PART IV. 



THE REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTIONS. 



Chapter I. 



REPRODUCTION. 



Limits have been assigned to the duration of all 

 living beings. The same power to whom they owe 

 their creation, their organization, and their en- 

 dowments, has also subjected them to the inexo- 

 rable Law of Mortality ; and has ordained that the 

 series of actions w hich characterize the state of life, 

 shall continue for a definite period only, and shall 

 then terminate. The very same causes which, at 

 the earlier stages of their existence, promoted their 

 developement and growth, and which, at a maturer^ 

 age, sustained the vigour and energies of the 

 system, produce, by their continued and silent 

 operation, gradual changes in the balance of the 

 functions, and, at a later period, effect the slow 

 demolition of the fabric they had raised, and the 

 successive destruction of the faculties they had ori- 

 ginally nurtured and upheld.* With the germs of 

 life, in all organized structures, are conjoined the 



* See the article " Age," in the Cyclojuedia of Practical Medi- 

 cine, where 1 have enltugetl ou tliis subject. 



