100 



offspring by progenitors, which properties are variously active or 

 latent according to relations which are so far beyond the scope of 

 our experience, that it looks almost like temerity to hazard another 

 conjecture on the subject. We will not however absolutely leave 

 off here : conjecture is a sort of pioneer, whose business it is to force 

 a road of some kind: if the track can afterwards be followed with 

 advantage, so much the better; and if it cannot, why even then 

 conjecture, the pioneer, only takes a pleasant walk by himself in a 

 shady avenue of his own making. 



107. It is to be inquired, what is the causation in this particu- 

 lar instance? It is to be asked, 1st, why hermaphrodites are not 

 produced by generative processes? 2nd, what becomes of the super- 

 fluous sexual pre-disposition in the offspring? 3rd, what are the 

 causes prevailing sub coitu, if any? We will repeat these questions 

 iii their order, and answer them so far as our evidences will permit. 

 1st. Hermaphrodites are not produced by generative processes, 

 because the relation of the sexual pre-dispositions is not to unite and 

 modify each other, but to preserve their own identities. 2nd, What 

 becomes of the superfluous sexual pre-disposition we cannot say, 

 but the alternatives are, that it is in alliance with the active sexual 

 pre-disposition, or with the organic spirit in some other sphere; the 

 former appears not improbable, and is consistent with a similar 

 predicament of two causes, capable of exerting themselves in the 

 whole system, and producing each its peculiar effects. Thus a child 

 may one day be exposed to the contagion of measles, two days 

 afterwards to that of small pox; the causes of those two diseases 

 will exist in the body at the same time, and it is most probable that 

 they hold the same seats, yet the child may first have the small pox, 

 and, though not subsequently exposed to the contagion of measles, 

 may afterwards have this latter disease when the former have run 

 its course: this I have witnessed, and there are a hundred similar 

 facts. Now, in explanation of this circumstance, it will be said the 

 poisons were inconsistent with each other, and therefore could not 

 run their course together. This however is only another mode of 

 stating the fact, it is no explanation; to discover the explanation, 

 we must ascertain the relation of the other properties of the organic 

 spirit with these causes respectively. However, such as the ex- 

 planation is, transfer it to the sexual organs, and it will appear in 

 this form: the sexual radicles in the uterine foetus are inconsistent, 

 and cannot both have sway together; neither can one modify the 

 other; what happens then? Why, either sexual pre-disposition is 

 not like the contagion of fever, it is not evanescent, nor does it ter- 

 minate in mere actions; its tendency is to live permanently, by 

 assimilation, and the force of its influence is to govern the textures 

 which are conformable with its prevalence, In this way the 

 maternal ovum may furnish the male organs; in what riay? it will 

 be asked, Thus: the female possesses the inactive sexual pre-dis- 

 disposition of the male; and this, in her a latent cause, might beau 

 active oue in the ovum, which is formed by derivations from her 



