ON GENERATION. 429 



gall bladder, are contemporaneous with the existence of the 

 concocting organs themselves. Lastly, not only is there a soul 

 or vital principle present in the vegetative part, but even be- 

 fore this there is inherent mind, foresight, and understanding, 

 which from the very commencement to the being and perfect 

 formation of the chick, dispose and order and take up all things 

 requisite, moulding them in the new being, with consummate 

 art, into the form and likeness of its parents. 



In reference to this subject of family likeness, we may be 

 permitted to inquire as to the reason why the offspring should 

 at one time bear a stronger resemblance to the father, at 

 another to the mother, and, at a third, to progenitors, both 

 maternal and paternal, further removed ? particularly in cases 

 where at one bout, and at the same moment, several ova are 

 fecundated. And this too is a remarkable fact, that virtues 

 and vices, marks and moles, and even particular dispositions to 

 disease are transmitted by parents to their offspring ; and that 

 while some inherit in this way, all do not. Among our poul- 

 try some are courageous, and pugnaciously inclined, and will 

 sooner die than yield and flee from an adversary; their de- 

 scendants, once or twice removed, however, unless they have 

 come of equally well-bred parents, gradually lose this quality ; 

 according to the adage, " the brave are begotten by the brave." 

 In various other species of animals, and particularly in the 

 human family, a certain nobility of race is observed ; numerous 

 qualities, in fact, both of mind and body, are derived by here- 

 ditary descent. 



I have frequently wondered how it should happen that the 

 offspring, mixed in so many particulars of its structure or con- 

 stitution, with the stamp of both parents so obviously upon it, 

 in so many parts, should still escape all mixture in the organs 

 of generation ; that it should so uniformly prove either male 

 or female, so very rarely an hermaphrodite. 



Lastly, many things are present before they appear, and 

 some are begun among the very first which are completed among 

 the very last, such as the eyes, the organs of generation, and 

 the beak. 



Several doubts and difficulties have thence arisen as to the 

 principality and relative dignity of the several members, in 

 which they who are fond of such things have displayed their 



