395 



a year afterwards she married, but never became pregnant, A woman 

 recovered from puerperal fever, ensuing upon a very difficult first labour; 

 from that time, with*all the appearance of the stoutest health, she has 

 never been again a mother. 



Do the two testicles, and the two ovaria, contain the separate germs oi' 

 males and females ? Are these, as has been guessed, contained in the le/t 

 ovarium, and males in the right? and may we procreate sexes at plea- 

 sure, by varying the attitude of copulation ? This old opinion, lately re- 

 vived, besides wanting all foundation, is formally confuted by facts : no- 

 thing is more common than to see men who have, from some accident, 

 lost a testicle, procreating sexes indifferently. Women, with an ovarium 

 deficient, or the fallopian tube obliterated on one side, have produced 

 both boys and girls. Dr. Jadelot has presented to the society of the 

 School of Medicine, in Paris, a uterus, wanting the right tube and ovari- 

 um; and nothing indicated that they had ever existed. On inquiry con- 

 cerning this woman, it appeared that she had been delivered of a boy and 

 two girls: Haller quotes similar cases. The cause, then, which deter- 

 mines the sex, altogether eludes our investigation. Does that one of the 

 two, who exerts most energy in the act of coition, impress his sex on the 

 offspring? I cannot tell; but I think I have observed that the marriage 

 of young people, where both are glowing with love and youth, most fre- 

 quently produce daughters, whilst boys are ordinarly the consequence of 

 the union of a middle aged, or elderly man, with a younger woman. 



CCVI. Systems of generation. The antique system of the mixture 

 of the semen in the cavity of the uterus, set forth in the writings of Hip- 

 pocrates and Galen, is still that of many physiologists. In this system, 

 the mixed fluid may be considered as an extract from all parts of the 

 body male and female. A generative faculty* disposes them suitably for 

 the formation of the new individual. Buffon has further particularized 

 the facts which this hypothesis requires, and displays its improbability. 

 Each part, he says, furnishes molecules, which he calls organic, and 

 these 'molecules, coming from the eyes, the ears, Sec. of the man and the 

 woman, arrange themselves round an internal mould, of which he admits 

 the existence, which mould forms the basis of the edifice, and comes 

 from the male probably, if it be a boy, from the female, if a girl. Rea- 

 son rejects a theory which gives no explanation of the production of the 

 placenta, and of the membranes covering the foetus : it is moreover di- 

 rectly disproved by the good conformation of children, born of parents, 

 who, not happening to have certain organs and limbs, could not certaintly 

 supply the proper molecules for their formation in the child. 



The system of the ovarists, which at this time stands highest in favour, 

 numbers amongst its supporters, Harvey, Stenon, Malpighi, Valisni- 

 eri, Duhamel, Nuck, Littre, Swammerdam, Haller, Spallanzani, Bonnet, 

 &c. These admit the distinction of animals into oviparous and vivipa-* 

 rous, in this sense only, that these last hatch within, and break their 

 shell before they are brought forth. Lastly, Leeuwenhoek, Hartsoeker, 

 Boerhaave, Mery, Werheyen, Cowper, &c. have added to the opinion of 



* All thatBlumenbach has said, on the force of formation, (JHisua formatimt*) Applies 

 to this generative faculty; it is only a new name given to an old idea. .Author's J\'ot*. 



This " generative faculty,'* will doubtless remind the reader of the " dormitive fa- 

 .culty" by which Moliere's new made fioctor explained the action of opium. Gwlman. 



