GENERATION 245 



fore unable to believe in the subject of telegony." — A. W. HicUing, Ald- 

 holton, Nottingham. 



26. " I know it is the theory of some people that a mare will throw back 

 to the first horse that she breeds by, but in my experience I have never 

 found it so." — William Flanders, Witchford, Ely. 



27. " I cannot say positively that any actual impression from the service 

 of a stallion of a different breed or type was conveyed to the next jDroduce 

 of another horse." — J. Conchar, Wylde Green, Birmingham. 



28. "I am not aware that we have had any case where a horse has 

 affected a mare's jorogeny for more than one foal." — Colin Camphell, 

 Danesjield. Marloiv. 



GEI^ERATIOI^ 



The one prominent function of the generative system is the pei'petuation 

 of the race, and using the term in its widest sense, generation includes all 

 the processes which result in the multiplication of living beings. 



Eeference to the description of the organs which constitute the genera- 

 tive system in the higher animals — the mammals, for example — will show 

 that two sets of complicated structure belonging to two sexes — male and 

 female — are concerned in the function, and a knowledge of the functions of 

 the two distinct sets of organs will leave no room for doubt that the female 

 has the largest share in the perjjetuation of the species. " Omne vivuin ex 

 ovo" is a very familiar quotation, but it contains a most important truth. 

 The ovum of the female animal or plant contains all the material necessary 

 for the formation of a new animal or plant. In the ovum or egg there is 

 a germ pos.sessing a dormant vitality, which only awaits contact with the 

 sperm-cell of the male to become actively alive and capable of appropri- 

 ating the material by which it is surrounded, and evolving from inert and 

 shapeless substances all the tissues and organs which constitute the new 

 existence. 



With the impregnation of the germ-cell by the action of the male, the 

 more complicated function of the female begins, and must go on until the 

 new creature is sufficiently advanced to live an independent existence. A 

 merely superficial analysis of the function thus lightly sketched, reveals the 

 three essentials of which it consists, namely, impregnation, gestation, and 

 parturition, each of which includes certain conditions which vary in 

 different beings. 



