THE CONDITION OF WOMEN. Hg 



stages in the developmental process are sufficiently alike in different 

 animals to admit of a comparison between them, the stage at which 

 impregnation takes place is not fixed, but variable. In some cases the 

 ovarian egg remains without change until it is impregnated ; and the 

 first step in the developmental process, the disappearance of the ger- 

 minative vesicle, is the immediate result of the union of the spermatozoa 

 with the ovum. In other cases the germinative vesicle disappears, and 

 the egg then remains inactive until it is impregnated ; and this is fol- 

 lowed at once by segmentation. In still other cases segmentation takes 

 place without impregnation. Other eggs develop still further ; and, 

 finally, there are many animals whose unfertilized eggs not only com- 

 mence, but complete the developmental process, and give rise to adults 

 which may in turn produce young in the same way : and this may go 

 on indefinitely, without the intervention of a male. The queen bee is 

 able to lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs at will, and they are equally 

 alive and capable of development. 



These facts show conclusively that the essential function of the 

 male element is not the vitalization of the germ. 



Turning now to another aspect of our subject, we find that among 

 plants, and among all the lower and simpler groups of animals, new 

 individuals are produced by the various forms of asexual generation, 

 as well as sexually. , In certain animals, such as the tunicates, this 

 form of generation is highly specialized, and the stolon from which 

 new individuals are budded off is a highly complex structure, which 

 contains cells or tissues derived from all the essential organs and sys- 

 tems of the parent, and from these the corresponding organs and sys- 

 tems of the new individual are derived. As a rule, however, the 

 process of budding is very simple : a mass of unspecialized cells at 

 some definite point upon the body of the parent, animal or plant, be- 

 coming converted into a new individual, instead of contributing to the 

 further growth of the old. Among the lower animals, such as the 

 hydroids and sponges, the process is still more simple, and cells may 

 become converted into a bud at almost any point upon the body of the 

 parent. That the process of reproduction by budding is not in any 

 way absolutely distinguished from the process of ordinary growth by 

 cell-multiplication, is shown by the fact that an accident may deter- 

 mine which of these processes is to result from the activity of a given 

 cell. 



Comparison shows that there is, on the one hand, no essential dis- 

 tinction between ordinary growth and reproduction by budding, and, 

 on the other hand, none except the necessity for impregnation to dis- 

 tinguish asexual from sexual reproduction. All these processes are 

 fundamentally processes of cell-multiplication. As none of the ani- 

 mals with which we are thoroughly familiar reproduce asexually, we 

 are unable to make any very exact comparison -of the results of the 

 two processes of reproduction in animals ; but among plants such com- 



