137' 



Grrmth depends on nutrition, the latter on incor- 

 poration : at the same time that a part grows it acquires 

 solidity. An excess of growth in a part, then, supposes 

 a super-abundance of mitricious juices, or such as are 

 more active. The excessive growth which the ears of 

 the horse acquire by the influence of the liquor of the s 

 ass, indicates that this liquor contains more mole- 

 cules, appropriated to the unfolding of the. ears,, than* 

 that of the horse, or that the molecules of the- firsUare 

 more active than those of the second. 



The extreme softness", I should rather soy fluidity, of 

 the germ, renders every part of it extremely modifiable. 

 Those changes which you cannot conceive in an adult, 

 depend here on the slightest causes. 



Bu if the fecundating liquor modifies the gernv this 

 latter, in its turn, modifies the action of that liquor. 

 By virtue of its organization it tends to preserve its pri- 

 mitive slate, resists more or less every new arrangement, 

 and never gives -way \\ithout always retaining something., 

 of its primitive form. 



15* Every crganical production, which has more or* 

 less parts than the species requires, or constructed other- 

 wise, is a monster. The mule, which doth not engender, 

 is tiierefore a monster. 



The object of enquiry in a celebrated dispute was, 

 whether certain moriilers were- siu>h originally or by 

 accident 9 



It is evident, that the mule is not a monster/? em its 

 origin. Monster* do not exhibit so much constancy 

 and uniformity. Does an egg ef uhich the mule is 

 formed oiler itself in the ovary of the mare, just at the^ 

 instant in which the ass fecundates it? 



Two branches, fruits or leaves, graft themselves acci- 

 dentally, and afterwards compose but one and the same 

 \vhole. Art performs other more extraordinary engrart- 

 iugs, in all of which there is nothing originally monstrous. 



That which happens between two fruits that ingraft 

 themselves, or are ingrafted by foree> may happen in the 

 matrix between two eggs, or ia an egg between two 



3 



