582 THE REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTIONS. 



nurtured and upheld.* With the germs of life, 

 in all organized structures, are conjoined the 

 seeds of decay and of death ; and however 

 great may be the powers of their vitality, we 

 know that those powers are finite, and that a 

 time must come when they will be expended, 

 and when their renewal, in that individual, is no 

 longer possible. 



But although the individual perishes, Nature 

 has taken special care that the race shall be 

 constantly preserved, by providing for the pro- 

 duction of new individuals, each springing from 

 its predecessor in endless perpetuity. The pro- 

 cess by which this formation, or rather this ap- 

 parent creation, of a living being is effected, 

 surpasses the utmost powers of the human com- 

 prehension. No conceivable combinations of 

 mechanical, or of chemical powers, bear the 

 slightest resemblance, or the most remote ana- 

 logy, to organic reproduction, or can afford the 

 least clue to the solution of this dark and hope- 

 less enigma. We must be content to observe 

 and generalize the phenomena, in silent wonder 

 at the marvellous manifestation of express con- 

 trivance and design, exhibited in this depart- 

 ment of the economy of created beings. 



Throughout the whole, both of the vegetable 



* See the article "Age," in the Crjclopcedia of Practical 

 Medicine, where I have enlarged on this subject. 



