198 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
connected. The parthenogenesis of Insects must probably 
be regarded as a relapse from the sexual mode of propaga- 
tion (possessed by the original parents of the insects) to the 
earlier condition of non-sexual propagation. (Gen. Morph. 
ii. 86). In any case, however, sexual reproduction, both in 
plants and animals, which seems such a wonderful process, 
has only arisen at a later date out of the more ancient 
process of non-sexual reproduction. In both cases heredity 
is a necessary part of the phenomenon. 
In all the different modes of propagation the essential 
point of the process is invariably a detachment of a portion 
of the parental organism possessing the capability of leading 
an individual, independent existence. We may, therefore, in 
all cases expect, d priori, that the produced individuals— 
which are, in fact, as is commonly said, “the flesh and 
blood ” of the parents—will receive the vital characteristics 
and qualities of form which the parental individuals possess. 
It is simply a larger or smaller quantity of the parental 
material, in fact of its albuminous protoplasm, or cell- 
substance, which passes to the produced individual. But 
together with the material, its vital properties—that is, the 
molecular motions of the plasma—are transmitted, which 
then manifest themselves in its form. Inheritance by sexual 
breeding loses very much of the mysterious and wonderful 
character which it at first sight possesses for the uninitiated, 
if we consider the above-mentioned series of the different 
modes of propagation, and their connection one with another. 
It at first appears exceedingly wonderful that in the sexual 
propagation of man, and of all higher animals, the small 
egg, the minute cell, often invisible to the naked eye, is 
able to transfer to the produced organism all the qualities 
