TABOO AND GENETICS 31 



controversies) need not detain us, since they are 

 not applicable to the human species. 



Let us consider this fertihzed eg§ — the con- 

 tributions of the father and the mother. The 

 total length of the spermatozoon is only about 

 1/300 of an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. 

 This tail does not enter the egg, and has no 

 other known function than that of a propeller. 

 Its movement has been studied and found to be 

 about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only the head 

 and neck enter the egg. This head consists 

 almost entirely of the nuclear material which is 

 supposed to determine the characters of the 

 future individual. 



The ovum or egg contributed by the mother 

 is much larger — nearly round in shape and 

 about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its 

 nucleus, it contains a considerable amount of 

 what used to be considered as " stored nutri- 

 tive material " for the early development of 

 the individual. 



In ancient times the female was quite 

 commonly supposed to be a mere medium of 

 development for the male seed. Thus the Laws 

 of Manu stated that woman was the soil in which 

 the male seed was planted. In the Greek 

 Eumenidcs, Orestes' mother did not generate 

 him, but only received and nursed the germ. 

 These qucdnt ideas of course originated merely 

 from observation of the fact that the woman 



