Ob SPECIAL CREATION 



"We must not forget, however, that the proto- 

 plastic bodies of the copulating cells also fuse together 

 in the act of impregnation; the cell-body of the in- 

 vading spermatozoon (the trunk and tail of the cili- 

 ated cell) is dissolved in the yelk of the female ovum. 

 This coalescence is not so important as that of the 

 [two] nuclei, but it must not be overlooked; and 

 though the process is not so well known to us, we see 

 clearly at least the formation of the star-like figure, 

 (the radial arrangement of the particles in the plas- 

 ma) in it.' (Haeckel, Ev. Man, p. 56.) 



In another place (p. 57) he says: 



'It has been shown that the tiny sperm-cell 

 (spermatozoon) is not subordinated to but coordinated 

 with, the large ovum. The nuclei of the two cells, 

 as the vehicle of the hereditary features of the par- 

 ents, are of equal physiological importance. In some 

 cases we have succeeded in proving that the mass of 

 the active nuclear substance, which combines in the 

 copulation of the two sexual nuclei is originally the 

 same for both. 



"The^e morphological facts are in perfect har- 

 mony with the familiar physiological truth that the 

 child inherits from both parents ; and that on the 

 average they are equally distributed. I say 'on the 

 average' because it is well known that a child may 

 have a greater likeness to the father, or to the mother ; 

 that goes without saying, as far as the primary sexual 

 characters (the sexual glands) are concerned. But it 

 is also possible that the determination of the latter 

 the weighty determination whether the child is to be a 

 boy or a girl depends on a slight qualitative or quan- 



