"S. 



274 QF THE FORMATION 



quantity of organic particles in the male and fe- 

 male femen is not great, and, accordingly, they 

 very feldom produce above one foetus at a time. 

 This foetus is either a male or a female, accor- 

 ding as the number of organic particles predo- 

 minates in the male or in the female fluid ; and 

 the child refembles the father or the mother 

 moft, according to the proportional quantities of 

 male or female organic particles in the mixture 

 of the two liquors. 



I conceive, therefore, that the feminal fluids, 

 both of the male and of the female, are equally 

 adive, and equally necelfary for the purpofes of 

 propagation : And this, I think, is fully proved 

 by my experiments; for I found in both fluids 

 the fame moving bodies; I difccvered that the 

 male fluid enters the uterus, where it meets 

 wdth the fluid of the female ; that thefe two 

 fluids are perfectly analogous ; and that they are 

 compofed of parts not only iimilar in their form, 

 but in their ad:ion and movements *. Now, I 

 imagine, that, by the mixture of the tv/o fluids, 

 the adivity of the organic particles proper to 

 each isftoppcd ; that the adion of the one coun- 

 terbalances the adlion of the other ; that each or- 

 ganic particle, by ceafing to move, remains fixed 

 in the place vyhich correfponds to its nature; and 

 that this place can be no other than that which 

 it formerly occupied in the body of the animal 

 from which it was extracted. Thus all the orga- 

 nic particles which were detached from the head 



of 



? Stc, Chap. VI. 



