Sect. XXXIX. 10.4. GENERATION. 433 



buds of trees, more exactly have refembled the parent ; and no 

 improvement of the fpecies, or no new fpecies from the fame 

 genus, could have been procreated ; which latter circumftance 

 has probably much increafed the number both of animal and 

 vegetable productions. 



4. Laftly, the fimple mode of fexual generation differs from 

 the reciprocal or hermaphrodite mode of generation ; as the 

 glands, which conftitute the mafculine and feminine organs, fe- 

 crete the fibrils with formative appetencies and the molecules 

 with formative propenuties from different mafTes of blood ; as a 

 double fyftem of organs might have been cumberfome, if they 

 had exifted together in larger and more active animals : though 

 it is not improbable, that all animals were originally hermaphro- 

 dite, according to the opinion of Plato in refpect to human kind, 

 as would appear from the teats or nipples, as well as the pecto- 

 ral glands, which are (till to be feen in men and in all male 

 quadrupeds. 



In this mode of propagation the fibrils with formative appe- 

 tencies detached from fome or many efTential parts of the male 

 parent, or which were formed from the blood accordant to thofe 

 efTential parts, are fecreted by the male organ into an adapted 

 refervoir ; and the molecules with formative propensities detach- 

 ed from fome or many efTential parts of the female parent, 

 or which are formed from the blood accordant to thofe efTen- 

 tial parts, are fecreted by the female organ into an adapted ref- 

 ervoir : and in this circumftance fecretion differs from nutri- 

 tion ; in the latter certain particles of the blood, which were 

 not previoufly ufed in the fyftem, are embraced and become a 

 folid part of the animal ; in the former certain particles, which 

 had previoufly been ufed in the fyftem, and detached from it, 

 are imbibed, by adapted glands, and depofited in refervoirs, or 

 detruded. See Sett. XXXVII. 3. 



Finally when thefe are mixed together in the act of copula- 

 tion, they embrace and coalefce, and form the efTential parts of 

 the new embryon ; the production of which commences in 

 more places than one ; as the brain and heart, with fome 

 nerves, arteries, veins, and abforbent veflels, are probably form- 

 ed at the fame time, and almoft inftantaneoufly. 



Thefe new fibrous combinations acquire new appetencies, 

 and produce molecules by their vital activity with new aptitudes 

 or propenfities ; and thus gradually fabricate other fecondary 

 parts either fynchronous or fuccefiive ones, as the ribs, lungs, 

 limbs, and finally the organs, which diftinguifh the fexes, with 

 the general difference of the male and female form throughout 

 the whole fyftem, according to the prevailing or prepondei 



Vol. I. HhIi aaivi 



