74 



established function, either regular or occasional ; rather than that 

 the ovuoi is a local production, independent of the diffused 

 maternal parts. It is difficult, without admitting such a supposi- 

 tion, to reconcile facts of the following kind : 



1st. Local hereditary diseases. Thus a mother may be affected 

 with phthisis pulmonalis (a disease perhaps not before known in 

 her family): this local tendency existing in the lungs (for such 

 local tendency is necessary to the disease), is participated jin by 

 the ovum, and the subject which is matured from it may also 

 have, at some period of its life, ulceration of the lungs. 



2nd. The same may be said of calculous disorders, of gout, of 

 cancer, &c. 



3rd. I knew a case in point of the following kind: a woman 

 was constantly afflicted with intense pain in the head : it continued 

 for some mouths, occasionally so severe as to produce a state of 

 stupefaction, sometimes to threaten a loss of intellect, and was 

 mitigated by none of the means employed for its relief. At this 

 time she was delivered of an acepkalons fatus. The pain in the 

 head afterwards recurred irregularly, and with less violence; she 

 then had a child naturally formed, but subject to frequent con- 

 vulsions, which threatened its life; and at about the third year, at 

 which time my acquaintance with the history ceases, a fatuity is 

 remarked which renders doubtful the future possession of good 

 intellectual faculties. 



51. Now these circumstances do not afford absolute proof 

 on tbe point in question; for the latent properties producing the 

 hereditary diseases, might have been formed in that which was 

 to constitute the ovum of the offspring, as well as in that which 

 was to constitute the lungs, the brain, the kidneys, &c. ; and these 

 formations might have been synchronous and independent in 

 the ovum from which the mother was developed. The case 

 of disorder of the head might have exhibited a coincidence 

 only, and not a process of causation. But, if we allow it not 

 proved, that the properties of the ovutn are derived from a 

 corresponding seat of properties in tbe mother by these facts, 

 we must admit that the ovum* if independently formed, is 

 liable to be modified by the organic spirit of the mother existing 

 remotely; because, diseases produced by accidents, or by habits 

 of living, have been participated in by the offspring, in which case 

 the independent predispositions of synchronous formation seem to 

 be precluded. Thus mania has been perpetuated, or has been 

 introduced into a family, where its origin was referable to accident 

 or habit; thus also gout, and consumption, which have originated 

 in habits of life, have been transmitted to offsprings who have not 

 eq rally subjected themselves to the same exciting causes. The 

 dis >ase in these instances was created subsequently to the forma* 

 tion of the ovum. 



52. In addition to these testimonies, it may also be observed, 

 that the ovum has no life of its own capable of maintaining its 



