8 



much smaller. We speak of the egg as a mere speck. What name 

 shall we use to designate the smallness of this germ ? Yet, though 

 so small, it is a complete, living, active, complex organization, a 

 cluster of inspired molecules, wonderfully tenacious, and most 

 mysteriously at work from the first of its impregnated life. Mole- 

 cule aft-r molecule moves toward the surface of this mmute cluster, 

 arranging themselves into three distinct tiers like trained soldiers. 

 The potentiality that resides in this human ameba, that is, the 

 ovum already vivified, lays the foundations of the three embryonal 

 sheets so called, the epiblast, the hypoblast and the mesoblast, 

 the enfoldings of which give us the entire system of primal parts. 

 Every time that you have a reproduction of tissue it has to go 

 through this same process : First, indiscriminate chaos ; then com- 

 pletely digested food or peptones ; then protoplasmic mass ; then 

 the embryonal corpuscles out of which all the tissues arise, as ex- 

 emplified by all reproduction of structure where there is fracture of 

 the tissues. If they are favorably situated they simply repeat the 

 embryonal condition and series of changes, so that they are indis- 

 tinguishable from the original material. 



Quite as mysterious is the fact that this minute cluster of 

 molecules called a human germ — apparently a mere atom of jelly 

 — not only comprises the beginning of all the vessels, tissues and 

 organs of the matured body, but it brings forth the special char 

 acteristics of the parents, holding the potentiality of father and 

 mother wherein heredity is involved, the mental and physical pecu- 

 liarities, the general bent of disposition, the special traits, tastes, 

 preferences and idiosyncrasies, and often the particular marks, 

 growths, and physical and mental expression. Shakespeare says : 

 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we 

 will." Can anyone doubt it? 



Now, since we know fhat with judicious exercise and normal 

 nutrition there will be normal growth and development, and con- 

 sequently a normal body, we also know that with normal growth 

 and development and a normal body, it naturally follows that 

 there will be a normal reproduction ; for, if the ancestor is normal, 

 the offspring, which is a part of it, must be normal. But if any 

 function of the organism is varied from the normal, it follows that 

 the others will vary from the normal. If there is abnormal exer- 

 cise, there will be abnormal nutrition ; there being abnormal 

 exercise and nutrition, there will be abnormal growth and develop- 

 ment, and consequently an abnormal body. With all these abnor- 

 mal conditions there will be abnormal reproduction ; for, if the 

 ancestor is abnormal, the offspring, which is a part of it, must be 

 abnormal, and we call this heredity. 



There is a mysterious principle in every living organism that 

 enables it to select from its environment such ingredients as are 

 necessary to produce the different tissues and organs peculiar to 

 its own nature. Thus, if we plant a rose, or a lily, or a grain of 

 corn in the same soil, and give them the same care, each one will 



