Secondary Sexual Characters

Abstract

MR. POCOCK (p. 157) has replied to my letter, but he has not replied to my reasoning. It is no reply to say that it may be doubted whether my hypothesis is an improvement on certain, others, when no reasons are given for the doubt. It is no argument to say that a problem is insufficiently supported by evidence, and may be true or false. A problem may be solved, but it cannot be either true or false, nor can it be supported by evidence. Mr. Pocock himself in his article attributed the colour of the male nilghaie and other antelopes to “male katabolism,” which he now says is nothing but an imposing substitute for the “vital force” of the pseudo-scientific realists. I quite agree with him, and only hope that in future he will not explain male peculiarities by attributing them to male katabolism.