242 REFLECTIONS ON 



eggs, which may be regarded as portable mar 

 trixes. Each of thefe matrixes, or eggs, con- 

 tains a fmall drop of the female fluid, in that 

 part which is called the cicatrice. This prolific 

 drop, when the female has had no communica- 

 tion with the male, allumes, as Malpighius ob- 

 ferves, the form of a mole or inorganic mafs ; 

 but, when it is penetrated by the femen of the 

 male, it produces a foetus, which is nourifhed 

 and brought to perfedion by the juices of the 



egg. 



Eggs, therefore, inftead of being common to 

 all females, are only inftruments employed by 

 Nature for fupplying the place of uteri in thofe 

 animals which are deprived of this organ. In- 

 fiead of being adive and efTential to the firft im- 

 pregnation, eggs are only paffive or accidental 

 parts, deftined for the nourifhment of the foetus 

 already formed in a particular part of this ma- 

 trix, by the mixture of the male and female fe- 

 men. Inftead of exifting from the creation, and 

 each including within itfelf an infinity of males 

 and feiTiales, eggs, on the contrary, are bodies 

 compofcd of a fiiperfluous part of the food, 

 which is more grofs, and lefs organic, than that 

 of which the feminal fluid confifl:s. The egg, 

 in oviparous females, anfwers the fame purpofes 

 as the -Uterus and menftrual flux in the vivipa- 

 rous. 



To evince that cgii;^ are defl:incd by Nature 

 only to fupply the place of an uterus in fuch 



animals 



