A Possibility 105 



We may have an enclosed ovary in which 

 the possibilities of germ cells are realized 

 and the phenomena of undifferentiated cells 

 are manifested. My belief is that the 

 brain is an enclosed ovary, with its contents 

 of undifferentiated cells put to a new use, 

 due to their isolation from the other sex 

 elements with which they would normally 

 come in contact. An illustration is found 

 in plants, many of which have male and 

 female flowers so isolated that the female 

 flower is fertilized only by outside agencies 

 carrying the male elements to it. Suppose 

 one of these flowers were enclosed within the 

 plant because growth was so rapid that it 

 could not break through the envelope. There 

 would then be an exposed ovary of one sex 

 and an enclosed ovary of the other sex. If 

 in part of the plants the female ovary and 

 in others the male ovary were enclosed, the 

 exposed or outer ovaries of these two plants 

 could produce germs which, when brought 

 into contact, would lead to reproduction and 

 thus perpetuate the plant. An animal, in my 

 opinion, differs from a plant in this way ; it 



