CORRELATIONS OF THE SEXUAL GLANDS. 245 



Zelle ** (" Woman and tlie Cell "), in tlie following words : — 

 " Woman is woman only by her sexual glands ; all the 

 peculiarities of her body and mind, of her nutrition and her 

 nervous activity, the sweet delicacy and roundness of her 

 limbs, the peculiar formation of the pelvis, the develop- 

 ment of the breasts, the continuance of the high voice, that 

 beautiful ornament of hair on her head, with the scarcely 

 perceptible soft down on the rest of the skin — then again, 

 the depth of feeling, the truth of her direct perceptions, her 

 gentleness, devotion, and fidelity — in short, all the feminine 

 qualities which we admire and honour in a true woman are 

 but a dependence of the ovary. Take this ovary away, and 

 the man- woman stands before us — a loathly abortion." 



The same close correlation between the sexual organs and 

 the other parts of the body occurs among plants as generally 

 as among animals. If one wishes to obtain an abundance of 

 fruit from a garden plant, the growth of the leaves is cur- 

 tailed by cutting off some of them. If, on the other hand, 

 an ornamental plant with a luxuriance of large and beautiful 

 leaves is desired, then the development of the blossoms and 

 fruit is prevented by cutting off the flower buds. In both 

 cases one system of organs develops at the cost of the others. 

 Thus, also, most variations in the formation of leaves in 

 wild plants result in corresponding transformations of the 

 generative parts or blossoms. The great importance of this 

 ' compensation of development," of this " correlation of 

 parts," has been already set forth by Goethe, by Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire, and other nature-philosophers. It rests mainly 

 upon the fact that direct or actual adaptation cannot pro- 

 duce an important change in a single part of the body, 



without at the same time affecting the whole organism. 

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