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function is not perfected in itself, but by remote influences and 

 distant relations. It does not appear therefore assuming too 

 much in the instance before us, to admit the possibility that the 

 organic spirit of the ovum is formed, maintained, or modified, by 

 a confluence, regular or occasional, of the spiritual properties of 

 the mother, existing in different seats, and which properties, as 

 may be demonstrated, are possessed also by the ovum. I have 

 stated the evidence which refers to this topic, or as much of it as 

 is apparent to me. I should be sorry to assume more than is 

 justified by it. I will therefore state, of the condition of the 

 maternal ovum, as much as appears to have been rendered probable. 



1st. That the ovum, before its elimination from the ovarium, 

 contains properties which correspond with those which belong to 

 the mother. 



2nd. That these properties are so combined, that they are, in 

 this stage, latent. 



3rd. But that these properties constitute the predisposition 

 to future effects. 



4th. That the properties of the ovum are liable to be influ- 

 enced by communicating with those of the mother. 



5th. That the life of the ovum is not independent of that of 

 the mother in viviparous animals. 



6th. That the matter of the ovum is an aggregation of no very 

 complicated kind, because only a few of the properties of the 

 organic spirit are exercised in this stage of its existence. 



It is affirmed, that the ovum is not perpetuated by evolution: 

 but it is not decided whether the ovum is formed by derivation 

 from all parts of the mother, or whether the function of the ova- 

 rium is to produce resembling properties independently of their 

 diffused existence in the several seats; had the experiment before 

 detailed succeeded, it would have gone some way towards settling 

 this point ; in the mean time the former alternative is preferred, for 

 the reasons which have been just assigned. 



Among other points, still doubtful, it is net proved also with 

 certainty, whether the osseous spirit, for example (or any other), 

 exists in the ovum, or whether the ovum possesses only properties 

 which determine the future existence of an osseous spirit, through 

 a series of processes and preparatory relations: if the former is 

 true, then the ovum is not the foetus by reason of peculiar combina- 

 tions of its properties ; if the latter, then it is for want of pro- 

 gressive causation. This however is a question which it will be 

 hereafter attempted to settle. 



Thus much for the present for the organic spirit of the ovum, 

 previous to its escape from the ovarium. The order of our con- 

 siderations suggests, that we should next speak of it in its fecun- 

 dated state. 



