our knowledge of living matter becomes more com- 

 plete, the pronouncement will be that the real 

 marvel exists not in the transformation of the 

 original living cell, but in the subsequent develop- 

 ment and growth of the organism. Even so, it is 

 conceivable that there will still be a seemingly 

 fathomless mystery to confront. Certainly few 

 fundamentals appear so remote from our future 

 understanding as the ultimate principle that gives 

 vital substance its peculiar property — whether, 

 indifferently, this property is manifest in a gauzy 

 spray of lowly seaweed or in that most highly 

 organized structure known, the human female. 



Bringing the female into the picture is not with- 

 out warrant in other ways. Every working bio- 

 logist knows that essentially the male is a needless 

 animal. In Nature, some creatures, such as certain 

 worms, can dispense with the intervention of the 

 males for the purpose of assuring offspring. In the 

 laboratory, too, the male among some other ani- 

 mals has been found to be unnecessary. For exam- 

 ple, the sterile eggs of echinoids can be made fertile 

 by chemical means alone. Although in none of 

 these artificial instances does development proceed 

 normally or very far, they nevertheless prove the 



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