The Descent of Man

('Revue Scientifique,' Feb. 1873, p. 868), without
apparently having reflected much on the subject,
objects that as the males of social bees are
known to be produced from unfertilised ova,
they could not transmit new characters to their
male offspring. This is an extraordinary objection.
A female bee fertilised by a male, which
presented some character facilitating the union
of the sexes, or rendering him more attractive
to the female, would lay eggs which would
produce only females; but these young females
would next year produce males; and will it be
pretended that such males would not inherit
the characters of their male grandfathers? To
take a case with ordinary animals as nearly
parallel as possible: if a female of any white
quadruped or bird were crossed by a male of a
black breed, and the male and female offspring
were paired together, will it be pretended that
the grandchildren would not inherit a tendency
to blackness from their male grandfather? The
acquirement of new characters by the sterile