FIRST CHAPTER. 



OF GENERATION. 



202. 



UNDER generation, in its broadest sense, is understood the origin of 

 organic beings. The full application of the principle, that " from 

 nothing nothing can be produced/' is here exemplified; a foundation 

 must always pre-exist to produce a new organism. If this foundation 

 be the universally distributed organisable matter whence absolutely 

 lower organisms may be developed, it is called single generation 

 (generatio in cequalis*), or, also, equivocal generation (generatio origin- 

 aria s. cequivoca). If, however, the foundation be another animated 

 body whence the new individual is developed through the active agency 

 of the old one, it is called doable generation (generatio cequalis), or pro- 

 pagation (generatio propagaliva). Propagation may be also of several 

 descriptions ; for either a portion of the old individual is separated, 

 and becomes an independent being, which is called propagation by 

 shoots; or else in the body of the old individual the commencement of 

 a new one is developed, which germen having attained its maturity 

 quits the maternal sphere, and thus acquires an independent existence, 

 which is called propagation by germens ; or lastly, the development of 

 this germ can only succeed by the mother receiving, or even the germ itself 

 made competent to it by the intromission of, a peculiar exciting fluid. 

 This last and most limited mode of propagation is distinguished by the 

 character of sexual, and the active individual or active portion is called 

 male, and that upon which it acts, the passive part, or germ-forming 

 individual, the female. If these two faculties be united in one indivi- 

 dual, it is then called hermaphrodite. 



These several relations are the abstract of all the phenomena cha- 

 racterised by the name of generation throughout nature. Indeed, some 

 exhibit modifications in their form, but they remain absolutely the 

 same : for example, the propagation by shoots, when, as in the Infusoria, 

 it presents itself as a separation in halves. Here the stem forms a 

 shoot, which costs it the half of its substance, whereas in the usual pro- 



