PARENTAGE. 49 



The caterpillar becomes a butterfly, but the hydra-like 

 individual referred to produces a number of Medusae. 



1 6. Partheno-genesi$\ or virgin production, denotes the 

 production of new individuals by virgin females without 

 the intervention of a male. 



The Aphides, or plant lice, so often found parasitic 

 on plants at the close of autumn, consist of winged males 

 and wingless females. The ova, or eggs, are dormant 

 through the winter, and the young hatched in the spring 

 are sexless, but produce viviparously a brood like them- 

 selves, and this generation produces another, and so on 

 for ten or twelve generations, the last brood being male 

 and female as at first. Many other tribes of insects af- 

 ford examples of partheno-genesis. 



17. The subject of this chapter brings us to some of 

 the deepest mysteries of creation. The parentage of all 

 living, and the various modes in which the principle of 

 parentage is manifested such topics are wonderful seed- 

 thoughts. It is not likely that we shall ever understand 

 fully the repetition of individuality, but we see enough 

 to indicate some of the plans of the Designer of all. 

 " Lo ! these are parts of his ways . . . but the thunder 

 of his power who can understand?" 



Some analogies between the teachings of biology as 

 to the genesis of living things, and some of the state- 

 ments of Scripture, may be readily traced. Mr. Joseph 

 Cook has been sharply criticised for comparing the birth 

 of Jesus, as revealed in the Gospels, with partheno-gen- 

 esis ; yet he had reason for so doing, nor is he alone in his 

 opinion. In President Dawson's " Origin of the World" 

 we read, " It is curious that the Bible suggests three 



