200 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
accurately, by the individual nature of the sperm as well as 
of the egg. There can be no doubt as to the purely 
mechanical material nature of this process. But here we 
stand full of wonder and astonishment before the infinite 
and inconceivable delicacy of this albuminous matter. We 
are amazed at the undeniable fact that the simple egg-cell 
of the maternal organism, and a single paternal sperm- 
thread, transfer the molecular individual vital motion of 
these two individuals to the child so accurately, that after- 
wards the minutest bodily and mental peculiarities of both 
parents reappear in it. 
Here we stand before a mechanical phenomenon of 
nature of which Virchow, whose genius founded the 
“cellular pathology,” says with full justice: “If the 
naturalist cared to follow the custom of historians and 
preachers, and to clothe phenomena, which are in their way 
unique, with the hollow pomp of ponderous and sounding 
words, this would be the opportunity for him ; for we have 
now approached one of those great mysteries of animal 
nature, which encircle the region of animal life as opposed 
to all the rest of the world of phenomena. The question 
of the formation of cells, the question of the excitation of 
a continuous and equable motion, and, finally, the questions 
of the independence of the nervous system and of the soul 
—these are the great problems on which the human mind 
can measure its strength.” To comprehend the relation of 
the male and female to the egg-cell is almost as much as 
to solve all those mysteries. The origin and development 
of the egg-cell in the mother’s body, the transmission of 
the bodily and mental peculiarities of the father to it by 
his seed, touch upon all the questions which the human 
