According to Yung, who has experimented very extensively upon tadpoles, all tadpoles pass through a bisexual (hermaphroditic) stage, as is the case probably with most animals. During this tadpole phase external influences, and, more particularly, food, determine their fate as regards sex. In Yung’s experiments it was found that when tadpoles were left to themselves, the percentage of females was in the majority, the average being probably about 57 per cent. females and 43 per cent. males. In experimenting with three broods, those fed on beef gave 78 per cent. females; those fed on fish gave 80 per cent. females; and those fed on the highly nutritious flesh of frogs gave 92 per cent. females. In Mrs. Treat’s interesting experiments on moths and butterflies, it was observed that if caterpillars were confined and starved before they entered the chrysalis state, the resultant moths or butterflies were males, but others of the same brood that had been highly nourished came out females. The study of bees illustrates the same conclusions. It is well known that in a beehive there are three kinds of inmates, as the queen, the drones, and the workers,—the last-mentioned being females whose reproductive organs are imperfectly developed. It is believed that the eggs that give rise to queens and workers are fertilized and developed normally. But it is a very curious fact that the eggs which develop into drones do so without fertilization (_parthenogenesis_). What factor or factors decide the destiny of the two former, determining whether a given ovum will develop into a queen, and thus be the possible mother of a new generation, or stay at the lower grade of a working, non-fertile female? These factors are the quality and quantity of the food. An abundance of what is called royal food causes the development of the larva in such a way that the queen with her reproductive organs is formed. If a larva on the road to develop into a worker (non-fertile female) “receive by chance some crumbs from the royal superfluity,” it is found that the reproductive organs may develop to such an extent that workers partially fertile may be formed. A worker larva may, by this royal food, be intentionally reared into a queen bee. It is thus seen how profoundly the germ-cells, in their growth, may be affected and made to vary by such a blastogenetic factor as food. =Somatogenetic Factors.= As to somatogenetic factors—granting that structural changes in the body (body-cells) of an animal or plant can profoundly influence in some way the germ-cells, and that, therefore, acquired characters can be transmitted—they are many and well defined. Some of them are the habitat of an animal or plant, the temperature, climate, air, food, soil, water, _structures in use or disuse_ (so-called “Use” and “Disuse”), etc.