312 LECTURE VIL 



with one another as to produce the recun- 

 dation of the ovum, and she has limited 

 this propensity to individuals of the same 

 species, and ordained a repugnance to gra- 

 tify such desires with others. She has 

 caused such desires to occur only annually 

 in some animals, and at different periods 

 in others ; at times, however, favourable to 

 the production or support of the future 

 young. The sexual organs seem to wither 

 during the sterile interval, and most sur- 

 prizingly to enlarge during the breeding- 

 season, which affords us a means of judg- 

 ino; of what are the sexual organs in the 

 lower kinds of animals. This temporary 

 excitement of the vital actions, and corre- 

 spondent alteration in the appearance of 

 the organs, seem to have interested the 

 mind of Mr. Hunter; and he has put up 

 as a contrast, the organs which prepare the 

 fecundating fluid of the sparrow, as they 

 appear during these different seasons. 



There is a circumstance relative to the 

 female of the human race that deserves the 

 consideration of the philosophical physi- 



13 



