Darwinism stated by Darwin himself · Charles Darwin
TRANSMISSION OF SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS.
An excellent case for investigation is afforded by the deer family. In all the species, but one, the horns are developed only in the males, though certainly transmitted through the females, and capable of abnormal development in them. In the reindeer, on the other hand, the female is provided with horns; so that, in this species, the horns ought, according to our rule, to appear early in life, long before the two sexes are mature, and have come to differ much in constitution. In all the other species the horns ought to appear later in life, which would lead to their development in that sex alone in which they first appeared in the progenitor of the whole family. Now, in seven species, belonging to distinct sections of the family, and inhabiting different regions, in which the stags alone bear horns, I find that the horns first appear at periods varying from nine months after birth in the roebuck, to ten, twelve, or even more months in the stags of the six other and larger species. But with the reindeer the case is widely different; for, as I hear from Professor Nilsson, who kindly made special inquiries for me in Lapland, the horns appear in the young animals within four or five weeks after birth, and at the same time in both sexes. So that here we have a structure developed at a most unusually early age in one species of the family, and likewise common to both sexes in this one species alone.
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