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Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent naturally on the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as structural.
Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences.
We have such mammalian cases as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed presently. The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in males is borne out in the human species.
To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch of the quantitative theory of sex. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98. Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f. Wilson, Andrew.
Goldschmidt was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of intersexuality which would result from a given cross. As in the Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different grades of intersexes were observed.
Laboratory biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that this word and the idea it represents are new to exact science does not mean that it is new in the world.
II, No. 1, pp. 53f. Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on moths, birds and various forms by many biologists. Riddle, Dr Oscar.
In reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual and maternal impulses.
The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and feminine perfection.
This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which that specialization entails. Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f. Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. Vol.
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