o their respective sexes.

A further truth of the utmost importance becomes manifest. Many
differences between the relative position of the sexes, which we are
apt to suppose are inherent in the female or male, are not inherent,
in light of these early and varying types. We see that the
sex-relationship and the character of the female and male assume
different forms, changing as the conditions of life vary. Again and
again when we come to examine the position of women in different
periods of civilisation, we shall find that whenever the conditions of
life have tended to withdraw them from the social activities of
labour, restricting them, like these early sex-victims, to the passive
exercise of their reproductive functions alone, that such parasitism
has resulted invariably in the degeneration of woman, and through her
passing on such deterioration to her sons, there has followed, after a
longer or shorter period, the degeneration of society. But these
questions belong to the later part of our inquiry, and cannot be
entered on here. Yet it were well to fix in our minds at once the
dangers, without escape, that follow sex-parasitism.

It may be thought that these cases of sex-victims are exceptions, and
that, therefore, it is unsafe to draw conclusions from them. The
truth would rather seem to be that they are extreme examples of
conditions that were common at one stage of life. There is no doubt
that up to the level of the amphibians female superiority in size, and
often in power of function, prevails.[28] If, for example, we look at
insects generally, the males are smaller than the females, especially
in the imago state. There are many species, belonging to different
orders--as, for instance, certain moths and butterflies--in which this
superiority is very marked. The males are either not provided with any
functional organs for eating, or have these imperfectly developed. It
seems evident that their sole function is to fertilise the female. A
familiar and interesting example is furnished by the common
mosquitoes, among whom the female alone, with its harmful sting, is
known to the unscientific world. The males, frail and weaponless
little creatures, swarm with the females in the early summer, and then
pass away, their work being done.

Dr. Howard, writing of the mosquito in America, says--

"It is a well-known fact that the adult male mosquito does not
necessarily take nourishment, and that the adult female