4 io GENERATION. SECT. XXXIX. i. 4. 



refemble the father in form, or feature, as well as in fex ; and 

 the female mod frequently refemble the mother, in feature, and 

 form, as well as in fex. 



It may again be objected, if a female child fometimes refem- 

 bles the father, and a male child the mother, the ideas of the 

 father, at the time of procreation, muft fuddenly change from 

 himfelf to the mother, at the very inftant, when the embryon is 

 fecreted or formed. This difficulty ceafes when we confider, 

 that it is as eafy to form an idea of feminine features with male 

 organs of reproduction, or of male features with female ones, 

 as the contrary ; as we conceive the idea of a fphinx or mer- 

 maid as eafily and as didin&ly as of a woman. Add to this, 

 that at the time of procreation the idea of the male organs, and 

 of the female features, are often both excited at the fame time, 

 by contaft, or by vifion. 



I afk, in my turn, is the fex of the embryon produced by ac- 

 cident ? Certainly whatever is produced has a caufe ; but when 

 this caufe is too minute for our comprehenfion, the effeft is faid 

 in common language to happen by chance, as in throwing a 

 certain number on dice. Now what caufe can occafionally pro- 

 duce the male or female character of the embryon, but the pe- 

 culiar actions of thofe glands, which form the embryon ? And 

 what can influence or govern thefe aftions of the gland, but its 

 afTociations or catenations with other fenfitive motions ? Nor is 

 this more extraordinary, than that the catenations of irritative 

 motions with the apparent vibrations of objefts at fea fhould 

 produce ficknefs of the ftomach ; or that a naufeous ftory fhould 

 occafion vomiting. 



4. An argument which evinces the effeft of imagination on 

 the firft rudiment of the embryon, may be deduced from the 

 produlion of fome peculiar monfters. Such, for inftance, as 

 thofe which have two heads joined to one body, and thofe which 

 have two bodies joined to one head ; of which frequent exam- 

 ples occur amongft our domefticated quadrupeds, and poultry. 

 It is abfurd to fuppofe, that fuch forms could exift in primordial 

 germes, as explained in No. IV. 4. of this fe&ion. Nor is it 

 poffible, that fuch deformities could be produced by the growth 

 of two embryons, or living filaments ; which fhould afterwards 

 adhere together ; as the head and tail part of different polypi 

 are faid to do ((Blumenbach on Generation Cadell, London) ; 

 lince in that cafe one embryon, or living filament, muft have 

 begun to form one part firft, and the other another part 

 firft. But fuch monftrous conformations become lefs difficult 

 to comprehend, when they are confidered as an eflel of the im- 

 agination, as before explained, on the living filament at the time 



of 



