OF THE FOETUS. 277 



body; and that botli effeds are produced by the 

 fame matter, and by the lame laws. I think 1 have 

 edablifhed this point by I'o many fad:s and rea- 

 fonings, that it is impoirible to entertain a doubt 

 concerning its truth. But I allow, that the 

 quertion maybe put, Why every feparatc animal 

 and vegetable produces not its own likenefs, 

 fmce every individual detaches from all its parts, 

 and coliecSls, in a common refervoir, the organic 

 particles neccfTary for the formation of a fmall 

 ojganized body ? Why is not this organized 

 body formed ? and why, in moft animals, is a 

 mixture of the fluids of both fexes necelfary ? 

 If I were to reply, that, in all the vegetable tribes, 

 in all thofe animals that multiply by cuttings, 

 and in the vine-fretters, which produce without 

 any fexual commerce, the general intention of 

 Nature feems to be, that each individual lliould 

 multiply its own fpecies, and that reprodudiort 

 by the intervention of I'exes is only an exception 

 to this general law. It might, with propriety, 

 be rejoined, that the exception is perhaps more 

 univcrfal than the rule itfeif. To maintain that 

 all individuals would have the laculty of re- 

 producing, if they were endowed with proper' 

 organs, and if they contained the matter nccef- 

 fary for nourilhing the embryo, is not removing 

 the difficulty : For, in females, all thcfe circum- 

 ftances concur j and yet the inlluencc of the 

 male is indifpenfible to the production either of 

 a female or of a male foetus. 



S 3 But, 



