The Beginning and End of Life 387 



)llowed the teaching of Aristotle, according to which there 

 )ok place a gradual formation of what previously had no 

 jtual existence but only a potential one. This view, known 

 modern times as Epigenesis, was strongly reinforced (in 

 '59) by the careful observations of Caspar Friedrich Wolff; 

 it his efforts remained without effect for two generations — 

 firmly had the strange theory of ' preformation ' become 

 >ted in men's minds. It was deliberately adopted by the 

 %reat physiologist Haller, was adhered to by Buffon and 

 Bonnet, and not positively rejected even by Cuvier himself. 

 Yet now it is upheld by no one, and the views of Aristotle, 

 Harvey, and Wolff have obtained universal, unhesitating 

 acceptance. 



Another dispute was independently carried on concerning 

 the predominant effect of paternal or maternal influences. 

 From the most ancient times predominant influence was 

 ascribed to the former, the maternal organism being regarded 

 merely as an agent for nutrition. Ancient Indian teaching 

 Avas but echoed by ^schylus ^ in the words : — 



OvK €(TTL IJ'ITjT'qp rj K€KXr]fX€VOV TeKVOV 



ToKcvs, Tpocjios Se KVfiaTOs: veocnropov' 



TtKT€t 8' 6 6piiXTKlt)V. 



' The bearer of the so-called offspring is not the mother of it, but 

 only the nurse of the newly-conceived foetus. It is the male who is 

 the author of its being.' 



Modern supporters of this view came to be known as 

 Animalculists^ their opponents being the Ovists. Both 

 notions have now passed, along with ' preformationism,' into 

 the limbo of discarded hypotheses, while the views of Aris- 



^ Eumenid., 658. 



2 After the discovery by Leeuwenhoek and others of seminal particles 

 which he considered to be animalcules. If the reader will refer to a German 

 translation of Vallisneri by Berger, Erzeugung der Menschen und Thiere, he 

 will see marvellous illustrations of the extent to which a prejudiced imagina- 

 tion may mislead an observer. 



