SECOND LECTURE. 123 



Among the bees and neighbouring species the 

 greater number of individuals have no sex ; they 

 are conceived and born, without being destined, as 

 in the ordinary course, to conceive or produce im- 

 pregnation. Their copulation is performed in a 

 very extraordinary manner in many instances. 

 The act is performed on the wing, and some are 

 winged only during the short period of copulation. 

 Some copulate only once, and the act is very soon 

 followed by death ; in which cases the life of the 

 animal may be prolonged by deferring the copula- 

 tion. 



It is said the hydatis, or vesicular worm, re- 

 ceives nourishment, like vegetables, from its exter- 

 nal surface, having no mouth. The polypus has 

 no organs of generation, as every part of its sto- 

 mach, or body, is endowed with the generative 

 power ; &c. &c. 



But these fjicts, singular as they are, give no 

 weight to the feeble hypothesis m question ; for 

 here, as every where else, so far as we are ac- 

 quainted with the natural history of animals, every 

 one, it is immaterial however much the mode may 

 vary, is produced and continued in its successive 

 generations by the properties and actions of animal 

 life. 



^'^AVhen the great Creator first gave being to 

 the natural world, every part of the vegetable and 

 animal systems was brought into existence by an 

 extraordinary exertion of productive power ; they 

 were not moulded and matured by the slow opera- 



