alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical agent--common salt--makes all the difference. If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual--each representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter explanation. Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.[2, p.13.] "Every fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in |
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