THE HORMONES IN HUMAN REPRODUCTION 



technical reservations) as merely a variation of the funda- 

 mental process of multiplication by fission. 



H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and G. P. Wells, in "The 

 Science of Life," summarize the whole subject of reproduc- 

 tion of living things when they say that "cleared of the com- 

 plication of sex, reproduction is seen to be simply the detach- 

 ment of living bits of one generation, which grow up into the 

 next." Detachment of living bits of an animal is not always 

 as easy, however, as in these primitive animals we have been 

 considering. Obviously such processes as fission and budding 

 can be effective only with relatively simple creatures. The 

 more complex the parental animals, the more awkward for 

 them to split in two or to produce buds. When, for example, 

 there is a permanent hard shell outside the body, or a com- 

 plicated skeleton inside, the animal cannot well divide itself 

 in two. Animals with numerous special organs and tissues 

 cannot readily form buds in which all the special features are 

 represented. The new generation cannot take over the com- 

 plex structure of its parent but must build its own body 

 anew. When the parent detaches a bit of itself for the purpose 

 of reproduction, that living bit must be a germinal organism, 

 elementary and uncomplicated but able to grow rapidly and 

 evolve itself into an adult like its parent. 



I call attention to the fact that in this last sentence we 

 have written the specifications of an Egg. 



This idea was adumbrated long ago by an ancient balladist : 



How should any cherry 



Be without a stone? 

 And how should any wood-dove 



Be without a bonef 



When the cherry was a flower 



Then it had no stone; 

 When the wood-dove was an egg 



Then it had no bone. 



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