EVIDENCE PROVING THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE 129 



male sex is sometimes non-existent or not always 

 necessary for development of the offspring. 



Of the origin of sex we know but very little, that is 

 to say we have very vague ideas of the reasons why a 

 being is born male or female. 



In the ovaries or two sacks of eggs are evolved in the 



female, cells called eggs, but there are organisms cells 



formed in the male which perform, generally, most 



important functions in the perfect development of the 



individual. 



We have seen that when the ripe egg starts from the 

 ovary of the female, one of two results takes place, 

 either it goes to waste, that is dies, or it is, as it is 

 called, "fertilized" by one of the male cells, and 

 generally only one out of thousands, from the male. 



This one enters into the egg, passing through its 

 envelope, and there, if one may use the expression, it 

 melts in the yelk of the egg and alters the constitution 

 of the yelk. We do not know what are the functions 

 of this uniting of what is known as the germ and 

 sperm, but it must be one of two reactions, either 



Without the male cell the egg runs to disintegration, 

 just as a clock runs down without a pendulum ; thus 

 the male cell is a regulating force causing an orderly 

 molecular rearrangement, or 



The male cell may be a group of molecules which 

 when diffused in the yelk increases the energy of the 

 molecular rearrangement, in fact it is a stimulator to 

 development. 



In either case the reaction is largely what is termed 

 a " physico-chemical reaction," that is, the same mole- 

 cular reaction which we find takes place in the so- 



called inorganic matter. 



K 



