as the properties of the ovum, when the shape, &c. of the animal 

 are attained, are capable of a wonderful increment of their own 

 nature, it is little better than absurd to refer a series of generations 

 to one ovum, to so diminutive a source, when it appears that every 

 animal is endowed with a capacity of increasing*, almost indefinitely, 

 the elements of procreation, as well as those of the structures. 



3. The procreative agents, so far from appearing to be possessed 

 in anticipation by a single ovum for all generations, do not appear 

 to be possessed identically, that is, such as they were obtained 

 from the progenitors, even for one ; for the procreative faculties 

 are not manifest, or exercised, until many years after the formation 

 of all the organs and structures, and must therefore be allowed to 

 be a product mainly attributable to the animal in whom they are 

 considered. So far then as the observation of facts is permitted 

 us, the supposition does not appear to agree with them ; and if it is 

 proposed on any other grounds, it is not worthy of consideration. 

 Indeed, it would be as reasonable in every respect to say that all 

 the bones as well as all the seeds of the human race were contained 

 in Adam, or in first parents: the arguments, on both suppositions, 

 as hinted above, might be founded on the same analogies. Other 

 reasons for a contrary opinion upon this point will appear in the 

 detail of my own views, to which 1 therefore proceed. 



30. That the maternal ovum contains all the properties of the 

 original, that is, of the mother, or a predisposition to these proper- 

 ties, appears, as before remarked, from the general similitude which 

 the offspring bears to the parent. The question, whether the pro- 

 perties which at a future time are to produce bones, muscles, c. 

 are contained in a peculiar combination in the ovum, or whether 

 they are acquired from without, by relations which certain proper- 

 ties in the ovum have with the external influences, is not so easy to 

 settle in regard to the human race; but the fact, that the crustaceous 

 ova are developed by changes which takes place among their own 

 constituents, appears to sanction the former conclusion, which I 

 shall therefore assume to a certain extent for the present, and I 

 trust not farther than is allowable. 



31. The condition of the maternal ovum is this: it is a smalt 

 aggregation of matter, formed by some properties of the organic 

 spirit, and it becomes the receptacle of an organic spirit. This 

 spirit itself is a combination of many properties; these in the con- 

 dition of the ovum are for the most part latent, but they afterwards 

 become causes, and are displayed in effects. These properties in 

 the condition last mentioned, under which they are exhibited, are 

 similar to those possessed by the original. The proof that such 

 latent properties belong to the spirit of the ovum is this, viz. 



32. That the processes of constitution take place in the pro- 

 gress of the ovum towards foetal life; constitution is no single act, 

 or is not the act of an element, as explained before. There is no 

 bone in the first stage of the existence of an ovum. Blood supplied 

 to any organic molecule will not be formed into bone : for this 



